TTT Rotation: Immediate Observations & Suggestions

[Liloz01 1,252 / 19,078]

Keep in mind these are fairly superficial thoughts, as I clearly haven't played on the server for very long. No in-depth dives into the nitty gritty to be seen here, just immediate observations. Which matters! Make a good impression.

 

Hi, I recently joined TTT Rotation and just noted down some things that I think could be improved, below are my observations and suggestions. I'll be making a separate topic soon on what I think could be added. This topic is just basically just me talking about what already exists.

 

These are not from the POV of a staff member, just a player (...even though technically I am a staff member). There's nothing about staff-only logging systems for example. I'll try to run through it in the order that a user would from first joining, being presented with the MoTD, and onward. Yes, this is quite nitpicky. The server is quite good, so... gotta be!

 

When joining: 

• Tips on the loading screen are... odd. I feel they're trying to be quirky and fun - and some are, but for most it feels like the information provide is wrong, inconsistent, or not all that helpful. I suggest combing over them, adding extra pieces of information / possibly removing some tips entirely. For example:
  • One tip says, "When you walk, you cannot be heard", and another tip says, "Use W, A, S and D to walk" - I'm no GMod pro so I could be wrong here but I don't think this is correct. Only when you press alt (by default) to "walk slowly" can you not be heard. Changing the first mentioned tip to something like: "Hold ALT or CTRL (crouch? I think? I don't remember the default bind ngl) to be sneaky when moving, it makes it so your footsteps cannot be heard!" would solve this.
  • One tip says, "Get VIP for perks!" (or something like that) - how? Adding something like: "Type !donate in-game to become a VIP!" to that tip would suffice. I don't feel like splitting up information between tips is a good strategy.
  • I didn't note down anymore, sorry!
• Loading screen looks alright, the slideshow images are cool. Only recommendation: place the Discord element more prominently, maybe bottom center? We really want to get people in Discord!
• First join time is reasonable. Not incredibly fast, not super slow for TTT with quite a few skins/extra guns/etc.

 

Once joined:

• It's very good that you are only presented with one menu, the MoTD (also, sometimes, the end of round menu/map selection screen - but that is somewhat rare, an edge case that can't really be helped). I strongly dislike when you first join a server, and you need to swat away 5+ menus to get to the MoTD. However, the MoTD is not in MoTD mode (https://gflclan.com/topic/39156-ttt-rotation-motd/?motd=true). I would consider changing it to MoTD mode for space savings.
• I have some suggestions about the MoTD but I'll make those seperately on this topic: https://gflclan.com/topic/81162-motd-rewrite-2022/.

 

In-game:

• Chat is fine. There are a few buttons that seem to do nothing though? "Print Emoticons" just sends a newline to the chatbox & "Gamemode Help" does nothing, for me at least; consider removing those or getting them fixed. View MoTD is also not in "MoTD mode" (adding ?motd=true to the end of the MoTD URL) - consider adding that. 
• Chat has no broadcasts/announcements whatsoever? Consider adding some, but... in a sparring manner. Perhaps just one for the !help command (that is excellent, btw), one for member/donate and one for joining Discord?
• !Help menu stuff:
  • Discord link is not the gfl.gs link.
  • MoTD link is not in MoTD mode.
  • Everything else is fine. I like this a lot. I feel I may recommend other servers add this if they do not have it when I do this for those as I don't think I've seen it before.
• Tab/VC UI is fine. I feel as if Anarchy has a better one? But there's nothing particularly wrong with remaining simple and familiar in this aspect (as I believe it is the default tab menu and VC UI).
• Pointshop is fine. I feel as if Fafy made a better one? Looks better, works a little better. Talk to him about it?
• There is a little notification in chat whenever a round starts showing how many innocents and traitors there are - could this be updated to show the number of detectives as well? Perhaps in brackets after innocents, e.g. 5 Traitors and 23 Innocents (including 2 Detectives).
• Guns are all cool and balanced, I tried out most. My only observation is that Honeybadger seems a little bad.
• !Discord command is not the gfl.gs link - replace?
• !MoTD is not in MoTD mode - replace?
• Something I noticed: Let's say Person X is on 1 HP and Person Y is on 100 HP, if you hover over Person X their healthbar displays correctly but if you then hover over Person Y, their healthbar takes some time to "fill up" to 100 HP from 1 HP. Kind of weird? Maybe just me.
• End of round menu is fine, cuts off weirdly though, seems like an easy fix someone like Fafy or Yogpod could do? See spoiler below:
  Spoiler

  

• Buy menus are cool, I like the UI, I do not think that is the default, haven't played TTT in a hot minute though, maybe it got updated! Regardless, it's neat.
• Death notifications are fine. Bottom left HP/Role/etc. info card is cool.
• The map voting screen at the end of a map is cool. There is a few missing screenshots for maps though - could they be added?
• !Donate command does not add the steamid to the end of the donate URL e.g. https://gflclan.com/donate?steamid=STEAM_0:0:48824128 it only has https://gflclan.com/donate.

 

Discord:

• In #announcements there is a pinned content pack (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2039269893) furthermore...
  • In #general there are a lot of shitposty pins, the pinned content pack (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2411332224) is not the one provided in-game via the !help menu (https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2457473224), which is correct? There's a lot of Rotation content packs floating around!
    • Perhaps create an information channel with all the correct and up to date information about content packs, rules, etc. Basically, the MoTD but in Discord and clean up any information-related pins that may be out of date. Alternatively, add the information in the status channel and rename it to status-info? Possibly get Feldma or Ben to help you out and make the bot send the message in a pretty little embed.
• Mentions in #announcements are semi-frequent and appropriate; however, I would recommend adding to the end of each announcement a little thing about joining the server (if it is up), I feel like it's a boon even if one or two people join because of it. Just something like, "You should join btw steam://connect/92.119.148.99:27015 or https://gflclan.com/connect/?id=76" (whatever, add your own flair to it - especially when you bring the server back up!).

Forums:

• Everything under server staff control is fine in terms of structure/featuring/pinning. I'll update Forum icons to be consistent and put the form links for Reports and Appeals in the descriptions of those respective Forums... A note for the future though, ask the Forum Manager (...me right now)/your DL/the Director of Divisions if there's anything Forums related you need/want, I'd take a look at your forms as and consider whether or not they're how you want them to be, I'm not all too sure they are.

 

Hopefully there's a few actionable things here that will make the server at least 0.7% better for users. Let me know if anything here is unclear or just wrong!