GitP/ChHa Server Thread IV: For Science. You Monster.

[watsyurname529]

Cunningly, my name is The Djinn. Tricky, ain't it?

My Steam name is djinn_in_tonic, and friending that might be a good idea, as I'm Admin-in-Chief, and, if you have a big server problem, I'm the guy to call.

That and he is the server and thus, the server god.

[AlterForm]

Attention Sea Slug Team, I made you a present!

Spoiler

Show

[surikesu]

I agree with keeping the custom maps, as long as they aren't added too frequently. This way, the best and favorite custom maps stay in rotation and prevents a long list of underplayed custom maps being listed in nomination.

[SciurusDoomus]

I'm going to lay off spy for a while.

Having 3 spies rampaging the server daily together only causes each spy to receive less points, the server population to constantly check their backs, and even irritation from some members(AlterForm, Sciurus).

If I do play DR spy, it'll be sparsely.

Oh, I'm not legitimately mad. I just hate it when I'm defenseless. :D

[Mando Knight]

I'm going to lay off spy for a while.

Having 3 spies rampaging the server daily together only causes each spy to receive less points, the server population to constantly check their backs, and even irritation from some members(AlterForm, Sciurus).

If I do play DR spy, it'll be sparsely.

Yespleasethankyou. I'm not that good yet, and having to constantly spycheck and learn the rest of the class's tricks and figure out the layout of maps I haven't played on yet isn't fun at all.

[potatocubed]

Alright, I've just added a redirect server to the TF2 server for the nominal cost of $5 per month. In theory it should automatically mirror all the maps on the server and redirect downloads, thus improving server performance and enabling faster downloads.

If someone who is lacking one of the server maps wouldn't mind giving it a quick test some time that would be helpful, ta.

[Darth Mario]

Alright, I've just added a redirect server to the TF2 server for the nominal cost of $5 per month. In theory it should automatically mirror all the maps on the server and redirect downloads, thus improving server performance and enabling faster downloads.

If someone who is lacking one of the server maps wouldn't mind giving it a quick test some time that would be helpful, ta.

I'll remove my copies of our custom maps and go test this now.

[Raveypoos]

SHaFT's password is chha. Unless we're doing comp practice or holding a game.

What's SHaFT ?

[Forbiddenwar]

What's SHaFT ?

The Super Happy Fun Time server

Now with a second server, under the evil reign of Drolkcal and Dr Girlfriend. It's password protected and the regular password is "chha". Don't join if the server is hosting a competitive match:

[potatocubed]

I'll remove my copies of our custom maps and go test this now.

Apparently the first request for the custom map will go at normal speed since the server considers it a sort of 'heads up' that a redirect is needed. So I'll do the same and between us we should see something.

[NeoVid]

Apparently the first request for the custom map will go at normal speed since the server considers it a sort of 'heads up' that a redirect is needed. So I'll do the same and between us we should see something.

I'll be on today, I'll check, assuming a custom comes up while I'm on.

Hope it works, it would be reallllly good to have this when I play at the cybercafe, since I can only download maps off the server there.

The first time I tried to play on one of the new customs, the map switched before I was finished loading it... and I was the one who nominated it in the first place.

Also, I just realized something: if people don't want to stay to play the customs, why are they nominating and voting for them?

[potatocubed]

Testing indicates a tentative 'yay'? Whalerace (~45 MB) downloaded in maybe a couple of minutes.

I'll cycle through all the custom maps myself tomorrow, so then the redirect server will be cued up with all of them in case no one requests them between now and then.

[Byrnbot08]

What's SHaFT ?

THE SHaFT? You want to know about The SHaFT?

Kid. The SHaFT is... it's kinda like... some sort of...

Well, it's Drolk's and Doc's little secret hideout/love nest where they insidiously/lovingly plan out cunning ways to kill/love all of the regular GiTP/ChHa community members.

In The SHaFT, they will run a long gauntlet of perilous tests, each cunningly disguised as a game against/with them. This involves many, many uses of ████████████ for so long, that the screaming will ring in your ears, as well as application of various ████████████, some of which have not been cleared for general human consumption. Some people speculate that The SHaFT is actually █████████████████, also commonly known as Android Hell.

