BalanceServerSeeders (4.0.0.4 - 21-April-2014): Distribute server seeding players

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by k4n30*:

 

Ok not sure what version of True Balancer your using but as of 0.2.4. A new feature the Balancing guard was introduced. This means that any new team joiners are placed onto the team that needs them the most.

 

I just check the hourly plugin usage and there is a total of 270 servers running a version that does this, or 1500 running the legacy v0.1.6 (which doesn't do this) or 217 running Insane Balancer. This would I guess be the total of server admins running different balancing programs.

 

What we need is a solution that will work with all of these plugin's and also with no balancing plugin's at all - for it to be the most complete and robust solution. Therefore your example of team joiners joining by default to either team 1 or team 2 (conquest or rush) can't be relied heavily upon. So therefore I think it's necessary for your plugin to take matters into its own hand. For example purposes I'm assuming that anyone listed as a seeder for a server is also whitelisted in the respective balancing plugin as that would make most sense from an admin's point of view. I understand this is not always the case but only rare circumstances can't always be catered for.

 

My ideal balancing plugin logic: (Note when I refer to "extra seeder" this can also be the one and only seeder in the server, but it is to cover all cases)

 

 

• Ok so the plugin should look at the number of seeders first. If the number is even, then leave them alone, there should be no need to swap players as the server is considered balanced.
• If there is an odd number of seeders, then the player count of the server should be interrogated to work out what team the extra seeder should go onto. There are 2 possibilities: Odd number of players & even number of players.
  • ODD number of Players:

  • Rush / SqRush - the extra seeder goes onto the defending team.
  • Conq / TDM - the extra seeder goes onto the team with the highest tickets (If server just started and tickets are even then it doesn't matter - default to team 1 I guess)
  • All Game modes - There is a special circumstance where there is an odd number of players, and the extra seeders team has one less player (eg: Team 1 = 3 players, Team 2 = 2 players (1 player + 1 seeder) ). In this case the seeder should be moved to the team with the most players which would force any balancing plugins to push someone back to the other team, effectively balancing the teams. You might say why not just move someone off the greater team - but not all balancing plugins would allow this (eg: Latest TrueBalancer) so its best to move the seeder as they are more likely to be whitelisted by the balancing plugin
• EVEN number of Players:
  • Rush / SqRush - the extra seeder goes onto the defending team
  • Conq / TDM - the extra seeder goes onto the team with the highest tickets (If server just started and tickets are even then it doesn't matter - default to team 1 I guess)

 

 

• Conq / TDM Only - There is also another special case where the seeder is on the team with the highest tickets, and their team gets overtaken (due to being the weaker team with an extra seeder). There would need to be something in place to block switching the seeder back and forth every time the tickets change. If there are an odd number of players it wouldn't matter (actually I would want that to happen, so the next person to join - joins the losing team), it would only matter if there were an even number of players as forcing them seeder to the other team would force a player off the winning team onto the losing team.

  ---

  Actually if there are an even number of players and odd number of seeders maybe the plugin doesn't move any seeders.

It may seem like the seeder gets moved a lot, but they are there to seed, not play, so there should be no issue with moving them around so much to keep the server both balanced and functional.

 

I guess the easiest way to implement this is to setup a bunch of boolean variables (eg: even_players, odd_players, even_seeders, odd_seeders, rush_mode, conq-tdm_mode) and base the plugin actions off the states of these variables (eg: IF odd_players is TRUE and rush_mode is TRUE etc). - EDIT: I know you can cut these booleans in half using true / false for the same variable but I did it that way for ease of understanding.

 

What do you think Flyswamper? Looking for other admins feedback as well as I noticed 25 other admins use this plugin too

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

Good post. Its late and my head hurts (need sleep). I'll look at it again in the morning and give some more thought.

 

Only initial thought is that the stuff about seeder going to team with highest tickets could result in moves that I would think aren't appropriate. For instance late-game comeback where ticket count is close, Team 2 is behind Team 1 most of the game, but pulls ahead with a few tickets left. Extra seeder has been on Team 1 most of the time (because they were ahead) but at the end seeder gets moved because team 2 pulls ahead and someone from Team 2 gets swapped to Team 1 at the end.

 

Also, I know it's not your intent but it seems like putting the seeder on the winning side might be misconstrued as stat-padding the seeder account. I know.... not the intent, but it is the action.

