MULTIbalancer [1.1.6.0] 30-MAR-2015 + BFHL

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Mandizzy*:

 

I just couldn't get it to work properly without someone whining so now I just use it's scrambler feature and that's it. Players are happy, for the most part, and teams are scrambled if match ends with big ticket difference.

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Originally Posted by ColColonCleaner*:

 

That wouldn't happen. You'd join on your friend and you'd end up on the other team without ever having been on your friend's team. Exactly the same thing happens if a 64 slot server has 63 players and your friend is on the team with 32 players. It would be indistinguishable from the player's point of view.

I'm talking about joining on a player, being in their squad, and then being switched almost immediately because i'm the last player to join. This is the best practice though for balancing teams, so i should not be complaining

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Originally Posted by Blitz*:

 

I'm talking about joining on a player, being in their squad, and then being switched almost immediately because i'm the last player to join. This is the best practice though for balancing teams, so i should not be complaining

I hate being team switched upon join. If being queued wasn't enough, being team switched after finally joining my squadmate is the icing on the cake.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

BF4 Beta has a new feature that impacts auto-balancing plugins.

 

From Battlelog, I joined on a friend, but both his squad and his team was full, so my first spawn ended up being in the other team. I was put in a squad by myself, I was not allowed to leave that squad or join any others (at least, I couldn't figure out how to do that -- maybe that's standard for BF4b_), and the Team Status page said, "Autobalancing to join on ..." (to the best of my recollection, I didn't screenshot it). The round ended and both me and my friend stuck around. When the next round started, I had been automatically switched to my friend's team and was put into my friend's squad.

 

That is pretty nice, I have to say.

 

For all I know, this is how BF3 works too, but in BF4 Beta, it actually tells you in the Team Status (or whatever) screen that it knows where you want to be and will put you there when it can. It remembered my join preference for at least 10 minutes.

 

Ideally, this information will be in RCON so that MB can account for it, but I suspect it won't be and MB will f-up this feature, particularly if Scrambling is enabled.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Singh400*:

 

BF4 Beta has a new feature that impacts auto-balancing plugins.

 

From Battlelog, I joined on a friend, but both his squad and his team was full, so my first spawn ended up being in the other team. I was put in a squad by myself, I was not allowed to leave that squad or join any others (at least, I couldn't figure out how to do that -- maybe that's standard for BF4b_), and the Team Status page said, "Autobalancing to join on ..." (to the best of my recollection, I didn't screenshot it). The round ended and both me and my friend stuck around. When the next round started, I had been automatically switched to my friend's team and was put into my friend's squad.

 

That is pretty nice, I have to say.

 

For all I know, this is how BF3 works too, but in BF4 Beta, it actually tells you in the Team Status (or whatever) screen that it knows where you want to be and will put you there when it can. It remembered my join preference for at least 10 minutes.

 

Ideally, this information will be in RCON so that MB can account for it, but I suspect it won't be and MB will f-up this feature, particularly if Scrambling is enabled.

Experienced the exact same thing here. So did my friends who joined on me. It's a really nice feature they added there. Major props to them!

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Originally Posted by p0k3r82*:

 

Hi erverybody!

I have a question:

The plugin only writes SIMULATING...... but doesn´t do anything.

How do i get this plugin to balance the players?

 

Thanks for your answers!

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

Hi erverybody!

I have a question:

The plugin only writes SIMULATING...... but doesn´t do anything.

How do i get this plugin to balance the players?

 

Thanks for your answers!

Read all of post #1. I know it is long, but what you don't know will hurt your server.

 

In Plugin Settings near the very bottom, change Enable Logging Mode Only to False.

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Originally Posted by OscarMike*:

 

Hey guys,

 

its been a while that I've read this thread. Are you guys still having trouble finding suitable settings for MB? I have some settings that have run quite well for the past months on our 800 ticket conquest large servers. They are optimized for that ticket duration, anything higher or lower won't work as well. I could share them if there is demand, otherwise I won't bother because its a lot of work writing them out

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by p0k3r82*:

 

Thank you!

