The New Server Browser

[CuddleZombie05]

I've got almost 12,000 hours in this game.  I love it.

I'm writing this because sometimes people make mistakes.....and when they do, they should man-up and just admit it.

 

For the purposes of this posting, the Mistake Made was the new (A20) server browser.

The people that made the mistake were the people that designed it.

 

And I want to be the first to say "It's OK.  We forgive you.  We still love you.  You're still a valid person(s)."

 

BUT.

(And I'm sorry....)

 

BUT.....your new server browsing software/format sucks.

Let me rephrase that:  It's terrible and sucks the fun out of trying to find a game.

 

I am asking, on behalf of everybody, PLEASE, just admit it's garbage and revert to the A19 server browser format.

Please?

 

Things that are Bad with it:

-No more ability to filter by server ping

-Server Ping shows as "N/a" most of the time, except when you select it and then (sometimes) it shows

 

-The part where you force us (and yes I said FORCE) to choose a Region for servers....

1) Doesn't work

2) See #1

-Let me ask you this.....a 10 second Google search shows that IP addresses have specific ranges for countries/global regions.  So why didn't you make your server browser smart enough to detect where a server IP is from, and automatically sort the server to the correct region?

 

Why, you ask, does that matter?

 

Because (as I currently understand it), you leave it up to the server owners to declare (in the server settings) what region they are in.  That is BAD.

First, because many users have no clue they need to (or how to) do that. So, if your default server location is East-US, anybody on the PLANET that runs a server and doesn't know to change that designation, ends up in EAST-US.

 

Which explains why, when I go to East-US, half the servers I see, their descriptions are written completely in Chinese Pictograms, or Russian Text, with server pings above 400.

 

Why?

 

You force us to select a region, then allow anybody to accidentally (through just not knowing any better) end up in the wrong one.

OR.....you get people that want to "troll"....to intentionally place their server in a region that is not accurate.  (Again....100% Chinese servers in Eastern-US section.)

 

Either you need to modify your server browsing software to look at the server IPs and designate them by region,...or remove the part where you group things by region entirely and then force us to select an (inaccurate) region.

 

Honestly?  I loved having a 14 page list of servers that I could filter down to a 4 or 5 page list of servers I might actually want to join.

It gave me choices.

 

Now, not only do I look at a list with over 50% of the servers listed NOT in the region I'm searching....but you cap the number of servers that can be listed.

The result?  The same servers listed, over and over.

 

Let's break that down with an example:  Let's say there are 200 servers in Western-US, and you allow/cap the list at 50.  The first/fastest 50 servers to respond to a new SEARCH are going to get listed.  The next time you search....the odds are those same 50 servers (give or take a couple) will STILL be the fastest...and you'll end up seeing the SAME servers again.  That leaves 150 servers that are in that region that we'll never see, never know are available....because you capped how many could BE in the region (again...WHY???).

 

Bottom line, it used to be great to see all the options for servers to play on....to be able to find one that you wanted to play on.

Now?

 

Like I said....(and again, I love this game)....this browser format SUCKS.

 

Please.  We'll all still love you TFP.

Just say "Our bad. Sorry about that" or "OK, we admit it, we were drunk that day-Ooops!" and revert to the previous A19 browser format.

 

This new one adds nothing.

It's worse.  It makes us sad.

 

And all you need to do to make soooooo many people happy, is to just go back to what worked in the past.

We know you keep backups of every version of your code....any professional game developer does.....just find it, and revert.

 

Be The Man.

 

Thank you.

 

[meganoth]

I'm pretty sure they will not revert to the old browser because AFAIK there are reasons behind the change that are not about the UI experience of the players.

 

They will hopefuly improve this browser until it gets a similar functionality than the original one, but that is probably the only way forward for them.

 

[pApA^LeGBa]

Game Pass most likely beeing the reason. Why else would you release a version that is user unfriendly af and seems like a last minute idea? It can´t be for any coding reasons that you can´t even see your whole favorite list at once for example. Same for not beeing able to leave the region blank. Wich is surely a pain in th butt for many US players. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by pApA^LeGBa (see edit history)

[meganoth]

1 hour ago, pApA^LeGBa said:

Game Pass most likely beeing the reason. Why else would you release a version that is user unfriendly af and seems like a last minute idea? It can´t be for any coding reasons that you can´t even see your whole favorite list at once for example. Same for not beeing able to leave the region blank. Wich is surely a pain in th butt for many US players. 

 

It was mentioned by devs that the old method didn't scale very well.

 

So the other reasons could have been either valve who wasn't happy about the server load (if they used some steam service for this) or TFP themselves if they had operated a server for this.

 

Or as you say the reason was game pass if TFP needed to change the browser to handle steam and gamepass and EOS players at the same time and that wasn't working with the old setup

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by meganoth (see edit history)

[pApA^LeGBa]

@meganoth Well GamePass is the only option here that would justify a not very well made change that screams last minute when looking at it. The other options could have been worked out better before implementing this, but with game pass there is money to be made.

 

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by pApA^LeGBa (see edit history)

[RyanX]

The most significant and revealing aspect of this server browser screw up is that it's still exists after all this time and has not yet been addressed by the devs.  The best answers we get are "well this is probably why..." or "other reasons could have been...."

 

When it is said that the "old method didn't scale very well" I can top that.  "The new method doesn't do anything very well."