Suggestion - "Lobby" map to start sessions

[random]

We discussed this recently in the group chat and I think it is an interesting enough idea to entertain in a thread.

For starters, just know that this likely would come with (or is, regardless) rtv reform in the form of preventing rtv on very low player counts such as below 4, so any worry of this map being changed from to something else before a session by malicious actors is not a concern.

While I can't attest to this having existed, Pig mentioned that old community servers many times had a custom lobby map, which was specific to their community and could serve as a sort of museum. The map would be good to wander around on at low player counts and people could learn a bit about the community just from the map itself. It would be a map designed for seeding the server on

There are a few options for lobby maps the way I see it

1. Full on lobby map. No objective, entirely custom, just a hang out map. Has the benefit of being more server defining, but the downside of not having any real gameplay to it. I don't like this idea but it's worth mentioning.
2. Full mod for an existing map. For example, Harvest, adding a bunch of images and signs around the map, easter eggs, props, etc. that make it more themed to our community while retaining the game balance of the map. I'm fine with this though it would end up harming the looks of the map.
3. Separate area for an existing map. For example, Harvest, having a portal in spawn (or somewhere easily accessible) which sends you to an entirely separate hang out area. This is sort of a combination of a full lobby map and an existing map, having them coexist in the same map. Players who want to play the game normally can ignore the portal and mess around while those who want to explore can enter the portal to the custom zone

What do you think about this idea? Is it a good or bad idea, and why? Are there any suggestions you have?

To be clear, the poll on this thread is not deciding policy. I'm merely interested in gauging opinions and I am mostly creating this thread on behalf of Pig. It's an interesting idea but the only way it would get implemented is overwhelming support from our seeders.

[Gabber]

If i ever join a TF2 server and i get sent into some VRchat bullshit i'm blacklisting it. I mean this has never happened once in human history, but hypothetically.
Boss, do me a favor and never listen to this fucking pig kid again. HOLY SHIT dude. This kid is actually fucking insane. I have NEVER, once in my 15 years of playing this game seen this shit on any server EVER. This kid legitimately makes shit up. If he's not trolling then he's a fucking science fiction author.
I have a suggestion: Mute pig. Block pig. Behead pig. Put this pig kid into a kebab, fry his ass, put garlic sauce on top and eat pig. Fucking NEVER listen to anything this dipshit says ever again PLEASE. The nomination timer bullshit was already too far.

[Fps]

I really like the idea of a lobby map. Old idle/trade servers used to be great places for both exploring and fighting. I believe in the potential scenario, where peeps unaware of Castaway just join to see what's up and they develop a liking for the map. Imagine the surprise they’d get when a session gets going.

I think Castaway banners and such on familiar maps doesn't necessarily provide enough intrigue. The potential for it being more than that excites me.
I've been a part of some nostalgia-centric groups where we just get together and shoot the shit about how the servers used to be. Server network maps were especially good for this. We'd all be like, "Oh! This is where such person used to camp! Remember this secret? Check out this dude's map signature!". The potential for it being more than that excites me.

A lobby/cultural map for Castaway will do wonders, I assure you. I just hope this group doesn't dissolve too soon, because I want the good kind of nostalgia where I can actually find people playing on it 5-10 years from now.

[random]

If i ever join a TF2 server and i get sent into some VRchat bullshit i'm blacklisting it. I mean this has never happened once in human history, but hypothetically.
Boss, do me a favor and never listen to this fucking pig kid again. HOLY SHIT dude. This kid is actually fucking insane. I have NEVER, once in my 15 years of playing this game seen this shit on any server EVER. This kid legitimately makes shit up. If he's not trolling then he's a fucking science fiction author.
I have a suggestion: Mute pig. Block pig. Behead pig. Put this pig kid into a kebab, fry his ass, put garlic sauce on top and eat pig. Fucking NEVER listen to anything this dipshit says ever again PLEASE. The nomination timer bullshit was already too far.

It doesn't have to be a vrchat type map that is just a hangout. I think that would be a bad idea. But what about something like a valve map just with some banners and flags and such? Is that still too egregious?

