The problem with ZM the 800lb gorilla.

[Andrew_Pavlik]

You hear it all the time, ZM is full of retards, admins from ZM are abuse happy and just plain bad, I stopped playing ZM a year ago.. etc etc..

I've been thinking about writing this for awhile now and I'm sure I'm going to say some things all of you have been saying all along. But after playing on the server close to 2 years and just recently a new admin Id like to discuss what I see whats wrong and perhaps how to fix it.

The problems:

First is the obvious, the server is just to big. Even if you could fill it with 35 good people there would just be to many people with relation to cade spots. But the bigger problem is the server usually has 5 good people and 30, well 30 others. And then what happens is the 30 good people see where the 5 good people cade the round before and now you have a clusterfuck of people trying to get one spot, this causes blocking, cade breaking, bad cades being built or if a zombie turns and isn't 1 of the 20 that went to that one spot, essentially the round is over right there with 1-5 clueless zombies running around. Also a problem with the mass/popular spot is that even if a good number of zombies do turn they are usually occupied with trying to tag people in that spot therefor thats where the kills are and it just brings more people to that spot, is a vicious and boring cycle.


Second is admins, I will admit flat out that 90% of the admins that come from ZM are bad. What happens is you have admins who noclip, play with item restrictions, slap people for fun, set people on fire, make people fire bombs, change maps, put up constant votes, make people invisible or just do things like kick/ban people who cade with them etc etc.... Now sure sometimes these are necessary and in moderation are fine. But what ends up happening is 1-2 admins abuse this, 4 players think, hey we can buy admin and make the server our own personal playground like these 2, and now you have 6 bad admins and so the trend continues. There are even cases when I log on and its so frustrating to play just the way admin(s) are acting I log off or go to WCS and I'm an admin myself! A lot of people blame server population will go down when a certain admin is on, I think what happens is people get fed up and just leave based on actions or heck even map choices the admin makes. Rezel said it best is that you arn't an admin on the server for your own personal gains, you are there for the 30 other players on the server.

Third are the rules. There is no 'rule' section on ZM and heck there are about a dozen official illegal cad spot threads on ZM its no wonder why admins constantly conflict each other and players have no idea whats going on. For example we all know cade breaking is illegal? But how do you handle it? Do you handle it differently if it was on accident or someone being a douchebag? Also there is this whole cading crouch spots issue and 2 per tube? Also what if people disconnect or go into spec to miss being tagged from a zombie? There are some real rules that need to be mad official so maybe admins might now how to handle certain situations.

Fourth is ZE maps. Now I'm not a huge fan of ZE maps to begin with but a lot of people like to play them for whatever reason. The problem is that zombies are too 'nerfed' on them. I know I can personally kite any type of zombie and kill him on a ZE map, because unless its a fast zombie its no faster then me and there HPs are super low. This makes MOST(not all) ZE maps super one sided and it seems the only reason why zombies might win a ZE map now is that so many people buy scouts its hard to defend certain spots. (I know, players faults not the map or settings)

Holy hand gernade. I believe that this is a little over powered. I mean set on fire for 30secs? If you are in a vent it makes moving forward impossible and Ive seen it plenty of times where zombies will just run off and hide till the fire goes off, is that probably the purpose of it? Sure and I get it but if you have 4-5 zombies not doing anything for 20-30secs, it kind of makes it boring. I know I personally play and cade to kill zombies, not to hide in a vending machine for 5mins.

Voting. This is also an old and obvious problem. When the vote comes up 1-2 get spammed way to much which causes a lot of unwanted map extension which I believe also causes a poor population or just people getting frustrated.

Solutions:

1. Shrink the server size. However we all know this wont happen so perhaps to make things a little more challenging to help against the '20 people make a cade' mentality, perhaps spawn 2-3 zombies at the beginning? This will also help on Human sided maps which seems to be a lot these days.

2. Make people be a member of the website for like a week or 2 and perhaps they will see all the admin abuse threads and see how to not act as an admin? Also perhaps clan members should personally msg certain admins be like hey, if you don't knock it off that 11 dollars is going to waste and there is a chance you'll be perma banned from all the servers. Or even a 'rules' section that says if an admin is caught doing X that will be considered abuse.

