New Official Game Servers

[DZComposer]

Poll Results:

Game night participation is now at an all time low. The only thing keeping our TF2 nights alive are pubbers at this point, so it is coming to the point where changes need to be made to keep the server a cost-effective expenditure.

 

I can only assume that the community has moved-on from TF2. I notice the unofficial Killing Floor server getting way more activity than the official TF2 server, for instance.

 

I am open to suggestions for new games, so long as they meet the following criteria:

 

1. No closed betas.

 

2. Server license must come with the client. The server VM itself is expensive enough.

 

3. Server must run on Windows Server 2008 and without the need to render graphics.

 

4. Sysreqs must meet:

Two full, dedicated HT CPU cores (Nehalem or better)

2048 MB of RAM

200 GB of RAID-protected storage

Potential candidates I have identified:

- Killing Floor

- Minecraft - (this would have to be the only game due to resource usage)

- CS:Go

- Left 4 Dead 2

Open to suggestions.

[LoneWolf]

http://www.xonotic.org/ is fast paced, addicting, and can pretty much run on a potato. Server client is included with the DL, which is free. Can be hosted on a toaster. Tons of fun. Only thing it lacks is voice support, which is remedied by steam. Give it a try alone, and if you like shoot me a message on steam, since I host on occasion.

 

Garry's Mod is a riot but is pretty resource intensive. Perhaps a TTT server?

 

Otherwise Killing Floor and L4D2 are great candidates, though people tend to get burnt out on L4D2 pretty quick.

[Dr. Orange]

I'm up for a L4D and a KF. The one I ran has been canceled since of a lack of funds. 

 

As for TF2, I don't know if it's Summer or what, but if nobody is really on in the next couple of weeks, what about shutting off the server until we organize a true game night. I'm talking about SF-Oers filling up both sides of the team. When shit was good.

[Thu'um]

L4D is alright, but i'd much prefer KF but it lacks the amount of people we would want to play with I think.

 

Planet side 2 was a suggestion of mine, we could have as many players as we want....Just with out an actual server. We'd be able to make some kind of SFO Clan and roll together, but owning an individual server wouldn't be possible I think. The game is free and there are pay to win aspects, but they're really minor. The default stuff gets kills, and team work and numbers are what its about anyway.  

 

CS:GO sounds awesome, except that I don't own the game, but I've been meaning to get it and if we had a game night for it you could count me in.

 

Another suggestion, and i'm throwing it out merely for the sake of it. Dota 2. Not nearly the large teams we'd like, and with the aggravated tendencies a lot of us seem to have it may be the worst idea ever.

 

I always attempted to show up to sfo tf2 nights and a lot of times only a few ever showed up. I don't really blame you all, we've been at it for quite a while. But to me this whole issue isn't finding a server exactly. Its finding a game most of us are willing to play together. An SFO game night doesn't have to be on SFO server so much as a bunch of us getting on together and playing. So if the issue comes down to the ability to host a server for that game I don't see it as necessary. We just need to finding something we'll all play.  

[Thu'um]

Also counter strike is like 5 dollars right now on steam.

[sroberson]

Planet side 2 was a suggestion of mine, we could have as many players as we want....Just with out an actual server. We'd be able to make some kind of SFO Clan and roll together, but owning an individual server wouldn't be possible I think. The game is free and there are pay to win aspects, but they're really minor. The default stuff gets kills, and team work and numbers are what its about anyway.  

I picked up Planetside 2 a while back when I got my new computer and thought the same thing to myself...I have tried playing it with others but always had a problem with actually "playing" the game with a team.  Even when I was sitting right next to the other person playing they would always get killed and respawn a million miles away.  Despite this I think it would be pretty awesome if we did get a clan going and meet up once in a while to play...would have to decide on a faction though.

 

I was partial to throwing my vote in for CS:GO if we were going to switch to something else simply because of the environment.  But for some reason it would feel weird not utilizing different classes and just being a slug fest shoot-em-all.  

 

Just curious, does anyone know the preferred upload speed for hosting a TF2 server?  I tried hosting one a while back just to say I did it (and also because I thought I would get into modding my server and just leaving it up).  

[Thu'um]

I picked up Planetside 2 a while back when I got my new computer and thought the same thing to myself...I have tried playing it with others but always had a problem with actually "playing" the game with a team.  Even when I was sitting right next to the other person playing they would always get killed and respawn a million miles away.  Despite this I think it would be pretty awesome if we did get a clan going and meet up once in a while to play...would have to decide on a faction though.

 

I was partial to throwing my vote in for CS:GO if we were going to switch to something else simply because of the environment.  But for some reason it would feel weird not utilizing different classes and just being a slug fest shoot-em-all.  