[f27]

The idea of having Castaway's own map (or map edit) sounds interesting (as long as it provides some actual objective-based gameplay too), but starting every session on the same map sounds terrible. Probably not the best for attracting new players too.

[Gabber]

If i ever join a TF2 server and i get sent into some VRchat bullshit i'm blacklisting it. I mean this has never happened once in human history, but hypothetically.
Boss, do me a favor and never listen to this fucking pig kid again. HOLY SHIT dude. This kid is actually fucking insane. I have NEVER, once in my 15 years of playing this game seen this shit on any server EVER. This kid legitimately makes shit up. If he's not trolling then he's a fucking science fiction author.
I have a suggestion: Mute pig. Block pig. Behead pig. Put this pig kid into a kebab, fry his ass, put garlic sauce on top and eat pig. Fucking NEVER listen to anything this dipshit says ever again PLEASE. The nomination timer bullshit was already too far.

It doesn't have to be a vrchat type map that is just a hangout. I think that would be a bad idea. But what about something like a valve map just with some banners and flags and such? Is that still too egregious?

When i play TF2 i want to play TF2, and i want to play actual maps that exist and make sense. We don't need vanity flairs to show off how quirky and unique our community is, just playing on the server will show that off already. This is something that would be acceptable for birthday week at best.

[Pig]

If i ever join a TF2 server and i get sent into some VRchat bullshit i'm blacklisting it. I mean this has never happened once in human history, but hypothetically.
Boss, do me a favor and never listen to this fucking pig kid again. HOLY SHIT dude. This kid is actually fucking insane. I have NEVER, once in my 15 years of playing this game seen this shit on any server EVER. This kid legitimately makes shit up. If he's not trolling then he's a fucking science fiction author.
I have a suggestion: Mute pig. Block pig. Behead pig. Put this pig kid into a kebab, fry his ass, put garlic sauce on top and eat pig. Fucking NEVER listen to anything this dipshit says ever again PLEASE. The nomination timer bullshit was already too far.

Take your meds

[random]

The idea of having Castaway's own map (or map edit) sounds interesting (as long as it provides some actual objective-based gameplay too), but starting every session on the same map sounds terrible. Probably not the best for attracting new players too.

I do like the idea of us having our own map. Though I think we can accomplish that by making some actual good maps maybe with a banner or two, like making a rd or tc map and just name it rd_castaway or something.

Agreed regarding attracting new players, it would be off-putting to join a server for the first time expecting to play one map and getting something else

[Pig]

Here is an example of a lobby map that belonged to a community server 15 years ago:


This isn’t what I think we should do, it’s just proof that lobby maps definitely existed before VR chat and reddit ruined the internet. It was VERY common on TFC as well.

I would prefer to take an existing map and add castaway art and screenshots to around the location, but if someone was inspired to make something truly original, I think it’d be special if that was the place people screwed around in for 20 minutes while the session fills up.

I DONT want a boring gay room with furry reddit art and no objective. I want a functional map thats fun for a handful of players with some in-jokes and community art, so that we dont waste a good map at the start.

I’m really trying to avoid arguments but Gabber made a thread promoting homegrown maps on castaway. He should definitely support this.

[random]

I think it’d be special if that was the place people screwed around in for 20 minutes while the session fills up.

I DONT want a boring gay room with furry reddit art and no objective. I want a functional map thats fun for a handful of players with some in-jokes and community art, so that we dont waste a good map at the start.

Overall I want to have seeders in mind. They are castaway's strongest soldiers and I want to make sure they can have fun while seeding, if a lobby map doesn't do that then it's a bad idea. As f27 said if it involves playing the same map at the start every day it'd get tiring to seed. This could be resolved by having multiple of them but that just feels like offloading the problem.

[Pig]

We could even have a rotation of home-made maps. That seems like a fair way to give them exposure. But definitely keep it a normal map with normal gameplay that’s fun, and allow people to goof off if they want.