 

Anyway.... some stuff to think about. I'll do it in the morning hopefully...

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by k4n30*:

 

I had that covered with:

 

 

• Conq / TDM Only - There is also another special case where the seeder is on the team with the highest tickets, and their team gets overtaken (due to being the weaker team with an extra seeder). There would need to be something in place to block switching the seeder back and forth every time the tickets change. If there are an odd number of players it wouldn't matter (actually I would want that to happen, so the next person to join - joins the losing team), it would only matter if there were an even number of players as forcing them seeder to the other team would force a player off the winning team onto the losing team.

  ---

  Actually if there are an even number of players and odd number of seeders maybe the plugin doesn't move any seeders.

As for the stats padding issue with the seeder, it would be possible to keep track of the number of rounds and just increment it every new round (I understand it would be reset when procon restarts, or the plugin is disabled). If its an odd number leave the seeder on the winning team, if its an even number switch him to the opposite team when there is ~3 tickets left. The number would need to be tested to be small enough to allow the switch to happen, but not too big as to force someone to switch teams. (Most balancers work every 30-60 seconds). Just an idea

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

Help me understand why the current logic is not sufficient/appropriate? Essentially, if there are an even number of seeders there is no concern for any mode. For odd # of seeders, the extra seeder is placed on defenders in rush mode and on Team1 in other modes. I'm just having a hard time seeing the need for something more complicated.

 

*IF* we want something more complicated, how does this strike you...

 

Plugin currently keeps track of seeders on each team.

Add functionality so plugin keeps count of non seeders.

 

If ( "Team 1 Non-seeder count" > ("Team 2 Non-seeder count") +1)

then move seeder from team 1 to team 2

 

 

If ( Team 2 Non-seeder count > (Team 1 non-seeder count + 1))

then move seeder from team 2 to team 1

 

 

Basically, watch for imbalances of more than 1 in normal (non-seeder) player counts just like a TrueBalancer might do. Except that it is counting non-seeders on each team in this case. Anytime an imbalance of more than 1 occurs move a seeder to make the player-count imbalance worse and force some other balancer to kick into gear and move somebody from the overpopulated team.

 

No checking of tickets to see who is winning. And this would seemingly adjust appropriately no matter which team new players joined into.

 

What do you think?

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

k4n30,

 

Re-reading your post, there is something you brought up which I didn't address. You start with the premise that this plugin should work with or without other balancer-plugins running. I would submit to you that it already does work with or without other balancer plugins running. It *should* consistently do it's limited job of making sure that the server-seeders aren't stacked all on one team.

 

Granted, if the admins aren't running another plugin for regular-player balancing, this plugin could make the player count on Team 1 vs Team 2 get worse instead of better. However, if an admin is running a server without any balancer turned on (including built-in one) then I don't really see that it should be the job of this plugin to try and correct for that. My thought on it is that it is up to the admin to insure that he is running another plugin for balancing (or not).

 

Not trying to be obtuse here, and I really *REALLY* want to give you/us a plugin that does the best job it can at managing these server seeders. I guess I'm not ready, however, to turn it into a complete player-balancing system. Several others have tackled that and are much further down the road than I am. Anyway, curious to hear what thoughts this spurs in you.

 

My near-term timeline is that I'll have until Thursday evening to do any mucking-about with the plugin then I'll be away for at least a week or so, and will have spotty internet connections between now and September generally speaking. Also, my server is gone so I can code up something that I think works but testing would require access to a test server.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by k4n30*:

 

I think we are starting to get on different paths with where we want this plugin to go, so if you don't want or don't believe the plugin needs work that's fine. I understand your working on this for free in your own time and I totally understand.

 

To me a "balance server seeder" plugin should do more than just make sure there are an even number of seeders on both teams. It should also support the reason behind seeding to begin with - to get a server started and make the game playable with small numbers until the server fills up and the seeder is kicked. If it screws up the teams (with or without a balancing plugin) and makes the game unplayable (eg: seeder attacking in rush and real player defending) then the plugin has failed, and the idea behind seeding has failed, as the game is unplayable.

