sDOM II - Season Feedback

[ulo]

With the closing in of this season of sDOM we are opening up for the feedback we all want!

I know a fair few things I would do differently myself and I know some things have been badly handled or put into action late during the season. So for this I apologize to all players and foremost the captains effected by this.

Give your feedback on anything, for example: Map list, Salary list, any ruling, writings during the season and so on.

Until next time guys!

[ph34r]

·Given that we knew the world cup final was gonna interfere with matches several weeks in advance, definitely shoulda been better prepared for that. All things considered though I thought you handled it very well.

· Anyone who has actually tried to do sDOM player rankings knows how incredibly difficult it is, and I think the salaries were about as good as they could be more or less. Mike was the only extremely glaring error, so given that sDOM is the most difficult rankings there is I think it was a job well done.

· dev playoffs should not be best of 5. 2 best of 5 matches in one day is just too much imo

·The only thing I thought was really lacking was shoutcasts which is basically a must. m3ss and grins can only do so much though, would be great to see more people step up to a streaming role at least(Thanks to scream for stepping up).

· In pretty much every season I've had to track down some random admin 10mins after match time to actually get it going, this season I was pm'd pre-match by an admin every single game with an IP ready to rock: good stuff. he lack of streams can easily kill the hype for matches when others arent able to watch them, but I think we had some really memorable matches anyway.

·As far as adminstration goes my only complaint is to PACO who didn't even have anything to do with the season. You have got to stop putting every server on one provider bro. Please. I can see the logic behind all identical servers so that there isn't constant bitching about what server is best, but I think that happens anyway and people need other options when shit goes bad with NFO(see: internap).

·The Maplist is absolutely amazing, probably the most competitive and balanced maplist UT has ever seen in my opinion. sDOM is an incredibly unforgiving gametype to beginners especially when facing people who already have years of experience in it and on top of that we threw brand new maps at em to boot, so I was glad to see so many new faces to sDOM giving it a try and sticking through the rapes til they found their own groove.

·Lots of people contributing writeups this season was great and helped counter the lack of streams , not to mention the amazing DOM utstats page we now have thanks to kE. Thanks again to n0b for doing practically everything behind the scenes and taking no credit for anything. Thanks to chica for the always amazing graphics and for bringing epic tits into the world. Thanks to Monk for spending 3 seconds to edit my name on his stats page after bitching for 10mins about it. Thanks to ryan/miracle for the writeups. Thanks to Creek for cheating and still losing to me. And most of all thanks to ulo for running this entire thing on top of his writeups.

[Sauron]

[m3ss]

[rasta-man]

the session was a good one like sdom 1
-the semifinal was so close to win it as i had my pants trembling and my chair legs doing holes in the floor trying to hold down sponge(beat him in dungeon--gg m8).
-indeed as many said i faced a lot of lags of the servers during games and never had it in sdom 1 session(i don't blame that fr loosing some games) but i want to suggest that for the next session maybe is possible to have 1 or 2 euro servers too for cups.
let euro have 50 ping like US have.
if both teams has 60 % euro palyers lets play in a euro server,is US have 60 % play in a US server.
-let balance a little bit ,i know newnet is made to compromise that but is so annoying to die before you see the enemy and that is a + for US players.
-i said once but i will say again for sdom pugs i have a private mutator that show you that a team m8 took the shield,armor,keg,amp and that should be implemented for easy timing in the team if the guy who picked the item is not announcing the next time or just don't know to time(this is in the first pugs with new players)
-last but not the least i thank to rummy for picking me up from free agent list(many didn't picked me during draft and they left during groups )and i thank to crux and xeno beeing my fellows on games and had great time with them.
- i love the community, special i love paco for beeing "my father" and i love all of you even we had s0me "fights"(mp^5 i love you man inside my heart----- i know you love me also and i want that shit to over and shake hands---i hate that we start that ,i remember a lot of fun games togheter and i feel bad that we had that argument--hope you forgive me)
-n the end i want to say that i am looking foward for the SDOM 3 and meanwhile i will join you in pugs.

i love you guys in a special way !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ph34r]

[windigo]

captain ban loosah

[m3ss]

[rasta-man]

[Junkyardboy]

my feedback:

- I would have loved to see less forum contribution and more contribution towards the actual website www.globalunreal.com. I thought the introduction of all the stats and the weekly stats that were added were bad ass, but there's something about seeing it laid out nicely without the use of the forums. Felt a little stone age using forums despite the amazing efforts on the admin teams laying out stats beautifully and results beautifully. Something about using forums just didn't feel right to me.

-said above by phr, spectator mod that shows powerup time ups is key if there is anyway to do that.

-would like to see more tutorials/video's on how to play different positions explaining it to the noobs on different maps. Lots of ictf'ers never joined because I still feel like they don't quite understand the mod and decide to maybe join once or twice, get owned and then give up.

-would have liked to see the all-star game played towards the end of the season as opposed to the beginning of the season. For the players that got eliminated from the season/playoffs, looking forward to an all star game is always nice.

-the pugs always drop completely after the season nears towards an end which sucks for those that are still on a team looking to get practice pugs in. This also is a problem for ictf and sniperctf and every other season. Not sure if anything can be done, but some incentive to pug the active mod that's taking place would be a good idea.

overall 2cents:
-great season, I had a lot fun even though our team got our asses kicked on most maps, it was still fun. Special shoutout to all the admins that helped make this season as fun as it was. I would definitely do another sdom season if we have one.

