Forum Discussion

New Hotshot

5 years ago

Solved

Custom/community servers. BAD IDEA!

Now before all the angry people who clicked on this post turn on their CAPS LOCK, hear me out.

I've been playing this game since BFBC2 on PC. Followed by BF3, BF4 and BFH. Not to boast but I'm an above average player. Players like me and pros have always had bad experiences with custom servers. Here is why I stopped playing BF4 (the last good battlefield)

1. BADMINS- Yes. We have all come across them at one point. These people may own servers that are closer to us with better ping but playing on their servers is a horrible experience. They enjoy their feeling of power over players. Even if I mind my own business and go on a streak, they will be like 'You're sus. Send us a video of you playing on your mouse and keyboard for us to unban you.' There are admins who just ban you simply because you found them spamming UCAVs in spawn and you killed them. Or if you repeatedly kill them in the round.

2. Toxic casuals- Not all casual players are like them but these specific group of casual players never like anyone doing better than them. They could be like 23-10 and if you're like 40-3, they start hackusating you. I ignore these things and just let them say what they want. But what gets on my nerves is the 'votekick/voteban' system. One toxic guy starts a vote, and everyone else joins in on it just for the fun of ruining someone's match even if they are legit.

I ran out of severs to play in my area because of issues such as these. Being forced to play on servers further away from me which has 100+ ping really ruined it for me. Moved onto other games because of that very reason. The only negative thing about not having custom servers is being unable to stop an actual hacker and just wait for the system to detect them and ban them. Also custom servers run by actual respectable people who choose other respectable people like them to be admins as well, who form a healthy community and create fun servers. But I guess some things are never meant to be.

Here are my accounts.

https://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/soldier/ThePaperAssassin/stats/1713086007/pc/

https://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/soldier/II-Sabretooth-II/stats/390970619/pc/

EDIT: Like I assumed a lot of people want community servers. I agree with you. They do keep the game alive for longer. BUT I want DICE to have a community server program which only lets reputed, impartial and respectable veterans of the battlefield community to run them. People who want to run their own custom servers should join the program and prove themselves worthy of being a good admin.

If custom servers were so flawless why did DICE remove them since BF1? Sure admins could rent servers but could never play God.

discussion

Mr_Dox20
5 years ago
Sure Badmins and votekick have their own share of problems, but custom servers are also responsible for some cool events (remember the BF4 dog tag hunt or megalodon easter egg. Dedicated servers allowed these things to be shared with the community.) Being able to customize the experience/map rotation is nice for those wanting to play a single map (24/7 Metro...) or play with normal health without a HUD.
Let's be real though, it's an easy way to monetize, and as long as server hosts cannot directly interfere with the gameplay of those visiting things should be fine. Essentially admins can write the rulebook and play, but cannot be the coach and pull other players.

72 Replies

Neovisi0n
5 years ago
@PaperAssassin-PC The "BADMINS" are definitely the bigger issue, so many in BF4 go on a powertrip and will ban for no reason.
A while ago I was randomly kicked and permabanned from one of the biggest server groups in BF4 (I don't remember what their name was but I think it was like 4 or 5 letters and started with a V) at least 50% of the most populated severs were provided by this group, so I lost the ability to play on the majority of populated servers. I was super confused about why I was permabanned so I looked into it and found that it was very common their admins to just ban because you were doing significantly better than them... As a result it was too hard to find a game and I more or less stopped playing BF4.... luckily, I don't think that group exists anymore, upon going back to BF4 over the last few weeks, I haven't been told I'm banned from any server I've joined.

It really sucks that a few bad apples can completely ruin the experience, its really a shame because playing on servers that were restricted to things like pistols or bows was really fun time to time...
PPNSteve
Rising Hotshot
5 years ago
@PaperAssassin-PCone of the easiest ways to advoid these kind of problems with RSP/Community servers, is to join a clan or community of gamers and play on the server they run and/or use.

I've also been playing BF since BFBC2 (COD transplantee) and almost immediately hooked up with a group of like minded players and almost never had badmins, griefers, and other pubs issues playing. Plus we got to play our fav maps and game modes (esp hardcore mode) when we wanted to, not wait around on an official server for it to come up or not even available if it was hardcore mode.

Of Course YMMV but generally its a better experience IMO.
Noodlesocks
5 years ago
Decisions shouldn't be made based on what might happen on rare occasions.
Neovisi0n
5 years ago
@Noodlesocks
I would normally tend to agree with you that games should not have core gameplay features decided to combat cheating, bad community, etc. But we're not going to get community servers because it give to much control to the community and takes away control from DICE, which leads to issues as were brought up.
PaperAssassin-PC
New Hotshot
5 years ago
@Noodlesocks When around 5+ servers with good latency in your area is run by the same clan and when they ban you, you get banned from all their servers.
UP_SunnyTheWolf
5 years ago
@PaperAssassin-PC Without that clan you wouldn't have had those servers to begin with, so they took nothing away from you that EA provided to you by not allowing you to play on their servers.

I'm not commenting on the banning and if it was righteous - just stating the fact.
PaperAssassin-PC
New Hotshot
5 years ago
@UP_SunnyTheWolf Which is why I'd rather prefer having official servers to play on. Having a game and not being able to play it because of bad communities is not what I want. Sorry.
Trokey66
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I didn't realise that it was compulsory to play on community servers......
HappyHourSumwur
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@PaperAssassin-PC Disagree with you on this one. It is a bummer that you ended up without any good ones close enough to have a playable ping. That does suck.

I've been playing BF since the original & the freedom to customize the game that comes with custom servers is a huge reason why I like Battlefield. Yes, bad admins & toxic people exist, but communities of like minded people do, too. If you run into a bad server, just don't play on it anymore.

Personally, I don't like EA/DICE dictating to me too much how I should be playing Battlefield. Infantry only, hardcore, vanilla, etc. All nice options for people to choose from, so let them choose.
PaperAssassin-PC
New Hotshot
5 years ago
No official servers on BF4. they are rare or the server would just be empty.