ferret
01-03-2005, 11:12 AM
Okay, its a new year, time to recap some things that have happened in the past year, and time to go over some things planned for this year. Technically we could wait till May to do this posting with the one year mark, but why not now?
First, we're doing great. We had a slow start on some of the game servers over the summer, but the forums have always been active and are only getting better, with new folks having shown up over the year and old folks come back. We currently average about 165 posts a day, and average one new user per day.
The game servers have been going through a lot of changes to try to suit the community best. We did UT2K4 for a long while, but while it was heavily active, it didn't seem any of us were actually playing and no new guys were coming into the community from that server. In an effort to get more system resources for other things, we shut it down. After a long quite summer, CS #1 really picked up and has been heavily active for several months now. Due to its high success, a CS #2 was started. It did okay but didn't really gather the same activity.. Until we put Warcraft3 mod on it. Its now probably the most active server. So, with two heavily active server we took a gamble and put up CS #3 running Deathmatch: Its been full since it was started.
Some other things were tried over the year. Briefly we hosted Team Fortress Classic, and have on and off again hosted DoD. CSS has been on and off again active, and HL2DM has gotten a lot of activity. NS had a couple of months of good activity as well.
So, what's the plans, man?
First, let's talk about CSS, DOD:S, and HL2DM. While HL2DM has gotten a lot of activity, CSS has been rather barren with complaints of extra lag than normal. This will hopefully be resolved shortly, when I remove several adjustments to the system that we made for hosting NS. Fixing these adjustments should also improve pings and performance on the 3 CS 1.6 servers and HL2DM. Hopefully CSS will become more active with that issue resolved. I am also researching Adminmod like plugins to use instead of RCON, so the admins have a better time enforcing the rules.
Second, the CS 1.6 servers: These are pretty much good to go, with some minor things. First, the UFFC plugin used by CS #1 for friendly fire is being completely rewritten. It will make a few things more annoying, but at the same time fix many bugs that have gotten people banned for stuff they didn't do. Second, CS #1 and CS #2 will at some point be switching from AMX to AMXX. CS #3 already uses AMXX because it is needed for CSDM. I can't say what benefits this might bring in terms of performance, but AMXX is actively updated and open source, while AMX hasn't been updated by the original developement team in over a year. Working with AMXX should give us a lot more potential for admin tools and fun plugins.
DOD is going to be shutdown. When DOD:S is released we will test to see how much interest there is in it, and put a server up.
I can't guess the future of the NS server at this time. Activity has dropped, but a lot of the major regulars are busy playing WoW and may eventually return to playing NS. Version 3 Beta 6 is on the way soon so hopefully this great game will pick back up.
Okay, now, the webpage. Obviously we've added a ton of stuff over the year, and more is coming. Here's some of the things currently on my list to do, with the help of various community members:
- All new theme with images (Same color scheme though, sorry)
- Adjustments to the photo gallery for better browsing, rankings, and comment posting.
- Ban list from the CS servers
- Spell checker (This depends on my finding a free solution)
- Fixing the calendar (Last phpBB upgrade broke it)
- Getting the Source servers into the Monitor window.
So, busy busy busy. One more thing to address: Money.
The google ads were tested over the month of December, and here's the verdict: Your clicks raised $216.00/
This is awesome, as the main server only costs $160 each month, meaning a little extra is left to offset past expenses and hold in reserve on slow months. Please keep clicking the ads, just once a day can add up very quickly.
Everyone should also give big thanks to everyone listed on the donation page. These people have helped pay for the server month after month, and their donations are appreciated even now. I don't make a great deal of money, and between the baby, gaming, family, wife, work, school, all the time I put into this site, everything you send helps us out just a little in the costs of running the site and neglecting other real world duties.
I know I've been slow to update the list with the most recent donations: December has been busy as hell IRL. I will hopefully have the latest 3-4 donations up by tonight.
