Disable hlx stats points notifications by default on official server

[NovaCancy]

My thought on hlxstats is that people care about it too much. If I had it my way, the leaderboard wouldn't be public/easily accessible.

 

[4ns0n]

As a fellow HLXstats enthusiast, I don't really think there is a way to "game point-farming" other than just being good at the videogame. Obviously, due to it far from a perfect system, such as with Domination maps' constant point exchanging granting Quite A Lot to the capping team plus the capper, sometimes people just earn more, but the same map gives the same opportunity to all players on it. Even in situations where you can mostly kritz-pocket a good player to amass quite a bit of Medic assists, there's still skill required in being a good Medic that I see a lot of players lack. All in all, points feel to me as being way more about impact than purely performance. You eliminate a high skilled threat - good, have a bonus. Lower skilled threats are not worth as much. It is irritating though that it takes a long time for incoming players that are already good to balance out to their level, due to it being more of a flat comparative system, rather than something like the typical Glicko-2 Elo system. But again, doesn't matter much as TF2C is closer to an arcade game rather than a game of pure skill (CS, Chess, osu!, etc.) and perhaps the uphill climb might be enticing to some.

I'd also like to shoot down the "safer plays are required to go up in ranking" argument. You can absolutely die less but still go in for flashy plays if your movement and aim are better than the enemy's. It is entirely possible to go 50:14 KD on non-harvester twin-barreling Pyro in a 12v12 game of 5cp, constantly pressuring the enemy - I've done it a few weeks ago. The risk to reward trade still stands, especially on classes like Scout. It's just mentals, relative skill and positioning that go into play.

As for the point visibility, my take is that in the modern world it's better if it stays on, as it helps the more progress-inclined individuals (many modern gamers) find something to return to. But I do believe that there should at least an occasional automatic announcement in chat about the ability to turn off point notifications, that much is true.

Whether or not some people prefer it is a somewhat moot point. TF2C is very much deliberately designed to not have an endless uphill grind as many modern shooters do, and avoids encouraging the mentalities and habits they create. Adding in such a system and constantly shoving it in your face should not be on what are supposed to be the official vanilla servers.

 

[VintagePC]

Erm... do you not see the irony in stating that whether it is preferred or not is moot, and then immediately following up with what amounts to your own personal preference?

In any case, while we appreciate the input, at this time, my final word is that HLStats has been in place since probably ~2018 or 19 on our pre-steam Official TF2C servers (even further back if you consider the era before DeathMatch split off a few years before that) and its presence will not be changed at this time. We consult with the TF2C devs on official server configuration and it is also useful to them in terms of providing feedback on aspects of the gameplay (weapon usage), map balance (kill heatmaps), etc.

As has been pointed out, you have the option to disable point notifications for yourself if you don't like it - though I will concede that this information could probably be conveyed more directly in-game rather than assuming people know !hlx_menu mentioned in other regular messages relates to the stats system settings, and we will look into doing so.

Most people either enjoy the stats and exploring the rankings, or are agnostic, and HLStats is also a significant part of the peak TF2 era nostalgia which TF2C strives to re-create, when just about every Source and hlds-centric community either ran it or its competitor, GameMe.

 

[vilewitch]

as corny as it sounds like, it's a democracy and voting system, map pools are a preference thing so if you just say in VC or chat F1 then people are more likely to vote for those maps; even i myself sometimes get tired of playing on dom maps lol. dom is a DM oriented mode, people are obviously more enticed to be playing said DM classes like scout, demo and soldier. out of the top 10 NA players or anyone for that matter i have never seen anyone willingly let people cap points in dom/cp maps to recap and get points, that can also get you banned iirc as it is point farming in some ways. only real "long rage classes" you can be here is sniper or maybe using the rpg which even then they rarely exclusively pick off "low threat targets". yeah these "strategies" are silly but not really efficient for going up or even winning

for clarification, VF4 does not ban people for padding their stats on the leaderboard anymore. they get banned from the leaderboard entirely but can still play the game as normal. there are several users banned from the HLStats because they cared about their stats so much they would pad their points with friends and employ illegitimate methods to prevent them from losing points/others gaining them. at least 2-3 players would leave the server anytime they were about to die and instantly rejoin just because they wanted to be #1 on the VF4 leaderboard, so they just got removed from the leaderboard entirely lmao

the HLStats leaderboard is mostly just for fun, though i understand why people find the messages annoying since they can push text chat messages out of sight. also, shitloads of TF2 servers have historically had stuff HLStats scores on their servers. it's not like VF4 is uniquely promoting a toxic environment by having a pointless number on the screen.

 

[Kulerage]

I have seen servers running HLX that managed to keep the messages entirely hidden from chat, but I'd have no idea how to do that. I'd personally be in favor of an occasional reminder in chat notifying you of how to turn the messages off like Shens said.

 

[NovaCancy]

I have seen servers running HLX that managed to keep the messages entirely hidden from chat, but I'd have no idea how to do that. I'd personally be in favor of an occasional reminder in chat notifying you of how to turn the messages off like Shens said.

This is already a thing

 

[VintagePC]

running HLX that managed to keep the messages entirely hidden from chat

Right, I think this is a setting that disables them entirely for the server, meaning the people that want/like them would not be able to re-enable them.

Obviously it's code and can be changed to add new features and capabilities but I need another long-term maintenance project like I need a hole in the head lol