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TF2 Mercs
Created 12th October 2008 @ 23:57
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Id appreciate feedback on the proposed method. I wasnt sure if the idea of a feedback system would be necessary if the channel had a few dedicated admins. But the idea at least keeps the system independant. And would allow it to evolve on its own into a reliable service. If the feedback system is deemed silly or unreasonable it would easily be taken out of the equation. I dont consider any of this design a large programming task and ill probably get to it within the fortnight once ive learnt some more of the necessary skills. But i would like the suggestions from the community first
I think it’s a great idea.
im not sure on the ‘sportsman’ bit. It may cause a few troubles amongst the members.
but a channel like that will be a huge asset to clans in need ;)
I see Akill is putting much time and effort into this great idea. I agree with most parts you’ve written, and i like the feedback idea on the channel, but imo that should be limited to the mercs skill only.
But i already found a problem, you write its only possible to add comments to the last merc hired, but how does this work if youve hired multiple mercs?
that is an interesting point lol, sometimes more than one merc for a game is needed. Ill make a small revision which would just basically include the merc name in the feedback statement, and have the mercbot just have those mercs flagged that need feedback. However this also changes the idea that groups who dont leave feedback cant take another merc, because they will be taking 2+ before the match. Any suggestions?
Also this question prompted another command
!mymercs, which would have mercbot private message you a list of the mercs your team has hired that still require feedback
As a responce to jay: what do you recon on changing the ‘attidude’ idea to ‘recommendations’
The value requires no calculations, just everytime a team uses a merc and thinks he done a good job they can flag him a recommendation, and a mercs total recommendations will show in the !seek, list. i think this solves the problem of the system becoming ‘bitchy’ but also allows rewards for mercs that keep up a good level of sportsmanship (no raging, complaining, being useless etc)
While I see alotta problems for the “attidude-o-meter”, i like the premise, as it will work as a motivator to make people play nice. But, i think it should be simplified, to 2 or 3 degrees. eg. Bad/Good. Or, Bad/Normal/Good.
Another note on insanes point: many teams will be known by reputation, and upcoming ones will not have a ‘known’ standard of play, considering the first feedback you hav all given me i propose:
1.remove the function for the merc ranking the skill of the team
2. remove the ‘attitude’ rating, and in place of it allow mercs to ‘recommend’ the team and the team to ‘recommend’ the merc
include the !mymerc function
renamed 2 functions to RATEMERC & RATETEAM
included more functionality to !merc, when used without supplying any classes, mercbot will just pm the user which classes and at what level they are currently mercing
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i am still interested to see more comments and suggestions from people. After all the comments and tweaks to the design ideas id like to discuss the function ‘methods’
currently the systems interface works in 2 ways:
1. message the function to the channel
2. message the function to the mercbot
obviously the functions that have more sensitive data (passwords) will need to be sent directly to mercbot. But with the other functions there is the option to either make them public or private.
The pro of making some commands publicly viewable is that it creates more interest and activity, also provoking discussion between players.
However some functions may need to be private also, either to keep some information confidential or to stop large amounts of channel spam.
Id like suggestions from people as to which functions should be private, which should be public, and mercbots responce to those functions, being public or private
Current list of functions and where they used be used (public- in channel, private- pm mercbot):
!seek – to be debated
!merc – public
!remove -public
!admin -public
!help -public
!hire – private
!register – private
!comms – private
!respond -private
!ratemerc-private
!rateteam -private
!mymercs -private
These are my suggestions for the interface of all the functions. I would make !seek public but my concern is that some teams will want the information non-public. So its up for discussion, if you disagree with where the commands would be used please commend on it.
!seek should def be public imo, but coz there is a merc list it wont matter that much i guess.
By the public !admin part do you mean you dont go to pm part to discuss your probs/suggestions/questions?
I also didnt read anything before about the !respond cmd, care to explain?
Akill says:
However this also changes the idea that groups who dont leave feedback cant take another merc, because they will be taking 2+ before the match. Any suggestions?
Feedback should be seen as something extra imo and doesn’t needa be obliged. Coz the highskilled/known players dont need feedback, the underdog/unkown players need feedback. For them it would be very positive if a good team gives him good feedback, so the unkown player will do its best to get the team he merced for, fill in an feedback “form”
Forgot to mention :)
i slightly changed the syntax of a command to !respond, which is how a merc would respond to the mercbot to let it know which contracts the merc accepts/declines
by all the commands public/private i mean if the user would make that statement in the channel. Mercbot responces will all be in private message form. If you !seek soldier in the channel, mercbot will pm you the list of available soldiers. !admin would bring the attention of an admin to you to talk.
The feedback could be optional, but the idea of it being compulsary allows the community to build up a database of sorts on the players you would merc. its fine that known players would not need this but as you said newer players would appreciate that teams could rate them/leave a recommendation. Such a system COULD be abused however. However its not like this needs to be professional software, Going on your advice i would probably make the feedback optional, but still include the !mymercs function. We could trial it for a fortnight then collect opinions before releasing a full version
I think it’s a great idea and potentially could be a great success!
I wonder though if anything will arise having the flags on etc.
I know it comes to ie. buying things or if I were to “hire” things – i’d check those with comments/feedback and decide off them, rather than taking an unknown gamble. So TF2 isn’t quite as “risky” but still – the point stands, though unfortunately I don’t have a lot around that.
A function that removes users from the topic after ~1 hour automatically maybe? Otherwise there might be alot of pepole forgetting to remove themselves, and readding isn’t much of an effort.
Lovely idea btw, been idling since I saw the topic a few days ago :D
Good point penguin. I can add a function for the mercbot to PM users after every hour asking if they want to continue mercing. The support is appreciated :)
I would pm every 30 mins without writing on the channel. Like this its done in pickup channel and works well.
If the player didn’t wrote anything within 30 mins, just pm him and he can type in !ready or something like this within 5 minutes. if he dont remove him
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