3. Simple, create an official ZM rules post. And as for illegal cading spots I think a lot of you are 'kidding' yourself about getting into certain area's with 10 people shooting at you with shotguns and para's. So why not make it simple, all crouch spots with 1 entrance can not be caded. No cading with a money crate. Who cares how many people per tube? You can't shoot through people so the more people you have the more of a disadvantage you are at. Rule concerning blocking of both humans and zombies. I would also like to add that its the objective for zombies to tag people, if a zombie is refuses to try and tag anyone thats bannable/kickable(of course under the right circumstances, if they have 3 health thats one thing) To many times 1 zombie spawns and he just lets himself be killed.

4. Either give zombies full health or regular speed. And spawn more then 1 too. give ZE map a challenge and not totally one sided.

5. Shorting the time on fire? Add more damage of initial blast?

6. Add an option to revote or make it easier to 'rtv'.

If you read this ALL, I thank you.

[anex]

Second is admins, I will admit flat out that 90% of the admins that come from ZM are bad. What happens is you have admins who noclip, play with item restrictions, slap people for fun, set people on fire, make people fire bombs, change maps, put up constant votes, make people invisible or just do things like kick/ban people who cade with them etc etc....Rezel said it best is that you arn't an admin on the server for your own personal gains, you are there for the 30 other players on the server.

I know what you mean and its annoying. I had an admin last night who unrestricted so he could us it. Limited it to one for himself. Trust me when I say Andrew that shit in zm is going to change pretty soon for the better... I hope.

Third are the rules. There is no 'rule' section on ZM and heck there are about a dozen official illegal cad spot threads on ZM its no wonder why admins constantly conflict each other and players have no idea whats going on. For example we all know cade breaking is illegal? But how do you handle it? Do you handle it differently if it was on accident or someone being a douchebag? Also there is this whole cading crouch spots issue and 2 per tube? Also what if people disconnect or go into spec to miss being tagged from a zombie? There are some real rules that need to be mad official so maybe admins might now how to handle certain situations.

Rezel and I are trying to sort all that nonsense out. As of right we are trying to figure out which spots should be deemed illegal based on a criteria because honestly, not all caded crouch spots should be illegal. However we should switch our main focus over to server rules. That is on our list but mainly we have been working on the official illegal cades list. However official server rules will be our top priority. After we make a draft, we will submit to you guys for review to ensure accuracy.

The "two per tube" issue is tricky because really more than two people in tube screws people over a lot. Hopefully we can clarify this issue with blocking as a human to prevent others from ruining your tubing experience.

2. Also perhaps clan members should personally msg certain admins be like hey, if you don't knock it off that 11 dollars is going to waste and there is a chance you'll be perma banned from all the servers. Or even a 'rules' section that says if an admin is caught doing X that will be considered abuse.

That is currently going on. Also if others are not around, take a demo and post it in the admin abuse area so we can crucify their ass.

3. Simple, create an official ZM rules post. And as for illegal cading spots I think a lot of you are 'kidding' yourself about getting into certain area's with 10 people shooting at you with shotguns and para's. So why not make it simple, all crouch spots with 1 entrance can not be caded. No cading with a money crate. Who cares how many people per tube? You can't shoot through people so the more people you have the more of a disadvantage you are at. Rule concerning blocking of both humans and zombies. I would also like to add that its the objective for zombies to tag people, if a zombie is refuses to try and tag anyone thats bannable/kickable(of course under the right circumstances, if they have 3 health thats one thing) To many times 1 zombie spawns and he just lets himself be killed.

Understood. I'll add you on steam to see what rules you think should be (aside from the ones you already have here).

[&&toasties]

Anex, Rezel, and James are going to help us get ZM back in order.

I don't care to play much because I get fucked over a lot as well.

But I'll play if they're on...or if my lover and his friends play.

D:

D:

Let's hope we can bring back all of our old regulars, and bring ZM back to it's former glory.

[acolyte_to_jippity]

6. i believe it's their own damn fault. if they spam 1 or 2, well, that's what they voted for. i refuse to save people from their own stupidity, unless it's a map i truly TRULY hate. personally, i believe that on map votes, anyone who just spams 1 should be kicked immediately, or at least blinded the next round. put the extend option to spot 2. make them learn to read the votes.