And that's all folks. Please add your comments on the directions you'd like to see the community go in this year. Please don't flame, I'll just have to delete the posts.
First, we're doing great. We had a slow start on some of the game servers over the summer, but the forums have always been active and are only getting better, with new folks having shown up over the year and old folks come back. We currently average about 165 posts a day, and average one new user per day.
The game servers have been going through a lot of changes to try to suit the community best. We did UT2K4 for a long while, but while it was heavily active, it didn't seem any of us were actually playing and no new guys were coming into the community from that server. In an effort to get more system resources for other things, we shut it down. After a long quite summer, CS #1 really picked up and has been heavily active for several months now. Due to its high success, a CS #2 was started. It did okay but didn't really gather the same activity.. Until we put Warcraft3 mod on it. Its now probably the most active server. So, with two heavily active server we took a gamble and put up CS #3 running Deathmatch: Its been full since it was started.
Some other things were tried over the year. Briefly we hosted Team Fortress Classic, and have on and off again hosted DoD. CSS has been on and off again active, and HL2DM has gotten a lot of activity. NS had a couple of months of good activity as well.
So, what's the plans, man?
First, let's talk about CSS, DOD:S, and HL2DM. While HL2DM has gotten a lot of activity, CSS has been rather barren with complaints of extra lag than normal. This will hopefully be resolved shortly, when I remove several adjustments to the system that we made for hosting NS. Fixing these adjustments should also improve pings and performance on the 3 CS 1.6 servers and HL2DM. Hopefully CSS will become more active with that issue resolved. I am also researching Adminmod like plugins to use instead of RCON, so the admins have a better time enforcing the rules.
Second, the CS 1.6 servers: These are pretty much good to go, with some minor things. First, the UFFC plugin used by CS #1 for friendly fire is being completely rewritten. It will make a few things more annoying, but at the same time fix many bugs that have gotten people banned for stuff they didn't do. Second, CS #1 and CS #2 will at some point be switching from AMX to AMXX. CS #3 already uses AMXX because it is needed for CSDM. I can't say what benefits this might bring in terms of performance, but AMXX is actively updated and open source, while AMX hasn't been updated by the original developement team in over a year. Working with AMXX should give us a lot more potential for admin tools and fun plugins.
DOD is going to be shutdown. When DOD:S is released we will test to see how much interest there is in it, and put a server up.
I can't guess the future of the NS server at this time. Activity has dropped, but a lot of the major regulars are busy playing WoW and may eventually return to playing NS. Version 3 Beta 6 is on the way soon so hopefully this great game will pick back up.
Okay, now, the webpage. Obviously we've added a ton of stuff over the year, and more is coming. Here's some of the things currently on my list to do, with the help of various community members:
- All new theme with images (Same color scheme though, sorry)
- Adjustments to the photo gallery for better browsing, rankings, and comment posting.
- Ban list from the CS servers
- Spell checker (This depends on my finding a free solution)
- Fixing the calendar (Last phpBB upgrade broke it)
- Getting the Source servers into the Monitor window.
So, busy busy busy. One more thing to address: Money.
The google ads were tested over the month of December, and here's the verdict: Your clicks raised $216.00/
This is awesome, as the main server only costs $160 each month, meaning a little extra is left to offset past expenses and hold in reserve on slow months. Please keep clicking the ads, just once a day can add up very quickly.
Everyone should also give big thanks to everyone listed on the donation page. These people have helped pay for the server month after month, and their donations are appreciated even now. I don't make a great deal of money, and between the baby, gaming, family, wife, work, school, all the time I put into this site, everything you send helps us out just a little in the costs of running the site and neglecting other real world duties.
I know I've been slow to update the list with the most recent donations: December has been busy as hell IRL. I will hopefully have the latest 3-4 donations up by tonight.
And that's all folks. Please add your comments on the directions you'd like to see the community go in this year. Please don't flame, I'll just have to delete the posts.