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Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

Hey guys,

 

its been a while that I've read this thread. Are you guys still having trouble finding suitable settings for MB? I have some settings that have run quite well for the past months on our 800 ticket conquest large servers. They are optimized for that ticket duration, anything higher or lower won't work as well. I could share them if there is demand, otherwise I won't bother because its a lot of work writing them out

You don't have to write them out by hand. Find the Show Command In Log setting at the bottom and use the gen (for generate settings) command.

 

gen section: Generate settings listing for section (1-6,9)

 

The gen command generates a listing of settings for the specified section, from 1 thru 6 and section 9. For Section 8 per-mode settings, see gen mode. The listing is printed out to the plugin.log.

gen mode: Generate settings listing for mode (one of: cs, cl, ctf, gm, r, sqdm, sr, s, tdm, u)

 

The gen command generates a listing of settings for the specified game mode. The listing is printed out to the plugin.log. The mode abbreviations stand for:

 

cs - Conq Small, Dom, Sav: Conquest Small, Domination, Scavenger

cl - Conquest Large

ctf - CTF

gm - Gun Master

r - Rush

sqdm - Squad Deathmatch

sr - Squad Rush

s - Superiority

tdm - Team Deathmatch

u - Unknown or New Mode

I for one would like to see your settings!

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by OscarMike*:

 

I for one would like to see your settings!

These settings work quite well on our 800 ticket Conquest Large / Assault64 servers (Vanilla, B2K, Endgame) servers. From my experience the MB settings need to be custom tailored for every server/community.. Our player population (which can be analyzed in almost every possible way here: http://stats.oscarmike.com) allows us to run the following settings, I'm fairly certain they will be hard to replicate on other communities' servers. Our players have become accustomed to these settings since MB was released.. Some the easy way and others the hard way

 

Also, we have laid down the law in our forums that these settings will not be changed, as they are equally unfair on everyone. If you have the odd player who has shown egocentric high k/d marathons on your server complaining about the MB settings, its a good sign that balancing is working.

 

Sure there are some flamers and rage quitters but we have a proactive approach of adding regular players who aren't d*cks to the mb friendslist so that they can at least play together.. Donators/admins get whitelisted. We have a huge BattlelogCache DB which works quite well in retrieving player stats.

 

100 Rounds

Average Ticket Difference: 197 (across the 3x64 CL/Assault64 servers in my signature)

 

Code:

[b]0 - Presets[/b]
Use Round Phase, Population and Exclusions preset: None
Enable Unstacking: True
Enable Settings Wizard: False

[b]1 - Settings[/b]
Debug Level: 2
Maximum Server Size: 64
Enable Battlelog Requests: True
Which Battlelog Stats: AllTime
Maximum Request Rate: 10
Wait Timeout: 30
Unlimited Team Switching During First Minutes Of Round: 5
Seconds Until Adaptive Speed Becomes Fast: 180
Enable In-Game Commands: True
Enable Ticket Loss Rate Logging: True
Enable Whitelisting Of Reserved Slots List: True
Whitelist: around 30 members/donators
Friends List: mostly regular, dedicated players here - non-donators
Disperse Evenly List: mainly players that repeatedly vehicle rape the servers find themselves here (ie. hc chopper crews)

[b]2 - Exclusions[/b]
On Whitelist: True
On Friends List: True
Apply Friends List To Team: True
Top Scorers: True
Same Clan Tags In Squad: True
Same Clan Tags In Team: True
Same Clan Tags For Rank Dispersal: True
Lenient Rank Dispersal: True
Minutes After Joining: 5
Minutes After Being Moved: 45 (thats usually around 2 rounds.. if you are unlucky 1 1/2 )

[b]3 - Round Phase and Population Settings[/b]
Early Phase: Ticket Percentage To Unstack (Low, Med, High population): 0, 120, 120
Mid Phase: Ticket Percentage To Unstack (Low, Med, High population): 0, 120, 120
Late Phase: Ticket Percentage To Unstack (Low, Med, High population): 0, 0, 0
Spelling Of Speed Names Reminder: Click_Here_For_Speed_Names
Early Phase: Balance Speed (Low, Med, High population): Slow, Slow, Slow
Mid Phase: Balance Speed (Low, Med, High population): Slow, Slow, Slow
Late Phase: Balance Speed (Low, Med, High population): Stop, Stop, Stop

[b]4 - Scrambler[/b]
Only On New Maps: False
Only On Final Ticket Percentage >=: 120
Scramble By: RoundSPM
Keep Squads Together: True
Divide By: None
Delay Seconds: 50

[b]5 - Messages[/b]
Quiet Mode: False
Yell Duration Seconds: 5
Default messages..

