From my read of the forums, it appears that the change to voting (disallowing kick votes on opposing team) is a deliberate change, not a bug.
This is a BAD decision, IMHO.
(If there is a new server setting to allow votes on opposing team members, I apologize for this rant.)
I play on a public server frequented by a large number of regulars, all very interested in good, fun game and team play and with low tolerance for jerks. Voting is used extensively on the server to self-police the games when there isn’t a ref around. Even when a ref is around voting is still used, as the ref hasn’t always seen the behaviour provoking the vote.
Regular players on the server use voting responsibly, the way it’s supposed to be used. We’re quick to vote off spawn-campers and other annoyances that interfere with a fun matchup, but we’ll also give players the benefit of the doubt if they protest their innocence, until overwhelming evidence. If a vote IS called, players are expected to quickly mention WHY they called it. If they don’t, other players are quick to ask why BEFORE they vote. It takes seconds to type the few letters it takes to explain an offense.
In short, the system works the way it’s supposed to.
Now you’ve crippled it with the elimination of votes on the opposing team.
Most offenses, such as spawn-camping, are committed upon the opposing team, but now that team has to ask their competitor to kick the offender. The other team will invariably ask for an explanation, etc. This all sounds reasonable, but it adds up to mounting a discussion in the middle of a match, totally disrupting gameplay! Plus, because of the greater hassle and disruption a vote entails, players will end up putting up with more misbehaviour before requesting a vote.
A system that previously took care of offenders in seconds in most cases will now require much longer, even if it is only a couple minutes, and likely end up allowing greater periods of misbehaviour before the offenders are kicked. And that is IF the offender is kicked at all. I won’t even get into how having 2 or 3 jerks on the same team, or a couple of clan members sticking together no matter what the offense, can render the new voting almost useless (as they won’t vote against their jerk team member).
Since the patch, a server that was a great place to play, enjoyed by a large number of regular players of a wide variety of styles and personalities, has been racked with long periods of horrid gameplay as the voting system has been rendered useless in policing offending noobs.
A server that was full of players who enjoyed solid, fun teamplay and were eager to welcome new players to the server who felt the same, have come to quickly resent new players on the server as there are so many griefers WHO CAN NOW OFTEN ONLY BE KICKED WITH GREAT HASSLE, if at all.
The server used to be policed by regular players often simply reminding the newcomers of the reasonable rules, and it worked because new players quickly learned that the voting system was effective. That rarely works now.
I can understand why the change was made. Voting could be abused by jerks as well. However, that is just another reasons to kick the jerk, not cripple the voting.
Instead of asking, or simply waiting, for players to start using voting responsibly, the developers have crippled voting and allowed the problems voting was meant to address to grow worse as a result.
You have gotten rid of cars to deal with the drunk drivers.
Please, go back to full voting. Players must be expected and allowed to play responsibly, both using voting responsibly, and kicking the jerks who ruin the gameplay for everyone else.
If not, it’s like encouraging them to be jerks, because only the jerks will want to play under such a limited system that allows them to run rampant.
Are we gonna see any new patch soon.
