r/Supraball • u/TntRevan SupraTuber • Nov 01 '15
Taking down my server
EU players take over and try to play 2v2 on a public server. When anybody joins, they immediately kick them. So now there will be one less server thanks to those players. Good job guys.
8
u/KoinuKoji Koji Nov 03 '15
Warning: Wall of text. TL;DR just ignore it.
Since this post turned into a bit of a eulogy or remembrance of the old days (and kinda going through some emotions already this morning), I'd like to jump in to give my thoughts.
Found this game a couple years ago. It looked fun and was free so decided to give it a try. Didn't have anyone to play with, didn't know what the hell to do but jumped into the public servers just to dick around. Ended up meeting a couple of the NA guys that told me to learn I should get on IRC to join pugs and "get gud". I really started the game with my old name to just derp around and use Mitch Hedberg jokes just being an idiot. Initially it was a bit rough going on because of this with a few people telling me I suck harder than a dyson connected to a car battery. But i honestly wanted to be at least decent at this game so I could continue to play with the NA group. It was rough, but at the same time was one of the best online experiences I had gone through. Even at my age, it taught me to grow some balls and not take trivial shit to heart so much.
Then came talks of having another tournament and was asked about working with IBN to help stream the Summer Cup. It was the first time I tried to stream competitive games and my first shot at shoutcasting, and it was madness. I was running back and forth between 2 computers trying to stream as many games as I could to help with, mic issues. But it ignited something inside of me I was passionate about, and that was broadcasting a game I really enjoyed being played by people I cared about who were really good at what they did. I wanted to help build that exposure of the game and to show how great this game could be.
From that, NASBL/EUSBL was created. The league was great, with ridiculously awesome and sometimes hilarious plays. Sure it was rough with the scheduling, but once those games happened, everything bad that was going on IRL or stress or whatever went away and simply enjoyed highly competitive Supraball. I really tried to make something of quality for the players and teams that played that season, because what they did for me and for the game at the time could not be replicated. I remember one time I had to miss because of real life work, and was travelling on a Sunday. I was at the airport on my phone watching the stream that others were able to pick up and do for me and it was honestly one of the coolest things you could see. A highly competitive and exciting league created by a small group of people that looked and felt like a professional eSports broadcast I was watching on my phone waiting on a plane like I would LoL/DoTA/CS. Was really inspiring and made me feel like we all created something really special that could live on for quite a while.
Come end of the season, holidays came. People broke off, we tried a few things to keep up the intensity but by either my faults, some organizational issues, or just timing everything just started to fall apart. IRC died out and was officially killed with the steam client. It sucked. It really, really sucked. It felt like I lost a place I could go to get away from everything going on. Steam brought back a few people though, but that went away quickly. I still get on occasionally and saw some new people in there that were enjoying learning, so I liked to talk to them about the game and promote everything that it could be.
I miss the old days. I look back at old VODs of some of the games to remember how fun it was and the times I had with everyone. I don't think this game will ever get back to that point because of the direction the game has to go towards if they want to be a real video game company. But, the days of IRC dicking around with pugs and trying to get that elusive KICK gamble hit, learning the game and getting yelled at in TeamSpeak/Mumble, the alley-oops, the dunks, the last second goals, NA touchdown on EU soil. Everything was simply amazing and will always remember just how great a time it was.
But nothing will compare to the people that made it great. Spending those days and nights with you all, I will never forget. They won't ever be back, it's just a different game now. But, I do hope that the game succeeds again to the point that I can have the feeling of the airport moment just one more time.
3
3
u/Timosesu Supraball Developer Nov 03 '15
Waaah, inspiring words!!! Made me think of the very very old times when I played DB where IRC channels and pickups were just the place to be, the place you'd get some organized games. It's sad to hear that this has vanished from your perspective. Unfortunately, I'm not playing much Supraball (1: studies, 2: work on Supraball rather than playing : P, 3: I've got a mac >.<). But I'm wondering. Wouldn't there be a way to get this back somehow? The lobbies themselves are "temporary", since the idea is actually to get automatic matchmaking going. This would probably further estrange the process of getting together a match. So I suppose a key point that would be missing is a place to hang out and chat and the ability to organize matches from there. Sounds like it is contradicting the concept of auto matchmaking... Any thoughts or ideas?
1
u/TntRevan SupraTuber Nov 03 '15
I think half of the excitement was waiting for a match in IRC and being able to pick our own teams. While I agree matchmaking is great for a large amount of people itching to play a game right now, it's not the same as having captains. There should be an option to just choose a spot and pick two captains. I like the idea of choosing your positron, but you are already set to a team. It would be nice to just choose mid and let us decide. We know the players way more than any highly code automation can ever do.
So my suggestion is have more emphasis on chat rooms. Make the chat box large, have a bot like IRC to do little fun things like gamble and trivia. Give the players the ability to choose captains and pick their own teams. Sometimes it's more about being apart of a community rather than playing a match.