[b]6 - Unswitcher[/b]
Forbid Switching After Autobalance: Always
Forbid Switching To Winning Team: Always
Forbid Switching To Biggest Team: Always
Forbid Switching After Dispersal: Always
Enable Immediate Unswitch: True

[b]8 - Conquest Large[/b]
Max Players: 64
Check Team Stacking After First Minutes: 5
Max Unstacking Swaps Per Round: 8
Number Of Swaps Per Group: 2
Delay Seconds Between Swap Groups: 180
Max Unstacking Ticket Difference: 0
Determine Strong Players By: RoundScore
Percent Of Top Of Team Is Strong: 40
Only Move Weak Players: False
Disperse Evenly By Rank >=: 145
Enable Disperse Evenly List: True
Enable Strict Dispersal: True
Definition Of High Population For Players >=: 48
Definition Of Low Population For Players <=: 24
Definition Of Early Phase As Tickets From Start: 150
Definition Of Late Phase As Tickets From End: 150
Enable Scrambler: True
Enable Metro Adjustments: False

[b]9 - Debugging[/b]
Log Chat: False
Enable Logging Only Mode: False
Enable External Logging: True
External Log Suffix: vanilla_mb.log

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

100 Rounds

Average Ticket Difference: 197 (across the 3x64 CL/Assault64 servers in my signature)

Very interesting. Slow balance speed combined with maximum team-switching prevention looks like a good compromise. Also a relatively high unstacking swap count (8x2), but with a 3 minute delay between groups. I'd like to read the comments in your forum, if they are public. I like your strategy for whitelisting and dispersal list as well. I think those lists work best for pin-point adjustments on a player by player basis.

 

I've copied your settings to the collected settings thread here:

 

showthread....ll=1#post78650*

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by OscarMike*:

 

Very interesting. Slow balance speed combined with maximum team-switching prevention looks like a good compromise.

Yes, it has worked quite well. I think anything else than the "slow" balance speed was too aggressive with 800 ticket Conquest Large. All players can freely switch teams for the first 5 minutes of a round anyways.. after that they are at the mercy of the balancer. The way I see it is that a round lasts between 25 (the rare 300-400 ticket difference round)-45 minutes(minimal ticket difference). In this time, the amount of unstacking (8x2) doesn't get too much as there is a 3 minute delay between groups and because unstacking stops completely in the late phase. Therefore, the round usually ends or is under 150 tickets left before the unstacking quota is full. I guess the morale of the story: the unstacking and other settings have been tailored around the average round duration and other such gamemode/ticket specific eventualities.

 

Oh our forum thread is here: http://teambalance.oscarmike.com

 

Its been very inactive for the last weeks. I don't think I ever posted the finalized MB settings there so that players can't exploit them. I even crossed out a lot of old replies as they were referring to other balancers and settings we have tried in the past. Therefore, that thread might be confusing as it isn't dedicated solely to Multibalancer. I'd suggest to start reading from ...* onwards. All the previous pages were player whine from other balancers and settings we used in the past. Most of the players complaining in the thread are repeat offenders in terms of not caring about teambalance on our servers (high k/d marathons in groups). I wouldn't read too much into what they are saying, as the balancer is balancing them correctly and they just are venting their frustration with mostly factually false arguments.

 

The last three rounds today:

 

Code:

[14:57:53 38] [MULTIbalancer]:2 [b]FINAL STATUS FOR PREVIOUS ROUND[/b]:
[14:57:53 38] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: Map = Operation Firestorm, mode = Conquest Large, time in round = 00:42:48, tickets = 0/4 <- [801]
[14:57:53 38] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: Ticket difference = 4, ticket ratio percentage is 400%
[14:57:53 38] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: 0/45 raged, 21 reassigned, 1 balanced, 13 unstacked, 3 unswitched, 107 excluded, 112 exempted, 0 failed; of 1049 TOTAL

