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Archive for August, 2008

TF2 update - 27/09/2008

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

In case you missed it, early this morning there was an update for Team Fortress 2 servers:

A new required update for Team Fortress 2 has been released.  Please run
hldsupdatetool to receive it.  The specific changes include:

- Fixed a bug that prevented the correct Arena stats from being uploaded

Jason

Counter Strike and users.ini

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Just a very small update for Counter Strike 1.6 customers.

We’ve added in the file users.ini so you can edit this direct, and save different versions on our file editor.

Users.ini is the file used by AMXXmod to set admins, and admin permissions for managing Counter Strike game servers.

Team Fortress 2 server update

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

The long awaited update for Team Fortress 2 game servers has been released. The main part of this update is for the ‘Heavy’ class.

The required Heavy update for Team Fortress 2 has been released.  Please
use hldsupdatetool to receive it.  The specific changes include:

Added 3 Heavy unlockables:
- Natascha, The Sandvich, The Killing Gloves of Boxing
- Added 35 new Heavy achievements

Added Arena game mode:
- 5 arenas: Lumberyard, Ravine, Well, Granary, Badlands

- Added cp_steel, a community map by Jamie “Fishbus” Manson

Changes:
- Added server map timeleft to upper right of scoreboard
- Added new firing sounds to The Backburner
- Removed the Custom Tab in the serverbrowser, and added the Tags field
to the base Internet Tab
- Increased The Kritzkrieg’s uber-charge rate bonus from 10% to 25%
- 32 player servers can now support an extra slot of SourceTV
- Made the freezecam item panel description easier to read
- Players now broadcast whether they chose a team directly or use
autoteam
- Added proper handling of cart blocking recognition to Payload maps

Bug fixes:
- Fixed bug where switching from flaregun-wielding Pyro to another class
meant you didn’t get a full ammo loadout on first spawn
- Fixed Spy watch arm not using team skins
- Fixed weapon switching preventing you from using secondary attacks for
a 0.2s window after the primary became available
- Fixed players getting stuck in a bad animation state when class
switching while spinning the minigun
- Fixed a loophole that allowed players to pickup weapons of other
classes
- Fixed a bug that resulted in players earning more crit chance bonus in
large, single damage events than they are supposed to
- Fixed an issue with the floating HUD +X health indicators that
resulted in them appearing incorrectly
- Fixed a bug which caused the minigun spinning & firing sounds to
occasionally stop while the Heavy was still firing
- Fixes the Loadout player model panel causing the in-game player facial
animation to perform incorrectly
- Fixed spectators not having the target ID labels display correctly
- Fixed the cart alarm sound occasionally getting stuck on in Payload
maps

Jason

No Call of Duty 4 1.8 patch?

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

I read with a feeling of trepidation on our Call of Duty 4 forums a post from a gaming news site, claiming perhaps no 1.8 patch.

Ok so fair enough, we’ve had 7 patches to date. But what about the outstanding bugs and glitches? I thought to myself, I only play the game two hours a day. I’m in no authoritive position to moan. So I asked our Call of Duty 4 head admin, UkDarkstar what he thought. Here’s just a few moans we came up with.

No support for Call of Duty 4 clans with tags.

Bossy limits on how many characters you can fit in your tag. My INX| tag works fine though, I can’t complain! Lack of colour support in tags.

Call of Duty 4 server browser.

An age old argument, that continues to rage. Still little can be made of how the browser actually works. To give you an example, we setup a Call of Duty 4 public server with standard maps running Team Deathmatch a few weeks ago. Darkstar and I sat in it (him mainly owning me), and lo-behold within minutes people started to flock in. Before we know it we have 16 players in. When we leave, those players stay. Our public COD 4 server really has gone from strength to strength. During busy times, the server is full. You can’t get on!

Based on that success we setup another server, similar settings. In the we became so frustrated with filling the server, we ended up copying the configs from the first server. It was identical, bar the server IP. Does it fill? Not without a serious nudge.

Work that one out! We can’t, lol :-)

Ranks and perks not transfering

An age old argument. Should ranks work on un-ranked servers? An un-ranked Call of Duty 4 is essentially where you are running custom maps, mods etc. The perks and ranks are a great little feature to keep you hooked, but why the big fuss on them being played on stock? If the game was like Battlefield 2 for example, where you have global rankings no matter what server you play on, fair enough.

