Mike's Ideas Thread

[mikesol]

So lately I've had a ton of ideas for altitude projects. Sadly I don't have enough time to do them all. Over winter break I intend to try and do at least 1 of these projects. However, I want to get input on what people think and possible suggestions for these projects. I'll be updating this as I think of more things.

1) Improve human-server interaction: Make a bot like PALP that has a lot more extensive of features such as:

• Stat tracking for each map
• Ability to assign moderators on the fly
• Ability to grant moderators different powers
• Ability to dynamically see which admins are using which commands
• Easy IP tracking over players (smurf detection)
• Potential trivia bot for spectators
• Invisible interaction with server (/custom commands instead of !commands)

2) Advanced map repository: Make a website that implements:

• Ability for users to easily upload maps
• Demo map downloads for users getting started
• Ability to rank maps (1-5 stars)
• Contact information for map makers
• Suggestion boxes for each map
• Master list of rankings for both developers and maps
• Community points or other benefits for posting valuable suggestions or making maps themselves

4) New game modes: Potential zombie style game mode. One user starts off as a "zombie" - the rest of the players start off as "humans." If a zombie kills a human they turn into a zombie. If a human kills a zombie they will turn into a human again after the human/zombie ratio gets to be 50/50. This is just a rudimentary idea. I was thinking potentially if you could track missile hits that you might make a missile hit be a zombie saver or something that turns people back. Obviously would need more balancing to make this fun. See if humans can survive for x amount of time.

5) Server starter program: Convince lamster to add a hook in the game that allows servers to whisper people. Then write some simple code where people simply type /requestLadder x inside of one of the ladder servers. x would be either tbd, ball, or both. Once the server found 10 people for tbd or 12 people for ball - it would check and make sure they were all online. It would then send a message out to each of them saying that there are enough people and asks them if they would like to join. Players respond with either yes or no. If everyone says yes then ladder extends the invite. If not everyone does ladder looks to see if other players are on the list. If there are it sends them an offer. If not - it sends to all players that someone rejected the invite and they will be notified later if more players get on.

6) Help extend ladder: Help nobo, eso, and whoever else is programming for ladder by creating some new features for the upcoming seasons.

7) Create a league creator: Make a program that will generate entire leagues for us. This would include what to do if team's drop out or are added. It would allow easy tracking of teams and substitutions. Stats could be tracked much more easily. Teams could specify their best times and the program could work it out accordingly. It would save coordinators hours of time trying to deal with timing of matches and making sure each team plays each other (as well as making it fair). It would also be able to come up with the map rotation as well as any other details.

8) Ladder betting system: Create a ladder bot that people can interact with and bet on teams. Have a ranking board for most accurate betters (bets have to be placed within say 20 seconds of the game starting). This would not be for real money as that's not really legal as far as I know. Details on how players would earn points and what to do if they run out of points would have to be decided upon. Trading system and other things would need to be implemented.

ACCOMPLISHED IDEAS

9) Create a maps team: Make a team of highly skilled players who will play experimental maps multiple times a week and provide quality feedback in an effort to help map creators produce more official maps.


3) Altitude maps server: Create a server that interacts with some bot where users can upload maps to and have them appear in the server every couple of hours for testing (or right away if nobody is in the server). Done by lamster and karl


I remember I had a few others - which I will add once I can think of them. If any of you have any suggestions to add to these feel free. Please note, however, that I do not guarantee that I will actually complete any of these just yet.

[shrode]

all obviously terrible ideas.

jk, good ideas and hope some of them go somewhere.

[phong]

#1 would be really easy with minor updates to PALP

#5, I think you'd be better off making some type of ladder queue.

Basically, someone logs into ladder and does !join(or /join), which puts them in the queue. After they join the queue they can leave or do whatever. Once 10 people have joined, it would check if they were online and send them a message, if they don't join in 15 seconds they are removed from line and it moves on to the next available person (11th etc). These would also be the only people allow to shipchange into the game. If they didn't get in within 15sec after joining the server they'd get removed as well. You get the idea

You'd still need to be able to message players outside of the server, but if lamster added something like that then it could open up room for spamming.