[15:45:11 55] [MULTIbalancer]:2 [b]FINAL STATUS FOR PREVIOUS ROUND[/b]:
[15:45:11 55] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: Map = Operation Firestorm, mode = Conquest Large, time in round = 00:45:58, tickets = 0/19 <- [801]
[15:45:11 55] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: Ticket difference = 19, ticket ratio percentage is 1900%
[15:45:11 55] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: 4/61 raged, 30 reassigned, 2 balanced, 16 unstacked, 8 unswitched, 144 excluded, 118 exempted, 0 failed; of 992 TOTAL

[16:20:46 31] [MULTIbalancer]:2 [b]FINAL STATUS FOR PREVIOUS ROUND[/b]:
[16:20:46 31] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: Map = Caspian Border, mode = Conquest Large, time in round = 00:34:03, tickets = 0/167 <- [801]
[16:20:46 31] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: Ticket difference = 167, ticket ratio percentage is 5000%
[16:20:46 31] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: 3/43 raged, 23 reassigned, 2 balanced, 12 unstacked, 1 unswitched, 166 excluded, 144 exempted, 1 failed; of 1079 TOTAL
[16:20:46 31] [MULTIbalancer]:0 Status: Team counts [59] = 29(US) vs 30(RU), with 2 unassigned
[16:20:46 31] [MULTIbalancer]:2 +------------------------------------------------+

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

4 tickets is pretty awesome for a 43 minute round.

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Originally Posted by OscarMike*:

 

4 tickets is pretty awesome for a 43 minute round.

It is. Some rounds are very close to call but the balancer settings also allow for a clear victory with 300 ticket difference every now and then. Just depends on the players in the round and amount of teamplay in both teams. I think most players like this versatility and challenge, even if the balancer unstacks several people in a round. Teams never get out of hand for longer than a round because of the unstacking & end of round scrambler working exceptionally well. Haven't seen a round end with more than 300 ticket difference for a while, except at very low server population levels.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by devilindisguise*:

 

Hi,

 

I run a 3500 Ticket 64p Metro map only server.

 

I just cant seem to get the unstacking to work. The unstacker doesnt seem to unstack at all during the entire course of the game. I've tried various settings. But I end up having to nuke or move strong players myself to balance things out.

 

What I want is for it to be a close match to the wire. Something like the graph of tickets on the first page. With the round ending in less than 350 tickets. But what i come across mostly is that the game ends with 1 team having around 2000 tickets remaining. Does the plugin not unstack if teams are full?

 

Can someone please advise how does this plugin need to be set up so i can achieve the above?

 

Current settings attached

 

Attached Files:

• 1.png
• 2.png

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

Hi,

 

I run a 3500 Ticket 64p Metro map only server.

 

I just cant seem to get the unstacking to work.

Unstacking is NOT recommended for Metro Conquest. The map isn't supposed to be a level playing field.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

HEADS UP ABOUT BF4

 

I'm getting an early start on porting #MULTIbalancer to BF4. Expect at least 10 days after launch before it is ready, though.

 

I have a family event for the whole weekend after launch, so I won't be able to do any coding, let alone play BF4, so that's a part of the 10 days that can't be helped.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by propbndr*:

 

HEADS UP ABOUT BF4

I have a family event for the whole weekend after launch, so I won't be able to do any coding, let alone play BF4, so that's a part of the 10 days that can't be helped.

Seems like priorities are incorrectly set there Papa.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by Blitz*:

 

Seems like priorities are incorrectly set there Papa.

I concur. Perhaps you should bring your rig to the family event?

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Originally Posted by glenn82*:

 

hey pc9

 

can you pls profide me with compleat settings for the ballanser for metro only 3500 tic

i cant get it to work

 

glenn

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by devilindisguise*:

 

Unstacking is NOT recommended for Metro Conquest. The map isn't supposed to be a level playing field.

Hi,

 

Irrespective of the map, isnt the unstacking feature supposed to function based on the tickets remaining for each team and on the players on each side, their score, SPM, KPM, Kills, etc for a more balanced game?

 

Or does the unstacking work map based?

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

Hi,

 

Irrespective of the map, isnt the unstacking feature supposed to function based on the tickets remaining for each team and on the players on each side, their score, SPM, KPM, Kills, etc for a more balanced game?

 

Or does the unstacking work map based?

