[[Yellow] Travis1421]

So. I've been around here for around 4ish years off and on. I've played on Dinks PH through many iterations of it. One thing that I think could make a return is the use of CSS maps. Now I understand that we use non CSS maps because it allows more players to join in general and such but in doing this, we're not utilizing quite a few good PH maps such as CS_Office and Richland. I think a Dinkleberg's PH server dedicated to CSS maps entirely would be a great addition. It'd allow the staff who play hours on end and daily to have a variety of maps to play and would just be overall a great idea. Dinks has been around long enough to garner enough of a player base to support more than 1 server I think.

[RussEfarmer]

I feel like this is a complicated matter. Having CSS maps is very nice, bringing back classics such as warehouse and hotel would be a dream to me, but realistically having an entire server dedicated to them would quite literally be just having a server filtered to more experienced players. Depending on your interpretation, this could be good or bad; on the good, new players joining the original server wouldn't have to deal with as many experienced players and can play better, but on the bad, having more experienced players not be on the main server as often will lead to the usual new players on the server not being integrated as well and not being retained.

One thing is for sure though: we need an official second server for prophunt. Overflow is a duct tape fix and is generally neglected, but with multiple servers that feel exactly the same no matter which you go on (like the system Compact Gamers had with their servers), it could definitely work.

[TheUltraFish]

The issue I see with this is how would we staff ANOTHER prop hunt server? There is one admin, me, and 4 moderators where only 2 of them could be considered active. That is arguably not enough upper staff for a server such as the one we have now not the mention the overflow. Yes, both are full every single day at some point if not hours and it can be frustrating for new players to face off against someone who is 1/2 in the wall in the upper corner of the map that they can reach. We do have a decent amount of test mods and trusted running about and some could say promote some of them to higher ranks to even out the labor which has never turned out well for Dink's.

Additionally, that would basically require either a few devs or full time knowledgeable co owner. These would be necessary to keep things running smoothly, especially since we have issues keeping the main ph server running now and overflow. I am not saying that this is a bad idea, I just do not believe we have the manpower to adequately do this without several people running out of gas, putting in long hours, and having every server with staff that are available. Staff want to help, that is why they have the position but they also want to play the game as well, they cannot really do that if they have to hop between 2 or 3 servers on more than one occasion under an hour.

Decent idea just not the right time.

[RussEfarmer]

The issue I see with this is how would we staff ANOTHER prop hunt server? There is one admin, me, and 4 moderators where only 2 of them could be considered active. That is arguably not enough upper staff for a server such as the one we have now not the mention the overflow. Yes, both are full every single day at some point if not hours and it can be frustrating for new players to face off against someone who is 1/2 in the wall in the upper corner of the map that they can reach. We do have a decent amount of test mods and trusted running about and some could say promote some of them to higher ranks to even out the labor which has never turned out well for Dink's.

Additionally, that would basically require either a few devs or full time knowledgeable co owner. These would be necessary to keep things running smoothly, especially since we have issues keeping the main ph server running now and overflow. I am not saying that this is a bad idea, I just do not believe we have the manpower to adequately do this without several people running out of gas, putting in long hours, and having every server with staff that are available. Staff want to help, that is why they have the position but they also want to play the game as well, they cannot really do that if they have to hop between 2 or 3 servers on more than one occasion under an hour.

Decent idea just not the right time.

I apologize in advance if this sounds blunt (or if this thread gets completely derailed), but Dinklebergs Prophunt has been within AT LEAST the top three Prophunt servers running between 2016 to now.. and it feels like we have never had a true deck of cards for staff. We're always lacking ban capable staff, we're always missing upper management, and there's always some obstacle that prevents us from doing things properly that involve a lack of capable staff.

