Indeed, 32 player granary was a bit too crowded if you ask me, voted for 24 players. Don't know what you mean by reserved admin slots but I once tried to join a server that had something like that. Now it's a pain since steam server system lets you in, but after it starts loading the map it just informs that "There's reserved slots on this server" and won't let you be in queue for a slot like a normal server does.

On the other hand if you mean this system that is used now ("sometimes people are kicked to let admins on") I'm fine with it, after all you're the ones that are paying for it.

32 players is far too many and I think it ruins the important balance TF2 has at 24. There is a lot more spam and some classes tend to dominate more on the 32 player servers and others seem to suffer more. I voted for 24 players.

How do admin slots work at the moment? Admins can remotely kick someone to join the server?

Hampshire Heavies is massively popular because its among the best TF2 servers in the UK, if you were to add reserved slots I would not mind donating to server costs if it meant getting a slot.

I really don't like the 32 man limit. If your team wins you (well, I) miss out on half the action and if your team loses ... well i don't really care about losing, but it's not as much fun as when it was 24. It just seems like the winning team is the one that gets 3 ubers going at once and charges at the last cap point. I know it's usually like that, but with 4 less people each side it's a bit more managable.

Simply but, I can't seem to enjoy TF2 today. I don't know if it's purely because of the 32 man limit, or something else, but I reckon it's quite a lot to do with 32.

I voted for 24 + 4 reserved admin slots (changed it now to Back to 24). I don't even know what one of those is, but if it helps people who pay for it to get more use, then I'm all for that. However, I'd hate to see it break the queuing thing, or is that fixed? Didn't really understand that bit either :\

24 player limit just felt "right" in my humble opinion.

Oh and I totally agree with what grief just posted. Totally. Speaking of.. I'd quite like to contribute to the upkeep of the servers, if you accept donations of some kind?

I agree with grief and Jono, I simply can't enjoy 32 man servers. All the maps have been balanced for 24 people and playing them with eight more really breaks this balance. It also makes some classes more useful than others and generally evolves in a mindless spam fest. It's already hard to get 12 people to work together as a team and it's almost impossible with 16.

I'm not really sure how you are going to implement the reserved slots idea, but I don't see much speaking against it. People who pay for the sever should have the possibility to play on them anytime.

hey,

for me 24 players, if an admin needs / desires to get on he can always kick someone anyway right? > 24 players is not the same game...

Played on it for an hour tonight. it was fun as always but obviously far too busy.
Was getting tons of lag when there were loads of people on screen and it's nothing to do with my com (8800GT) others were saying the same.
Moved to server 2 and had a much better game, 32 reallly does ruin the balance imo.
Reserved slots would be great but if it stops queuing from working that will be a nightmare, you all know how busy it gets, i have waited upto 20 mins to get on before.
Can't see anything wrong with admins kicking to let on members, it is expectd on any clan server and only fair.

Is there a special reason you need a 32 player server or simply cos you can?

I *believe* this is just a trial to see how we/the server gets on with it. For a few days or something like that.
Personally, I don't mind if I'm kicked to let an admin/clan member/other reg person on for whatever reason, although obviously I'd prefer to NOT be kicked... but I wouldn't cry about if I was. Well not in public at least

Some games work great as 32 players, but I don't think TF2, or at least its current maps are included in that list. As finis2's already said, the maps are balanced for 24 players (are they?) Well they certainly seem to be.

With lots of players/action going on in the same area (demo spam, usually) the game really lags - I don't *think* it's my PC, but it could be; tis pretty powerful atm - not the best, but pretty decent. I just don't think the server's coping with it too well. And if I'm quite honest I don't want it to cope very well.

This is easily the best server I've ever played on, and I've played on lots. And by the best I mean best EVER - including my old Day of Defeat and BF1942/Desert Combat clan servers which I was an admin on....And I don't want it to change.

Why not try this 24 + 4 reserved slots one evening and see if it breaks the queue system, or try 28 with no reserved slots then back to 24 again? See which combination works best - I'm all for experimenting and i think it's great that you've given 32 players a go, but it's SO hard to try and get 16 random or semi-random people to work as a team.

Plus the whole some classes are made more important/less important than others or that they used to be... just puts a big shadow of the potential extra enjoyment a few more people could bring.
I'm pretty sure the main reason it doesn't appear to be working, if you ignore the lag people are experiencing is the maps - they just *work* for 12 v 12.

heres my concern. at some points in certain maps i think it might be too hard to cap certain points or take certain flags with 32 ppl. even if at some point u kill 12 ppl there will be more ppl to kill after you grab the flag or point. thus slowing if not stoping certain game play untill a sudden death. plus the whole la thing maybe like 13 ppl i think 32 ppl per server might be too much.

I think 24 + 4 is the best idea.

With 32 slots there is almost always a place to enter, however, it can lag a bit sometimes (dustbowl last point, massive attack). Although it is fun. I am neither against neither for it. I like my fun =) And if I really want to play 24 slots second server is always online.

Small observation - with 32 slots we get much more inexperienced players. People just join the biggest server there is (and there is not that many 32 slot servers). So Id say 24+4 and new maps.

no i wouldnt agree with the 32 players thingie,

its all about balance, a 24 player game need tactics. A 32 player game need constant attacking and mayhem.