Vertex

Steam Workshop :: ttt_clue_pak
STEAMCOMMUNITY.COM Steam Workshop :: ttt_motel_b4
STEAMCOMMUNITY.COM  

There is a ton of custom player models on the xG Morbus server. You can quickly open the pointshop menu, to find ones you like.
Any server operator can mount this workshop file and contact myself on steam for the lua files to the pointshop menu. 
Steam Workshop :: XenoGamers PointShop Pack
STEAMCOMMUNITY.COM

@Rhododendron
 
The Hetzner host can offer a more reliable node than NFO Frankfurt. Both are based in Germany and are the same approximate costs. Clan services such as FastDL and website use this location for all European clients. Key differences are...
 
NFO's AS48910: https://bgp.he.net/AS48910

3 Good transit providers (looks like) and 0 peering exchanges.
8gb of ram, 400gb hdd cached space, 4 ht cores, 24TB bandwidth

 
Hetzner's AS24940: https://bgp.he.net/AS24940

7 Good transit providers and 10 peering exchanges.
Data centers - Hetzner Online GmbH

[*]Dedicated i7-920 double cpu power, 1.5tb hdd space, 24gb of ram, 20TB bandwidth
[*]OR VPS: 4 ht cores, 16gb of ram, 400gb SSD space, 2.65 TB banwidth


 
Also, NFO traffic shapes which slows down web traffic. Hetzner is better for hosting web services because it doesn't do this. I can't use the NFO node in Frankfurt because of too slow transfer rates; due to traffic shaping and no peering exchanges.
 
I'll be canceling my London bypass node in the near future. If you're not fixing this issue let me know, so I can setup a Hetzner bypass node.

I've made a lot of progress on the new TTT server within the past week. It should be done in the not too distant future.
 
I was wondering if there are any TTT maps people would like on the server. So far, a collection of 22 maps has been installed. Steam Workshop :: xG TTT Map Collection
 
Subscribing has its pros and cons. Too many subscriptions *may* bog down game startup times. I've coded up a custom caching feature using Steamworks. For the first 45s after the client is connected to the server, it will download all the server maps onto their hard-drive; where it detects a subscription isn't present. This process will repeat each time the map changes until the client has all maps cached. After a couple map changes, they'll be able to rapidly load any of the 22+ maps that are installed on the server, without having to download anymore.

I've made a lot of progress on the new TTT server within the past week. It should be done in the not too distant future.
 
I was wondering if there are any TTT maps people would like on the server. So far, a collection of 22 maps has been installed. Steam Workshop :: xG TTT Map Collection
 
Subscribing has its pros and cons. Too many subscriptions *may* bog down game startup times. I've coded up a custom caching feature using Steamworks. For the first 45s after the client is connected to the server, it will download all the server maps onto their hard-drive; where it detects a subscription isn't present. This process will repeat each time the map changes until the client has all maps cached. After a couple map changes, they'll be able to rapidly load any of the 22+ maps that are installed on the server, without having to download anymore.

I've made a lot of progress on the new TTT server within the past week. It should be done in the not too distant future.
 
I was wondering if there are any TTT maps people would like on the server. So far, a collection of 22 maps has been installed. Steam Workshop :: xG TTT Map Collection
 
Subscribing has its pros and cons. Too many subscriptions *may* bog down game startup times. I've coded up a custom caching feature using Steamworks. For the first 45s after the client is connected to the server, it will download all the server maps onto their hard-drive; where it detects a subscription isn't present. This process will repeat each time the map changes until the client has all maps cached. After a couple map changes, they'll be able to rapidly load any of the 22+ maps that are installed on the server, without having to download anymore.

I've made a lot of progress on the new TTT server within the past week. It should be done in the not too distant future.
 
I was wondering if there are any TTT maps people would like on the server. So far, a collection of 22 maps has been installed. Steam Workshop :: xG TTT Map Collection
 
Subscribing has its pros and cons. Too many subscriptions *may* bog down game startup times. I've coded up a custom caching feature using Steamworks. For the first 45s after the client is connected to the server, it will download all the server maps onto their hard-drive; where it detects a subscription isn't present. This process will repeat each time the map changes until the client has all maps cached. After a couple map changes, they'll be able to rapidly load any of the 22+ maps that are installed on the server, without having to download anymore.