Unstacking, if enabled, is triggered by the ratio of winning tickets to losing tickets (adjusted for count-up modes like TDM versus count-down modes like Conquest) and does indeed take into account a definition of a "strong player", which may consider score, SPM, KPM, etc. The plugin is not based on maps.

 

However, because Metro Conquest is a peculiar map/mode combo with unique characteristics, there are adjustments in the plugin specifically for that map/mode and that map/mode only.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

Has there been any blog post or leak about the new maps? I need to know how many stages each of the new Rush maps have for the plugin update. A link to some kind of official preview article would be ideal. Thanks!

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by IAF-SDS*:

 

The only thing Im aware of at the moment is this Papa:

 

http://blogs.battlefield.com/2013/09...f4-game-modes/

 

 

You might already have seen that.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by jking54*:

 

The only thing Im aware of at the moment is this Papa:

 

http://blogs.battlefield.com/2013/09...f4-game-modes/

 

You might already have seen that.

Hi PC, as per the link above, would any of the settings from your ...* thread necessarily transfer over to these modes in BF4?

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

Hi PC, as per the link above, would any of the settings from your ...* thread necessarily transfer over to these modes in BF4?

Your guess is as good as mine at this point.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

I just realized that I'd have to regression test every change I make for BF4 on BF3 to make sure it works on both. That's going to take too much time.

 

So instead I'll freeze the old BF3 plugin and make a new one, MULTIbalancerSE, or something like that, for BF4. Then, when the dust has settled around BF4, maybe a month or two into release, I can go back and retest everything on BF3 and finally retire the old MULTIbalancer. That's why I'm not going to call the new one MULTIbalancerBF4, because the intention is to only have one that supports both, eventually.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie9*:

 

Until there is info on what works and what doesn't, here's my best guess on how I will phase in the conversion of MULTIbalancer to MULTIbalancerSE (BF4). I'll release updates as quickly as possible. Expect at least 4 updates as follows:

 

Phase 1 - October 29

Assuming the new version of Procon is available early in my PDT day ...

 

The goal here is to get basic balancing working ASAP. I can accomplish that by forcing features that don't work to be disabled.

 

My automatic logic for expanding Section 8 per-mode settings will probably blow up in my face. The two new modes, Obliteration and Defuse will probably break that code. Don't expect either of those modes to be supported Day One.

 

Likely to be disabled:

* Anything based on player tag, unfortunately (due to the Battlelog code being specifically for BF3)

* Battlelog stats: BattlelogKDR, etc.

* Unstacking

* Scrambler

* Reassignment moves

* Per-mode settings for Obliteration and Defuse

 

Phase 2 - October 30

If there is anything in the above list, like player tags from Battlelog, that I can fix within the first 48 hours, I'll do so. No promises, though.

 

Hiatus - October 31 thru November 4

I'll be at a family event, as previously mentioned. I might have Tapatalk access, we'll see.

 

Phase 3 - November 5 thru November 7

Prioritize fixing the most painful missing features. Whatever I can do quickly I will do first. Any remaining Battlelog issues should get sorted out.

 

The features that will take the longest to bring back up are the ones that required lots of test server monitoring to fine-tune behavior. Scrambler is likely to be the last feature that gets fixed, because of that. I'll have to repeat testing on BF3 also, to make sure I didn't break anything.

 

The support of admins with test servers will be crucial here. I know I can count on [FTB]guapoloko for test server support. Any others who can provide me with direct (rather than layer) game server access would be much appreciated. PM me details during this time period (no need to do so now) if you want to help.

 

Phase 4 - November 8 onward

At this point I can start looking at any new features that were added that I can take advantage of, if any.

 

One or two months into the BF4 release, I'll start testing MULTIbalancerSE against BF3 to see if I can retire the original MULTIbalancer.

[ImportBot]

Originally Posted by jking54*:

 

I just realized that I'd have to regression test every change I make for BF4 on BF3 to make sure it works on both. That's going to take too much time.

 

So instead I'll freeze the old BF3 plugin and make a new one, MULTIbalancerSE, or something like that, for BF4. Then, when the dust has settled around BF4, maybe a month or two into release, I can go back and retest everything on BF3 and finally retire the old MULTIbalancer. That's why I'm not going to call the new one MULTIbalancerBF4, because the intention is to only have one that supports both, eventually.

Sounds like a great idea PC, thanks for the update.