For The Love Of God Remove Collision Option!

[Sogui]

From 1.5.2 Changelog:

-Added cvar "sv_zpoldcol", giving server owners the option to enable old collision (no walking through teammates).


Ok, more choices for server owners... hurray right?

Oh wait, because CVG, the biggest group of server owners in Zombie Panic just turned on old collision on all their servers.
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IT'S ABSOLUTELY ~~~~ING AWFUL

Does anyone see the irony in 1.5.2 trying to remove exploits and fix bugs on maps like Harvest when adding old collision is just about the WORST THING YOU CAN POSSIBLY DO TO MAPS LIKE HARVEST.

Seriously if I wanted to re-create the experience of playing Harvest with collision on I would have to light myself on fire and put my penis in a wood chipper while getting reamed by a large machine drill.



Now I know the response:

"Ok just don't join the servers"

Sure, if this was Yellowdart's or Sacmo's where I can avoid 1-2 servers that's fine. Even TDR wouldn't be all bad, but CVG had a wide network of servers in multiple time zones with multiple map rotations. For many of us North American and European players CVG servers represent the core of our Zombie Panic experience for both new and old players alike.

However great the servers are, the owners sure are dumbasses and if the Zombie Panic dev team TRULY HAS THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PLAYERS IN THEIR MIND THEN THEY SHOULD RECALL THE CVAR OLD COLLISION OPTION.


After trying to play some cluster~~~~ maps with collision on I'm tempted to give up on Zombie Panic again. It was a good run but having to deal with collision issues every other game is not how I want to spend my evenings.

I wish the server owners had exercised better judgement but CVG made a "FINAL DECISION" within 1 week and no testing on their servers. They implemented it and have decided it will be permanent. They lock all the collision-complaint threads.



Honestly 1.5.2 may have just opened Pandora's box for these servers. Any new player unfortunate enough to join a CVG server will be turned off to the game instantly. Nothing screams UNINSTALL THIS ~~~~TY MOD to a new player when a zombie is blocking for his friend at 2am with no admins on. Or when 2 players get stuck on each other on top of an objective, or when one player goes afk in an important doorway.

Nobody can take sole blame for this, but adding this option in 1.5.2 was a poor decision by the ZPS team and an even poorer one for the Server owners who added it. It just opens the door to so much GRIEFING and unintentional abuse that the game becomes UNPLAYABLE unless an admin is on. And even on CVG there isn't always an admin to slay doorblocking asshats so basically collision servers become unplayable late at night or when no admins are present.



PLEASE RECONSIDER THIS CHANGE,

Signed,

A PLAYER WHO JUST SAW 75% OF HIS LOW PING SERVER OPTIONS GO-TO-HELL-IN-A-COLLISION-BASKET.

[Wazanator]

If server owners were smart it would be a vote option like rtv and nominate I havent played on harvest with it yet but i can imagine the havoc that would happen with it on (especially the basement door).

[frikazoyd]

This is a server issue now. If the server owner doesn't run his mod responsibly and allows for this, it's his fault.

The two biggest server owners wanted this, so I just made it an option. I think that plug-ins should enhance this so if there's no admins, the option is off by default, but I can't control what servers do.

(I should also note that there were plug-ins in the works to get this behavior as well, so it's not like this wasn't already wanted. You would have seen it eventually, I just apparently accelerated the issue.)

[Sogui]

I'm currently 20 minutes into a game of harvest.

4 humans are stuck on each other on the basement door and the other zombies are blocking the survivor entrances saying "let them suffer!"


This is just irresponsible for EITHER side to allow for collision like this, developers or owners. Just too much room for abuse. Devs should exercise autonomy and recognize that sometimes even owners won't act in the best interest of their server.

I agree it's a shame to see the biggest server operator, CVG, exercise such poor and reckless judgment. In the long run he might pay by getting less people on his servers and maybe shutting some down if he keeps collision on... but in the short term AND the long-term it's the PLAYERS who suffer the most.

On that harvest map we had a first time player, after 3 rounds of griefing and blocking he said "I'm done with this game" and disconnected.

I can definitely feel his sentiment

[Sogui]

I decided to make a quick photo gallery:

Collisions back? WHAT COULD GO WRONG?!


