Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

**squeak** · 10-29-2006, 01:02 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

wow thats very interesting, good job.

**Blades** · 10-29-2006, 01:05 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

Wow very very interesting Churr.

ITs ****ing retarded that Karkand is more popular than Mashturr when anyone who has played Mash KNOWS it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better.

I enjoy Zatar and OCS for dogfighting a little more than Wake.

**Mr.Jones** · 10-29-2006, 01:06 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

That is true. Fushe Pass was one of my favorites, but it was hard to find a server and there was another wide open map with both US and MEC that have uncapped flags. This was great for AT kits and snipers all one one map. Karkand is extremly fun with the infantry only option, but now I am playing BF2142 and I may go back and play BF2 to mix it up, but right now, I am having fun unlocking all the cool stuff and plus my two fav kits are combined, assault and medic, except the aiming is similar to the special forces weapon in BF2, which I do not like. Well, it is time to endure the snowing weather and the rain drenched maps of 2142 :evil:

**AnotherEd** · 10-29-2006, 01:34 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

Interesting look into things, but I think you are overlooking some of the other data present in your statistics.

FuShe + Clean Sweep + Zatar + Daqing = 104 populated servers
Karkand + Jalalabad = 357 populated servers

Instead of the 5:1 ratio your server existence percentages seem to indicate, popularity vote indicates more like 3.4:1, and that's assuming all the servers had the same amount of players on them. It would be wise to get actual player counts and see really how many people are connecting to each map. I think that'd show some more reality into the situation. Also perhaps monitoring an entire week would be good too. Some people only play certain days/times during the week. Catching only a snapshot in time could be very misleading on the overall interest of people.

But honestly, who didn't know this all already? Anyone can find a Karkand game without trying. Why? Honestly it's a decent map and there are no jets to let just one or two people rape the rest. The tanks/apcs can get a bit much, but they never seem massively overpowered on that map. Overall, it's a good map. The problem is people get stuck on what they are familiar with. Karkand turned out to be a commonly popular map so it got a lot of play time. It's what people know, so they stick to it.

Every game has this problem. There is always one map that stands out in popularity more than any other and by a significant amount at that.

My last game was TFC. 2fort was the Karkand of TFC. It was so hard to find any server that didn't have 2fort as a foundation for it's rotation. It was just a fact that it attracted the masses. Once you got the masses in, then you tried to vary it up a bit. Some admins were more successful at this than others. I eventually got caught up in a guild that did only assault style maps and I had more fun in that game than I ever did before.

My suggestion is if you are frustrated with the current situation is to start a clan/guild that refuses to play Karkand. I know you'd find a lot of people with similar interests and most of them probably veterans at this game and are tired of Karkand.

**.Churr.** · 10-29-2006, 02:33 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

Well, collect information about the exact number of players is not feasible, since I'd hit GM so many times that I could get banned. (also I am lazy to do that).

OK, I collected another snapshot (10-29-06 13:30 GMT -06:00)

Not much difference.

**AnotherEd** · 10-29-2006, 03:04 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

I'd be surprised if the BF2 master server query didn't return player counts by default. I know there are other tools that get a server list and provider player count information on a simple refresh. Not sure if they got special approval though.

**Chodda** · 10-29-2006, 03:11 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

Songhua is the Snowy Park of MOHAA LOL! snowy owns though

**Braheem** · 10-29-2006, 04:49 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

i like sharqi prob. most. cuz theres no way tot ell whos gonna win. and there only like 1 helicopter per team. would be kinda cool if they had like 1 plane to :/

**FPS[VT_NERD]** · 10-29-2006, 05:01 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

Originally posted by Blades

Wow very very interesting Churr.

ITs ****ing retarded that Karkand is more popular than Mashturr when anyone who has played Mash KNOWS it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better.

I enjoy Zatar and OCS for dogfighting a little more than Wake.

Nothing personal, but I hate Mashturr. It's been responsible for killing our city maps server on more than one occasion so I know I'm not the only one with this opinion. I'll play it, but I don't particularly like that map and IMO it's definitely not better than Karkand.

**.Churr.** · 10-29-2006, 07:22 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

Originally posted by AnotherEd

I'd be surprised if the BF2 master server query didn't return player counts by default. I know there are other tools that get a server list and provider player count information on a simple refresh. Not sure if they got special approval though.

Oh yes you will. I have been putting some work on this and after hours of testing, packet analyzing and stuff I've came to some interesting conclusions:

- The gamespy master server list comes encrypted. (Retarded)
- The server list consists of servers ip's and ports only (Retarded)
- Meaning that you will have to individually query each and everyone of the servers for more information (Retarded)
- "Normal" attempts to retrieve data from gamespy's master list gives you an error message with some BS like "Access to GS's masterlist is restricted to developers only" or some idiocy like that (Uber Retarded)

I am very PISSED OFF because I wasted a good amount of time and effort trying to do it. I just can't understand WHY THE F I can't retrieve the list.

I have though made my way around it and been working on some code to fetch the data directly from the servers instead of using Game-Monitor. I don't know how it will be, but likely it will be slower.

I think with what I do have now I could be able to overflow their masterlist with queries and hopefully crash it, causing all GS relying games to be unable to find servers. But I changed my mind when I realized I could get in some trouble with that.

**12:oc7ock** · 10-29-2006, 07:38 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

^ Uhhhhhhhhh what? Are you getting paid for this?

**megawhompertoo** · 10-29-2006, 07:39 PM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

Originally posted by Churrasco

But I changed my mind when I realized I could get in some trouble with that.

Nice save. :)

Good job with querying scripts thus far, though.

**Dairuka** · 10-30-2006, 05:06 AM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

You have no idea how hard it was to get the time in Daqing Oilfields that I have now.

It's my favorite map, and... I've given up on it.

**.Churr.** · 10-30-2006, 09:18 AM

Re: Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

Well, I've done some stuff and now I get info back from the servers instead of from Game-Monitor (yay) and now I am storing this in a database. I also have changed it to retrieve from ranked and 1.4 servers only.

And as I don't have a server bandwidth, I made it timeout server queries in a couple of seconds. This may cause a negligible amount of servers to excluded from the statistics.

* Players/Slots are for populated servers only
** Load is calculated as % of players / all slots available

12:oc7ock: No, it's for the heck of it :p
megawhompertoo: I think I underestimated the capability of GS's servers. They serve a lot of players every second, it might not be possible to overflow it with my humble single DSL connection. Maybe if I got more people to do it :p

Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

Maps popularity analysis with tables (very bored and annoyed)

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