I don't know where to start, so I am just going to go and see were I end up.
I am sick and tired of seeing crappy Mafia Madness servers being hosted. At this point, I almost wish []----[] (will be referred to as "Brackets" in the rest of this topic) had not made the mod public and that he had given it only to certain trustworthy people. There have been so many hosts and admins at these servers that have no idea what they are doing.
Brackets and his 'helpers' made everything in this mod for a reason, each little thing has its own purpose that holds it all together. The worst thing you can do is to start screwing around with it and changing things. So many people have hosted Mafia Madness and changed important factors up which severely ruin other aspects of the game (I will get to these things soon). I can probably speak for every player that knows how to play Mafia Madness and generally knows what they are talking about in saying "if you don't know how to host Mafia Madness, don't host it". And if you're one of those people who think "if you don't like it, leave", there are actually multiple things that these servers do that indirectly affect the good Mafia Madness servers.
Here is a long list of things that I have seen hosts and/or admins do that ruin the game:
#1: Hosting Mafia Madness on a map other than the default Pyramid. MM was made for Pyramid. It's as simple as that. If you wish to host it on another map, it better not be another default map. The only way I could see MM being hosted on a different map would be if you built your own custom map that is made for MM and it better be pretty darn good.
I have seen MM hosted on Afghan DM, Mansion, ACM City, and Crysta Castle. There are so many reasons why these maps don't work. Mansion is simply too small. Afghan DM and Crysta Castle have too many hiding spots, you could just sit in your hiding spot and pick people off who are at the meeting place and quickly hide again. ACM City is too small and too open. These are just the general things wrong with these maps.
My suggestion would be: if you join an MM server and it's a default map other than Pyramid, just leave. It's not worth your time.
#2: Screwing with the environment. Just don't. It messes up the day cycle and the lighting. You can't see when it's close to night or close to day. The environment was set up in a certain way, don't mess with it.
#3: Host and/or admins messing around outside of the minigame (or when they are dead). It's extremely annoying to see an admin orb flying around on the roof and in people's faces, and it's definitely distracting. It's also annoying to see admins walking around on the roof when outside of the minigame or when they are dead. They disrupt the game and delay the game from moving on.
I have seen admins stalking players when outside of the minigame and doing other annoying crap.
#4: Messing with the MM "locations". If you don't know what the locations are, they are basically the different spawn points for players. They include: dumpster (where abducted bodies go), afterlife (where dead people spawn after being killed, here they can spectate or talk to other dead players). The dumpster is located in the basement of the pyramid and the afterlife is located out of the pyramid's viewing range so nobody can see it.
I have seen people make their own custom "dumps" or people that haven't set their dumpster location at all. The custom "dump" was right in plain sight at the bottom of the pyramid and it was like a garbage dump. This screws so much stuff up. For one, everyone can see if and when someone was abducted by just looking down into it, which can blow the abductor's cover. This also takes away about half of the crazy's job, which is to knife dead bodies to make them unrecognizable. When the crazy goes to disfigure the body, everyone can see him doing it because the dump is in plain sight. The dump MUST be in a small, concealed area. As for the dump not being set at all, this means that the abducted bodies appear outside of the map (also in plain sight). This is even worse because 1) those bodies cannot be put into evidence, simply because you cannot get to them. This means you cannot find out who was abducted and who the abductor is, until the end of the round. This makes the abductor overpowered and the fingerprint expert almost useless. Just leave the dumpster location in the basement where it's suppose to be.
I have also seen the afterlife location being messed with. I have seen it be in the default load called "Cottage". I have seen the afterlife set right in plain sight. Most people don't understand how much stuff this messes up. For one, you can see who is dead. That makes hiding bodies or disfiguring bodies basically useless because you can point out who is missing and then see who is in the "afterlife" by just looking at where it's set.
#5: Placing lights. MM does not use lights. Period. There is a day and night cycle in the game for a reason. Having lights during night is the worst thing you can do because you can see so much better. It's suppose to be harder to see at night, it gives the mafia a chance to kill players without being caught and so the abductor can abduct without being easily seen.
I have seen two servers use lights and it was terrible.
#6: Make designated body piles. This isn't really something you shouldn't do, but in my opinion it takes away from the game. The players in that game should decide if they want to sort the bodies, not the build. Making designated body piles forces players to sort them. I don't like this because it makes it more difficult for the mafia to run off with bodies because it is so much more visible. Not to mention there is less room on the roof.
I have seen a body pile called "Admin pile". I'm not even kidding.
#7: Host and/or admins messing around or spamming with eval. Eval should only be used for things such as changing the gamemode, or setting MM locations; things that are necessary. It should NOT be used to talk with players who are alive or to just chat/spam with.
I have seen admins just having a conversation through eval. It's so distracting and annoying to everyone in the entire server and can cause several problems. For one, if that admins body has yet to be discovered, and nobody knows he is dead, they automatically know when the admin uses eval. I have also seen admins screwing around with commands with eval. I have even seen admins tell who killed them/who is mafia through eval.
#8 Hosting a dedicated MM server. No, just don't do it. The host always needs to be there to start the round and to ban people.
#9 Host and/or admins not knowing the rules themselves. This goes without saying, but I have seen it several times. Sometimes I have to teach the admins the rules. I have even been banned for trying to help an admin out with the rules.
#10: Starting the round too quickly and not asking people to read the rules. If you start the round immediately after a round ends, it messes stuff up. MM needs time to reset and get back in order before the next round, at least give it 15-20 seconds. Also, when you start the round too quickly, people don't have time to report rule-breakers or to complain. If people keep getting away with breaking rules, they will continue to do it. Hosts/admins also need to check up on people to see if they have read the rules. The last thing you want to do is start a round with players who don't know how to play. This could potentially ruin the entire round because of those players DM'ing or screwing around. You need to filter out the players who don't read the rules/don't respond to you when asked to read the rules or the next round will most likely be screwed up.
#11: Setting the player limit too high. I like to set my player limit to 16 or 17, no higher. I am ok with servers who have 18-20 players as long as the admins can handle everyone.
I have seen servers with the player limit set to 21+. It's horrible. It's so hectic and the admins can't control everyone 9 times out of 10. Rule breakers get away with everything and the rounds turn into DMs. It's not fun and I suggest not even joining an MM server if the player count is above 20. Most of the time the hosts either 1) don't understand that too many players can ruin the game or 2) just want to have a lot of players and be "popular".
#12: Banning players without asking for their side of the story. You need to get both sides of the story because the first person who tells you could be lying. A lot of the time, it was an accident and they will honestly say it was an accident and apologize.
I've seen admins just ban people who kill them or ban people without asking them "why". They could have a legitimate reason for killing someone, or maybe it was an accident.
Here is the list of servers that were good enough to play on (that I have been at):
>Brackets' (when it was hosted)
>Magician's
>SpeedBlade's (I haven't been there, but knowing him the server was probably hosted well)
If you have been to a pretty well hosted server not on this list, please tell me.
All the bad MM servers are ruining the game for new players and hosts of the good MM servers.Those new players will probably never join a good MM server because of their experience at a bad one. It makes the good servers look bad when they are actually fun. Also, if players who first joined a bad MM server come to a good MM server, they know the rules, but the rules that were enforced (or not enforced) at the bad MM servers. This could cause them to be banned for thinking they know the rules and they could ruin the game for other people.
Anyways, what it comes down to is:
"If you don't know how to host Mafia Madness, don't host it."
-wall of text/rant over-