 

I'm not saying this plugin should be a balancing plugin, and seeing all the work the other plugins have had done to them, trust me you don't want it to be. In saying that - plugins *should* get along with each other as 2 plugins that do similar functions (truebalancer & balance server seeders) that can both move players *should* be compatible. I know it shouldn't be up to you to make this happen, but if you do your part to make it as plugin friendly as possible, I think it will allow alot more admins to use your plugin.

 

/rant

 

So after saying all that, it's up to you where you want to take this plugin. In response to:

 

If there are an even number of seeders there is no concern for any mode. For odd # of seeders, the extra seeder is placed on defenders in rush mode and on Team1 in other modes. I'm just having a hard time seeing the need for something more complicated.

 

*IF* we want something more complicated, how does this strike you...

 

Plugin currently keeps track of seeders on each team.

Add functionality so plugin keeps count of non seeders.

 

If ( "Team 1 Non-seeder count" > ("Team 2 Non-seeder count") +1)

then move seeder from team 1 to team 2

 

 

If ( Team 2 Non-seeder count > (Team 1 non-seeder count + 1))

then move seeder from team 2 to team 1

 

 

Basically, watch for imbalances of more than 1 in normal (non-seeder) player counts just like a TrueBalancer might do. Except that it is counting non-seeders on each team in this case. Anytime an imbalance of more than 1 occurs move a seeder to make the player-count imbalance worse and force some other balancer to kick into gear and move somebody from the overpopulated team.

Yes this sounds a lot less complicated using the "non-seeder" player count as opposed to "playercount" but the only issue is the seeder is being moved to a team to force an auto balancer plugin to switch a real player. IMHO everyone hates auto balancers and that can be seen in a lot of the balancing plugin threads. To me this is punishing players for trying to get your server started and every time it gets out of balance, someone has to be punished and pushed to the other team to balance it again. Real players wont stick around if this happens constantly, they'll leave and find another server

 

I'd prefer the logic to push the seeder/s around as they don't care what team they are on, as they're probably not too worried about teams and stats anyway. The real players however are there for points and could also be playing with friends and don't want to be team balanced for the sake of a seeder.

 

Just some food for thought. I understand that you don't have a test server and also short on time, so if you don't want to do it, I'm more than happy to start my own plugin, inherited off your code (with you acknowledged of course) so that it can also be provided support while your away. There's nothing worse than not being able to contact a developer when you have issues. Anyway its your code, your call - I don't want to step on any toes and will accept what ever decision you make

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

Hey dude... Lighten up a little bit. I think we both want the same thing. To me, we are just fleshing out thoughts ideas of how to get there. Before I get into the logic again, you brought up using the code...

 

By all means... go for it! I consider the code essentially open source. Heck it's not very complicated code in the first place and it sure isn't the most elegant code ever written. If you can tweak it and make it better, go for it!

 

 

As far as my time, I won't actually fall off the face of the earth at the end of this week but I'll have a lot more spotty coverage. In some ways I'll have more time available to muck around with this. But it will be in spurts and will be on my laptop.

 

And... back to the logic stuff. I have this sneaking suspicion that we are almost in violent agreement here. I tend to agree that for conquest mode that my original/current idea of just forcing the extra seeder to team 1 isn't that great. After all, it could lead to this type of situation:

 

Team 1: 1 Real Player, 1 seeder

Team 2: 3 real players

i.e. 3 vs 1....not good!

 

To be honest, I still don't like the idea of moving the seeder around based on ticket count. My feeling is that this is more likely to cause trouble than moving the extra seeder based on "real" player counts for each team. Yes, it will require the use of another balancer to keep teams even. But I would submit to you that any server not running a balancer isn't going to stay balanced anyway.

 

Are we on the same page that it is a good idea for the logic to be such that any "extra" server seeder is placed on the team that has *MORE* real players? That shouldn't be too difficult to adjust the code for, but I'm curious if you think that accomplishes what you want or not.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by OminousZ*:

 

Reserved just in case.

 

Truth be told, I haven't a clue why standard operating procedure seems to be reserve/grab the second post in a plugin thread, but I'm a mindless sheep so here is this post to grab it!

Ok, I put in four solders names, but nothing shows up in the console. Help. Are the names supposed to show in game or on the consol or server browser?

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by k4n30*:

 

Ok, I put in four solders names, but nothing shows up in the console. Help. Are the names supposed to show in game or on the consol or server browser?

?

