As you all know, it's a problem that we are constantly on the same few maps on Trade Gaming History. Therefore, to prevent this, we have increased the time before you can nominate a map you have already been on from 5 map changes to 8. This is an attempt to make it so people don't get bored of just playing on the same place every single day because as I'm sure a lot of you feel the same, as good as Aquatic Ruin is, we literally play there everyday.
However,
If we were to just increase the time before you can go back to a map, we would end up going to multiple maps that people enjoy even less and would definitely make the server go from 32 players to 0 in an instant. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that removing some maps that consistently kill the server will help keep the player count up and higher than ever before.
Please vote on each poll, write a comment if you would like to elaborate and feel free to leave suggestions on what maps need to be removed.
We do not want to remove maps just because YOU PERSONALLY don't like it.
Ky, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. As much as we bicker and all that, I truly respect you and all the work you've put into this community. You've always been like a brother to me and I wouldn't be here without you so thank you. I truely hope you get everything turned around and going your way.
You'll always hold a place in my heart. May life's journeys outside of xG treat you well. ❤️
This was the right thing to do, you shouldn't let a gaming community hurt your mental health and stress you out to the point of feeling sick to your stomach.
I know this was extremely difficult for you, but I think you've done the right thing.
Regarding your health, it is far more important than a video game community. It should always come first. I know a lot of people say "haha, just ignore them it's the internet" but it's not always the case for some people and you know what? That's okay.
I'm proud of you, bro. Keep your chin up. Much love. xoxo
It's about time I put an end to this era: I'm stepping down to member. Going to keep this short and bitter. My mental health has deteriorated to a point of where I have been starving myself and much worse - the stress that comes from you sexy bunch is just too much and has been for a while but I've tried to suppress it. Nothing personal I promise. I will actively be trying to avoid xG soon in hopes that I can get better. Sorry, I love you guys. Peace.
P.S - You guys better give @Caleb956 DM this upcoming promo/demo, the man is a legend and really wants to make a difference
What is below this paragraph states how I personally feel about the state of the servers and the TF2 division as a whole right now. No other person had any part in this, so if anyone is to be questioned then that person is me. I don’t mean this thread to attack anyone, but its important it gets out there one way or another. I may be being completely irrational with this post, but this is several years worth of frustrations summed up into a single thread, so I apologize in advance.
If you are new here, I'm a previous Division Leader, I've been staff several times, and am currently an admin of the Team Fortress 2 servers.
Take this thread as you will.
Drama
Between several servers, different discords, groups, there has been on common theme between all of them. That theme, is the absolute inability of people to get along with other people that have opposing views, creating drama. There are times that a simple discussion turns into an absolute shitfest for no reason at all, and fuel must be added to the fire no matter what in order to fit each person's own narrative. There are also times when people are constantly mocked on the servers for one reason or another, and when they ask the person who is doing it to the stop the response is usually “get over it” or “just local mute them”. How is that a solution we should be enforcing at all? If people are mocking someone just to annoy them, or get a reaction, or whatever other reason, it is harassment, and should be handled as such. When things are agreed upon and finished, it doesn’t come lightly, it comes when one person steps in and says let's get this done with, almost as if the two opposing parties are unable to even communicate without being at each others throats, let alone negotiate, unless a third party steps in. It’s time to brighten up and get along with each other.
You may be asking, “why is this a problem?” Or you may be rolling your eyes at this point, well I'm directing this at everyone. With the rate of how things are going, these servers we love to play on could very well be dead sooner than any of us think if something doesn’t change. If that doesn’t concern you can you really call yourself a community member? It's all of our jobs to not only maintain the servers, and not only to play on the servers, but the most important job of all of us, is to have fun playing on the servers, not only for ourselves but for others. We all represent xG, even if you aren’t a part of the clan, when you are playing on the servers, talking on the forums, or in the discord, you are representing xG and who we are as a clan. Do we really want drama to be the thing that defines us when people look at the clan? Do we really want people to walk away because of it? I know I don't, and I sure hope you don’t either. It doesn’t matter if “it's just online”, everyone here is a real person, with feelings of their own, we aren't built the same, and we weren't built to handle emotions the same as the next person. If someone has a problem with how you act towards them, or how you treat them, then it's time to lighten up and be considerate for other people's feelings. As is such with the Castroy situation, he is repeatedly mocked with a phrase that is very well known to hurt him, but it is continued anyways because those doing it like seeing the reaction, or seeing that it annoys him.
This can be solved with one word.
Respect.
