But I personally can say that what drew me in was speedrunning, and I'm sure it was the same for others. It gave me a reason to improve.
Although I didn't realize until after the fact I think the lack of a good timing system was why I stopped jumping. After reaching a certain level where you can beat most maps with ease (keep in mind I mean a couple of years ago when maps weren't as difficult) it became really boring to just jump around over and over again on the same maps. This isn't such a problem anymore as some maps are so difficult to the point where nobody can beat them in a single run (ie. squared, sync), but making maps extremely difficult isn't really a fun way to fix this problem. It's no better sitting on the same jump for hours than it is replaying easy maps for hours.
Anyways, I think the KSF surf timer is actually a great setup to strive towards. There would have to be a few key changes made to that model to better suit jumping but overall it would work well. I'll list a few reasons why I like it so much:
- The points system allows you to set specific goals (ex. I want to reach 1500 points as fast as possible) and also allows you to compare yourself to other players somewhat effectively.
- All of the panels such as the player profiles, top wr list, top surfers list, are easy to bring up and appear as if they're a regular element in the game (as opposed to a html window which won't load half the time and you can't continue to play with it open).
- It records your time automatically, no need to hit the small frog model each time to start a run.
- Access to noclip for anyone, your timer must just be disabled before using it.
Those are some of the main things I can think of. In order to provide such a setup though not only would it have to be made (which may or may not be a lot of work depending on if we could get access to the existing KSF system, perhaps if a collective donation from the jumpers was made to KSF they would share it), but the real work would exist in all of the map editing. The system does not allows multiple versions of maps to be uploaded and updated, they have to be in their final version with no future changes planned before being added to the server. Furthermore, different zones have to be placed around the map before the timer functions, including the starting zone, ending zone, as well as zones at the start of each stage.
Now, a few reasons why the KSF timer wouldn't work as effectively in jumping as it does for surf:
- Lag/latency; surf is hardly affected by players with high ping because most of surf is client-side (including bhop in CSS), the only "laggy" aspects of surf are the teleports and boosts, which are not particularly common in most surf maps. In jump this would be more of a problem because of the projectiles involved, as well as the fact that so many maps have doors between stages, boosts, and other elements. This is an issue for any timing mod of course but I bring it up for the KSF one specifically because it could greatly affect the "stage record/time" feature if that was enabled on it.
- The points algorithm might need to be changed considering how many fewer players exist on tf2jump than in CSS surfing. The algorithm used by KSF means the points given from records and runs is directly affected by the numbers of players who have completed the map with times above/belows yours. If in tf2, on a map such as jump_scorpion, very few completions would actually exist, meaning a nofail map run and a run which took two hours would only differ by a few points, which isn't fair to the player who earned the top time. The points algorithms might need to be adjusted for this. Perhaps a constant numbers of points would need to be given depending on map difficulty and place you earned on the map, as opposed to how many completions it has. Points could also be given for completion but those two calculations would be separate.
- So many maps have long tunnels and terrain between jumps. This would make it really hard to implement the stage record/time feature which I mention above with the point about lag. Perhaps in tf2 it would be best to remove this feature entirely and stick to only full map times. If stage times/records didn't exist the points given for individual stage completion could still exist though.
- The KSF timer exists exclusively on the three KSF servers. The actual timer and database is managed primarily by one person who is trusted to remove any illegitimate times and not to alter any others. The same thing would be necessary in tf2. If such a system was implemented the only way this could work across more than just the jump it servers is if one person were given direct access/control to each of the servers as well as complete control over the timer database.
The way I see it is there would be a lot of work involved in making a great timer system, as well as a few barriers which would need to be addressed. I agree with Afterglow though that a good system would make a huge difference in the jump scene. Not only would it increase the overall number of jumpers but the general skill level would go up a lot. I see people on Jump iT who have played there for months now, and still have yet to even come close to completing any map beyond what we would deem "beginner-level". On KSF this isn't really the case (at least not to the same degree). The system motivates you to progress by directly rewarding map completion through points, and it also clearly shows existing records, what time to need to achieve to earn x rank on the map, etc.
Sorry this post is messy, I didn't spend any time planning it out, just went along with my ideas as I was typing.