In the greater scheme of things, The SHaFT is also where the weak are weeded out from the strong for use in some sort of world-wide fight syndicate. Both Drolkcal and Dr Girlfriend will often subject potential candidates to gladitorial combat against predetermined teams to see how effectively they perform under stressful conditions. Their techniques are so secretive that the entire server is locked down while in use for this testing that normal passcodes do not work, as they begin ████████████ ██████████, whereupon the remaining survivors are forced to ███████████ ████████████. Their personal fight team go under the moniker, Sea Slug Team, presumably because they have been ███████████████.

We can only speculate about the rest of these gory details.

[mightymonarch]

Attention Sea Slug Team, I made you a present!

Spoiler

Show

Amazing! :D We'll have to come up with a MOTD for SHaFT that includes this. Can we get a square one of the slug for the Steam Group?

THE SHaFT? You want to know about The SHaFT?

Spoiler

Show

Kid. The SHaFT is... it's kinda like... some sort of...

Well, it's Drolk's and Doc's little secret hideout/love nest where they insidiously/lovingly plan out cunning ways to kill/love all of the regular GiTP/ChHa community members.

In The SHaFT, they will run a long gauntlet of perilous tests, each cunningly disguised as a game against/with them. This involves many, many uses of ████████████ for so long, that the screaming will ring in your ears, as well as application of various ████████████, some of which have not been cleared for general human consumption. Some people speculate that The SHaFT is actually █████████████████, also commonly known as Android Hell.

In the greater scheme of things, The SHaFT is also where the weak are weeded out from the strong for use in some sort of world-wide fight syndicate. Both Drolkcal and Dr Girlfriend will often subject potential candidates to gladitorial combat against predetermined teams to see how effectively they perform under stressful conditions. Their techniques are so secretive that the entire server is locked down while in use for this testing that normal passcodes do not work, as they begin ████████████ ██████████, whereupon the remaining survivors are forced to ███████████ ████████████. Their personal fight team go under the moniker, Sea Slug Team, presumably because they have been ███████████████.

We can only speculate about the rest of these gory details.

Stealing this for my sig. As much of it as I can.

[watsyurname529]

THE SHaFT? You want to know about The SHaFT?

Spoiler

Show

Kid. The SHaFT is... it's kinda like... some sort of...

Well, it's Drolk's and Doc's little secret hideout/love nest where they insidiously/lovingly plan out cunning ways to kill/love all of the regular GiTP/ChHa community members.

In The SHaFT, they will run a long gauntlet of perilous tests, each cunningly disguised as a game against/with them. This involves many, many uses of ████████████ for so long, that the screaming will ring in your ears, as well as application of various ████████████, some of which have not been cleared for general human consumption. Some people speculate that The SHaFT is actually █████████████████, also commonly known as Android Hell.

In the greater scheme of things, The SHaFT is also where the weak are weeded out from the strong for use in some sort of world-wide fight syndicate. Both Drolkcal and Dr Girlfriend will often subject potential candidates to gladitorial combat against predetermined teams to see how effectively they perform under stressful conditions. Their techniques are so secretive that the entire server is locked down while in use for this testing that normal passcodes do not work, as they begin ████████████ ██████████, whereupon the remaining survivors are forced to ███████████ ████████████. Their personal fight team go under the moniker, Sea Slug Team, presumably because they have been ███████████████.

We can only speculate about the rest of these gory details.

Put into the description on the first/info post.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Speaking of the Sea Slug team...I WILL indeed be practicing. My schedules are just out of whack at the moment.

Please accept my apologies, fellow Sea Sluggers.

[AlterForm]

Amazing! :D We'll have to come up with a MOTD for SHaFT that includes this. Can we get a square one of the slug for the Steam Group?

Take your pick. Variations can also be created in short order. (I must admit, however, I like the homage to the name's source we currently have)







W.R.T. Idiosyndicate: I'm getting pretty comfortable with PnS Pyro, so definitely put me down for that if I haven't been already.

[Byrnbot08]

Question here. We have a Left 4 Dead 2 server. We never use it for versus or campaign. Why is this so, and what can we do to alleviate this lack of gaming on this server?

[AlterForm]

Question here. We have a Left 4 Dead 2 server. We never use it for versus or campaign. Why is this so, and what can we do to alleviate this lack of gaming on this server?