[Andrew_Pavlik]

I don't care to play much because I get fucked over a lot as well.

.

I bet its because you are a girl.

But seriously, how do you get fucked over because these are the things we are trying to change.

[acolyte_to_jippity]

Anex, Rezel, and James are going to help us get ZM back in order.

i can't wait for this. been tough holding the place down w/ blade

although lately it's been a huge help to have rezel and some oldies back

[anex]

This is what I could muster off the top of my head. Feel free to suggest shit then we shall submit it to Zero for approval.

Also punishments get more severe for repeat offender. (IE Ban times go up)

Ztele
- As a human to escape being tagged (5min ban)
- A zombie can ztele at anytime the player wishes

Illegal cades
- as deemed in the illegal cade sub section (Kick if not complied)

Objectives
+Objectives are mandatory
- Zombie
+ Not wanting to be a zombie and try to get themselves killed (5min ban)

Cade Breaking
- Ruining someones cades from the inside (accidental nades should not be faulted as it may not be intentional)
- Shooting to get into someones cade or to get out
- Getting yourself purposely tagged while in someones cade (5min ban)

Blocking
- Zombies cannot prevent a human from being tagged
- Humans may not block if the end results in the death of another player (IE World damage, Map kill boxes)
+ Blocking for end result of player(s) getting tagged or to deny a player access to a cade is fine in the following area
- Tubes
- Cades

Teamkilling
- Human may not use map triggers to kill team mates (IE Blowing the bridge)

Restricted weapons
- Any players found with the following restricted items should be kicked
- AWP
- Auto Awp
- Smoke grenades
- Flash grenades

Admins
- May not
+ Use over excessive bans (IE a month)
+ Give health to themselves or other players
+ Slap themselves or others to gain an unfair advantage
+ Never change the servers gravity settings
+ Never use noclip
+ Unrestrict restricted weapons as follows
- AWP
- Auto Awp
- Smoke grenades
- Flash grenades

[acolyte_to_jippity]

This is what I could muster off the top of my head. Feel free to suggest shit then we shall submit it to Zero for approval.

Also punishments get more severe for repeat offender. (IE Ban times go up)

Ztele
- As a human to escape being tagged (5min ban)
- A zombie can ztele at anytime the player wishes

Illegal cades
- as deemed in the illegal cade sub section (Kick if not complied)

Objectives
+Objectives are mandatory
- Zombie
+ Not wanting to be a zombie and try to get themselves killed (5min ban)
+ When someone gets turned inside of the cade, that player must turn the others (No zteleing out)

Cade Breaking
- Ruining someones cades from the inside (accidental nades should not be faulted as it may not be intentional)
- Shooting to get into someones cade or to get out
- Getting yourself purposely tagged while in someones cade (5min ban)

Blocking
- Zombies cannot prevent a human from being tagged
- Humans may not block if the end results in the death of another player (IE World damage, Map kill boxes)
+ Blocking for end result of player(s) getting tagged or to deny a player access to a cade is fine in the following area
- Tubes
- Cades

Restricted weapons
- Any players found with the following restricted items should be kicked
- AWP
- Auto Awp
- Smoke grenades
- Flash grenades

Admins
- May not
+ Use over excessive bans (IE a month)
+ Give health to themselves or other players
+ Slap themselves or others to gain an unfair advantage
+ Never change the servers gravity settings
+ Never use noclip
+ Unrestrict restricted weapons as follows
- AWP
- Auto Awp
- Smoke grenades
- Flash grenades

few things
disagree
i believe that a few select admins (the new senior system will make this easy) should retain these. some maps fuck gravity up

[anex]

few things
disagree
i believe that a few select admins (the new senior system will make this easy) should retain these. some maps fuck gravity up

**Took out the item listed in red**

Zero has said himself that no one should use the noclip command. This is just adding into his wishes. Instead of changing the gravity (which in turn could screw up prop physics) you could simply tell zero about the problem or do a server restart. From what I have seen, a server restart does more good than using the gravity command.

[acolyte_to_jippity]

Instead of changing the gravity (which in turn could screw up prop physics) you could simply tell zero about the problem or do a server restart. From what I have seen, a server restart does more good than using the gravity command.

that is a good point. my mistake