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Team Balancer


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#1 Cleric

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 11:49 AM

So Zeke and I were talking about some of the mods for source that we have seen and also making fun of the Beetle Admin mod (I still so want to llama someone) and Zeke mentioned a mod that improves the auto team balance. Instead of doing it by number like switching 17Ts and 15CTs to 16Ts and 16CTs it autobalances to the correct number like 16 on 16 but instead of doing it randomly it does so by a player and teams overall KDR

This is cut and paste of the mod description below. This could be a possible solution to the Stat-wh*res who always go T in server 1.

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Description:
Eric's Team Balancer

Counter-Strike: Source already has a team balancer built into it. Why do we need another one?

The team balancer built into Source has only one thing going for it: it's not disruptive. No one likes getting forcibly switched to another team and the team balancer built into Source switches people so rarely that players hardly realize a team balancer is in place.

Unfortunately, the built-in team balancer switches only one person at a time yielding numerically umbalanced teams. It also acts so slowly and makes such ineffective changes that unbalanced teams usually remain so. This was a problem in pre-Source Counter-Strike as well. Ptahhotep's Team Balancer was a plugin in the pre-Source days that worked well to replace the ineffective built-in team balancer.

Eric's Team Balancer is, in spirit, based on Ptahhotep's Team Balancer. Although no code is shared literally or algorithmically, both team balancers hope to offer a better alternative to the built-in team balancer. Efforts have been made to strike a compromise between being non-disruptive and being effective.

How does Eric's Team Balancer work?

Many different algorithms were tested extensively and the one that was found to be most effective is in place. Fundamentally, the team balancing algorithm is very simple. Every player is given a score which is the number of kills they have minus their deaths (the difference is used as opposed to a traditional ratio intentionally).

All the players on each team's scores are added up and each team receives a team score. The difference between the team scores determines how balanced the teams are. If the difference is zero, the teams are considered to be fair. If the difference increases in consecutive rounds (with the same team having the greater score), a team switch is attempted.

When performing a team switch, the team balancer looks at the dead people on either team. The balancer will attempt to find one dead player on either team such that should those two players be switched, the new score difference between the two teams is minimized. This algorithm has proven to be incredibly effective.

The team balancer usually takes the best dead player on the team with a higher score and switches him or her with the worst dead player on the team with the lower score. This is not always the case. If the teams are not as imbalanced, players with more average scores will be switched. Minimization of team scores yields non-disruptive, fair switches.

The etb command shows the scores of players and the teams as well as the current and previous round differences between the team scores.

Is it possible to turn off Eric's Team Balancer while the server is running?

Yes, you can toggle whether Eric's Team Balancer shows announcements and does switches by setting the etb_active variable. The etb command will work regardless of what the etb_active variable is set to.

Does Eric's Team Balancer respect mp_limitteams?

Yes. If the size difference between the teams is equal or greater than mp_limitteams, the team with fewer players can accept new players even if its score advantage exceeds the threshold.

Should the built-in team balancer be disabled while using Eric's Team Balancer?

Eric's Team Balancer should preemptively do whatever the built-in team balancer was going to, so the built-in team balancer is unnecessary. It can run without harm alongside Eric's Team Balancer however. To disable the built-in team balancer change mp_autoteambalance to 0.

How do friends work?

Friends can be accessed by either saying friends or typing friends into the console. If you click on a name in the friends list, a friendship request will be sent to them. You can only have a certain number of friendships (requests are counted as full friendships) specified by etb_friends. If the players you request friendships with click on your name when they access their friends, a friendship is formed. If a friend disconnects, the friendship is broken. Friendships persist as long as the server is running. If the server crashes or is stopped, friendships are lost.

How do friendships prevent players from being switched?

Players who have friends on their team will not be switched if an alternative player with a similar score and no friends on his or her team exists. The maximum difference in those scores is specified by etb_friends_protection.

What does waiting mean in regards to friends?

If you request a friendship and then cancel that request (by click on the requested player's name again), you have to wait until the next round to be able to request them again. This is to prevent people from constantly requesting a friendship with someone to annoy them.


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What do you all think?

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LINK for Shadow

Edited by Cleric, 08 August 2007 - 12:00 PM.

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#2 Mike2077

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 12:19 PM

Sounds like a good idea to me.
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#3 King_Dude

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 01:01 PM

I like.
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#4 MainEvent

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 01:07 PM

Looks nice.
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#5 Cleric

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 01:54 PM

It is currently installed on server 1.
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#6 Cyprus

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 02:52 PM

Yeah, I've seen it on other servers. I think it works nicely.
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#7 *CHILIDOG*

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 03:04 PM

Makes good sense. Hopefully this will work well for us.
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#8 Chris82

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 05:14 PM

List of people who don't like it:
DisturbeD
YouWereKilledByThis

List of people who like ETBx rather than regular ETB
Chris82

Other than that, GG, looks like Ts won't rape all the time now. (not that they do that anyway when Zeke's on)
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#9 youwerekilled

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 05:25 PM

this is completely disaterous and ruined the game for me today in office. first of all, there was no need for it as in the last month the teams have been even (cts win almost as much as ts). now that we have 20,000 admins (and active/dedicated members), who all know to play ct (when teams are off) things have been great. our threads about keeping teams even have worked. i went on today, and teams were even and the etb kept switching me to Ts, which not only did i hate, but then ts started raping!!! this system is overly intrusive and completely distracts play on the server. there are more than enough admins now to even teams, and etb has shown me today, that it is completely broken, as chris will testify, it further stacked the ts!!!!!!!!!

please remove immidiatly and let the admins do our job as we are far better at evening teams than some broken program.

