This is the official JCF thread where people can make suggestions for the Battle Server. Any well-written suggestion will be taken into consideration. Non-productive arguments are likely be deleted. Keep in mind that many suggestions won't be implemented immediately. Also, if you are going to criticize someone else's level, try not to be too negative.

The Battle Server will change the levels in its loop every once in a while. This is a good opportunity for level makers to have their work seen and played by a larger audience than otherwise. It is for this reason that suggestions for under-hosted and relatively new levels take priority over other level suggestions. Added levels are guaranteed to stay in the pack for at least two weeks, though many levels will be used longer than this period of time.

How about quicker loops? According to your post the current levels have been in place for 5 months, and it's really getting quite boring. The last loop that I recall of lasted 6 months. That was annoying.

There are several levels which didn't really make it into the first loop yet which should have. I mean every decent level from Anniversary Bash 8 (there aren't too many of such ones there), like The Underground by FireSworD and Dusky Siegeness by P4ul. I also advise not to use crappy levels which got labelled as "classics", nor to use levels with annoyingly quirky gameplay which barely anyone likes. Also, keep in mind that some of us levelmakers are making battle servers just created for the purpose of being played in the Battle Server, so you definitely shouldn't rush the loop update. That is all I have to say.

I don't mind not having fixed loops, and would prefer randomly picked ones. I wonder if a program, something like Project Controller, could not randomly set the next level setting, regardless of what it is for the current level, to one that is in a specified folder. Then you only need to dump all the good levels you can find into one folder for constant variation.

-Green Beret
-Hectic Housewars
-Doomsday Darkdream
-Officials vs Competitors
-24 Hour Coffee

+Eastern Swampside
+Forgotten Castle
+Toasted Territory
+The Corsair's Coast
+Carrotus Clash

Comments on the levels I want out of the server:

Green Beret: It's a very old level, and I prefer new levels. I don't like it in some way, dunno why though.

Hectic Housewars: Too boring and pretty small. Just some houses which I find boring, and also pretty dark for me.

Doomsday Darkdream: It's pretty cramped in some places, and it's not a very good level. There were better ones in the same pack, probably.

Officials vs Competitors: There are no Power-Ups and I don't like Medivo that much.

24 Hour Coffee: Too small and boring. It has been in lots of servers and packs already, and I think it should stop.

The levels I want to be in the server are quite new and I just like them better than the levels I want to be out of the server.

Your list is way too generic DS. Forgotten Castle and Carrotus Clash? They're great levels, but I think I've had enough of them. The Corsair Coast and TTerritory were also overplayed on the battle server back when it was using AB7's battlelist. Eastern Swampside is a decent choice, but P4ul made better levels than that one, and moreso he's making a new battle level right now.

MUST be kept:

• Villain Village
• 24 Hour Coffee
• Green Berets
• Non-Typical Battle
• Hecthic Housewars

Add:

• An Uninspired Psych Level
• The Lost Battle Game
• Battle Game XC
• It's Over
• Dusky Siegeness
• The Underground
• Dungeon Ruins
• Fort Oblivion
• Apocalyptic End
• EvilMike's Not-so-evil Fortress
• Lost Temple

Another vote for dumping 24 hour coffee. It's just annoying when it comes up, since its pace is so much different from the other levels (much slower, no PU). Generally, it seems to stop any fun battling going on dead in its tracks. That's not because it's a bad level.

don't get rid of hectic house wars,its the best.
I agree with 24 hour,its so boring now.
And i don't like the layout or tileset.
Put forgotten castle in.
Also put townsville in.
and forest fight.
Put one of blades levels in from his level pack.
but don't put aztec in it.
also before you change the loop,put the tilesets levels and music up for downloads,so we can host them if we hate the new loop.
thanks for the first download.

I have never heard of Apocalyptic End and EvilMike's not-so-evil Fortress. I guess the second one is something that looks like the evli Fortress but never heard of the other one.

And Ryder: People like Cooba and r3p don't like Blade's levels, and there are probably more(I am not a fan of them either)

@r3p: Your list looks pretty good, but what do you want to be removed from the list?

I also like Hectic Housewars, and do not want to see it removed.
THats the only opinion I currently have on the battle server.

EDIT- Why someone doesn't expect some houses in a level named "Hectic Housewars" is beyond me.

I should've mentioned this earlier, but I'm mainly looking for brand new levels as opposed to anything from other Anniversary Bash packs. And as of now, I'm replacing at least half the levels in the pack. I would replace more but I can't find enough levels yet.

I may as well go through a cycle and say what's HOT... and what's not! And what's average.

HOT
Garden Brawl
(the untitled desert level)

NOT
Forsaken
24 Hour Coffee
EvilMike's Hidden Temple
What is this?
Green Beret
Doomsday Darkdream

AVERAGE
Abandoned Robotics Factory
starlight falls II
Hectic Housewars
Hypoborean Atmosphere

Will finish later.