I just reduced the download size of point-shop content from 90mb to 35mb. This will give us a massive advantage over other TTT servers. An average download speed can retrieve all server content (43 player models and lots of hats + trails) in 10s now or a VERY slow one in 60s.
 
The custom weapons on Morbus are only 11mb and there's a moderate amount of them. These will take a very long time to setup, rebalance and test for TTT though.
 
It may be possible to get away with keeping and pre-loading the 20 smallest maps. Having only 30s down-time between maps plus anther 15s for instant map vote completion on majority will be amazing! People who've played TTT before will already have a lot of these maps, speeding up the pre-loading process. I'm willing to bet 400mb will compress down to 100mb.

I'll be done school at the end of April so I'm happy to help populate plus find staff for it once it's ready on a regular basis on top of setting up events for the server

I plan on implementing the same structure Morbus has since TTT is relatively similar.

Map changes happen after X rounds and Y minutes. (depending the map)


Improvements to karma - to curve RDMing for fewer server bans.
Attaching higher level mathematics for a better equation.
 
Restoration of karma after each map change.




Implementation of spray bans to remove server bans for this purpose.


Usage of the current crystal loading screen.
Xeno Gamers




Higher moderation standards with an emphasis on conflict resolution.
Not just looking at logs and slaying and banning people.
Additional moderator training where required.




Continuing the tradition of optimizing server content for faster downloading.


Preloading at least the five or six most popular maps for less downloading.
Only mounting the preload for downloading when one of it's maps is being played.




Sending all content over steam's workshop CDN and disabling the FastDL.
The GMA compression is much stronger and CDN results in faster downloads.




Stronger map voter algorithm that ensures many maps get played, not the same ones constantly.


*The ability for moderators to block users from abusing map triggers, instead of banning them.*
Where supported on a per map basis.

I can look into it at the start of May when my semester is over. The point-shop will need cleaned up first though to reduce download sizes.

Disclaimer: its 10am and i haven't had much, if any sleep. Everything in here might be wrong and I just spent over an hour typing this up for no reason. Oh well.
 

 
Gmod has only had two bigger updates since you made this post, none of which seem to switch things around too much to the point of a server completely breaking (unless there's been something i missed, i skimmed through the update thread and there didn't seem to be any issues). I'm also not sure how much custom content had been made for the old one, but a vanilla version of TTT is included when you install gmod, and setting it up isn't exactly rocket science, and neither is troubleshooting a server. If you manage to set up the old one in 45 minutes, surely fixing it can't take more than 5 months?
 
I know school and free time is a major factor that plays into how much time you are able to dedicate to the clan, but that's the case for the vast majority of higher ups and most of us still manage to stay active despite all of that and if that's not possible you should consider getting more higher ups for your respective divisions or step down entirely.
 

 
It's clearly not if download times are upwards of 5+ minutes for someone with a 1+MBps internet connection. If you are forcing people to download content that isn't used, of course download times are going to be slow. What are the benefits of bundling the maps together in packs? Correct me if I'm wrong, but they are still compressed when they are uploaded to the workshop, and only using 33% (assuming that all maps are the same size and that every pack has 3 maps(I'm aware that this isn't the case, I'm just gonna roll with it as an example)) of what you downloaded seems like a waste and while it is convenient that you now have 2 more maps for whenever the server changes to them, the trade off is going to be longer download times with the risk of the server not going to one of the maps you downloaded, forcing you to download another 50~ MB of data. In an ideal world, the user would only download the map when it is needed by the server. By bundling the maps into packs, not only are you making it longer for people to download stuff, but you are also taking up unnecessary hard drive space for the user. The bundling of stuff in "packs" makes sense when you are dealing with content that are static and never changes (morbus game mode, models, hub, etc) but not when it comes to maps that are constantly changing.
 

 
I'm not sure if I'm following the math here. I added all the workshop content on your steam profile and came to 465.1 MB. I'm using 6Mbps or 0,75MBps as the users download speed (lets be honest, this is an insanely slow download speed, and the percentage of users with this speed is probably so small its probably not worth accommodating for) since you mentioned earlier in the thread.
[spoiler=Math]
28.624 + 44.100 + 25.362 + 40.366 + 32.981 + 0.177 + 11.348 + 61.409 + 55.682 + 56.482 + 54.151 + 54.424 = 465.106 ~ 465.1
 
465.1 / 0,75 = 620,13333... ~ 620,1 //Download time in seconds
 
620,1 / 60 = 10.335 = 10m20s //DL time in mins/secs
 
 
 
 
Lets grab all the necessary content + 1 map pack. I picked the biggest one @ 61.4MB.
 
