No, I am afraid that it's hard-coded in the server binary files;
we can't change that logic unless we dig into the binary code I guess.

EDIT: Actually there's a setting called "Minimum Players for Voting" and it's currently set to 12, but I don't know if it's for kicks or map votings, or both. I have lowered it to 4, let me know if you notice any changes please!!! (on BF2CC it says minimum number of votes for a poll to be successful ).

Please explain what a "idlemap" is; I understood your statements but I did not quite understand what an idlemap is. I mean, it looks like you want to eliminate idlemaps from the rotation! (so that the Server wouldn't be killed).

@everyone please discuss what dsghsdf said and let me know your thoughts! Instead of creating a map rotation from zero - which is harder - let's try to work our way from the one we have now ... make small adjustments here and there, test them ... babysteps.

- Devils Perch
- Ghost Town
- Iron Gator
- Leviathan
- Mass Destruction
- Night Flight
- Surge
- Warlord

Staff Officer S_h_a_r_k_93 

that should be the setting. vote for mutiny, mapvote, kickvote. thanks i will test it.

idlemap: map #1 in mapcycle, quasi. the server idles on that map until players join and start the game, if server goes empty it switches back to that map.
i dont want to eliminate/take out maps, all are good for some fun, but some attract more players then others.
sf servers often get stuck empty on unpopular map in the evening and players have to continue on them later/the next day, if there is no serverrestart.
three popular sf servers were stuck on devils perch 3 days ago f.e. today just one, not yours.

mapcycle now

- Devils Perch - killer
- Ghost Town - poular
- Iron Gator - popular (or not, noobs get confused inside carrier an raped by heli outside)
- Leviathan - killer
- Mass Destruction - medium
- Night Flight - medium
- Surge - medium (big map, problem for the "too much walking"-guys..)
- Warlord - popular


my mapcycle example

Warlord - pop
Ghost Town - pop
Night Flight - med
Iron Gator - pop
Mass Destruction - med
Devils Perch - kill
Surge - med
Leviathan - kill

it depends at what times the maps get played too.
usually its every map once per evening/night, sometimes few more maps.

other ideas to get/keep players on your server;
set the number required to start game to 1 and make all unlock weapons available to low-ranks.
those were requirments for ranking, right? well... you know..
maybe some care less about points if they have all unlocks and keep playing on server with rules and admins.



thank you

"Minimum Players for Voting" works with 4 players now, thx.

"idlemap: map #1 in mapcycle, quasi. the server idles on that map until players join and start the game, if server goes empty it switches back to that map." ~ Are you sure about that? o.O On my book if the server goes empty, it will finish the current map (because the round has started so it will eventually time out) and then idle on the next map in the rotation, waiting for 2 or more players to join. I could be wrong though, as this is just a theory I haven't tested myself.

"set the number required to start game to 1"
I don't think this will be necessary. Will it help if a server gets stuck? The first player will have to idle anyways because there are no opponents; the timer will go on and eventually the map might change ... but what if it's a good map and it then changes to a worse map?

"make all unlock weapons available to low-ranks"
I have to think about this ... I want to discuss this with @everyone. It is true that we are not Ranked any longer so part of what you say is correct; but I don't know if I am comfortable to push this setting to the Special Forces server only.

"Minimum Players for Voting" works with 4 players now, thx.
Then I will push it to 6, my original intention. I put it to 4 to make it more obvious if the change was working or not; let me know if there are episodes where '4' should have been better.

I invite the other SF Forum users to join this thread to discuss; especially on the map rotation.
Staff Officer S_h_a_r_k_93 

idlemap
yes you are right and no im not sure about it. i know that settings from bf42 and thought i have seen it on bf2 servers.
now it works like you are saying, with idlemap the server would change to that map. start mapcycle again, with unpopular maps at the end.
i would be suprised if that setting is gone but then again its bf2...


"set the number required to start game to 1"
yes you are right again. but the 1 player could take flags, spawn vehicles. keeps him occupied and on the server.
its just another setting/idea

unlocks
roger

"Minimum Players for Voting"
4 or even 2 would be better. 2 would help with commanders and mutiny..
to many damn commanders when there are only handull of players....
t-gamer has commanders disabled if playernumber is below 20 or something

ty

yesterday night, devils perch.
imagine 1 (more) player using commander and teams not fighting flag by flag, thats what usually happens.


you use bf2cc, right? wich version?
i did some research and the only thing about bf2 idlemaps i found was some site thats only accessible through webarchives to me.
Link
Feature Requests - Auto-Admin Features -
When the server is idle for a set time (time to set by server admin) switch to the map flagged "idle-map"

guess it didnt get implemented!?
soo...Fuggetaboutit?

