Powerlord

I discovered an error in the startup scripts for the current servers that made both servers use the same core. Now both servers will use both cores as needed (which shouldn't be a problem unless both are really busy). I'm hoping correcting this problem with fix the lag spikes that occasionally happen.

Or you could wait until the 22nd, when they'll get crafting recipes. I'm not sure if they're dropping normally now or not; if not, they will starting the 22nd. As for the crates, honestly, the Nice crates are more useful for getting the holiday hats than weapons (the Holiday hats have a 45% or so chance or dropping from a Nice Winter Crate). Those weapons will likely get crafting recipes and start dropping on the 22nd as well.

No, give them to me!

Server updater just sat there for 90 minutes, so I just restarted it, and it immediately finished and confirmed the server was up to date. Restarted BLU and changed it to cp_foundry to attract players.

BLU *should* auto-update, but we'll see.

There is also a Festive Bat in the game files. Anyway, as soon as I get a Spysicle, it's going in my DR/Enforcer set. Also, Familiar Fez can be worn with face items again. \o/ Edit: Required TF2 update in a few minutes.

BLU is back up now. Apparently there may be some issues with this updater as it's misdetecting when an update is completed. >

They are tradeable. And thank god someone replied so I can say this in a separate post. Valve's Linux server update deleted an important server file and the server will be down until they ship another update that adds the updated version of said file. Right now, the server just crashes on startup, even with addons disabled.

Update time! BLU is currently verifying the updated prior to restarting (this is part of the auto-update sequence to prevent a bad update from crashing the server). Edit: I need to force a restart on BLU, as Valve either deleted or removed the file the updater uses to check versions. Edit 2: Yeah, that file apparently causes other problems when it's missing. Server is now crashing on startup, even with addons disabled. Harassing Valve on the mailing list now as well as trying a -verify_all.

Last one, actually. However, the server now starts on a random map, and it's in the map list, so it will be immediately nominateable. Also, I've extended the time for cp_foundry to 120 minutes (if it's named cp_foundry.bsp that is).

No, it hasn't happened yet.

I always try to keep at least 2 of every item for this reason.

I just noticed that this is only marked as "Part 1", so there is be more coming. Incidentally, this is the Engineer's first item set, and the Pyro's second. Thanks to the magic of auto-updating and Valve overwriting mapcycle.txt on me even if I don't want them to, cp_foundry should be immediately available on BLU when it auto-restarts.

Paranoid forgot to mention the new 5CP map: Foundry. It's going to have 12 map-specific achievements. Gaining 7 grants you a new hat, Full Head of Steam. No word yet as to what the naughty/nice crates will contain.

For those of you who haven't noticed, RED is still set up to play Vs. Saxton Hale. I'm considering disabling stats on it, though, as it's really screwing up our stats (in my favor, because either Arena or Vs Saxton Hale awards medics as MVP nearly every time). As a side note, if people hadn't noticed, two new Winter crates are dropping as of Friday: Naughty Winter Crate and Nice Winter Crate. Both contents unknown, because they require special keys. This is a warning that we're likely to have a new weapon/hat update on Thursday.

Yes, same time as this week. Although... I'm being lazy and leaving the server running in Saxton Hale mode.

Vs. Saxton Hale was mostly a success last night. There were a few lag issues, although they weren't as bad as Friday night; I may still disable a few things to see if I can get the problem fixed. The mode does a number of changes to weapons as well as disallowing some outright. See the TF2 wiki for balance details. One thing the wiki failed to mention is that the boss characters can build up their superjump meter by holding the right mouse button.

I updated SourceMod to 1.4.1 this morning. After double-checking to make sure everything had gotten upgraded, I noticed three plugins that were not the versions they should have been: 1. SourceBans was still 1.4.8. Version 1.4.9 is the version of SourceBans the database and web server use. 2. Immunity4Replay was still 3.4.0. Version 3.4.1 that fixes issues with it potentially interfering with other plugins that do admin checks. 3. MapChooser Extended Sounds was still 1.2. Version 1.3 stopped using a deprecated forward. So, now all of these have been updated to the correct versions, and hopefully fixes any potential bugs. The servers now choose a random map on startup rather than starting up on a specific map.