[spoiler=Math]
28.624 + 44.100 + 25.362 + 40.366 + 32.981 + 0.177 + 11.348 + 61.409 = 244.367 ~ 244.4
 
244.4 / 0.75 = 325.8666.... ~ 325.9 //Download time in seconds
 
325.9 / 60 = 5.431666... = 5m26s //DL time in mins/secs
 
 
 
Now, lets use a version of breach that i found on the workshop (breach is one of the 2 maps included in the map pack i used). Its size is 33MB.
 
[spoiler=Math]
28.624 + 44.100 + 25.362 + 40.366 + 32.981 + 0.177 + 11.348 + 33 = 215.958 ~ 216
 
216 / 0.75 = 288 //Download time in seconds
 
288 / 60 = 4.8 = 4m 48s //DL time in mins/secs
 
 
 
So by not bundling the maps together in packs we have now saved 38 seconds on download times.
 

 
By "no server content" do you mean a completely empty server? Why does it take 3m 30s to load in to a completely empty server? And in what way does other players suffer from slow loaders? As I've stated earlier in my post, i want to download the maps when they need to be downloaded, not because they are included in a pack with 2 other maps that i might never play, which are then never going to be used and just take up unnecessary space on my hard drive.
 
Look, I'm not trying to be an asshole, but i do think you deserve criticism based on what others are saying and our own observations on how your divisions are run. The way you keep everything as separate as possible to our forums, with literally 0 interaction with the rest of us, leaves us to guessing about whats going on over in GMOD and ND. With the (somewhat) recent incident about a ban protest and some drama over a certain server crash exploit a while back i do think a lot of the criticism you get is deserved.

Just going to take the time here to tell everyone to calm down. Jesus, I haven't taken the time to look at the responses until now, and I see absolutely no reason for anyone to berate or otherwise respond in such a negative way to anyone. The intention of this thread was to discuss a possible alternative that would be mutually beneficial to both the Staff as well as the Player; that's all. Additionally, and I can't speak for Stickz, but is it a crime to want to improve our numbers by lowering the ban rate for trivial things? I see nothing but good intentions from Stickz, and yet it's all being treated in a ridiculously hostile way by the majority of those posting here.
 
This has all but been lost in translation, but the reasoning behind this was to support Players who would like a Staff Member on the Server then and there (from my perspective of posting this thread). Players who are otherwise disgruntled or frustrated are far more likely to abuse the system, but for good intentions; should they really be punished by being banned for a day for it? I get that it can be a nuisance to have to deal with spam in Steam due to the nature of the plugin, I really do, but when it comes down to it, is a day ban for alerting Staff really a good means to an end? A day ban doesn't seem like much to any of us, and I can guarantee that it certainly appears to be nothing to Staff, but do keep in mind that the Playerbase for TF2 does consist of a large number of younger Players; and I can almost guarantee that a good chunk of them will do whatever they can to play the game (on our Servers) or to otherwise enjoy it. I'm not ruling out the possibility of those who abuse the command for shits and giggles, but I just don't see how a minor inconvenience for Staff (messages in Steam) warrants a day ban; especially when it doesn't influence the Server environment to begin with.
 
At this point, it's clear that it's just wishful thinking on my part; but again, this was merely a suggestion that I thought should [at the very least] be considered. That being said, I'd like to #RequestClose this thread before it devolves any further as it has been poorly received and I see no reason to keep something up that is resulting in such turmoil.

Okay, if you give a kid a button to press, what do you think they'tr going to do? Are they going to press it and get banned? Or just pretend it's not there?

It's like giving them a gun, turning the safety off and telling them that abuse will be punished. You shouldn't give someone a reason to be banned, just like not giving a kid a gun because they might cause damage with it. That much is just common sense. It seems like you guys are banning for a problem you created, no wonder people are pissed and protesting.

It's like giving them a gun, turning the safety off and telling them that abuse will be punished. You shouldn't give someone a reason to be banned, just like not giving a kid a gun because they might cause damage with it. That much is just common sense. It seems like you guys are banning for a problem you created, no wonder people are pissed and protesting.