The moderator rank is the ONLY rank a user can apply for that can fully and properly punish for the most common infractions on the server in the form of bans. It's important to hold ban power to a high standard, but for someone like me to go on and work my way up through the staff chain starting right now with no activity, it would take massive amounts of effort, time and skill. To get accepted relatively fast and meet standards of activity, I would have to most likely spend 1-2 hours on the server nearly every day from now until July to get that rank. Now that I have some work experience in my life, I can actually say that getting a moderator position on this server is harder than going out and getting a job at a company. I don't mean this in a mean way, but if we want to solve this massive problem of a lack of people to moderate the server properly, this needs to change somehow.

[TheUltraFish]

I apologize in advance if this sounds blunt (or if this thread gets completely derailed), but Dinklebergs Prophunt has been within AT LEAST the top three Prophunt servers running between 2016 to now.. and it feels like we have never had a true deck of cards for staff. We're always lacking ban capable staff, we're always missing upper management, and there's always some obstacle that prevents us from doing things properly that involve a lack of capable staff.

The moderator rank is the ONLY rank a user can apply for that can fully and properly punish for the most common infractions on the server in the form of bans. It's important to hold ban power to a high standard, but for someone like me to go on and work my way up through the staff chain starting right now with no activity, it would take massive amounts of effort, time and skill. To get accepted relatively fast and meet standards of activity, I would have to most likely spend 1-2 hours on the server nearly every day from now until July to get that rank. Now that I have some work experience in my life, I can actually say that getting a moderator position on this server is harder than going out and getting a job at a company. I don't mean this in a mean way, but if we want to solve this massive problem of a lack of people to moderate the server properly, this needs to change somehow.

Nuru and I always made sure that the person applying for any position, was ready for said position. Getting a staff position for some is harder than others because unlike applying for a job we already have an idea who they are before they get the position, not after. For some, this is really easy to get staff also because we know them. You can say things need to change but I will not budge on giving people ranks they are not ready for, as they have almost always added chaos, toxicity, and drama on whichever server it has taken place on.

[VolfVoss]

I like the idea of having a PH CSS server, however I agree with Fish that it's not the right time. 

Active staff is mainly lower staff at the moment and we'd need a bigger upper staff team than 1 admin and 4 moderators. I think once we had 3 admins and at least 6 moderators this would be possible. That would give each admin a server to focus on and 2 moderators per server. Now you may say "that's never going to happen" well that goes for the idea of adding a PH CSS too. If you keep your mind so closed off to the idea of 3 admins and 6 moderators then why consider adding a PH CSS? It's significantly worse to add another server when you're not prepared. Similar to opening a store without having people to run it. 

If you believe someone could handle a higher position and asked them if they'd be willing to advance, I don't think that's a bad idea. I wouldn't just bump someone up because they fit the bare requirements though. Yes I realize my comment is very simplistic and more of a duh moment but I said it. 

[Yeezy Jeezy]

The CSS maps have some of the best spots ever. Add them and I actually might play again some times.

[Lt. Star]

So I do love the idea of a css server, I really do want one. There are so many maps for them. But I also see where people are coming from staffing wise. But right now we have 2 servers and one of them is hardly used and I don't remember it really being used as a "testing" server so why don't we change overflow to a css server with like 20ish slots? That way its really no different than now. At one point with even less active staff than we have now we handled both servers when it regularly got players. I think this could actually work, at the very least can't we give it a shot? If it fails it fails but the bottom line is we don't know what will happen unless we do it.

[Nicol Bolas]

If the only thing people like from a PH CSS server are the maps. they can be added to either server quite easily.

[RussEfarmer]

If the only thing people like from a PH CSS server are the maps. they can be added to either server quite easily.

There is always a major problem with having CSS maps on a prophunt server regarding the technical knowledge of the people that play prophunt. You can reasonably expect someone that plays TTT to have to install CSS textures to play, but most prophunt players don't expect/don't know how to install CSS textures, and usually just leave. Every single time we would switch to the one CSS map in the 2016 map pool when I played, the server would go from 25 players to 4 players within 10 minutes.