[mlopes]

Originally Posted by mikesol

[*]Easy IP tracking over players (smurf detection)

Sometimes there are more than 1 player behind the same IP, this one is not such a good idea.

[JWhatever]

Originally Posted by mlopes

Sometimes there are more than 1 player behind the same IP, this one is not such a good idea.

Or multiple people using a public pc.

-J

[phong]

It can be used as an informational tool, though it wouldn't be good to make it publicly accessible (at least the ips).

palp2 has a player log which tracks all this data.

[mikesol]

Originally Posted by phong

#1 would be really easy with minor updates to PALP

#5, I think you'd be better off making some type of ladder queue.

Basically, someone logs into ladder and does !join(or /join), which puts them in the queue. After they join the queue they can leave or do whatever. Once 10 people have joined, it would check if they were online and send them a message, if they don't join in 15 seconds they are removed from line and it moves on to the next available person (11th etc). These would also be the only people allow to shipchange into the game. If they didn't get in within 15sec after joining the server they'd get removed as well. You get the idea

You'd still need to be able to message players outside of the server, but if lamster added something like that then it could open up room for spamming.

In regards to #1 - ya I just suck with PHP. Probably good for me to get to know some of that though.

In regards to #5 - maybe I wasn't clear but that's what I wanted to do is a type of queue system. Instead of /join I was thinking of having them specify which ladder they'd want (tbd, ball, or both). The reason why I didn't want to have it so people would join immediately is in situations like this:

* 9 people are currently in the queue
* 1 person joins and adds to the queue
* 3 people are in the middle of a game and don't want to leave just yet
* Everyone else joins and now there are 7 people in the server who just left their game and are sad.
* Game over man, game over

So basically I thought that if they could message the server if they are still interested then the server could see who would really join. People still might not - but that could be kept track of easily. If people join the queue and say yes but don't join the server within 20 seconds - they will receive negative points. These points will push them farther and farther down in the queue and could eventually result in a ban from the server.

Edit: Side problem I see with this is what if people don't want to receive messages from servers? Other people might abuse this tremendously. There would have to be some thought into what should be required for a server to message a user. Perhaps a right click - turn on this server's whisper - or something.

[Kuja900]

Doesn't this belong in suggestion forum?

[mikesol]

Originally Posted by Kuja900

Doesn't this belong in suggestion forum?

Well this is more my ideas for what I'd like to do. The only part the is an actual suggestion for the game is the server whisper capability.

[York]

god damn it mike, i have yet to see a bad idea from you


but if you really plan on getting on of these done, do the leage organizer. it will save SO MUCH time

[trendy11one]

League organizer can be done only with clan system imo. We can have system, where everyone can join 2 clans of each main type(tbd/ball). Then league system can looks like this:
We have 3 types of league game:
-regular
-weekly tournament
-monthly tournament
Every clan leader(maybe captains, who was promoted from basic member by leader) can register his team on regular game(command on server "register tbd/ball regular/weekly/monthly"). Teams can register all day, matches will start at 1 EST(for example). That means, team have to be ready at 1:00 pm EST, when tournament will be started automatically. Each team will get their server and opponent before 1 hour or so. This games will be like scrims. Every captain can come at server and type command like "show teams" etc.
Weekly tournament is same like regular, but matches will be every sunday and teams, who won will be granted QUALIFICATION POINTS.
Monthly tournament become every 5th sunday, only 4 teams(or 8) with maximum QP will get their opponents. Winners will get special symbol infront of nickname for next month.
Also maybe having clan ladder, where points can be earned in every regular match.
If this will works, games can be provided not every day, but 2 times a day

[Jayfourke]

Mike, you're a legend. So many fun ideas there.

(P.s, on the map side of things, I fixed the link to mine, so you should be able to d/load it now.)

[Nikon]

I like the zombie idea! All of them great too.