Okay, if you give a kid a button to press, what do you think they'tr going to do? Are they going to press it and get banned? Or just pretend it's not there?

Okay, if you give a kid a button to press, what do you think they'tr going to do? Are they going to press it and get banned? Or just pretend it's not there?

Vertex I'm still kind of confused where this is going like people are given the choice of reading the rules or not (they're given a small list but it gives the player the option to view all of them). Now if they don't read them its their problem so if they don't agree with the punishment of breaking the rules its all on them. It really doesn't matter how harsh those punishments are because they're justified by this. Now not only are they warned in the rules to not abuse !calladmin they are ALSO given a warning before they submit their report as @Bello showed us. So already you have 2 warnings as to not abuse this command because they want to write ''xd le funny meme'' to the staff . Once they get banned its their problem for not reading the rules and warnings before their ban. Honestly I think the punishment we have now works perfectly fine and sends a message to the user as to never do it again.

Okay, if you give a kid a button to press, what do you think they'tr going to do? Are they going to press it and get banned? Or just pretend it's not there?

I forgot to mention, that it's pretty ironic TF2 made a reason to ban people by adding a server feature.
 

It's still progress reducing ban lengths, by combining it with silence. In the long run, it leads to less bans when moderators see how effective silences are.
 
The best way to describe it is a stepping stone. There's nothing really negative about doing it.
 

It's a very good point that you're still not cleaning out with all the bans. Hackers are an exception, but trolling is a different story. There's always going to be someone new.
 

What's going to change when you actually get to 18000 active bans? Will trolls keep coming at the same paste? Will the only thing to show for, be a high number of people who can't join the server? One thing I can say for certain, is someone is always going to be abusing call admin!
 
Will this conversation come back up again when 50 more bans are created and nothing has really changed with the call admin situation?!? Or will it just seem like nothing because you already have thousands? Do you know what percentage will be ban protests, compared to other issues? Will it proportionally be the highest percentage, compared to other ban reasons?

I forgot to mention, that it's pretty ironic TF2 made a reason to ban people by adding a server feature.
 

It's still progress reducing ban lengths, by combining it with silence. In the long run, it leads to less bans when moderators see how effective silences are.
 
The best way to describe it is a stepping stone. There's nothing really negative about doing it.
 

It's a very good point that you're still not cleaning out with all the bans. Hackers are an exception, but trolling is a different story. There's always going to be someone new.
 

What's going to change when you actually get to 18000 active bans? Will trolls keep coming at the same paste? Will the only thing to show for, be a high number of people who can't join the server? One thing I can say for certain, is someone is always going to be abusing call admin!
 
Will this conversation come back up again when 50 more bans are created and nothing has really changed with the call admin situation?!? Or will it just seem like nothing because you already have thousands? Do you know what percentage will be ban protests, compared to other issues? Will it proportionally be the highest percentage, compared to other ban reasons?

I forgot to mention, that it's pretty ironic TF2 made a reason to ban people by adding a server feature.
 

It's still progress reducing ban lengths, by combining it with silence. In the long run, it leads to less bans when moderators see how effective silences are.
 
The best way to describe it is a stepping stone. There's nothing really negative about doing it.
 

It's a very good point that you're still not cleaning out with all the bans. Hackers are an exception, but trolling is a different story. There's always going to be someone new.
 

What's going to change when you actually get to 18000 active bans? Will trolls keep coming at the same paste? Will the only thing to show for, be a high number of people who can't join the server? One thing I can say for certain, is someone is always going to be abusing call admin!
 
Will this conversation come back up again when 50 more bans are created and nothing has really changed with the call admin situation?!? Or will it just seem like nothing because you already have thousands? Do you know what percentage will be ban protests, compared to other issues? Will it proportionally be the highest percentage, compared to other ban reasons?

xG just reached 18000 total bans casted a few days ago.
 
Is this something to be proud of? And if so, what has changed?
 
Is there any less rule breakers? And if not, do you plan on keeping moderation the same?
 
If yes, is the definition of insanity "trying the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result"?

xG just reached 18000 total bans casted a few days ago.
 
Is this something to be proud of? And if so, what has changed?
 
Is there any less rule breakers? And if not, do you plan on keeping moderation the same?
 
If yes, is the definition of insanity "trying the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result"?