 

Just curious, does anyone know the preferred upload speed for hosting a TF2 server?  I tried hosting one a while back just to say I did it (and also because I thought I would get into modding my server and just leaving it up).  

there are squad spawning options. And the game is so large it would be kinda neat to have an SFO hit squad, but we'd also all have to get on the same server....

 

CS:GO is my vote though.

[Icy]

I still love TF2 and try my best to make it to each game, but I do agree that only a few people show up anymore... Still fun, though, but I would love to find a new game we would all play and enjoy together again.

 

The problem with Killing Floor, L4D, etc, is that it's for so few players. Sure, we'd fill up the server for the scheduled games, but more people might want to play and they wouldn't get to.

 

But hey, I do love KF.

Left 4 Dead, not so much... It won't even run for me currently, but I could probably fix it if I looked into it.

 

PlanetSide 2... the pros and cons have already been discussed above, so I won't say anything further. I don't really think it would be a good fit for SFO members...

 

CSGO is a great game, but I think the reason we all have so much fun playing TF2 together is because of the classes and the whole complex teamwork-driven gameplay.

In CSGO you obviously have to use teamwork to win, but it just doesn't feel the same. I never have cared much for Counter Strike because it is entirely and 100% skill-based. You don't get lucky in that game.

That's not to say I wouldn't play any of these if SFO has a server for them, but I personally don't think any of those would work as well as TF2 has for so many years.

 

--

 

Battlefield 1942 has always been extremely fun. It's free. No F2P BS. Old, but good. The only downside (which is most definitely not a downside) is that it uses Origin. I have never had any trouble with Origin. It may seem unnecessary, but it works just as well as Steam for downloading and playing games.

That said, when we tried BF1942, we didn't get many players.

 

Same thing with RTCW: Enemy Territory. Great fun, free, but maybe 5 people total showed up for the 2 weeks or so that we attempted to get it going.

 

 

It seems we would need a more popular, modern game to attract more people.

 

A Gmod server would be a lot of fun. So would a Minecraft server. There are quite a few people here that love those games and play them quite often. A few of us ("the gang") get together really often and play some Gmod on a simple server we start ourselves and keep up just for a few hours to play on. You know.

 

I remember someone hosting a Minecraft server a few months ago for a few weeks. A few of us had a lot of fun on there too.

 

Both of these games can hold 10+ people, depending on how the server is set up and all, but they're both very resource-intensive, so I don't know.

 

Nowadays, a lot of games are just really fun but aren't suited for the typical server setup. (Dota 2, PlanetSide 2, and so on)

 

The point there is that there are a few more good games that we all enjoy, but they're not suitable for running a server and/or getting people together. Unless we kind of organize game nights and post announcements and all in the SFO Steam group. And even then, games like Left 4 Dead and Killing Floor are only suited for a few players, and that just won't work, I don't think...

 

--

 

My vote goes to Minecraft, Garry's Mod, or Killing Floor, in that order. Whichever one(s) would work best. You can pretty much bet on most people having those games, or at least the people interested in playing games with SFO members.

 

I really wish I had some brilliant idea to revive the TF2 server and/or find a really exciting new game that everyone could play together, but I don't have anything else...

 

Although, here are a few more ideas, now that I'm thinking about it.

 

There is a remake of Rise of the Triad (arena shooter) coming pretty soon. It's going to be a lot of fun. It comes out on the 31st.

100% certain it will have servers and they will be easy to run. As for the specs you wanted in the first post, I don't really know...

Only $15 dollars. It might work and I know it would be loads of fun.

 

A lot of people recently seem to have fallen in love with Chivalry: Medieval Warfare but I don't think enough SFO members have it for it to be a viable option... yet.

 

Natural Selection 2 is fun, but it's really at its best when you have 24 players and a commander on each team. I don't know if we could even get 5 people on this game...

[Sarita]

I just got L4D2, so I'd be down for that if you ever did it.

[Dr. Orange]

I forgot about Goldeneye Source. This would be a fun game to get SFOers in. The only problem with this is the OPness of the Golden Gun.

[dragon1spirit]

Im down for a good bit of anything i was going to download TF2 later today when i saw the threads about it.

[Thu'um]

Actually icy remotely mentioned chivalry medieval war far. I only just got it, and from my friends list it doesn't seem like all at many of us have it but it does seem to be more of our type of game. Classes, team work, objectives, and it's fun and a little silly. But it isn't free and I'm aware of how most of us arnt willing to buy a game for the sake of game nights. It is rather expensive compared to most other multiplayer games but with the steam sale going on you can nab it for less right now. And if you even slightly interested you should.

[sroberson]

Can you create your own servers for Chivalry? I think I might check it out since I love medieval combat stuff...and if we decide to go with that for a server and the regular price isn't too bad I'd be willing to gift it to a few people to get things going

[Hidi]

Out of the list of suggested games, the only one I have there is KF (Compliments of Tillie). That's the convenience of TF2, it being free.

