Online Mode >> Mutator >> Map selection

[Dratz-_C]

Hi again folks.
When I play online on a server that has a bunch of mutators selected, say hover multi vampire resize capture the flag, I try to vote for a new mode and set of mutators, say team hold bomberball. So I select the mode, then the mutators, then the map. It switches to a nearby map and records that one as my vote. Only after the game has done so do I find out. I have no easy way of knowing when this will happen or why it does without asking you, because it does not look like it will happen in offline mode. I guess that the map I chose did not support a mutator. Ideally, the maps that did not support my mutator combination would be culled from the list or grayed out or, if it is something else like the mode, than maps that don't support that would be invisible. Is there anything that can be done to facilitate this mode >> mutator >> map selection process for 1.3? Conversely, if it is something set serverside, I would love to be able to see this in advance before my vote is tallied for a map I didn't intend to be selected. Isolating and fixing this anomaly would sure help me, as It might new players for the current gamut of maps and the more experienced crowd as more maps are created for 1.3 and distributed in community map packs like the one wowie and Four30Six are working on.
Cheers

[qreeves]

Any maps not supported by the current mode/mutator combination are listed beneath the list of supported maps under the "maps not in the rotation" subsection. Under no circumstances will the game ever choose a map you didn't ask for (unless the server rotates the map itself because there are no votes at all), nor will it record your vote as something else. Note that you can't vote for maps not in the rotation by default, and such votes will be blocked entirely. What you see in the list of votes is what you get. I think the problem is either with your interpretation of the issue, or the fact that the server picked a different person's vote.

[Dratz-_C]

Thanks for the fast response. You may indeed be right about my selecting a maps that are out of rotation. I still have a question though about it.
In online mode on another's server when there are 4 available maps, and the rest of the list is maps not in the rotation, it is not out of the realm of possibility for a client to think that the maps out of rotation are available. What happens when a client selects a map for basket bomber ball and there are no baskets? An example of a map like this is longestyard. In offline mode it starts the match, notices that there are no baskets and then restarts the match choosing the hold mode specific modifier. But in online mode, does the game just select the nearest map that is on the not-in-rotation or available maps list that has baskets and record this as my vote? I can't easily tell because there is of course no voting in offline mode. I think this may be an issue with the server's selecting the maps in rotation filtering maps that support and maps that don't support say basket bomber ball into the maps not in rotation list. Then when one is voting how is one to tell whether a map supports basket bomber ball when a different filter, the one in charge of the server's personal choice, determines which maps go in the not-in-rotation list? I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this thing. I have had the vote change problem a minimum of 3 times, and I'll post once more if it happens again, perhaps identifying the server if that will help. I feel like the one who points at what one thinks is the inconsequential error rather than the vast majority that's good; by the way, the vast majority is good.
Cheers

[qreeves]

Thanks for the fast response. You may indeed be right about my selecting a maps that are out of rotation. I still have a question though about it.
In online mode on another's server when there are 4 available maps, and the rest of the list is maps not in the rotation, it is not out of the realm of possibility for a client to think that the maps out of rotation are available. What happens when a client selects a map for basket bomber ball and there are no baskets? An example of a map like this is longestyard. In offline mode it starts the match, notices that there are no baskets and then restarts the match choosing the hold mode specific modifier. But in online mode, does the game just select the nearest map that is on the not-in-rotation or available maps list that has baskets and record this as my vote?

No, it behaves exactly the same offline as it would online. It goes through exactly the same functions, except offline it just automatically passes the vote straight away.

I can't easily tell because there is of course no voting in offline mode. I think this may be an issue with the server's selecting the maps in rotation filtering maps that support and maps that don't support say basket bomber ball into the maps not in rotation list. Then when one is voting how is one to tell whether a map supports basket bomber ball when a different filter, the one in charge of the server's personal choice, determines which maps go in the not-in-rotation list?

The rotations are stored in server side variables that are sent to clients when they connect, if unmodified they are always the same.

[Dratz-_C]

The vote switch happened to me again today at 8:20 pm GMT -5hrs on [FD] Eris (69.195.137.18:[28803]) Unmodified. I chose the map Isolation and it registered my vote as Stone. We were playing on Ghost instagib deathmatch and after the match I voted for Bomberball, Hold, Arena, and Isolation in that order. However I am having a difficult time getting this to repeat, so it largely doesn't matter right now.
Cheers

[Dratz-_C]

Hi Quin,
I can have reproduced a mapswitch anomaly in offline mode. I select bomberball, then Pumpstation (version 1.2 installed in my Windows XP user Red Eclipse maps folder) from the maps not in the rotation list, then basket modifier, and it automatically switches the map to an available map. When I change the map back to Pumpstation and play, it does support basket bomberball. So, it appears that when the maps are refreshed by a modifier change the selected map not in the rotation is selected away from, which is undesirable in my opinion.
Cheers