Another issue I'd like to bring up, is how things are handled in the division. On several occasions I've seen people say “well not many people are complaining about it so it's not that big of a problem”. I firmly believe that having that kind of mindset will drag the division down, we should not be waiting for people to complain to get things fixed, or removed, or added, etc. Our priority should be looking at the issue that is at hand, even if it was mentioned by a single person, and seeing what we can do about it. Fix the issue before it becomes a problem, don't wait until the boat has already sank. On the surf server, there is a well known issue with the checkpoint saver plugin, where it resets your saved position with no warning. I tried several times as a DL to get it fixed to no avail. That being said, I saw someone say that their checkpoint got reset, I didn’t see their name but a few times beforehand but I could see they were genuinely disappointed. The only solution that was offered was to “jiggle your mouse around a bit and test before you walk away”, which is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that simply, they shouldn't HAVE to. We do things to make the experience more enjoyable for all players, if a new player joined and saw that their progress was reset for no reason they'd probably think otherwise and not feel too good about the server at that point. After I saw that, I took it upon myself to finally sit down and fix the plugin once and for all, I didn't do it for myself, or for the higher ups, I did it for HIM, the one who brought it up. That's where the issue of “waiting until it becomes a problem” comes into play. Nobody else thought it was a problem, even the higherup I sent it to( @SegFault ) so he could add it to the server, but when it's affecting our players, at that point it IS A PROBLEM, whether it is widespread or not. I believe this can be attributed to one word:
Motivation.
Something I feel several of our higher ups are lacking, or at least a good portion of the time, especially when it comes to working on the servers. As a DL your job is the same as everyone else, but you have the responsibility to actually add to the servers and fix what's wrong. I'm not saying @mrnutty12 and @SegFault don’t do anything, but it feels like when they can't figure something out they just give up and wait until someone else( @Lithium ) figures it out. In my eyes this shows a complete and utter lack of motivation, and unwillingness to work. You don't have to be working on the servers at all times, but if you are unwilling to dedicate time to it then why are you in such a position? An example of this is with @mrnutty12. I won’t lie and say I don't get frustrated with you when it comes to server work, because I do. And I won't lie and say I'm always nice when I bring it up to you, because I'm not. But when you threaten to step down everytime I DO bring it up to you what does that say? It shows me personally you're unwilling to take criticism for your actions. You have told me yourself that people think you're lazy, and you think you're useless, but you don't try to change. How can you sit there and guilt yourself when there's no attempt being made. I don’t do it to try and hurt you, or push you away, I tell you how it is because it should be a red flag that clearly something is wrong, and that it should change. Another example: Population events quickly went from several times a week to sometimes not even happening once a week, whether that be from lack of players, or those who set them up just not wanting to do them. This issue is not only directed at the higher ups, it could be directed at the division as a whole. To me it feels like many people just don't care what happens anymore, as long as x server has players on then they’re happy, those servers normally being surf or tgh. It's almost as if some people would rather see the server they like completely filled and the other server completely dead, that doesn't sound like a healthy community or playerbase if you ask me.
Management
Management wise, I don't think anyone could ask for a better staff team, but like all teams, we have our faults.
Disagreements on rule matter
Many times I have seen staff enforce a rule in wildly different ways than the next staff, which if it gets the job done is fine, but not when its creating a false idea of what they can and can not do. There have also been times that I've seen rules enforced that I've never even seen or heard of. Obviously we will never all enforce things exactly the same, but there should be more efforts to try. This comes down to one thing, consistency.
Arguing in the servers, or discord
Disagreeing with each other is a given, it's not that big of a deal, but how it is handled is absolutely a problem. A good example of this would be of what I saw last night. I won't give any names in order to provide anonymity but basically, there were two sides. One side said he or she did this on the server and then put the blame on someone else because of x reason, and the other side disagreed and said the person that was blamed was the one who actually stated the issue on the server. Keep in mind, there were witnesses on both sides that had different stories, and there was no solid evidence of either stories. Both sides were at each others neck for over half an hour, over something that couldn’t lead anywhere, and then it was attributed to them “trolling” or being “passive aggressive”. These weren't just people that had just joined the server either, these were including staff members, higher ups as well. Quite frankly it's sad to see it happening.
Rules
It's no secret many people think we are too strict on rules. While I think rules are important to have, at a certain point it needs to come down to staff discretion. In order to do that though we'd need something I mentioned earlier, consistency. As it is right now, I think all of our rules are fair, and they make sense, BUT the matter is, is that we have too many. I understand the want for rules to be specific, and I also understand the rules to be generalize, it should be somewhere in between. Have some trust in our staff and give the players some freedom. We can still enforce the rules, but we don't need to have a 2 page long list of rules, either.
Conclusion
I won’t sit here and put the blame for what's happening on one person, because what's happening is all of our faults, and that means the only way things will change is if everyone works together. We are all told that the servers losing players can be attributed to “the game dying”, that’s not a good reason. If anything, that tells me we need to push harder than before to get our servers back to where they should be. There are rumors that are thrown around on the daily of “they said this” or “they did that”, and there are constant disagreements within our own staff team, and times when staff are at each other's throats while on the servers. There are times when the entire server is riled up because of situations like this. How many people have to leave before something changes? I didn't plan on coming back so soon originally even considering the irl information I learned, but I also didn’t plan on never coming back. I came back because I saw what was happening, and I care for this clan more than damn near anything, and I'm not willing to let this continue without at least trying to get it fixed, it's time for people to take off this mask as if everything is fine in the community and buckle up and get this figured out. If you disagree with me, then feel free, if you agree with me then feel free; but no matter who you are, it's time for things to change around here. We are supposed to be a community, a community traditionally is a group of people who share common interests, and goals. What kind of community are we when we aren’t acting like one.
