Most surf servers implement a speed cap that prevents people from traveling faster than about 3500 u/s and without the speed cap on the hard server maps such as surf_depths or mesa_aether are very hard to beat. I'm not sure if this was left out on purpose, but I'd like to see your take on it.
It wasn't something I'd say was left out on purpose, but it's something I'd question we really need. By limiting the maximum velocity a player can go it means we're limiting the potential on various linear stretches or situations where the high velo would be beneficial for records / cheesing things. If you can give me clear examples of where clamping would be beneficial (and others chime in) it's something we can certainly look at.
Or going by the OP it could be something to add to the Hard server only, if it sounds like that's the only place it's maybe needed.
Though I haven't gotten to the point where it creates a problem on surf_depth, the part on mesa_aether that is affected by the lack of a cap can be overcome with air strafing and merely requires more practice in order to get used to doing so. In short, I don't think the mesa_aether problem is that bad and doesn't warrant capping the speed. That's just my take on it.
I feel if you get too much speed to the point where you have to awkwardly airstrafe side to side/in circles to simply land on a ramp properly, it's simply ridiculous. Surf_depths is balanced around a 3000-4000 speedcap, and you can tell as such even 20% into the map, going any higher creates awkward strafes that (in my opinion) completely contradict surfing being "smooth", the same goes for mesa_aether, to a lesser degree due to the larger skyboxes and error margins sure, but it still applies nonetheless. The argument that it takes "skill" to manage the speed doesn't account for what the map was built and designed around.
Well one of three things can happen - I can apply a maximum velocity cap of 3500 u/s globally Same above, but per map - This would require people to tell me which maps require the cap. No cap is implemented What would people prefer?
The reason the cap is usually set at 3.5k is because that's how the map is designed, and that allows for a smooth experience with it. Without that cap some maps become either hard to beat, or just generally stupid (an example would be mesa_aether, half the time the last trigger doesn't work because of the speed I have going through it). One thing to keep in mind about it though is some maps require an "uncapped" velocity, an example would be unicorn (most maps that require an uncapped velo usually have a point entity that sets it). Of course this would only apply to the hard server at the moment as that's the only server with standard surf settings. I barely reach 3.5k on the easy server because of the gravity making it harder to gain speed, so a change probably wouldn't change much. Edit: To go on what was posted above, instead of an on map basis of what should have cap, it should instead be what shouldn't have cap.
Cap has been added at 3500, please notify me which maps require to be uncapped. Some maps have already been adjusted where I believe it works best.