[Pig]

Another idea is to have the server “park” itself on the lobby map when its been an hour without players, but allow anyone to start a map vote when that map is on, so you can always leave if you’re seeding and you wanna play something else.

In any case, a lobby should be an OPTIONAL fun bonus, not a prison sentence.

[Appolz (with a z)]

I has idea: make the seeding map pool pull from a list of castawayian wip maps in need of playtesting. Ya know, once we have some. IDK if that solves the fun at low player count issue but it would give us a chance to keep up on custom map feedback without turning weekends into playtest days.

[Hompo]

I have a suggestion: Mute pig. Block pig. Behead pig. Put this pig kid into a kebab, fry his ass, put garlic sauce on top and eat pig.

[protons]

sorry random but i'm gonna have to say a no to this one despite it sounding good

it is indeed true that old community servers used to have hangout maps. key word here is some community servers used to have this. there were some servers that just ran vanilla/custom maps like how castaway does it now. fun fact, an old japanese community server that has existed since 2009 which is still active called the SOBA server has this (somewhat), so we can at least confirm that it used to be like that historically. here is a link to their steam group: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/sobaes

however, you have to remember that the year is 2026 (as of this time of writing), and quickplay has been superseded by casual mode because of valve's genius. this means there are less players that get funneled to the community server browser, and most players expect and want to play on a server that have vanilla maps because 1. they don't want to download files and 2. they want to play vanilla tf2 now and try to avoid casual mode.

if we go to the custom hangout map route, this will likely turn off prospective new regulars from staying in the server and the community. having something to download is already an obstacle in itself, which i sometimes notice whenever a server plays on a custom map via the playercount decreasing. plus you have to consider that there are barely any populated community servers left, and all that's left is just uncletopia, skial, and eceleb servers. it's not like 2009-2011 anymore where there were like more than 10+ community servers like SourceOP and the server browser being the only way to play the game.

tl;dr a lobby map will turn off new players from joining and staying due to the sadly horrible current state of TF2. you have to adapt to the times.

[Buchou]

tl;dr a lobby map will turn off new players from joining and staying due to the sadly horrible current state of TF2. you have to adapt to the times.

Is there any data on our player counts and how many new players we actually get?

[Pig]

In lieu of a dedicated lobby map that the server automatically sets us to, how would people feel if one of the castaway made maps had an area with screenshots/art? If the server feels like it, we can choose that map and have a normal game while also keeping some of the community culture in the game.

I will admit that a large part of my interest in this comes from my nostalgia playing tfc and sven coop, where these lobbies are very very common.

[mirajaded]

The idea of a lobby map isn't the way to go for reasons people listed above. For seeders, using a more lobby-like gamemode such as CTF works just fine (I do this fairly often) and since there's several of those in rotation it already solves the issue of being bored of the same map at the start of every session.

That being said, the idea of a map we create with server banners/billboards or whatever is cool. Not a lobby map, just a normal map, that has server branding in the background.

[chief]

I want a fast-paced game while seeding, with faster respawn timer and shorter map distance. MGE is pretty similar to my idea.

[Asmo]

however, you have to remember that the year is 2026 (as of this time of writing), and quickplay has been superseded by casual mode because of valve's genius. this means there are less players that get funneled to the community server browser, and most players expect and want to play on a server that have vanilla maps because 1. they don't want to download files and 2. they want to play vanilla tf2 now and try to avoid casual mode.

I think the idea is neat, but probably not worth exploring. Protons brought up a very good point, which is people just want to play vanilla maps. If our servers are parked on some bizarre lobby map during off hours that can't be rtv'd without atleast several others present, then it will likely drive away potential new recruits. Throughout the day you can sometimes find small groups of players having their own mini sessions during off hours. There's a reason they come here to and not trade_minecraft. I remember in our early days I ran into a large group of players during off hours that filled one of our servers on their own and had a full on session for a couple maps before they cleared out. I don't think anyone exploring the server browser looking for an empty server to spar with their friends will join our servers if they see the map set to rd_castaway.