Powerlord

So, I got a package in the mail today from a David Hubbard. I bet you can't guess what that had in it! ...but wait, I'm one of the people who got a super sekrut mystery prize, so maybe you don't know!

I beat you to it and updated ctf_1fort on the server yesterday.

Current map rotation is: ctf_2fort cp_granary ctf_well arena_badlands cp_dustbowl tc_hydro pl_badwater cp_fastlane pl_goldrush cp_gravelpit cp_orange_x3 pl_dbheights_b2 arena_ravine ctf_turbine cp_steel pl_goldrush cp_dustbowl pl_cashworks_b3a cp_well arena_lumberyard cp_badlands (looks like 2fort_night's been removed from rotation) Also, maplist has been updated. All maps on the server should now be in the nominate menu/admin list. There has also been one other slight change: rtv will only show maps from the map rotation except for those nominated by people. P.S. Is cp_downtown_a2 the new one?

For reference, here are links to all the maps on the download server. These are compressed bz2 files, but Steam games recognize them. Servers don't, but that's another story... Currently in map rotation: ctf_2fort_night pl_dbheights_b2 Currently in nominate/admin select screens: arena_2fort_b2 arena_mach2 arena_starship_v1 cp_2Skyscraper_b3 cp_420_water_arena_v3 cp_aqua cp_avante_b2 cp_blackmesa cp_castle4 cp_dam cp_desertfortress cp_downtown_b31 cp_lazytown cp_orange_x3 cp_shabbytown_final cp_snowpath_b2 cp_studio_rc4 cp_warpath ctf_convoy_v2 ctf_cruise_b1 ctf_mach4 ctf_snofort_final pl_cashworks_b3a pl_cave_b6 pl_donkeykong_final pl_dustbowl_b4 pl_haywood_beta6 pl_hoodoo pl_strider_v1 Not currently in nominate/admin screens, but still on server: achievementbox_b3 arena_harvest_v2 avanti_b1 cp_concussion cp_corporation_b3 cp_cyberpunk cp_labor cp_smbcastle2 cp_stronghold_b1 cp_toy_fort_elite cp_warpath2 cp_wolf2_b1 cp_woodshed_b2 ctf_1fort_a1 ctf_2docks ctf_aesoprock_b7 ctf_bball2 ctf_blitz ctf_crossunder ctf_hallofdeath ctf_royal_b3 ctp_epsilon_a3 cyberpunk garbage_day pl_cranetop_b8 pl_frontier_b2 pl_grassandcave_a5 pl_payback_beta pl_woodland_b4

I know which file it is; I had to update it to add the new versions of the maps that were in there. Also, the regular maplist.txt seemed to be the same thing, so I replaced that one, too.

I was back last night, and after a bit of fumbling on the first map (ctf_well), I think I'm back on form. I might be back tonight, depending on how far I am along in this assignment that's due tomorrow. Edit: I'm bored of working on this assignment, so I'm checking to see which of our maps are out of date and installing new versions. The following map upgrades will be installed (those without versions are the "final" versions): arena_harvest_v2 cp_corporation_b3 cp_shabbytown_final cp_woodshed_b2 ctf_2docks ctf_aesoprock_b7 pl_cashworks_b3a pl_cranetop_b8 pl_frontier_b2 pl_haywood_beta6 pl_hoodoo pl_strider_v1 pl_woodland_b4 Edit 2: I just noticed that a lot of these aren't on the server's list of maps to include in the nominate menu, so you can't access them anyway.

I know that, personally, I'm more likely to leave the server during Hydro than any other map.

Ha, you can't even remember which game it was!

Yes, school sucks, so do headaches. The funny thing is, you weren't even talking to me, and yet... it describes what's going on in my life right now (fun fact: I missed two classes this week due to headaches from not getting enough sleep). Then again, even without homework, I have a 50+ hour work + school week.

Yes, on top of the crates is annoying, as you have to have a near pixel-perfect crouch-jump from one of the upper areas to land on it as a Spy. I think the crates may be *just* low enough to slap sappers on sentries that aren't in the exact center, though. There are other ways of getting around this now. The Scout's Bonk Energy Drink is particularly useful, as sentries tend to follow their current target. A Scout distracts it, and a Soldier/Heavy/Demo destroys it. As I recall, Garian (as Scout) and myself (as Soldier) have used this trick to kill a sentry on Steel near point A before. If it wasn't Garian, I apologize to whomever it was, as I've forgotten. Because of the way Badwater is designed, it's possible for a RED Engineer to sneak past BLU pushing the cart from point B to point C, particularly if they already have a teleporter hidden in the area behind point B. They can then put a sentry up top of the building by B, so that when point C is taken, and the BLU spawn moves to the door by point B, it kills anyone who comes out the spawn door. Sadly, I've seen a certain clan do this on Turbine as Engineers before. Not to name any names, but the clan tag started with the last letter of the alphabet and the players in question were regulars. If there's 12 demomen, start kicking people. Actually, I've considered installing a class limiter before, but I didn't think that'd go over too well, so I declined to do it.