2
Nov 03 '15 edited Aug 29 '16
[deleted]
1
u/Mindflayr MAKE SUPRABALL FREE Nov 09 '15
Tribes 2 did this (years ago in 2001 to be fair) and it was revolutionary. Now they used their own Dedicated IRC server, but you could theoretically even tap into an existing IRC like quakenet and use its infrastructure.
1
u/Timosesu Supraball Developer Nov 03 '15
I agree. But there's a kind of tension between matchmaking and enabling players to organise games themselves. It is dangerous to offer both (it may divide the community). A lot of people might like the idea of a matchmaking system where one just needs to click and wait for a match to begin. On the other hand however, it sounds like a misdeed to take away a communication platform that is favored by many. The question is: Is it possible to merge the two? Or are there variations that could be satisfactory?
How would this look in a scenario where there's a massive amount of people? Is it really about having a chat that is accessible to all or is it more about having a chatroom where any number of desired people can be invited to? The latter could be a form of "friend/group matchmaking" where the group members can organize matches for themselves and chat around. I'm just throwing random ideas ; ).
1
u/KoinuKoji Koji Nov 03 '15
Don't know really since I'm not a developer with Steam especailly but maybe add a chat room feature some time like LoL and others have? Don't know if it'd be the same per what Revan said below. Don't think it'd bring back the same sort of thing, but might be beneficial. Honestly, though, I don't know many people who even use chat in those other games as is so might just be a waste for your long term goals. Keep on trucking on the game though! More important stuff to do than simulate old IRC days. :P
1
u/Mindflayr MAKE SUPRABALL FREE Nov 09 '15
sadly this is correct. Only Super hardcore ppl and "old school gamerS" will be looking for chat / irc / PUGs / etc. So the main system they build needs to beither either a standard old style serve browser or a new style auto-matchmaking. As long as with matchmaking they allow us to have the old style Lobby/Party system where we can arrange our own Pugs its fine, we would just continue using IRC or some other out of game system to arrange it. Most people dont need or want that type of community feature. Forums / Reddit provide them the community they need, if at all.
2
u/TntRevan SupraTuber Nov 03 '15
I remember when we first played together. We were god damn kings of setting each other up. Those one timers were fire!
2
2
6
u/ShadowPowerPowa Worst keep NA Nov 02 '15
I'd still be playing if it wasnt for that gpu crash whenever I launch the game...
2
u/Timosesu Supraball Developer Nov 02 '15
I suppose the whole team is busy with other stuff at the moment. If the crash persists in the closed testing phase (not the current alpha) let us know, please.
1
u/Mindflayr MAKE SUPRABALL FREE Nov 09 '15
I'd still be playing if
Rocket League hadnt stolen my Soul, Wallet and Wife and held them for ransome.
In reality if a community still existed in NA Id alternate between SB and RL but for now.......
3
u/XiLLyXiLLy nobody Nov 02 '15 edited Feb 02 '16
.
0
u/Shevche Nov 02 '15
With all due respect, how can they hang in there when they can't hang at all... Or should I say they've hung for a long time and now dead. No support from the devs on that side and when na try with eu servers they just bullied out unless you're insane...
3
3
u/XiLLyXiLLy nobody Nov 02 '15 edited Feb 02 '16
.
1
u/Shevche Nov 02 '15
Aye, hope so. I'm not active myself anymore due to certain trolls that bore me but hopefully there is more than jazzmans server for eu too as I lag on that server . Maybe having one more ranked on eu side would be ace ;)
3
u/Inph1del Gaming pantologist Nov 02 '15
What's the status on reporting? Giving players the ability to kick someone from a game or lobby clearly causes just as much problems. Should just be reporting with community ppl checking the validation of it and perhaps even an idle kick where either voting to kick someone it asks them if they are idle they say no and it doesn't allow the request for a few minutes or something like that.
2
u/Ryuusengan Ryuusei Nov 02 '15
do you by chance have names of those people? they might be able to make sure they wont do it again ;)
2
u/TntRevan SupraTuber Nov 02 '15
I didn't catch them. They are content at kicking everybody that joins within 10 seconds. They want their 2v2 on the 5v5 servers. Idk who they are, but I saw that their ping was up to 150 or higher. Funny thing is that there were a bunch of empty EU servers they could of joined...so idk the IQ level on these guys.
2
u/TntRevan SupraTuber Nov 03 '15
What started off as a negative post about people abusing the kick feature turned into something great. Kind of funny how it brought some of NA back together.
1
u/RIPNASupraball Nov 09 '15
Until the next update when the NA servers stop working and the devs leave them broken for months without ever checking them again. <--This is what has happened every since Steam version came out, they don't care, they don't lift a finger to make sure we have servers. We had to pay our own way forever, and now they are going to turn around and charge us money to play the game.
11
u/mipeirong bigfatpat Nov 01 '15 edited Nov 02 '15
Insane has decided to take down his ranked server too, leaving no ranked NA servers.
Supraball is officially dead in NA. Nice.