 

You need actual players to join the game to act as seeders, this plugin just balance's those players. You cant just make up names and expect them to be in game

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by OminousZ*:

 

?

 

You need actual players to join the game to act as seeders, this plugin just balance's those players. You cant just make up names and expect them to be in game

So, how does this actually help to populate? If you need people anyway?

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

OminousZ,

 

Suppose you get yourself and 3 of your clan-mates to login and place your soldiers on your server trying to get it going, but you are all AFK and not actively playing. This plugin will keep those 4 accounts evenly distributed between team 1 and team 2. That way, when a couple of other/new players join your server they play against each other.

 

Without the plugin, there is the potential for your server to end up with 4 AFK-seeders on one team and 4 real players on the other team. Pretty quickly the 4 "real" players will get bored and leave your server because they don't have anyone to fight/play against and they can't switch teams because the teams are already balanced. This plugin wil force two of the seeders on one team and two on the other. This will then allow the real players to balance themselves or let another balancing plugin move them around to keep it 2 vs 2 in real player count.

 

The plugin does at it is named. It BALANCES seeders. It does not magically create them out of thin air or put them on the server for you. It just balances ones you already have.

 

 

k4n... I'm back from a week at the beach with no internet. Will be on my laptop, but should have a fair bit of time to tinker. You never responded to my last post. Do I interpret this as you are off coding your own thing now? You still think the most appropriate way is based on ticket count? Or you agree that we should use the logic of placing any extra seeder on the team which has more real players?

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by k4n30*:

 

Hey mate, sorry been busy myself with other things too and haven't had a change to revisit this either

 

I still think ticket count is best as the player count way, forces legit players to switch teams and I personally don't like that method, but maybe we could have an option to do both? Depends on how much time you have

 

As always any work you do based on my input is greatly appreciated. Cheers

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

Alrighty then... I don't agree with you about the ticket vs player count method, but I do agree with you that having the option to do either is probably the best solution. I'll start down the path of trying to add that functionality.

 

Gonna be on my laptop, on vacation, and on borrowed time as my access to a BF3 server is set to expire any day now (for debugging).... but I should be able to come up with something that gives the option for either method. Don't need it at this point, but I might be bugging you in a few days to see if you are still willing to lend access to a server for debugging purposes.

 

Step 1 is going to be painful though.... downloading C# again from Microsoft using my brother-in-law's rural-speed internet connection. He's got ADSL but he's actually farther away from the telecom station than they are supposed to be able to run ADSL so it's performance is beyond awful (at least compared to my 100 MB urban connection I'm used to).

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by k4n30*:

 

Hahaha yeah sounds good. Yeah I can still provide you access but I'm in the process of trying to sort out my GSP at the moment as for some reason my server is now in Antarctica and they don't seem to be able to fix it so there may be some restarts. But if you need to just let me know and I can set up access for you on my server.

 

Don't get me started on Internet connections, but hopefully you don't have to put up with it for long

 

Cheers again

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by OminousZ*:

 

OminousZ,

 

Suppose you get yourself and 3 of your clan-mates to login and place your soldiers on your server trying to get it going, but you are all AFK and not actively playing. This plugin will keep those 4 accounts evenly distributed between team 1 and team 2. That way, when a couple of other/new players join your server they play against each other.

 

Without the plugin, there is the potential for your server to end up with 4 AFK-seeders on one team and 4 real players on the other team. Pretty quickly the 4 "real" players will get bored and leave your server because they don't have anyone to fight/play against and they can't switch teams because the teams are already balanced. This plugin wil force two of the seeders on one team and two on the other. This will then allow the real players to balance themselves or let another balancing plugin move them around to keep it 2 vs 2 in real player count.

 

The plugin does at it is named. It BALANCES seeders. It does not magically create them out of thin air or put them on the server for you. It just balances ones you already have.

 

 

k4n... I'm back from a week at the beach with no internet. Will be on my laptop, but should have a fair bit of time to tinker. You never responded to my last post. Do I interpret this as you are off coding your own thing now? You still think the most appropriate way is based on ticket count? Or you agree that we should use the logic of placing any extra seeder on the team which has more real players?

Thank you for your response!!

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

Ok guys,

 

I've poked around and have the start of something. My biggest problem is that even though I have access to a server, I'm still on vacation and don't have access to putting my two bf3 soldier accounts to use. So... even though I can still access a server, my ability to test my code on a server is essentially non-existant until I get home from my travels (won't happen until early Sept).

