Hi there,

Struggling to get my server configured how I want... I really want my friends to be able to vote and change the game modes on the fly without having to ready up everytime or forcebreaks or all that business... seems kinda weird that you have to stop the match to vote for something, also it kicks people who aren't ready when you forcestart....

Or at least get k_exclusive to work... people can't join when the match has started and I cant' for the life of me figure out why

Is this possible to achieve?

Only FFA is matchless = you join server and start fragging without need of /ready.

However you can change modes on the fly without /ready, but yes, you must stop match before you can switch game mode, not that big deal right?

And you CAN configure server to allow join mid-game, someone requested it exactly for CTF, so I did some fixes to KTX to allow it, few months ago (/lockmode command, but you need KTX from git, since that command was "bugged", if it tells you anything), you just will need set existing team before connecting, however, you must be careful, doubt you will be happy if some random dude connects mid-game during some EQL match, unless its big brother who decide to help you.

That is indeed an EQL scenario one would like to avoid but in Q2CTF the public CTF servers that were the most popular allowed people to join on the fly. This made it very easy and accessible to just play a casual game - very nice.

The other day i realized many (most) servers don't even allow the CTF mode for some reason though, weird...

Joining mid-game is somehow not so popular in QW, at least 3 vs 4 tdm sounds absurd even in mixes but it is matter of habbit I guess.

About CTF and mid-game: http://www.quakeworld.nu/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5398
However qw-dev is slightly broken now, so not sure if you can get sources from git.

Joining midgame was how qwctf was played back in the days... no one complained then and it was great fun. It makes it so much easier to get games going. Server had a map-pool that was running which made it so that a map runs for 20mins then ends and switches to the next map in que.

For TDM it certainly would suck with mid-game join but just as LethalWiz describes it is how i remember it from Q2 which i thought was a load of fun. It would be a much shorter process to just join an open ctf game rather than trying to arrange a proper match and get everyone to type ready.

If i remember correctly it also autobalanced the teams in case too many dropped out on one of the teams etc.

I don't quite understand why it should work for CTF and should not work for TDM Well, if you treat TDM as serious business then I agree, mid-game will not work, but you can imply same for CTF, so it is mater of habbit and how deeply you understand it.

So, probably we should change in general how mixes are gathered nowdays, since all that waiting is quite annoying. What about matchless TDM servers for mixes? I am sceptic about it, but who knows, probably it whould work.

Not quite sure how it should work:

1) probably some auto map pool: dm3/dm2/e1m2
1.1) map switched on match end
1.2) map vote is bloked, so there no dm3 all the time (?)
2) game auto started if there at least X ( 2? ) players, players always ready
3) up to 8 players can join, probably map dependant, death 32 should allow 32 players
4) able to join mid-game
5) auto break if frag difference is XXX
6) auto random pickup at each match start.
7) top fraggers(in each team) became captains and have 60 seconds to complete captain process (too easy to abuse that feature)

I can code it quite fast, some of it just require proper server config.

So probably you can do poll like, "Whould you play in matchless mixes?", if there whould be positive feedback I can do it, would be nice to see who exactly voted.

Well, there can be different scenario, I can can do simplified version of it, with just auto-random-pickup/auto-captains each map and auto ready and auto kick for idling, or probably one can suggest something different.

For me it would not be as interesting for TDM as that plays out way different and the consequence of having players joining/leaving would really ruin the fun too much. Maybe something like it for 10on10 on Death32c would be fun though.

In CTF i think you can play a bit more on your own as you have weaponstay and the main objective is to grab the enemy flag and defend your own and players would usually do that kind of formation (attack/defence/mid) even in public games when i played.