Yeah, we’re back up… again!! LOL :-P THIS time, I’m hosting one of my own personal rackmount servers at Boomhauer’s place of work, which just happens to be a network/data center in Dallas, TX. After the shit that happened with my previous server host, Boomhauer contacted me, and extended a helping hand, offering to host a public server for the community. So as of yesterday, we’re back up with a public server. Many thanks to Boomhauer for helping to keep the Hardfought community active with a place to play.
The details: First off, the physical specs, and those of ya that attended HF LAN’s #6 and 7 have met this beast up close and personal. The server is a dual 3GHz Xeon rackmount, w/ 4GB ECC RAM, and a pair of Ultra320 SCSI drives set up in a RAID 0 array. The network backbone it currently sits on is Time Warner (backup links to MCI and Level3). HlstatsX is installed and operational, so real time in-game stats are available, just as before. To see the web stats, go to http://css.hardfought.org/hlstatsx/hlstats.php – maxplayers is set to 24, and the tickrate is set to 100, and ‘hyperboosted’.
The IP address – 216.110.9.77 or you can use css.hardfought.org, default port (27015).
The configuration of the game server is basically the same as before, but with a few changes that ya’ll should be made aware of… first, the map rotation and maps that are available for vote. A LOT more of the stock maps are now available at the end of round vote, and *every* map is available for admins to initiate a vote on. In the msgboard thread that will go with this post, I’ll post the list of maps that are available. I took out a couple like cs_havana, de_chateau, etc. Another thing that’s been activated is the team wounding code in the MANI plugin. I’ve tweaked it though, so it’s conservative… meaning it wont start dishing out reflective damage to the team wounder until X number of team wounds by that person per map have occured (this damage dealt back will constantly go up as the team wounds continue). It’s set to handle the blatant team wounders, without overtly punishing those of us who occasionlly team wound on accident.
The last change is mainly for our admin staff. I’ve beefed up the admin immunities, meaning that no admin can slap/slay/kick/ban/burn/etc another admin at all, including me. Lately we had some instances of admin abuse against other admins, of which I was also guilty of, and it was sending out the wrong message to everyone else playing. So that temptation is no longer available.
If you’ve been reading the news here lately, then ya know about the drama with our CS:S clan being hijacked, and the discussions surrounding that. Part of those discussions focused on how the server was getting away from the community, and was focusing more on being ‘competitive’. Well, guess what? I’m moving the focus back to the community, where it shoulda stayed all along. News flash folks – you can be community-orientated, and be ‘competitive’ at the same time. I’ve been talking to the admin staff about it, and we’re gonna bring back the atmosphere that Hardfought has always been known for – a great place for you and your friends to play at. It was always there, but just buried somewhat. Time to dig it back up ;-)
I don’t expect the server to be instantly full 24/7 right out the gate. But tell your friends we’re still up, and on a better machine than before, with the main focus being YOU. So let’s get some games goin’ gang. See ya on the server.