-Killed
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#10 Mike2077

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 05:40 PM

So you don't like it because it makes you play t sometimes?
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#11 Billy Pumper

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 05:42 PM

im getting alot of bitching about it on vent. ppl asking me to disable it rofl.

anyway im going to check it out and get back with you.
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#12 youwerekilled

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 05:50 PM

So you don't like it because it makes you play t sometimes?


no i dont like it because it is completely impersonal and get people really angry. admins know how to balance teams by switching people who dont mind being switched, doing it once, then its done. etb switches people back and forth and does so constantly, which f*cks up the team mentality, and disturbs everyones game. people were leaving the server today bc they were so pissed. there is almost always an admin on nowadays, and we know how to even the teams, while keeping everone happy. people also dont mind being switched by an admin as much because it is sort of like a complement. when a broken program does it, its like, WTF!!!! DAMN YOU ETB!!!!
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#13 wondergod

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 06:27 PM

i could see how it would get annoying if it constantly switched you between t and ct, sometimes it takes me a few rounds as one to get "in game" if I constantly got switched i would be pissed too.

I haven't tried it yet, but I'll check it out when i get home
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#14 DarkShadow

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 07:02 PM

YWK, I dunno what the fuck to say to your comment, your saying that because a player gets swapped, its a bad thing, because they are used to playing T / CT? and that by switching some people it justifies the further stacking of T? I don't even understand what the fuck that means.

Play w/e team, it doesn't matter, it keeps the game balanced, if a lot of people, and I don't just mean admins, but players in general bitch about it, then fine, but just because your *e-experience* got hurt cuz you had to play on T for a little bit, well, that doesn't seem like a big deal.


So, Review this config and see if anything needs to be fucked with.
// Determines whether announcements and switches can occur
etb_active 1

// Minimum advantage difference between rounds for a switch to occur.
etb_difference 6

// Maximum number of friends each player can have.
etb_friends 3

// Protection players with friends have against switching.
etb_friends_protection 2

// Number of recently switched players to grant protection.
etb_recent 4

// Protection players who were recently switched have against switching.
etb_recent_protection 6

// Minimum number of rounds between switches.
etb_rounds 2

// Advantage a team must have less than to accept new players. 0 disables.
etb_threshold 20

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#15 Chris82

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 08:09 PM

// Minimum advantage difference between rounds for a switch to occur.
etb_difference 6
Make it 2 or 3.
// Minimum number of rounds between switches.
etb_rounds 2
Make it 1.
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#16 youwerekilled

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 11:28 PM

// Minimum advantage difference between rounds for a switch to occur.
etb_difference 6
Make it 2 or 3.
// Minimum number of rounds between switches.
etb_rounds 2
Make it 1.


are you crazy?????? that would make it way worse!!!!
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#17 Billy Pumper

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 11:59 PM

i haven't really had a problem with it but i haven't been playing on it hardcore lately. i will keep checking it
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#18 Chris82

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Posted 09 August 2007 - 12:27 AM

are you crazy?????? that would make it way worse!!!!


What? When I was on there, ETB did an OK job at balancing teams, but lowering the advantage difference would make the switches more often an balance teams better.

Stop crying about having to play T every once in a while, I used to constantly play T and now I almost exclusively play CT, and I'm not complaining about it.
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#19 Link2086

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Posted 09 August 2007 - 12:57 PM

I've played repeatedly on servers where ETB was in place, and in my opinion, it's a fantastic way to keep teams relatively fair and the game flowing smoothly. While the switches can be a tad annoying if you were plotting a strategy for the next round, they don't really happen so often that it makes play impossible.

I haven't seen any issues with the ETB inadvertently stacking teams further in any of the times I've played on a server with ETB. In general, it helps a lot more than it would hurt, especially on servers with only one or two admins.

YouWereKilled does bring up a good point with the fact that admins are often able to make a better judgment call based on common sense rather than pure numbers. ETB doesn't consider team dynamics and player interaction, while an admin can. However, with the option to disable ETB if necessary, I don't see it becoming an issue.

ETB would most likely help the servers not always frequented by admins, but still used.
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#20 Frag0holic

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Posted 09 August 2007 - 03:04 PM

It would be better if once ETB chooses you, you get a little buy menu-like pop-up saying "Would you be a sweetheart and switch teams? 1. Yes, 2. No 3. Not no, but HELL NO!." for example. People would not bitch about getting switched anyway :P
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