[toj.cc] Server?

Captain_Tea

Captain_Tea

Active Member
I am thinking about starting up a server. What do you guys think?. I am probably going to use Killer Pings to host it. I want to have the votable gametypes and chat filter and all that. I will have DM, Onslaught, TAM, Freon, Co-op and any others that you guys would like. I was going to wait till TOJ got the money to start their own, but the donations have kind of reached a standstill. A lot more of the toj's played back when the Landmass was running, and I am hoping that us having a server again will bring some people back in the game. If not, i'm sure that it will get plenty of traffic anyway by having Freon on the server, it seems to be the big draw these days. :D
 
Captain_Tea said:
I am thinking about starting up a server. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
As always, I have mixed feelings about members running individual servers as opposed to donating toward a dedicated server. On the one hand, I love UT2004 and I want to play the game with other ToJ members in an environment in which we have control over the rules and server configuration. On the other hand, the money could go toward a dedicated server that could host servers for multiple games.

One could say that we need to put all money in one big pool. Another person could argue that we need to pick up activity before people will take notice of Tribe of Judah's FPS chapters and donate toward a server. Both arguments have merit.

Captain_Tea said:
I was going to wait till TOJ got the money to start their own, but the donations have kind of reached a standstill.
Click to expand...
Aye, and that's the clincher.

I'm fine with either decision. Both have advantages, both have disadvantages. And you know that if you put up a UT2004 server, I will make a point to join you guys as often as possible. :)
 
Tek7 said:
I'm fine with either decision. Both have advantages, both have disadvantages. And you know that if you put up a UT2004 server, I will make a point to join you guys as often as possible. :)
Click to expand...

Cool, now that I have your blessing Tek7, if no one else has an objection, I will talk it over with Mrs. Captain_Tea and get her blessing (out of respect not fear ;)) and then I will make it happen. :cool: :D :p
 
Last edited:
Captain_Tea said:
Cool, now that I have your blessing Tek7, if no one else has an objection, I will talk it over with Mrs. Captain_Tea and get her blessing (out of respect not fear ;)) and then I will make it happen. :cool: :D :p
Click to expand...

theres a bit of fear in that statement i think >.> was thinking of actuallying buying the game so i might now if u guys have a server operationals
 
I am not opposed to the idea of a server, but I am not going to have the time or cash available to support it like I did for the Landmass. It would give us a home base of sorts, but I will mention one piece of advice: running a server has, in my experience, been a lot more work than it originally seems to be, especially if you're trying to learn as you go like I was... but I don't want to dissuade you, because I think the idea is certainly worthwhile.

On the other hand, a dedicated server would be pretty cool, but I can remember the old dedicated box we had, and the UT2k4 server that ran on that, and while it was good for what it did, the connection was unreliable and the pings were nearly always higher than they should have been. Now granted, the CS servers that ran on that same box were seeing a ton of activity at the time, and the CS chapter is not as active as it was... so I don't know if we'd see a repeat of that. I don't want to come out directly against a dedicated box, because I really do want to see us have one of those again for TOJ as a whole. But I don't know if that can be a suitable solution for the UT chapter in particular given our past experiences.

And then there's the timing issue. UT3 is going to be out shortly, which will be a new paradigm entirely. UT3 might run very well sharing a box with other servers. I don't think anyone can definitively say at this point. So I guess just color me riddled with uncertainty about the entire issue.
 
kraniac said:
I am not opposed to the idea of a server, but I am not going to have the time or cash available to support it like I did for the Landmass. It would give us a home base of sorts, but I will mention one piece of advice: running a server has, in my experience, been a lot more work than it originally seems to be, especially if you're trying to learn as you go like I was... but I don't want to dissuade you, because I think the idea is certainly worthwhile.

On the other hand, a dedicated server would be pretty cool, but I can remember the old dedicated box we had, and the UT2k4 server that ran on that, and while it was good for what it did, the connection was unreliable and the pings were nearly always higher than they should have been. Now granted, the CS servers that ran on that same box were seeing a ton of activity at the time, and the CS chapter is not as active as it was... so I don't know if we'd see a repeat of that. I don't want to come out directly against a dedicated box, because I really do want to see us have one of those again for TOJ as a whole. But I don't know if that can be a suitable solution for the UT chapter in particular given our past experiences.

And then there's the timing issue. UT3 is going to be out shortly, which will be a new paradigm entirely. UT3 might run very well sharing a box with other servers. I don't think anyone can definitively say at this point. So I guess just color me riddled with uncertainty about the entire issue.
Click to expand...