""Minimum Players for Voting" works with 4 players now, thx.
But how does it work? I mean, it means that you need to collect 4 YES for a poll to be successful?
Only 4, no matter how many people are in the server? I thought it was related to how many players were playing. In fact I don't want the polls to be abused ... that's why I brought it up to 6 now. How does it work?

Yeah it appears that your statement about the idle map is not so true after all. We use the last version available for BF2CC and there is no option or flag to set a map as 'idlemap'. Yesterday we finished playing on Devils Perch, right? This late morning the map was Ghost Town, the next in the rotation. Then in the early afternoon the map was Iron Gator (the next after Ghost Town) and the match was in idle mode too. Now the map is the next one again, Leviathan, and I bet if you join it's in idle mode (id est pre-game) again.

But anyways I am keen on making changes on the rotation given your thoughts about the map; I'd like more folks to discuss about the map rotation. Unfortunately some LS Members that fancy Special Forces are busy with their IRL duties so they can't participate to this discussion. I am also interested in the commander discussion ... when there's few players, a good commander can really make the match different and make it hell for the enemy team (if it's a smart commander).

For example the last night when we were playing, we were on Mass Destruction and we had a commander, your team didn't. This meant we had a huge advantage. I tried to search for ways to restrict the commander usage under a certain threshold of players but I couln't find it within our configurations nor on google. So if you know or are able to get how T-Gamer is enforcing this limitation let me know; I may think about it.

Finally with your map cycle you're stacking all the medium/unpopular maps at the end. So doesn't this mean the server will get killed anyways when Devils Perch starts?

Staff Officer S_h_a_r_k_93 

its a pity, usefull setting gone. it helped to get servers going with good/smaller maps in the beginning and big maps later.
or setup chronologic cycle from 39-45 in a ww2 mod.
and yes my sf mapcycle doesnt make much sense without it.

without idlemap i would say make sure 3 maps run bewteen them but try to keep warlord and ghosttown together.
or keep Levi and Perch together?
if server is dead its dead. if people want to play those maps they can join and play.
if they want to vote they can skip both and keep going for another 6 maps.
i dont know.. maybe depends on vote setting.



no, you need 4 players on server to start a kick or mapvote and 4 players in team to start mutiny. maybe 4+1commander, not sure.
the ammount of players needed to make votes succesfull is some other setting, looks like 60 or 70% ingame, ok imo.

there are many votes but i dont think its abuse/ just for fun votes.
often mapvotes just fail with just 1 or 2 votes missing, then 2 people disconnect and the other 5 cant skip Perch because votes disabled, server dead with 5 potential players.
and its rare that somebody gets kickvoted off the server for fun.
some try but fail, if they get annoying they get kickvoted themself, with success.

with setting 2 the players would have abit of control over the server.
2 guys can vote the map they want to play on, idle on better map, or practice something
or kickvote the 3rd guy wallhacker
or mutiny the spamcommander in a 3 vs 2 no-rank noobs




now that would be a dream! i will see what i can do.

commander is the worst in bf2, its like minimaphack for all, wtf
red dot hunting.. kids dont play hide and seek anymore?
back in the day one guy had to spot the enemy with binoculars and another aim artygun, and no points for the spotter!!
and not just some click and $$$ on minimap /rant


thanks sharky, next kill is free for you

Ahah. Well okay that I misunderstood what the minimum players required was about; I am putting it back to 4.

Based on your suggestion I will also alter the server messages to let people know that they can start a map vote with only 4 people; hopefully more and more will learn about it and when a killer map starts - if people don't really want to play it at all - they'll be able to skip it. How does that sound?

This is the current map rotation; can't think of many changes I'd make myself.

- Devils Perch
- Ghost Town
- Iron Gator
- Leviathan
- Mass Destruction
- Night Flight
- Surge
- Warlord

Staff Officer S_h_a_r_k_93 

Lets Remove Devils Perch and Leviathan.