 

Right now, I'm not even sure what I can suggest or physically do since I've got no consistent internet for an indefinite period of time.

[DZComposer]

To clarify:

TF2 won't be dead. I'll still keep the files for it on the server. It just may not be the 24/7 game anymore.

L4D2- We tried L4D2 servers before, and it was a total failure. No on ever used it. They just created listen servers.

GMod- Maybe this has changed, but I remember these server being a heck of a lot of work to keep running, especially if you used mods, which is pretty much required to keep it interesting. I'm more in the mood for something I can configure once, start the service, and forget about it until the next update.

Also, we have multiple nods for:

CS:GO (2)

Killing Floor (5)

Goldeneye Source (2) -(HLStats Supported)

Gmod (2)

Onesies:

Minecraft

Serious Sam

TTT (Whatever that is)

Xonotic

Chivalry

Sven

[Thu'um]

What made TF2 so a great game for our community was that it was 1) free 2) easy to pick up. Not complicated 3) didn't require dedication, you could leave as soon as you arrived if you felt like it.

and finally it was just a good game, enjoyable. Another game would need the same things. Killing floor is a cool game. Really cool, but to make it work we're going to have to mod the server to accommodate around 20 people, which I have been told it can be done. But i'm not sure how the game would really feel at that point, even if the zeds increase to match the players team proportionately it wouldn't feel like fighting zombies in a squad anymore, it would be like having an army. I'm still backing it but I'm saying it isn't* ideal. We aren't playing each other either. Its really not a competitive game and again that's alright, but I myself prefer a game with sfo combating itself.    

[Icy]

What made TF2 so a great game for our community was that it was 1) free 2) easy to pick up. Not complicated 3) didn't require dedication, you could leave as soon as you arrived if you felt like it.

and finally it was just a good game, enjoyable. Another game would need the same things. Killing floor is a cool game. Really cool, but to make it work we're going to have to mod the server to accommodate around 20 people, which I have been told it can be done. But i'm not sure how the game would really feel at that point, even if the zeds increase to match the players team proportionately it wouldn't feel like fighting zombies in a squad anymore, it would be like having an army. I'm still backing it but I'm saying it isn't* ideal. We aren't playing each other either. Its really not a competitive game and again that's alright, but I myself prefer a game with sfo combating itself.    

 

I pretty much agree here.

Although, half the time we're all just messing around on the TF2 server anyway, so a game like Gmod, Minecraft, even KF, modded or not, can be fun to just play together or do silly things. What makes playing TF2 with SFO people so fun, to me at least, is this: We all know each other and we're basically just hanging out most of the time, but when srs tf2 mode is engaged, we can also be very competitive/cooperative.

 

To me, it's just so much fun getting to hang out with people who all share quite a few common interests and have fun together. Online gaming has evolved to the point that we can play games with friends and feel like we're all in one room together, which to me is a lot of fun since I'm not one of those people that constantly hangs out with local friends all the time.

 

Also, I played Goldeneye: Source a while back but I thought the community was dead. Lately I've been hearing a bit more about it, so maybe there's more interest in it these days. It was a very cool game and really captured the spirit of the original and the whole N64 FPS era.

 

And TTT stands for Trouble in Terrorist Town, a Garry's Mod... mod. Everyone in the game is either innocent or a traitor. There are only a few traitors, depending on the total number of players in the server. Everyone has to work together to figure out who's lying/catch a traitor in the act of killing people, then kill the traitors. The traitors, of course, are out to kill every innocent player.

It can be very fun and there are some really good maps specifically for TTT.

[psy_commando]

I'd like to play some Battlefield 1942 again ! Though, lets not password the game.

 

About TF2, I think its mostly getting less people people because we played too much. I noticed there were more people when we switched to once per week, and when we skipped a week there were even more. It might just be a coincidence, but maybe not. We also tend to play the same maps all the time. And weird things are happening on the server once we get a few players. Like the controls don't respond as well, and I end up in weird places sometimes..

 

Anyways, if its ever needed, I could probably setup a game server here, like I mentioned before, I got a decent server for that, and a 31.58Mb/s download, 10Mb/s upload connection.

 

There's also those two games based on the c&c renegade engine that was given for free by EA to the devs :

http://www.moddb.com/games/red-alert-a-path-beyond

http://www.moddb.com/games/ts-reborn

 

And there's of course C&C Renegade that is still being played and even maintained by the community after all these years !

 

 

What made TF2 so a great game for our community was that it was 1) free 2) easy to pick up. Not complicated 3) didn't require dedication, you could leave as soon as you arrived if you felt like it.

and finally it was just a good game, enjoyable. Another game would need the same things. Killing floor is a cool game. Really cool, but to make it work we're going to have to mod the server to accommodate around 20 people, which I have been told it can be done. But i'm not sure how the game would really feel at that point, even if the zeds increase to match the players team proportionately it wouldn't feel like fighting zombies in a squad anymore, it would be like having an army. I'm still backing it but I'm saying it isn't* ideal. We aren't playing each other either. Its really not a competitive game and again that's alright, but I myself prefer a game with sfo combating itself.    

