Is the message really "... kicked from game by ..."? Then it's wrong, or at least should be better, it's automatic. I've granted few reserved slots for the donors, server owner and Crusha. If they want to join the full server, they don't have to wait and the player, who joined as the last, is forced to spectator mode. It doesn't happen often and doesn't hurt much, but sorry for that, Alex. I don't have many options how to reward people who are doing for the server more than the others, I hope you understand that. Your reserved slot has been removed, Crusha.

what about the times when the server will have many sponsors? ;P the one who gives less will have less chances to finish a map?

is your choice. u can give slots for whoever u want to, i don't mind, but.. the message is so humiliating: "u was kicked so a friend of mine can join"... it would b better if the message was something like "sorry, your connection is poor, so you was disconnected for a while, please rejoin later", or anything smarter, even if it's a lie.

This is a subject that, if I remember right, has been brought up in the past on the server. My reply then and my ideology regarding preferential treatment in favour of more valued/seasoned/whatever people remains the same: no matter the person, some rights must always stay the same for everyone. The right to play on the server is definitely the cardinal and foremost among those. I do not believe anyone can claim a higher right to play/spec over anyone else and, personally, if that was offered to me, I'd never accept it; it's just a matter of mentality. No matter how long you may have been playing on a server or been a part of its community, any newcomer that may be the newbiest of newbs still has the very same right to play as you. In fact, that's exactly how servers get popular and increase their reputation in the first place. How would YOU feel if you joined some random server on a game that's new to you only to be treated unequally in any number of ways (not allowed to join or be kicked, not allowed to use the best [super]weapons or better vehicles because a more experienced player wants them, etc.)?

I say, if the administration feels like it owes a debt of gratitude to a player in recognition of whatever service they've provided and wants to somehow repay 'em, that should be done in a way that does not violate the sense of equal opportunity for anyone. Let them use colours for their nickname, for example, or custom taunts or character skins or any other (custom vehicle skins!!), non-gameplay infringing bonus. Hell knows, I'm all for rewarding Crusha for his efforts and contributions here too, but reserving a game slot specifically for anyone, however, WILL start to give off a scent of elitism to the community and newcomers alike very quickly and, as Hunt pointed out, what happens when donators grow and reach double digits or so? Will half the server (all the entire red team, for example) be turned into reserved parking spots for the generous benefactors and only the other half remain open for the common plebeians?

Look, it's a good thing that this happened to a player who's already a member of this community and brought it up so we can clear it up, but IMO this is a practice that needs to stop before it gives ppl the wrong impression about TechCom and cause more harm than good in the end.

I agree, this rule is a bad one!
The reserved slots IMHO should be for admin spectating only,to spy on cheats/troublemakers. Benefactors need to be rewarded in a different way.
Also the message "kicked by CRUSHA" is very counterproductive.
This will only lead to resentment amongst the community.
The forum is the best place to air issues, well done Alex, and it is up to Foibos to ensure that TC evolves.

Let us PLAY

Idea about colored nicks and other small custom stuff that doesnt required hard work - great

m-knell wrote:
Idea about colored nicks and other small custom stuff that doesnt required hard work - great

Oh no, please no eye-hurting colour-tags in the nicks…

And personal vehicle-skins for standard-vehicles are just confusing in my opinion. Well, as long as they are not seen by other players I don't care about.


But Huntdown would surely like to ride us down in his personal Manta. :>

crusha_k_rool wrote:
[...]And personal vehicle-skins for standard-vehicles are just confusing in my opinion. Well, as long as they are not seen by other players I don't care about.


But Huntdown would surely like to ride us down in his personal Manta. :>Dude, the whole point of custom vec skins is that after you'd earn one all your opponents would be able to see you ride in your custom-painted vec and give you your due props! Otherwise, what's the point? And, if I'm honest here, I wasn't exactly thinking of Hunt when I wrote that .

pegasus_ wrote:
crusha_k_rool wrote:
[...]And personal vehicle-skins for standard-vehicles are just confusing in my opinion. Well, as long as they are not seen by other players I don't care about.


But Huntdown would surely like to ride us down in his personal Manta. :>Dude, the whole point of custom vec skins is that after you'd earn one all your opponents would be able to see you ride in your custom-painted vec and give you your due props! Otherwise, what's the point? And, if I'm honest here, I wasn't exactly thinking of Hunt when I wrote that .

Honestly it sounds like you would try to convince a child, but you can get me with that though. :p

But we'll see if this method is taken at all. And I wonder if such custom vec-skins are actually possible to include in the game. It would have to switch a vehicles colour right when a certain player enters it (recognized by IP, not by name would be the best, I think).

And then you would also have to get your custom skins from somewhere and the others would need to download them when entering the server.

Crusha

There wont be much of color-hurting tags, cause we have only few ppl, who help server in different ways. And it could be not rainbow-style colors but only 2-3 eye-friendly. I doubt that personal custom colored vehicles are easy to create if this possible.

Even though this is something I just came up with on the spur of the moment, I don't see how you both figure that the concept of custom skinned vehicles would be so hard to pull off when custom player skins have been around for years now and those two work basically on the same principle.

For clarification, I'm not saying every player would have their own unique custom skin that would need to include both team colour textures and then be distributed to everyone else or anything like that, no. It could just be one skin for each ONS/ONSBP vehicle with two textures that works the same way as the individual weapon award titles (flak monkey, combo whore, headhunter, rocket scientist, etc.). Everyone would just download a small texture package and, coupled with the corresponding mutator, after killing 15/20/25/over9000/whatever number of enemies using that vec would award the player that new title as well as change the skin of any such vehicle they happened to get in (and only that one) to the custom one for all to see, be it shiny golden with some kind of glow, bloodstained & with dripping blood or whatever other creative concept tex artists could come up wih.

Honestly, I don't see that as being more hard than having 32 ppl running around looking like cartoon characters with appropriate team colours and that's been old hat for years now. Anyway, like I said, it's just a silly idea I came up with on the fly, nothing to merit so much scrutinizing...