Money is not an issue I will pay for it myself, It will cost $17 per month to rent a 12 slot server from KillerPings.com, less if you rent in 6 or 12 month blocks, and you have unlimited space for maps and mods. They set it up and give you full control, as well as 24/7/365 support. I figured running 10 slots for players and 2 for spectators. I have never ran a server before so there is going to be a learning curve. Any help, advice and wisdom will be greatly appreciated. My intention is that people continue to give toward the official TOJ server fund. I don't want this to take away from that goal.

I also know that Kraniac had mentioned opening up the Landmass again as a UT3 server. This way if I get this 1 going and he gets that 1 going, we will have both games covered for the time being until we get the revenue to get our own TOJ server purchased and up and running.
 
Things are a go with Mrs. Captain_Tea. Once I place the order (probably tonight), they will have the server up and running in 24hrs or less. :D
 
Captain_Tea said:
Things are a go with Mrs. Captain_Tea. Once I place the order (probably tonight), they will have the server up and running in 24hrs or less. :D
Click to expand...
Rock rock on!

Please post the IP address once the server is live and I'll do my best to hop on as soon as possible. :D
 
The first thing i'm gonna get set up is the chat filter and redirect, then i'll start tackling the maps & mods. If you guys have any favorite maps that you want to see on the server please let me know and i'll get them in the rotation. Did any of you want any additional game types or mods other than the 1's I listed above?

I think the server comes with a free website as well, should we utilize it for anything? For server rules and a link to the toj.cc website? I know nothing about setting up a website :).
 
Captain_Tea said:
Did any of you want any additional game types or mods other than the 1's I listed above?
Click to expand...
I <3 Onslaught, but I recognize that Onslaught probably isn't a good choice for a smaller server (since it takes 8 or more players to be fun).
 
You should at the very least install AntiTCC. If you want to run gametypes besides TAM and Freon, you should also install UTComp, although getting it to play nicely with TAM / Freon can be a minor pain. It took chu and I two months to figure out on LOB's private server.
 
kraniac said:
You should at the very least install AntiTCC. If you want to run gametypes besides TAM and Freon, you should also install UTComp, although getting it to play nicely with TAM / Freon can be a minor pain. It took chu and I two months to figure out on LOB's private server.
Click to expand...


AntiTCC is right up there in importance for me with the chat filter. I am registered on the Unreal Admin site and I have already located the latest version ;). I think UTComp is a great idea too, I will put it on there, but I will need to pick your brain since you've been through it before. I have never run a server before so anyone with experience please chime in and offer your advice. I want this server to have something for everyone, as much as is practical anyway, so keep the ideas coming. I want to be able to use it for fun and for any future scrims we may get ourselves into :D. UT3 may be coming out soon, but i'm sure that UT2004 will keep going strong for several years, especially considering that there is still quite a bit of activity in the original Unreal and UT99, and look at how old those games are :p. Given the hardware requirements of UT3 it may be a while before people are playing online in large #'s.
 
The best way to set it up is using the in-game vote menu. On the admin panel, you'll have voteable game settings, and there's a field where you can enter specific game variables you want changed as well as all the mutators you want loaded. You'll have to load 3SPN and UTComp through this system to ensure that they don't load simultaneously. If you use the UTComp voting menu or an external voting agent like UT2Vote, it will load incorrectly (UT2Vote is really useless anyway... it was required to have in UT2003 because there was no in-game voting, but porting it to UT2004 was just a silly idea IMO). The cool thing about this is that you can also change any server setting this way, including things like max number of players, as long as you know the name of the variable that needs to be changed, and you can look those up in the UT2004.ini file of the server. I used to have backup INI's of the LOB private server and the Landmass, complete with working voting options and settings that prevented UTComp and 3SPN from fighting for control of the server, but I can't seem to find them now. Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up on Xfire or AIM and I'll do the best I can to help you.
 
You have ASE? I thought Yahoo killed that a long time ago? Man, I've been looking for a Quake 1 server browser for ages.
 
kraniac said:
You have ASE? I thought Yahoo killed that a long time ago? Man, I've been looking for a Quake 1 server browser for ages.
Click to expand...
Aye, I bought ASE long before Yahoo! bought it. The releases dried up shortly after the acquisition; there hasn't been an update in ages. I use Steam's built-in browser for Half-Life and Source engine games; I use ASE for everything else.

In other news, I joined the server tonight and scored a few frags against the bot that automatically loaded. My ping held steady at ~80-85 ms. Good stuff. :D

By the bye, you'll want to pick up the 3SPN 3.1.4.1 package from 3spn.net before joining the server.
 
The server is most of the way there :D. I got chat filter, TAM, Freon, Onslaught, and UTcomp1.6 set up for DM and TDM, all working :D. Now it is time to start adding our favorite maps ;). I am entertaining the idea of adding Unreal 1 coop mod too. I think i have most of the bad words on the list in the chat filter, we can add more as they surface. I had to swear to prevent swearing lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top