Though, a server modded to have more player won't let you level up your perks..

 

I pretty much agree here.

Although, half the time we're all just messing around on the TF2 server anyway, so a game like Gmod, Minecraft, even KF, modded or not, can be fun to just play together or do silly things. What makes playing TF2 with SFO people so fun, to me at least, is this: We all know each other and we're basically just hanging out most of the time, but when srs tf2 mode is engaged, we can also be very competitive/cooperative.

 

To me, it's just so much fun getting to hang out with people who all share quite a few common interests and have fun together. Online gaming has evolved to the point that we can play games with friends and feel like we're all in one room together, which to me is a lot of fun since I'm not one of those people that constantly hangs out with local friends all the time.

 

Also, I played Goldeneye: Source a while back but I thought the community was dead. Lately I've been hearing a bit more about it, so maybe there's more interest in it these days. It was a very cool game and really captured the spirit of the original and the whole N64 FPS era.

 

And TTT stands for Trouble in Terrorist Town, a Garry's Mod... mod. Everyone in the game is either innocent or a traitor. There are only a few traitors, depending on the total number of players in the server. Everyone has to work together to figure out who's lying/catch a traitor in the act of killing people, then kill the traitors. The traitors, of course, are out to kill every innocent player.

It can be very fun and there are some really good maps specifically for TTT.

One of the problems with game night is probably that people aren't bothering to get there on time, which in turn makes others believe there won't be one. I'm guilty of it as well, but maybe if we'd all do a little more effort we could do a little difference ?

 

Of course, I don't know if what I'm saying is actually possible for everyone.. 

[DZComposer]

I did some research on Killing Floor, and I really think the game is better-suited to listen servers. The fact that some of the mechanics are gimped if you mod your server to allow more than 6 players really makes me think twice about running one.

I'm always game for some BF42, but people need to commit. The game is so much more fun when there are more than 4 people on the server.

EDIT: I need some numbers. Added a poll.

Also, if the current game times don't work, I can change them.

[Hidi]

You know what game everyone would play? SF-O!

Alright, kill me for referencing that...

 

In all seriousness, I'd love to play a lot of those games, but I don't have them on Steam at the moment, and probably wouldn't get them any time soon. I love to blow my sanity on Counter Strike, but I only ever play other people's copies of it.

 

Minecraft; s'cool, but I haven't played that in a very long time. I have an account, but I just stopped enjoying the game, so I wouldn't play that much.

 

Garry's Mod: I need to play that more. SFOers have gone and screwed on GMod in the past. That would be awesome to do.

[sroberson]

Well after trying Chivalry, I can't give it my vote; even though it does offer class based combat like I wanted.   

 

I haven't played any GMod, but I can imagine us coming up with some crazy mods that actually pertain to Star Fox.  Ya know, rip original models from games, create new ones, etc.  As far as the goal in the game?  Dunno.  

 

 

After this past weekend, TF2 also gets a vote from me...just wish we could get more of our people on board.  

[DoctorAllosaurus]

I've actually got a Minecraft server, it's a vanilla one and it's really only open when somebody asks me to turn it on (or if it's not storming because my houses electric is quite shit and it's hurricane season so...) but I could possibly keep it open on a more consistent basis if there's interest in it.

[Fana McCloud]

Serious Sam 3 sounds interesting simply because I've yet to have the opportunity to play it multi-player. XD Otherwise for me it's the usual suspects - Minecraft and TF2. Not that I play TOO often mind you so my vote is probably worth less. XD

[DZComposer]

TF2 is the poll leader right now.

This brings the obvious question of "Why is no one showing up for game nights anymore?"

[Fana McCloud]

Me personally? Maybe because I suck at TF2 compared to everyone else? XD That and life has been interesting lately. And after awhile it gets repetitive I'd imagine but nobody feels super comfortable with any other game? My guess is it also wins at least partially because it's free so anybody can play it. I mean if there's a way to throw in variety that might bring people back, otherwise I'd try to go the distance with something else instead of running a bunch of trials and not picking anything. Maybe run individual games on several month seasons/blocks but rotate games so that there's enough variety but also some semblance of achievement/accomplishment in a single game by running with it for an extended period of time.

 

Those are just some of my thoughts, maybe they make sense, I dunno, I'm just rambling out loud at this point. XD

 

Maybe adventure maps on Minecraft would bring the kind of cohesion we need. I've honestly never played one so it'd be a new experience for me. If there are any other interesting things we could do in other games though I'd love to hear 'em.