[SUGGESTION] Server notices

I asked this in the question thread, but I don't think my response to tZork would be appropriate there.

Does anyone know of a way to make the server notice smaller, so it won't take up the whole screen? And are there any other options for it, like the option to require a "yes/no" answer before it closes, or option to change it's opacity?

No, the point of notices is to be.. well noticed, and and not removable by user tough any normal means. However using it irritates allot of ppl to no end, so im contemplating how to make something effective but less intrusive.

TY tZork for the answer. The notice can be extremely irritating. There are a few ideas I had that could make it less irritating while still serving it's purpose.

* Make the more transparent so a player who's already read it can ignore it until it goes away.

* Add the "agree/disagree" or "yes/no" options that i mentioned above.

* Add an IP list to the server that will reset every so often. Once the server has logged an IP, that IP will not see the notice until the master list is reset.

How does everyone else feel about the current server notice, and are there any other suggestions for improvement?

Also, I think the timer at the end of each line is distracting and pointless. Is it possible to change that?

Replace the timer with yes/no. If someone says yes, the server will know and it won't show up until it the server is reset (as you have pointed out).

I'm not certain what should happen if the person says no, but it could just keep on reappearing (until a person selects yes another time it pops up) or maybe it should prevent them from joining? If you're talking about that annoying Overkill message then the former will do. If you were talking about another more serious server notice (that's not Overkill) then maybe the latter would be suitable. Another point for Overkill is that the messages should be shortened - they should be more 'too the point'.

You want to make sure that the writing stands out, so I think changing the size of the server notice is more important than its transparency.

Thanks for the input!
Some of above things are hard to do in a reliable way, such as "saying yes once per connect". To SV/CS -QC every game is a isolated event, there is no indication (that im aware) that player X was also in game Y. (and while thins could possibly be tracked with *QC, i first need to come up with a reliable way to do that)

IP based tracking will NOT work reliably from server side. (NAT, TOR and so on)

At the moment the most viable option seems to be a dismiss able message. This means either implementing a basic GUI in csqc or moving the notice's to menu.

Note that the notice system was design so it could, in the future, be used to display important messages to everyone (or for that matter, just one client) at any time. Such as "Server will be down for maintenance at the round end. It will be down for aprox. 2 hrs". So any dismiss able approach needs to be careful not to hide further messages.

Alright.. nuff techno-babble Im going to look into this before next release, possibly sooner if time allow. And if you have further ideas on the topic, do post em here.

I would be very ok with a "agree" option. Someone would have to press agree to remove the server notice from the screen. It would reappear after each match.

I thought this thread would get a better response since so many people seem to hate the current server notices.

I'd prefer if they just didn't take up the whole screen. If they were a small box somewhere on the side of the screen then it would be ok for me.

A small box somewhere would be ignored/overlooked by many, and that is precisely what notices are NOT supposed to be. Thing's that are not important that everyone reads can go into MOTD or some such.

The problem with skipping is that people will learn to skip immediately, missing potential updates to the notices. Ideally, there would be some sort of checkbox/button to "skip notices until they are changed" but that means the client needs to store some data locally...

I like these Infobox tbh.
There always are people who miss stuff that got noticed.
Tbh - who reads the MotD when joining a server? - I'd say less then 5%.

Stuff that needs to be said, ppl need to get aware of (p.e. "This is a Test-server", "This is for newbies only" or "Server shutdown after this match"). A small box "anywhere" on the screen would get read as much as MotD.

I could live with the size of the half screen - but tbh (as tZork already said) - this is meant for informations people need to read.

Also, I'm against an "Ok" button. Would be the same like any other Eula / infoscreenbox on installations, which really everyone just "next"-clicks.


P.s.: If this is so much annoying, tell the Serveradmin. He's at least capable of reducing the popup time.

Against a yes/no/skip/ok button or not, if few more options were possible it would hurt nothing if it's up to admin to configure it. For example I'd love to put a notice on my duel servers with some explanations so new players know about warmup and such, but I don't want to have that notice in my face for 10 seconds at every map change. Configuring it to use a "OK" button instead of being time based would allow to put more info there too. It's still 10x more likely people would read it the first time they connect to server than the MOTD since it covers the whole screen. Less annoying for regular players, new players more likely to read it than MOTD, etc.

Tbh - who reads the MotD when joining a server? - I'd say less then 5%.

Stuff that needs to be said, ppl need to get aware of (p.e. "This is a Test-server", "This is for newbies only" or "Server shutdown after this match"). A small box "anywhere" on the screen would get read as much as MotD.

I always try to read the MotD, but sometimes it's hard as they are shown only for a couple of seconds which is not enough to read sometimes a hefty amount of text put there.

A Small info box with text somewhere on my screen that didn't vanish until I said so would be a good improvement and wouldn't obstruct my view (so i don't get fragged in the first 15 seconds when I'm nearly blindfolded by a screen sized notice that has only 3 words written on it ;-P )

@ tZork UT99 mods use a smaller window with an ok button, and it seems to work fine. I think the idea you have is that new players on the server need to read the server notice. But it comes at a cost to everyone that doesn't need to read it. I know the cost of a 10 sec inconvenience isn't high, but it's still really annoying after seeing it over and over.

Sadly, even with 10 sec timer, many new players do not read the notice on my server. Just like they do not read a server name that says "1v1". You just can't punish everyone for the few that will not read the notice if given the option. I like Nifrek's idea, that there should be an option for server admins to consider.