Public servers settings: tweaking countdown, time-to-play, end-of-round-time etc?

[Lokalen]

Hello!

For public servers, are there anything we can do to make it more “instant play”? I have tried to fiddle around with a couple of settings but it doesn’t seem to work the way I want to.

End of the round time (about 30 seconds): found no setting to change this.
Start up time (countdown): I have tried to set the g_countdown to 0 but it doesn’t work. I have also played around with si_warmupSpawn, si_readyPercent (0), si_allowLateJoin without much success (last patch I could emmidiatelly start moving but then the countdown started and all got stuck for 5 seconds to then be able to move again, this behaviour seems to have been removed with latest patch though).

Has anyone successfully got this working somehow? I run Objective and Custom config.

[Mustang]

Not sure exactly what you mean, but in an attempt to get into the action a little faster this is what I’m running at the moment

set si_warmupSpawn "1"
set si_readyPercent "-1"
set g_autoReadyPercent "0"
set g_autoReadyWait "0.167"

You can also try the client side setting “g_loadScreenWait 0”

[Lokalen]

I will try that out when I come home, I hate when they have server-vars with g_ prefix.

To clarify what I want:

I want to remove the time before a round start, completelly. Meaning, no movies, no warmup, no countdown - just instant spawn and action!
If I could change the time after a round (when the game displays scores, awards etc.) I would like to miminize it too.

[Trivve]

Hey!

g_countdown 0
si_readyPercent 0

Does work to disable warmup, However once warmup is done there is another countdown which isn’t controlled by “g_countdown” it’s probably hardcoded, I couldnt find any cvar to disable or shorten it. I noticed that when “si_playMode” is set to 0 (=solo) there is no “strat” time. Make sure you don’t override it with SD’s inbuilt configs.

Put the line after:

si_rules sdGameRulesObjective
applyServerConfig Custom

See this post about SD’s inbuilt configs.

To shorten the scoreboard time:

g_gameReviewPause (Time (in minutes) for scores review time)

Standard is 0.75 = 45 s.

[Lokalen]

Many thanks to you both, will test this out later today.

[Mustang]

The setup I posted has a 10s wait
This is usually a good idea because it allows people to actually connect before the game starts
Otherwise the game will start when the first person connect
Then everyone else will have to wait ~20 until the next respawn wave
Also it’s kind of an unfair advantage if one guy can run around and start the match whilst everyone else is waiting to spawn
So I’d suggest to keep a 5-10s countdown to allow everyone to join

[Lokalen]

Ok,

I took a stab at this yesterday and these are my conclusions:

First, I can’t do what I really want…

si_readyPercent 0 (or less) disables the need to ready up, good.
si_warmupSpawn 0 prevents people from spawning before the match has started. 1 and 2 lets the player spawn but once the match is set to start there will be a countdown no matter what you do (10 seconds). One odd behaviour of this is whit my settings I had yesterday si_warmupSpawn 1 made the intro movie disapear (which I want).
g_autoReadyPercent and g_autoReadyWait had no real effects as far as I can tell. At least not with si_readyPercent 0.
g_loadScreenWait shortens the intro movie a bit but you cannot disable it completelly using this cvar (but si_warmupSpawn 1 did the trick).
g_countdown is the countdown before a match start, not really sure what it is there for but we still get a second countdown when this countdown runs out. This is basically affecting how long I can run around in warmup before the match starts. Very confusing and weird.

Ultimatelly I would like to do the following:

Let the loading screen run
Remove the intro movie and the need to press a key
Instantly start the match (auto ready up, auto spawn players) with a delay of say 20 seconds

What I ended up with yesterday was:

Let the loading screen run
Remove the intro movie
Instantly start the match but there is a 10 second offset between the match start and the actual spawn wave.

I used these settings:

si_readyPercent 0
si_warmupSpawn 1
g_countdown 0.002

Technically we have a warmup period of a couple of milliseconds where people can move. But since it is so fast people wont really notice. Setting g_countdown to 0 will however make you end up in some kind of limbo where you can’t join the game.
The match starts instantly and if you run bots they will spawn just fine with the first wave. But all players will come with the second wave that ends about 10 seconds into the match. If you don’t run bots I guess it is fair for all, but it looks a little weird and isn’t a “nice solution”.

I played around alot with the settings yesterday and I might have ****ed some things up. I had issues where the intro scene ran a few seconds and got cut off, I had issues where you spawned instantly but with the spawn menu active, I had issues with me not being able to join the game at all, and I still have a missmatch with the spawn wave and the game start. Not really sure if we can get this perfectly working without a patch. Anyways, I will do some more tests and look forward to some input from others.

[Scrupus]

Hi Lokalen,

I played on your server yesterday, and I think the setup is pretty good now - at least much better than many of the other servers around in this area!

So no big need to tweak it further, unless you want to of course (just keep some of them online

I use g_loadScreenWait 0 locally, it still runs the load screen while the map is loading, but instead of showing the “press key to continue”, it says “waiting for host” for a few sec after the map is loaded, and then I’m in.

You might consider to increase the countdown a little bit to make sure that everyone is in, or require a a couple of players to ready up before it starts - some slower comps might take more time to load.

But so far so good - thanks for the hardwork, and thanks for hosting!

[Lokalen]

Thank you very much for you kind words, I am also pretty happy with the settings as they are now. I don’t think we can get it working better without getting some new cvars to play around with.

Today I also shortened the after-round timer so it is 25 seconds instead of 45 (!). Anyways, I will update here if I find anything more and encourage everyone else to also keep sharing their efforts.