There are like 2 people who have gotten their bind to connect the session to the server to work consistently. I've certainly never been able to get it to work.

[SciurusDoomus]

Question here. We have a Left 4 Dead 2 server. We never use it for versus or campaign. Why is this so, and what can we do to alleviate this lack of gaming on this server?

You guys don't play Parish over and over? What's wrong with you?!

[Fawkes]

Question here. We have a Left 4 Dead 2 server. We never use it for versus or campaign. Why is this so, and what can we do to alleviate this lack of gaming on this server?

Most of us don't know how it works.

Well, I don't.

[Sleverin]

So, thanks to the HILARIOUS stories from Azimer about cons, I think I now have to go to one, just for teh lulz. I'd tell the story he told me...however, it's rather explicit...which is why it's funny.

Also, due to the information Azimer has given me, I now realize that Azimer irl was the man who was cast as Bob Freeman in Full Life: The one Free Fight. Originally thought up 6 months after the release of Half Life it follows the adventures of one Bob Freeman, cousin of Gordon Freeman. With similar looks to Gordon except for a spoiled figure, he and his family became pariahs after the legendary Gordon Freeman vanished after the Black Mesa incident. Leading an incredible rebellion against the invading Combine and Dr. Breen, the lost chapter of the gordon family history was to be told. From the director of Die hard, the writers from Highlander, and the producers from Commando. Sadly, even though Universal Studios bought the rights to the movie, it barely reached pre-production stage. However, there was an album cut for the movie with the potential hit song "There can only be Freeman", however, the master tapes were destroyed when a hostile bee swarm destroyed the studio it was recorded in, and of course, held the tapes. Sadly, no reels truly exist from these video sessions. Once the script had been drafted the head of Universal Studios said, "Wait, this is about a guy who doesn't talk, leads a rebellion against aliens and is a school science teacher? We're not making a lame version of Independence Day, get this script outta here. Also, anyone involved is fired."

And thus ended the story of Bob Freeman.

[Scorpionica]

Question here. We have a Left 4 Dead 2 server. We never use it for versus or campaign. Why is this so, and what can we do to alleviate this lack of gaming on this server?

I left a comment on the general GitP L4D2 steam group, not sure if Valiant Turtle has implemented it yet since there was no response, but it should give access to the server from the L4D2 server browser in the main menu.

This needs to be placed in the server.cfg ;

// Attach server to STEAM group
sv_steamgroup "(Mtg_Player_Zach should have it - it's the number for the aforementioned GitP L4D2 steam group.)"

// Set this to 1 if you want it to be exclusive to your STEAM group only
//sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1

On the right most side in L4D2, it shows two GitP servers, one for campaign, one for versus. That should make it work without having to call from bind.

[Mtg_player_zach]

I left a comment on the general GitP L4D2 steam group, not sure if Valiant Turtle has implemented it yet since there was no response, but it should give access to the server from the L4D2 server browser in the main menu.

This needs to be placed in the server.cfg ;

// Attach server to STEAM group
sv_steamgroup "(Mtg_Player_Zach should have it - it's the number for the aforementioned GitP L4D2 steam group.)"

// Set this to 1 if you want it to be exclusive to your STEAM group only
//sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1

On the right most side in L4D2, it shows two GitP servers, one for campaign, one for versus. That should make it work without having to call from bind.

Right, I know I told djinn about this, dunno if he ever did it or not. Anyway the Id is 1603103.

Also unrelated to the l4d2, I think we should have a 6v6/pug today at around 9 EST.

Also wik, http://www.ubercharged.net/how-to-pl...ive-tf2-guide/. A helpful comp guide to tf2.

Also also wik, http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=792794. Another helpful guide to comp tf2.

[Vitruviansquid]

On Gimmick Rounds:

First of all, I must apologize for my behavior about a minute ago. Interrupting the taunt kill round for the whole game is more akin to throwing a temper tantrum than any kind of protest. Oh well, hindsight's 20/20.