I've updated the startup for BLU and RED to set RDTSC_FREQUENCY=disabled. This fixed some weird issues we had on previous servers, I'm hoping it does the same here, too. I've restarted RED, but not BLU. Edit: If that doesn't help, I'll remove replays, then start seeing if any extension/plugins can be removed to fix it... it looks suspiciously like either server or network lag, but I can't actually tell which.

I've tentatively scheduled Vs. Saxton Hale 7pm EST / 4pm PST / 11:59pm UTC tomorrow, followed by an encore a week after that. I wish people would suggest times for these events other than just the day, but eh. If anyone wants to suggest other times or changes to one of the two, feel free. Also, the expected map list is: arena_badlands arena_granary arena_lumberyard arena_pool_day arena_sawmill arena_towertop arena_watchtower arena_well vsh_aperture_b2a vsh_courtyard vsh_crevice_b2 vsh_farm_feud vsh_ram_shacked_b6 vsh_spotline_reworked vsh_tundra_b3 vsh_warebloom_b7 vsh_west_fix Several of the arena maps are standard arena maps. One of them is based on a koth map some of you may be familiar with... sadly, it wasn't a triumph and I'm not making a note here. Before playing, you should be aware of Hale's specials. It also lists changes to weapons for balance reasons (such as Spy knives not killing Saxton Hale). Also, I'm not sure if people will find the other character offensive or not. The other two that I know of (that appear randomly instead of Saxton Hale) are the Vagineer and Christian Brutal Sniper. I can switch them off if people dislike them. Map time has been bumped up to 20 minutes, and each map can be extended 3 times. The first round on each map will be played as a normal arena round to ensure enough people join before the real round begins. Edit: Note: You WILL need server downloads enabled to play this correctly, otherwise the bosses will just appear as giant error signs. This means you, ParanoidDrone.

New update We'll see if the autoupdater works on the new server. Also, I've been adding a bunch of maps to the event server for the Vs. Saxton Hale event. You can download them early, although more may be added to the list before game day. Some arena maps that already are in the game may also appear. Edit: Auto-update completed successfully. BLU and RED were both restarted. Edit 2: Has anyone tested replays on the new server? I keep forgetting to check it.

SourceMod 1.4.1 was released today, but I likely won't have a chance to install it until tomorrow.

So, someone mentioned possibly having a Vs. Saxton Hale night on the event server. Are people actually interested in this? Before you say no, I'm going to note that I already did a lot of setup for this already, although right now RED is still running its standard server (I have separate executables and settings for the event version). I guess another question is, when should we have it? Unlike Prop Hunt, where you can have fun even with just a few people. Vs. Saxton Hale really requires a lot of people on at the same time.

BuiltinVotes has been upgraded to 0.5.0. MapChooser Extended has been upgraded to 1.8.0. What these add: /revote and !revote now work with BuiltinVotes, but there is a 3 second delay due to how it works... the server shows you a generic vote failed screen ASAP (which has a delay on the client side), then as soon as possible it shows you the vote screen again. Sadly, the failure command is required because otherwise, if the vote redisplays, you can't change your choice. Incidentally, /revote and !revote are now blocked for the last 3 seconds of a vote, and I'm going to extend the vote time by 10 seconds. Admins now have an mce_forcertv command. I don't recommend using it, but it was a requested feature. Basically, it starts an rtv-style map vote and changes the map as soon as its finished. The rtv vote success message now makes more sense (it says "Changing level to" in English rather than "Set Next Level to") rtv now has a countdown timer, just like the end of map vote does.

Actually, I may need to adjust the pure whitelist, as I didn't copy it over from the old server... and that tends to block certain custom things. Edit: Updated now... I also tried to bring it up to date, somehow my last edits to this file got lost during the several server changes we did. Speaking of updates, I updated the nemrun startup script, SourceBans (whose web interface stopped working properly sometime recently), and HLStatsX CE. nemrun is the system that allows the servers to update, then auto-restart.