You need more spies and medics, then, and maybe your own sniper. Don't underestimate the use of the support classes.

Alltalk makes that harder, unfortunately... and we keep alltalk always on. Edit: Oh, before I forget, if you want to see any other specific messages in the messages that show up every 3 minutes, tell me. Or tell Baha, but I don't know if he's read the advertisements plugin's docs.

While I get annoyed by sentries, sentries are too stupid to shoot at a door just because it goes up (i.e. when a Cloaked Spy comes out), unlike a demo, who will blow the stickies as soon as the door moves. That and a Spy can sap a sentry, disabling it while the other team members kill it. Edit: Granted, this strategy requires teamwork. Note: I'm referring to taking out sentries behind opaque doors in general, not just the ones in Turbine. Badwater's second blue spawn is one that comes to mind.

OK, thanks. Also, TF2 update was released a bit ago. I'm having the server update now. It's being kindof slow about it, but don't under any circumstances reboot the server while it's upgrading. Last time that happened, I had to reinstall everything. Edit: Server's back up now.

Gameservers changed their server startup a while back so that it checks for new patches every time it starts up. Hence why there was the problem Brushfire mentioned a few days ago with the server not coming back up after a reboot because the Steam update servers weren't responding. Edit: Also, the Install Steam Update button no longer does anything as far as I can tell. Edit 2: I've gotten really burned out on TF2 lately, so I probably won't be on much.

There's a patch today for the Invalid Steam ID ticket thing. I can't tell whether or not the server has been upgraded, but I'm going to assume it was since HLStatsX reports it was rebooted about an hour ago.

It's a network problem between the server and Valve's central authentication server. Restarting the server shouldn't help in that case.

The server's running again, but the "Invalid Steam UserID Ticket" issue is back. Not sure what's going on with Valve's authentication servers today, but it's annoying.

Oh, I suppose I should mention this: the only reason duplicates were removed before was because we were having an auto-map vote, and if a map appeared in rotation more than once, it could appear as a voting option more than once. P.S. As long as snowpath isn't the insta-cap map, it should be OK. I hate the insta-cap version of that map, as it's really, REALLY cheesy.

Sure, we can move maps around in the rotation. Personally, I hate hydro... steel is another map that people tend to leave during, particularly if one team is clearly outclassing the other. The hydro/gravelpit/hydro/gravelpit thing last night was caused by: 1. Me replacing the stock mapcycle during ctf_2fort right before the first hydro. (See: Server Reinstall stuff earlier) 2. Me forcing a map change to hydro (I think...) 3. Me forcing a map change to gravelpit during hydro (the first time). 4. Sourcemod's (new?) quirky behavior that map changes don't replace the next map in the mapcycle. 5. Gravelpit already follows hydro in the mapcycle. No clue about the 2fort/egypt/2fort thing, though. We had one of those for a while, but I recall people wanted it turned off. The only reason I added ctf_well in was because there's so few Valve CTF maps, and we just had the Scout update... I took cp_well out because I thought people would complain about having two Wells in the rotation. Fun Fact: Well is the only map that has 3 versions: CTF, CP, and Arena. All it needs is pl_well to complete the set!

Actually, I changed it about a week ago... swapped out arena_watchtower for cp_junction_final and cp_well for ctf_well, then reordered the maps to move the pl maps farther apart.

Speaking of which, the current rotation is: ctf_2fort cp_egypt_final pl_badwater cp_granary ctf_well cp_junction_final tc_hydro cp_gravelpit ctf_turbine cp_steel pl_goldrush cp_dustbowl There's also an odd change in Sourcemod 1.2... it apparently inserts any rtved map in place of the current map in rotation, so it still doesn't change the next map.

Server is reinstalled and should be up and running normally again.

The server's been down for an hour now, with no sign of Gameservers staff doing anything to fix it. It took me all of 1 minute using Google to figure out what to run at the command line (which we don't have access to) to fix it. I'm going to start a server reinstall in 5 minutes, since it will apparently be quicker than getting Tech Support to do something.

Server's temporarily down because Valve's update server is being really, REALLY slow. I mean, the server's only on its first file (server.dll), and it's not even a file used by a Linux TF2 server. Edit: Server's now throwing a Bus Error. I've filed a ticket with Tech Support.