In any case, I still don't believe a bunch of people who aren't admins on the server should be able to declare a gimmick round. First of all, as far as I understand it, by the "letter of the law" as Djinn put it down, gimmick rules are only to be initiated by admins. Why? Isn't it so there's some kind of veto power over stupid gimmick rounds that are ultimately unfun, the mob rule that forces people who don't honestly want to play it to play it, and to keep gimmick rounds from happening too often and making the game stale. Veto'ing gimmick rounds on these bases happens all the time (such as when Nightclaw suggests over and over again that we play gimmick rounds).

But if the majority of the server when it's full wants the gimmick round, shouldn't the minority, especially if it's just one or two people, conform? NO. I think absolutely not. This is for two reasons - as mentioned before, it's basically kicking someone (face it, if they don't like the gimmick, their ability to have fun on the server is suspended, in reality, they are kicked)from the server who doesn't want to play the gimmick round. But can't they move to a different server? Not really all the time - servers are made unique because:

1. You can get good latency on some servers and not on others. This alone whittles down the number of available servers one can join by a lot.
2. ChHa runs pretty vanilla in gamemodes and population, which again cuts down on the number of servers by a lot.
3. ChHa has some custom maps and not others. While it's not that hard to find some all-vanilla servers and some servers with custom maps, it's not as easy to find a server with the exact same maps as ChHa.
4. ChHa has a particular set of rules and people who enforce them. A large factor in how people choose servers is whether they agree with the rules and rulers there. While ChHa's server rules are not outright outlandish, one has to realize that looking for another server that has the same kinds of rules and the attitude of mods narrows down available servers by a lot.

You know those posts the thread gets that say "I only ever play on ChHa any more because it's the best"? That's because ChHa is a unique server that can, in the first place, be differentiated from other servers.

The second reason: if we allow the majority to just set a gimmick round for the server without an admin vote, someone could feasibly round up a group of their buddies and come on to basically take over the server for gimmicks when there's no admin around. The same isn't true for people wanting to play basic TF2 because everybody has, on some level, agreed that basic TF2 is an agreeable game to play for them when they bought it.

Now, if you say, "well, that time it was mostly server regulars who agreed to do the gimmick round," then isn't it just a gang of buddies that we've labelled "server regulars"? At best, that is the same thing as the bad scenario of someone getting a group of their friends together to rule the server. At worst, that is privileging a group of people we've decided to label "server regulars" over others. More troublesome, of course, is that there is no line that differentiates what makes a "server regular" from someone else the regulars get to kick around.

Last reason why allowing/supporting gimmick rounds not initiated based on admin votes is bad is because it makes a mess of things. Communication is inherently difficult in TF2 because we're trying to listen to people talk (often on bad mics), listen for dangers in-game, and people without mics communicates in the chatbox, which is easy to spam with yells of Spy and Medic requests. Add that to the fact that people can change their names and admins don't always speak in their green voice, and you can understand how if Joe Schmoe on the server says it's melee only, some people will believe it's melee only, and if Joe Schmoe and his friends say it's melee only... This is what makes gimmick rounds on servers that don't have specific rules regarding them such unmitigated disasters.

Sorry, folks. But unless an admin specifically tells me otherwise, I will continue to play the game as I see fit unless it's an official, admin-voted gimmick round.

- sLaughter

[Dispozition]

The way I run gimmick rounds is with vote, I'll only enforce them if the vote is above 90% positive or the nearest % for the number of people on. If I start hearing a few people complaining I'll do another vote, same rules.

I'm a fan of gimmick rounds, but they do come out few and far between, and often when the server is under 12 people, so it normally isn't a problem.

[Forbiddenwar]

So to play a good medic, I NEED a mic. I get it now. What mic should I get? Is there a good one I can get under $10? Kinda broke due to Steam Sales and poor impulse control.

[Vitruviansquid]

(Steam) Why pay under $10 for a mic when you could be using that money to buy King's Bounty? Or Killing Floor? (/Steam)

But seriously, it's probably better to save up for a better mic rather than buying a cheap one that will have to be replaced anyways.

[ZeroNumerous]

Most of us don't know how it works.

Well, I don't.

I don't really understand the bind thing either.

[Dispozition]

So to play a good medic, I NEED a mic. I get it now. What mic should I get? Is there a good one I can get under $10? Kinda broke due to Steam Sales and poor impulse control.

Spend at least $20 on it, or about $40 if you're getting a headset. The really cheap ones pick up poorly and tend to result in very bad quality voice.