I remember back when the battle server only had like 7 levels, and it would ALWAYS have the same loop.

Anyway, people who become bored easily are more than welcome to try to make an accomplished new battle level.

Get rid of the text strings, or set them to vanish. They are too frequent, too big, and take up the middle of the screen. It's like having popup advertisements. It's stupid to have annoying text strings that advertise a website that doesn't even exist.

At least make them so they take up only one or two lines, and go at the bottom of the screen or something like that.

I'm proud to have my Forsaken level on top of the NOT list. Anyway, Battle Server with just seven levels of arguable quality definitely was a different experience, though now I can't imagine it going back to something that. I was looking at some of the old Battle Server levels just the other day.

EvilMike, I'll see what I can do with text strings on the next set of levels, though I still barely notice them (kind of like the tiles in the foreground layers of ShadowGpW levels).

Originally Posted by Innocent

HOT
Garden Brawl
(the untitled desert level)

...eh? Those levels are old and long-ago exploited .

Originally Posted by Innocent

Forsaken
EvilMike's Hidden Temple
What is this?
starlight falls II
Hectic Housewars
Hypoborean Atmosphere

Keep this in

Forsaken because it's got nice gameplay and good eyecandy.
EvilMike's Hidden Temple because it's just got lots of action outside and it's got PU's.
Starlight Falls II is ma favorite level :P
Hectic Housewars, it's got good gameplay and has enough action and stuff.
Hypoborean atmosphere because it's got flow... yah, and I like it.

Just so you know, a well-written suggestion would include why you like or dislike a particular level. A sentence or two should be enough for each level.

Make levels load in random order

Thats a good idea,put more levels than normal as well in it.

Originally Posted by Overlord

Make levels load in random order

Done.

Right now I have 7 levels definitely going into the loop. I'm hoping to find 8 more levels by the end of this week, if possible. If I can't find anything really good, I'll use the levels I'm hesitant to add and/or make some more new levels myself.

Eh, turn off the level randomizer or at least make it more random somehow(?). Villain Village gets hosted like every third level, and so does Doomsday Darkdream, though less often. I like having my levels played often, but the "random" selection kind of pushes it ;|.

I guess I'll try to make a good Battle level if I am able to. I suggest putting The Temple of Suffering and An Uninspired Psych Level in at least. There weren't many good Battle levels created this/previous month, and the older ones are played a bit. Maybe other levels that could be in:

Green Hill Citadel(or whatever it was called.. Blur's BoredSet level)
XLM Woods Far East
Night of Diamonds

That's all I can think of..

Originally Posted by Cooba

Eh, turn off the level randomizer or at least make it more random somehow(?). Villain Village gets hosted like every third level, and so does Doomsday Darkdream, though less often. I like having my levels played often, but the "random" selection kind of pushes it ;|.

I've spent a lot of time programming my level mixer not to choose certain levels too often - after the AB7 complaints. Perhaps you can make your prog behave in a similar way, monolith. Make it count the amount of times a level has been hosted and then choose the next level randomly among those 20% of levels that have been hosted least.

With any sort of randomization, certain levels will seem to come up more frequently than others in a short period of time compared to playing them in a simple loop. I can understand how this can be frustrating. There are a few possible solutions. One is to have a slower morph rate such as Overlord suggested. This would likely end up running levels in the same sequence a lot though. Another option is to randomize the level loop only when there are no players in the server, and then staying with the loop so long as people are playing in it. And a third obvious option is to simply add more levels. More levels would mean a lower probability of repeating levels.

The more important issue is to find a way to deal with all those cheaters (10 year old kids with Jazzadv.), though.

EDIT: Never mind. The pack will be uploaded today/tomorrow, so then you can see it. This version is still buggy, by the way.

put grave g in.

I changed the randomization to randomize the list each time the loop has been gone through once. This can still cause duplicates between loops, but it should be an improvement. I actually haven't seen a full loop yet, so I'm not sure if it's really working. Let me know if it seems to be working or not working.

Originally Posted by ThA BLiNG BLiNG RaBBiT

The more important issue is to find a way to deal with all those cheaters (10 year old kids with Jazzadv.), though.

++you

I've switched the Battle Server over to a set of 54 levels that Blackraptor provided, so hopefully that'll provide some new variety.

We played through the whole loop last night

lol, that must have taken ages. And I like this yeah

If it's not too late, I have a level I just uploaded specifically for the battle server..
http://www.jazz2online.com/J2Ov2/dow...p?levelID=4288

...way to waste blur's work.

Originally Posted by Cheese

If it's not too late

I take it the loop's already finished, so don't bother adding it.
Maybe next time

I put levels up whenever they're available. They just need to be given to me by someone I trust.

Originally Posted by Monolith

They just need to be given to me by someone I trust.

So did you stop trusting blur or what?