[Morpheus]

Hi, part of the reason i did not want to join this was the maps. Just wanted to say that.

[Sauron]

[kE]

[csnafk]

[RickJames]

[Pks]

First draft =)

Cons:
- Whoever allowed phear to have a team that can all frag 100 on a map
- Creek
- Potential other creeks
- New net + lift bugs. Multiple times I'm stuck above a lift whilst my client happily runs around thinking it can tag points. Worst one was on an amp run: dropping down on gharden. Server keeps me on mid point window, while my client sees me running to pick up armour on the safe low area. Doing it 3-4x times in a 1v1 match cost me some vital points!!
- Too many maps, but would rather see a Veto system instead of a pick system so teams can prepare a set block rather than waste time having to learn every single CP on every single map, just in case the opponent pulls a fast one. And also to eliminate having to worry about some maps that are maybe unfit for your team for the entire season (i.e. Deck pure frag + snipe map)
9 map poule: bo3: veto ABBAAB. Remaining 3 maps you pick from. Can mean you play the same maps every week, but that's up to you and your opponent. Best maps tend to get played more often.
- 100 ping =( But that is the price to play.
- Unlimited amp ;x Not a fan of it but it is what it is.

Pros
- Decent community! Helpful whenever I needed something.
- sDOM is very fun still. A lot of the new maps worked well (Seraphim, Typhoon, Slimetime) and funnily enough the older 'established' ones (Deck, Peak, Cinder) weren't as good. Kudos to map makers.
- The little tweaks to control points (Vial placements, health pack additions). The 1vs1 spots which offered various powerups were fun, the ones that just had 1 health pack and maybe a couple of vials were not but definitely an improvement from what I remember. It offered different styles at least which was nice to see(1 player might cycle through a different health pack, giving up point for a split moment, or another takes belts whilst then having to do more retakes).

Just random gibberish:

- Spawns? They changed under NewNet right, where you can spawn closer to your opponent than previously possible (on zp, it was often they would spawn as far as possible to you). Tempest Low had so many quick retakes, maybe a spawn there could be removed because it removed the possibility of keeping control whilst daring to take some health. Same on Peak Low, so many local spawns as opposed to ledges.
- Amp! As I said it's a bit strong, when a stacked guy with great frag power just ends a map no matter what you guys do. I would say to put it on a timer similar to the amp respawn, forcing the amp player if he wants to keep control, to retake it. Prevents double amps, and, it's not a massive nerf considering that if he wants to keep amp he can control the amp room with his frags.
- More vials. In fun places. Everywhere.
- Was musing over the idea of 2 different power ups? Think quake TDM with Bio & Quad. Would be a strange dynamic. One that can combat the amp, or double up to allow for a sick run. They don't last long enough to destroy a team completely but it's a spectacle, and would add in another layer of depth. Time both or just 1 of your choice. Probably be too much stuff going on for a Domination mode though.


All in all, had my complaints during the season but in the end it was just fun to play some old UT and meet new people. Ty Draft Cup system for keeping it going and see you next sDOM hopefully.

/Sens.

[csnafk]

[Junkyardboy]

[Sauron]

Peak is one map where it could stand to lose the keg next to the amp. Maybe put a normal health pack and 3 vials up there or something instead. Keep just 1 keg in the map, same location. Amp can be so easy to maintain at the top as there are just 2 narrow walkways to get up there and 2 narrow entrances.

[Junkyardboy]

cinder as well...the drop down to keg, stack up on armor was too easy to do.

[spydee]

sdom is all about the amp runs. it adds a large risk vs reward playstyle/tactic to sdom. there's no reason to remove keg+amp combos...in fact i would add a keg to every amp that needs it for it to be relevant in the game. if you think it is too powerful then make sure you time it and put your best players towards getting it, or killing it when the other team has it

[csnafk]

[Sauron]

[Pks]

I don't mind the amp on some maps; like on Tempest - where it's in the middle so yes your team can all pitch in an effort to close him out quickly. Other maps like, as mentioned, SlimeTime where you have a maze of corridors to avoid everyone on with health everywhere, it's different. In contrast to Tempest, Peaks amp is as far away from everyone as possible so it's not exactly a team effort when you are funneled up 2 choke points to try and close him.

Additionally, if the amps rarely ever go beyond 2 minutes - than a cool down timer would only prevent teams that are quite unbalanced getting away with unlimited runs, double amps. So it won't impact majority of fair games, only the unfair ones.

[PACO]

A few really good posts. One thing is a must and it will be implemented but not how it was suggested. Also expect more servers in the near future. I also agree with Sens about elimination vs picking maps. Elimination is the way to go and I will probably be incorporating that into events that I run in the future. On the note of the amp, I see both sides of the equation. At one point, I had the idea that only one amp could be active so a dude could theoretically run around with it for more than the 1:50, until the next amp was taken. It seemed like a cool idea but also not necessary. If a guy grabs an amp, you need to sacrifice some points to eliminate that threat. If you let him stay alive for 2mins, then you really do deserve to be punished.

The maplist could probably use a little trimming. I actually think most maps played pretty well but quality is greater than quantity imo. I'll be running some polls in the near future and I don't think that sDOM fans will need to wait until next Summer before getting another taste of it.

PACO