 

What I've done is a pretty major rewrite to my code/logic. So without testing the odds of bugs being present are pretty high.

 

The plugin now has a setting for balancing method. User can choose method 1 or 2.

Method 1 uses the count of "real" (i.e. excluding inactive seeders) players to determine where to put any extra inactive-seeders.

 

Method 2 uses the team scores to determine which side should get any extra inactive-seeder.

 

The logic table I used goes something like what I attached in the jpg here

 

 

 

Not going to put this on the main post/page for this until you guys try it (cautiously) and let me know it isn't a total disaster.

 

Attached Files:

• balanceseederlogic.jpg

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

Found a really minor mistake in the file I posted.

 

the following line:

writeMsgToPluginConsole(5, string.Format("Updating team scores. Team 1 Score: {0}, Team 2 Score:", team1Score, team2Score));

 

should be

 

writeMsgToPluginConsole(5, string.Format("Updating team scores. Team 1 Score: {0}, Team 2 Score: {1}", team1Score, team2Score));

 

 

The corrected line has {1} added so that team 2's score gets written to the output.

 

This one should only affect the debug output to the plugin console. Will fix in a next version, awaiting a report from someone that downloads and tries this just to let me know it doesn't go into some endless loop or something similar.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by pharbehind*:

 

This latest version is causing a problem with procon, in that overtime, it locks up your procon layer and you aren't able to reconnect. Not sure why, but we've narrowed it down to this version of this particular plugin being the culprit.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Kal-El*:

 

Great plugin and has proved a help in getting the server started so far but is it possible for admins to set a limit for when the plugin stops moving players around.

I ask this as it was helpful whilst I was afk with another clan mate and it kept the teams even but later in the day and because our names are on the "seeder list" we would get autobalanced while we were playing and it was moving us faster then the truebalance we use could move any public players.

So perhaps disable seeder balance when X amount of players are on as the server should be at a stage by then where the seeder balance function is no longer required.

 

falcontx has a similar option in use on his Adaptive Server Size plugin where you can disable the idle kick until you reach a number of players determined by the admin.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

This latest version is causing a problem with procon, in that overtime, it locks up your procon layer and you aren't able to reconnect. Not sure why, but we've narrowed it down to this version of this particular plugin being the culprit.

pharbehind,

 

Thanks for the report. There was an issue that caused what you describe in version 2.0.1.0. This was *supposedly* fixed in version 2.0.1.1. Can you please let me know what version you have installed and are using?

 

 

 

 

Kal-El, yes it shouldn't be too hard to set a player count where the plugin effectively stops doing anything. I suppose I can do that. However, I did add code to the more recent versions that should detect when seeders are active or not (user defined time limit since last score....you may need/want to adjust this) and it shouldn't move you if you are active anyway. It would be good to know what version you are using and whether you think the issue could have been avoided if you set a bit higher time threshold to determine whether a seeder is inactive or active. If you are active and the plugin logic is working as intended, it shouldn't be moving you at all anyway.

 

you are detected as active when your score has increased within a time threshold that you set in the plugin settings.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by pharbehind*:

 

Fly, it was 2.0.2.0 since I was able to adjust how it balances.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

Fly, it was 2.0.2.0 since I was able to adjust how it balances.

Ahhh... ok then.. Not surprising since I haven't been able to test that one. Thats why I didn't upload version 2.0.2.0 to the "first post" yet. I kinda consider it experimental. Had decent hopes for it, but apparently I don't write clean code without testing.

 

If you guys do happen to try it again, it would be helpful if you set the debug to max (5) and let me know what situation took it into the endless loop. I'll look at the code again and see if I can figure out where it might be going into an endless loop, but knowing the situation that triggers it would be invaluable for figuring it out.

 

In the meantime, I suggest version 2.0.1.1 which is the latest/greatest available in the first post of this thread is the "stable" option for this plugin.

 

-----------added on edit------

 

Looking at the code, the biggest potential for a mistake that could get into an endless loop appears to be when rush mode is detected. Were you guys running Rush mode by chance when it locked up ProCon?

 

----- added on yet another edit-----

So... I think I see my forehead slapping error now. Still can't test, but I've rewritten the code to *hopefully* avoid the silly mistake I made that caused it to go into an endless loop. I'd still consider this experimental due to llack of testing, but here is another one to give a shot for any intrepid souls out there...