General
Added 16 brand new titles to hub
Created a server commands guide (continually being worked on)
Created an Admin and Moderator Quiz to help staff that are struggling or upcoming. Congratulations to @BonfireCentipede , @Krampus and @Ms.Spooks for all scoring the highest! You will each be given the new "Honor Student" title.
Removed !calladmin reasons in servers where it's not possible (I.E: Mass Freekill on Trade Gaming History)
All Admins now have access to all raffle commands
Banning Hackers rule updated (you must now always have a demo)
Extended Mutes (warn -> 30 minute silence -> 1 day silence -> 1 week silence -> 1 month silence -> permanent silence). Use these for situations for, but not limited to: Bad mics, complaining about dying. Think: Is it harming anyone on the server?
We encourage Silences, rather than gags/mutes. If someone is breaking a rule in the chat, can they break that same rule in mic?
No private profiles and display activity for staff
New donator prices!
Trade Gaming History
Added the Fortnite Default Dance for Basic Donator; Trade Gaming History exclusive!
Echidna Shrine has been removed from the rotation
Surf
Added surf_peppermint_clean_01 to the rotation
Added surf_quack_v2
FF2
Neutral Team Plugin added (fight each other whilst waiting for round to end)
Scrim
Converted Zombie Fortress into a TF2 Scrim server.
Include the full stats thanks. 11.63 average players is a little low to be making the claim it increases server population. Likewise 450.5 total playtime hours is very low for the connects it gets. Just saying. @mrnutty12
I have never liked this map.
to avoid repeating the points already made, I'll focus on some other important issues in regards.
It kills the server for starters, because if you don't play sniper you're not having fun.
It forces anyone who doesn't want to play snipe or be sniped to either go friendly or leave.
It only has 1 resupply closet and it's closer to one team than another.
It's boring visually and gameplay wise.
Spawn protection exists so literally a sniper will lose a quickdraw just because the last person died.
I will keep saying this until evidence is provided to prove me wrong.
Airstrip makes bad snipers feel better about themselves.
I've seen some more people speak out in defense of this map recently, and while I must admit some of these defenses are legitimate, I also disagree with some of them. I'd like to go over those/debunk them quickly. (nothing personal to anyone I quote, just using them as examples)
Swimming in the water doesn't save you from the snipers. Most snipers can still see you swimming and snipe you on dry land. They can also get in the water themselves and snipe, and since water gives you even LESS movement, it becomes even harder to use water to get to the snipers unless you're a cloaked spy. Also, the Vaccinator doesn't make the map better, I would say it makes it even more toxic, because then everyone will just get vac meds to pocket them, then it turns into another battle of which team has the better snipers again. This time though, it makes it even less fun because you can't get any insta kills.
I'm sure we all have different experiences, but almost every time I've been on TGH and we go to Delfino Airstrip, either: the server dies quickly after OR we RTV as soon as the option is open. Of course the statistics may not line up with my experience, but that doesn't mean people necessarily enjoy this map. The reputation of this map in the community has always seemed generally disliked.
This is similar to something I've heard a lot of people say about the map. "X isn't as bad as Y and Z, therefore X is good!". Yes, there are probably worse maps on TGH, but that doesn't mean that this one is good. Smoking might not be as dangerous as doing meth, but that doesn't make it healthy either.
But anyway, those are just some of my opinions. I do agree that on a technical standpoint, this map functions much better than some of the other maps that we have and there is nothing actually innately broken about it. I also don't think it's ugly, though the colors may be a bit over-saturated. However, I still stand by my views and believe this map should be removed. You're all free to have your own opinion on the map though. If you truly enjoy it, that''s fine! I'm glad you can enjoy something I can't. ?
11.63 players is low, but as a late night chad gamer a lot of the time we've ended up there, the server is already pretty dead. Additionally the playtime is somewhat low for a map we've had a relatively long while because people are sane and rtv to leave fairly quickly. I feel like this is important to bring up because I do not have issue with having a few fairly bad maps as long as they're not obnoxiously broken or poorly designed, (bonus points if people don't stick around on them for too long).
The only other time I think this map sees the light of day is when Wave's around, and even then I don't think it's that common.
I made that joke but I'm not really voting because I don't care. The map's bad, but imo we have worse. Bunker is almost infinitely more restrictive in the way you can play and I don't mind that so ehh.
I have never liked this map.
to avoid repeating the points already made, I'll focus on some other important issues in regards.
It kills the server for starters, because if you don't play sniper you're not having fun.
It forces anyone who doesn't want to play snipe or be sniped to either go friendly or leave.
It only has 1 resupply closet and it's closer to one team than another.
It's boring visually and gameplay wise.
Spawn protection exists so literally a sniper will lose a quickdraw just because the last person died.
I will keep saying this until evidence is provided to prove me wrong.
Airstrip makes bad snipers feel better about themselves.
Ms.Spooks got a reaction from CHIMICHANGA226 in TGH MAP REMOVAL ( MY OWN LIST )
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Ms.Spooks got a reaction from SegFault in A question for YOU! (:O)
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