Oh I guess that could go wrong...


Oh and that too...


Who's says Zombies can't grief too?


Heck, between zombie and human blockers, this game ONLY took 15 minutes for zombies to kill survivors stuck in the basement door!



I LOVE THIS GAME!

[Mercury]

Evidently these ppl havent been playing since before the steam release. Me personally im glad that this is an option because it means u cant fit like 20 ppl in a room that would normally fit 5, sure the 20 ppl cant shoot but if all of them have melee weapons....

Its just a matter of what servers you decide to play on, if the server isnt running things the way you like find a new server. There are plenty of them.

Sure there is block and stuff and ppl get stuck in doorways but maybe those noobs shouldnt try to always be the first through the door.

So just suck it up and either find a new server or learn to play with it.

[frikazoyd]

Take it up with Convict Games. We have the default set so that collisions are off. They made the active decision, and it is clearly being abused. Tell them to manage it better, and this will not be a problem any more.

[Sogui]

Originally Posted by Mercury

Evidently these ppl havent been playing since before the steam release. Me personally im glad that this is an option because it means u cant fit like 20 ppl in a room that would normally fit 5, sure the 20 ppl cant shoot but if all of them have melee weapons....

Its just a matter of what servers you decide to play on, if the server isnt running things the way you like find a new server. There are plenty of them.

Sure there is block and stuff and ppl get stuck in doorways but maybe those noobs shouldnt try to always be the first through the door.

So just suck it up and either find a new server or learn to play with it.

You should go work for a game company, I'm sure your "SUCK IT UP AND DEAL WITH IT OR GO SOMEWHERE ELSE" would do wonders for any company's PR.


I already said it, when you have a relatively small game like Zombie Panic where there are only 1-3 active US servers at times of the night and CVG makes up most of those servers, giving collision options like this can ruin the game.

Say its 1am my options are:

TDR 24/7 LakeMaps
CVG 24/7 Biotec
CVG Mature|Seattle Regular Rotation

Well I don't feel like Lake Maps so let's try Biotec.... OOPS LOL SOMEONE IS BLOCKING THE BASEMENT DOOR GUESS IM NOT PLAYING BIOTEC TONIGHT.

Let's try the Seattle server! UH OH IT'S HARVEST LOL I HOPED YOU BOUGHT BIRTH CONTROL BECAUSE YOU'RE ABOUT TO GET RAPED BY PHYSICS LOL!


By adding this back into servers you're going to see griefing incidents SKYROCKET on CVG servers, and when CVG makes up 50%+ of our busy server options during times of the day it's not so easy to say "Join another one".


Oh and my favorite quote from you, "Sure there is block and stuff and ppl get stuck in doorways but maybe those noobs shouldnt try to always be the first through the door. "

Do you even know what griefing is? Why the hell should I be punished because some asshats jumped into the door at the same time... it's not my fault and it shouldn't be my god~~~~ problem. But now it's the whole server's ~~~~ing problem as everyone screams and whines for them to move for 5 minutes until the zombies wipe us out.

[Sogui]

Originally Posted by frikazoyd

Take it up with Convict Games. We have the default set so that collisions are off. They made the active decision, and it is clearly being abused. Tell them to manage it better, and this will not be a problem any more.

Violent Crimes is auto-deleting/locking any threads or replies related to this, I mentioned it in the OP:

"As long as me and dead are the main owners of CVG collision will stay on if you want to have collision off you can sponsor a server and will turn it off.

Besides that this decision is closed."

My first collision post was locked, so I tried replying to another thread about patch 1.5.2 complaining about collision so he deleted that reply too. Then he deleted any other threads about collision and went ahead and locked his original collision thread so now it's sinking down the page and I doubt anyone will even see it soon.

It's an epic mismanagement of the most important set of servers that Zombie Panic has, I can find other servers but I know for a fact I won't be playing at night as often when CVG is usually the only choice for US players.

[Rellik_pt]

sogui i see that you never experience zombie ladders. thats why you dont understand the fun.

The owners of CvG, Tdr or Raw or whatever, have the right to choose whatever option they want in the servers, and if you dont like it move to other server man, stop crying about that.

also people that block will become targets for admins believe me when i m going to take care of any blocker that i see, with the love of slay,kick,ban.