[FoxFlame]

...it's a reoccuring problem for me. I'm playing on the server and no admins are on. That's fine. But there are many times when I'm the......basically, whatever team I'm on, is stacked. Usually I notice this, and try to switch back and forth between the teams everytime one is winning by +4. Unfortunately I'm often stuck in situations where I cannot change teams, as they're even, and trying to get someone from the other team to switch to spectator so I can join their team and they can join mine is a chore to say the least. First, most don't want to go through the hassle. Second, most realize they'd be fighting me if they change and get punishment for another 4 rounds. So they all complain, but no one will take the sacrifice. After asking several times, I can't get anyone to move, so I forget about it and continue playing.

The other day someone came on the server under an alias and asked me if I knew the server rules. I replied that I did, and had been trying to change teams for a while now. If I can't get anyone to switch, I tend to resume gaming and stop paying attention if someone switched teams and for a split second, I was able to change. Whether or not someone switched, or the admin (under the alias) had switched someone to our team so I could switch, I'm not sure. I replied that this was the first moment I'd noticed I could switch and said I'd do so. I'd been sitting in a corner typing, and as soon as I said this, I switched into kamikaze mode so I'd die and could switch teams. Instead, I was kicked from the server: (Kicked by Admin). Alright. *retry in console* and, now, since I was dead, I joined the team I'd been trying to get on for the past 5 rounds or so and the admin logged immediately. Why he didn't just do me a favor and switch me, something I'd been trying to do myself, I don't know. I really didn't care that I was kicked, I was just irritated I was being berated for something I'd been trying to fix.

All this being said, I suggest (and I have spoken to Jelly briefly about this) a system of dealing with stacked team with a script.

I talked to Jelly about having a script that checks to see if one team is winning by 4 or more at the end of a round, and switching the top player to the other team. He did make a good point that it's not always the person with the highest amount of kills that should be switched over to the other team. I took this into account and wondered if it might not make more sense to take the individual with the highest K:D ratio and switch them. That way if I joined a server late and was making a significant impact on the game, let's say the highest scoring person on my team is 35 and 27, and I'm 11 and 1. The highest scoring person clearly isn't causing the problem as he's not even got a 2:1 ratio. Meanwhile I'm 11:1 and doing a lot of damage without dying. So the script should recognize this, and throw me over to the other team (provided I do have the highest K:D ratio of anyone else on the team). If another two rounds pass and the same team is still winning, it'd move the person on that team who now has the highest K:D ratio.

Jelly mentioned a flaw in this plan, and I can't recall what it was at the moment. I think it was something to do with the fact that it wouldn't equalize the teams, but rather, simply stack the other team instead. Even if it wasn't, I could see that happening. Maybe then instead of switching over the highest K:D ratio a second time (if two rounds have passed since the first player switched, the one with the highest K:D ratio), switch instead the person on the winning team who has the currently second highest K:D ratio. If that's not enough, on the third switch, make it the third highest K:D ratio remaining on that team. That does not mean that the people who originally had the three highest K:D ratios have been moved to the other team. That would mean the first, the third, and the sixth highest K:D ratios would be moved. Trying to spread out the skills a bit. Plus, this would have to occur over and additional four rounds past the first switch. (two each)

This may seem extremely unnecessary to those here who have the power to fix stacked teams when they're playing, but it's still a problem for the rest of us when an administrator is not available to do so. I'm a huge proponent of automation through scripting and believe this would be a great boon to this server, especially with the ranking system currently in place which seems to encourage some individuals to make use of stacked teams in order to artificially inflate their scores by hiding behind a stacked team and killing anyone that comes around a corner. *coughcoughClockw0rkcoughcough*

At the very least, can we get a script that monitors team scores and puts a message in the middle of the screen (admin_say or admin_csay, I can't remember) stating that someone on the winning team needs to switch to the other side? At the very least it'll let me know when I'm beating the hell out of people and can make an effort to change when I can, and everyone else...

Thanks,
--Fox