[Matuka]

[QUOTE=Lokalen;322787]Hello!
End of the round time (about 30 seconds): found no setting to change this.
[/QUOTE]

By this you mean how long it takes to switch sides/maps? As in the game’s time-limit?
Try these two:
si_timelimit “0”
si_scriptcontrolledtimelimit “0”

Not too sure if any of these work since the last update.

[Lokalen]

[QUOTE=Matuka;326165]By this you mean how long it takes to switch sides/maps? As in the game’s time-limit?
Try these two:
si_timelimit “0”
si_scriptcontrolledtimelimit “0”

Not too sure if any of these work since the last update.[/QUOTE]

Nah, I meant g_gameReviewPause (the time after a round has finnished when it shows the scoreboard and awards etc.) I changed it to 25 seconds 0.417.

[Jamieson]

Hi guys I am currently having problems with this as well

Currently have
//Percentage of players that need to ready up to start a match
si_readyPercent 50

It still seems to require the entire team to ready up though at defualt it was set to 80.
Whats the best way to set it up, I want some warmup time but would rather only have to have a few people ready up so we can start.

Also if anyone knows, FF does not seem to be working, its set to 1 in server.cfg, do you have to be in old skool mode for it to work?

[Lokalen]

How does you config look? It sounds to me that you set si_rules and applyServerConfig after you settings having the default configs overwrite your settings. I am not so sure about ready-percentage but try setting it to 30, I have it at 0 anmd it works. Friendly fire should definatelly work, tested this aswell.

Anyways, check the server settings directly in the console to see that they haven’t been overwritten, otherwise paste your config here and we’ll try to sort it out.

[Jamieson]

//Max players
//This seems to be broken, I think?
si_maxPlayers 16

//Amount of players required to start a match
si_minPlayers 2

//Max players per team
si_maxTeamSize 8

//max HUMAN players
si_maxPlayersHuman 16

//Game Rules
//si_rules sdGameRulesStopWatch
//si_rules sdGameRulesObjective
//si_rules sdGameRulesChallenge
//si_rules sdGameRulesCampaign
si_rules sdGameRulesObjective

//Server Configuration
//Standard
//Advanced
//Competition
//Old Skool
//Custom
applyServerConfig Standard

//Set the name of your server
si_name "TAW|Artists of the Battlefield|EU Amsterdam"

//Password your server?
//0 = No
//1 = Yes
si_needpass 0

//Password for your server - si_needpass NEEDS to be set to 1!
g_password ""

//Server admin password (rcon password)
net_serverRemoteConsolePassword ""



//Set the play mode
//si_playmode 0 = solo
//si_playmode 1 = Co-op
//si_playmode 2 = versus
si_playmode 2

//Allow server to be borrowed by players who are using matchmaking service?
//This will allow the match making service to use your server when it is empy!
net_serverAllowHijacking 0

//Set who can join your server
//0 = SOLO
//1 = INVITE ONLY
//2 = FRIENDS & INVITES
//3 = EVERYONE
si_onlineMode 3

//Friendly fire
//0 = Off
//1 = On
si_teamDamage 1

//Enable spectating
//0 = Off
//1 = On
si_spectators 1

//Server time limit
si_timelimit 30

//Set if players can only join the smaller size team
//0 = Off
//1 = On
si_teamForceBalance 1

//Diable Voting?
//0 = Off
//1 = On
si_disableVoting 0

//Bot Difficulty
//-1 = ANY
//0 = EASY
//1 = NORMAL
//2 = HARD
si_botDifficulty -1

// Team Voip on or off 
// 0 = off
// 1 = on
si_teamVoipEnabled "1"

//Percentage of players that need to ready up to start a match
si_readyPercent 50

//Allow players to spawn and play during warm-up period
//0 = Off
//1 = On
si_warmupSpawn 1

//Rim lighting tints on enemies
//0 = Off
//1 = On
si_enemyTintEnabled 1

//Enable rank restrictons
//0 = Off
//1 = On
si_rankRestricted 1

//Restrict player ranks
//si_maxRank 0 = Rank 1 players only
//si_maxRank 1 = Rank 1 and 2 players only
//si_maxRank 2 = Rank 1, 2 and 3 players only
//si_maxRank 3 = Rank 1, 2, 3 and 4 players only
//si_maxRank 4 = All player ranks can join
si_maxRank 4

/////////////////////////////////////////////////
//ONLY ENABLE ONE MAP ROTATION - FIXED OR VOTE!//
/////////////////////////////////////////////////

//Maprotation - FIXED!
//The server will run the below maps in the order listed.
//g_mapRotationFixed "mp/aquarium,mp/ccity,mp/reactor,mp/refuel,mp/resort,mp/sectow,mp/shipyard,mp/terminal"

//Maprotation - VOTE!
//Server will allow the players to vote which map to play at the end of each round! They can ONLY choose from the maps listed below!
g_mapRotationVote "mp/aquarium,mp/ccity,mp/reactor,mp/refuel,mp/resort,mp/sectow,mp/shipyard,mp/terminal"

FF is working now and currently got warmup at 50% is the code right?
how can I check the setting on the server itself do I just enter si_readyPercent ?

[Lokalen]

Looks OK to me. Remeber that the percentage is including both teams. So 50% would equal either one team completelly ready or a mix of 8 people in both teams being ready.

Yes, just typ si_readyPercent and check that the value is 50. You can try it out if you set it to (1/16) 6% then only 1 needs to be ready and if you are doing this when the servers is empty and only you log on you can verify that it works.

[Jamieson]

Thanks for the help Lokalen, I will set it to 20% to ensure the warmup goes faster.