 

Attached Files:

• BalanceServerSeeders_2.0.2.1.zip

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by pharbehind*:

 

99% chance that Rush mode would have triggered it. I didn't notice this happen on Conquest.

 

Does the version you just attached supposedly fix the Rush issue?

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Kal-El*:

 

Kal-El, yes it shouldn't be too hard to set a player count where the plugin effectively stops doing anything. I suppose I can do that. However, I did add code to the more recent versions that should detect when seeders are active or not (user defined time limit since last score....you may need/want to adjust this) and it shouldn't move you if you are active anyway. It would be good to know what version you are using and whether you think the issue could have been avoided if you set a bit higher time threshold to determine whether a seeder is inactive or active. If you are active and the plugin logic is working as intended, it shouldn't be moving you at all anyway.

 

you are detected as active when your score has increased within a time threshold that you set in the plugin settings.

I am running version 2.0.1.1 and the time limit is default 5 mins.

Trouble with time limit is you have to actively be scoring and its very easy to slip into the 5 mins esp if say you keep getting killed and are failing to score.

 

But because we are also on the whitelist on truebalance and don't usually get autobalanced it did take me a few mins to work out what was going on lol.

So thats why I suggested the time limit function so once the server gets to say 20 players it has pretty much done its job up until then.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

99% chance that Rush mode would have triggered it. I didn't notice this happen on Conquest.

 

Does the version you just attached supposedly fix the Rush issue?

Yeah, in *theory* the version I just posted should fix the problem if it is what I think it was.... which would have been related to rush mode only.

 

The change I made will cause the plugin to take a wee bit longer to get the seeders balanced if there are several of them because it will only move one at a time (or I think it will) and wait for another 30 secs or so before it moves the next. But it should avoid the infinite loop I think it was going into.

 

Kal-El...... why not just set the time limit up to something like 10 or even 20 minutes? Again, when I get some time I don't mind adding in a feature so it can disable itself if player count > X... but it sure seems like just upping the time limit to maybe 20 minutes would solve your issue.

 

So you understand.... if you set it to 20 minutes, any player seeder that has had a score increase in the last 20 minutes will not be part of the balancing.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by pharbehind*:

 

Cool, I'll try it out tomorrow morning when we've got 4+ seeders.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Kal-El*:

 

Kal-El...... why not just set the time limit up to something like 10 or even 20 minutes? Again, when I get some time I don't mind adding in a feature so it can disable itself if player count > X... but it sure seems like just upping the time limit to maybe 20 minutes would solve your issue.

 

So you understand.... if you set it to 20 minutes, any player seeder that has had a score increase in the last 20 minutes will not be part of the balancing.

But the whole point of the plugin would be to move the seeders asap to avoid server being unbalanced for any prolonged period.

If 20 mins is set then the server would stay unbalanced for that time period and we could be losing players in that time?

 

I will knock the time up and see how it gets on and get back to you

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by pharbehind*:

 

Worked without issue this morning, Fly. We always use Rush to populate.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

Kal-El,

 

I'm wondering if you have a good understanding of how the time threshold works (if you don't it's my fault for failure to explain clearly in the docs).

 

The plugin will IMMEDIATELY try to balance whichever seeders it sees that are ONLINE and INACTIVE. It won't wait until that time threshold has expired. It tries to balance immediately (well...about every 30 seconds).

 

The time threshold you are specifying is used by the plugin to decide whether a seeder is ACTIVE or INACTIVE. If the seeder has had a score increase within the specified time period (default: 5min, but you could set to 20 min) then that seeder will be considered as ACTIVELY playing on the server. If the seeder is active then that particular seeder will not be included in the balancing logic. All other seeders that remain online and inactive will still be balanced immediately.

 

So..... the idea with raising the time threshold is just to raise it enough so that the plugin correctly detects when you are playing (if you are actively playing you should have a score increase every few minutes...otherwise you aren't doing much to help your team anyway and might as well be considered inactive and balanced was my thinking).

 

Perhaps you understood this already, but if you didn't then perhaps this note has helped explain the logic used in the plugin.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Flyswamper*:

 

Worked without issue this morning, Fly. We always use Rush to populate.

Good news then!