However, I found reinstalling my Call of Duty 4 the other day lost me my ranks and perks.

So why the big fuss?

Custom maps on Call of Duty 4 game servers

Better not get me started on this one ;)

As a game server host, we have our fingers crossed with every new release. We hope and pray they just make it easy for us. If you running custom maps on a game server, given the size of the files, fast downloads are a must.

With hlds / srcds games such as Counterstrike Source, they are a relative doddle. Sorry, but with Call of Duty 4 servers its a comparative nightmare.

Don’t get me wrong, as a server host we can work round it and get it working. But game publishers, or rather those that develop the server software architecture need to realise, not all the players are computer geniuses. And how’s that relevant? It’s the players that buy the game servers, which they run which attracts more and more players to the game. The more people that play the game, the more copies of the game sold. Easy ;) If you look at the long winded approach to setting up custom maps on a Call of Duty 4 server, you’ll get what I mean.

Call of Duty 4 isn’t that bad though is it?

No, not at all. I’ve not been so into a game since the original Counter Strike. As a gamer addict / freak, that speaks volumes. The realism, the graphics, the online play, is all fantastic.

I just feel perhaps it’s time before moving onto Call of Duty 5, that COD 4 and these niggles are ironed out. Just look at how Counterstrike Source, years on is still being bought and played. Surely from a financial point of view to the developers, if they patch up these niggles, Call of Duty 4 will continue to sell, and the servers around for a long time to come.

- Olly.

INX Call of Duty 4 Public Servers update

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

Well, since Olly kicked of the Public servers there’s a few of us now to admin them and I thought it would be useful to update you all on what they’re all about.

Both the servers are running TDM with a different mix of maps and they can be found at :

Public 1 : 85.234.148.4 Port 28160

Public 2 : 85.234.148.28 Port 28160

The servers are setup as stock hardcore so no mods or custom maps.

Considering they were only launched a week or so ago, Public 1 has done phenomenomly well rising about 9,500 places on Gametracker’s server listing in less than a week !

Public 2 is struggling  a little so if you have some spare time please sit on that to attract some players along. If you need a fragfest rush then get along to Public 1 which has been attracting 15-30 players most of the time :)

So what else is there to say about these two servers ?

Well, we’ve joined PBBans to help keep the servers cheat free and some players have been banned already. For those who don’t know, most servers run Punkbuster as the anti-cheat software (as do both of these). PBBans is one of a growing number of player developed sites that take the anti-cheat philosophy a step further. By checking CVARs or DVARs and MD5’s they can identify someone running a cheat. The player gets kciked from the server and banned (in real time) BUT also gets banned from all other servers that are streaming to PBBans so helping to keep the cheats off the streets and limiting the number of servers they can play on. Currently there are over 5,000 servers streaming to PBBans so around 25% of all servers.

We are also running stats for players which are regularly updated and will be reset each month. We’ll then keep a list over the year of the top players and maybe we could hold a competition at the end of the year ?

You can view your stats, as well as the Gametracker listing for the servers at :

http://cod4public.inx-gaming.co.uk/

so pop along and see how you stack up against your mates !

When playing on the public servers we would ask that you moderate your language and so no abusive or racist comments please. We also expect you to abide by any admin requests issued via the console.

If you’d like to post some of your screenshots from the Public servers or need to contest or report a ban then come along to the gaming community forums at :

http://www.inx-gaming.com/forum/

There are no claymores planted at the entrance and registration just takes a few moments !

If you have played the public servers and want your own for your Clan or even just for a get-together with your mates then you can find the details with an instant setup at :

http://www.inx-gaming.com/

So come join the fun now !

DS

Team Fortress 2 dedicated server update

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Early this morning, an update was release for Team Fortress 2 game servers

A new optional update for Team Fortress 2 has been released.  Please run
hldsupdatetool to receive it.  The specific changes include:

- Fixed _resetgamestats command causing server crash.
- Fixed clients earning achievements when a player they’ve recently
damaged suicides

Jason

To apply this update, either run the update tool, or something reboot your game server.

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