Hi all, been a while since I did much mech so i'm somewhat stuck.

As said elsethread I'm setting up a multi-game server, and mech 4 : Mercs is almost certainly going to make an appearance to run 2 or 3 days a week. a few things I'm kind of out of the loop with though...

1 :: Who would actually be wanting to play? and what days would be best for folks? It'll be a dedicated server, so i'll just set some cron jobs up to switch and reboot when Its time to change things over.

2 :: What is the ideal patch level? I'm assuming I'll prolly need to put at least one of the MekTek patches up. What level would be best one?

3 :: What weather effects etc would be nice to have? I'm basing the server off the Banzai NFMs, but i'll likely tweak the settings for a giggle (Big City with Peasoup was always a personal fav of mine).

4 :: What other games would people like to play (if any)?

5 :: Would any of banzai's ex-server admins like access to control the server?

I'm going to let this run, and if it gets used enough i'll stick an X2 rig together because I've got everything to do that except a PSU and processor. At that point i'll let one of the boxen stay in cycle mode, and task the new server to be a dedicated rig for one particular game. Remember the present server is only a P4 1.8/1Gb/80Gb/128Mb setup. Nothing spectacular, but at the moment it looks like the games i'll run look like Mech 4, UT1 and C&C : TibSun or Red Alert2.

1. Oooo! Ooo! Me! Me!

2. Um...heh-heh; anything that lets me stick a pack o' High Explosive in case no, for when I get my other weapons blown off so I can give special 'hug-o-grams'.

(seriously, I don't have to have HE; uh, was it MP3.* that had the WHM, MAD & UM chassis?)

3. a good mix; a flat open cold map for brief, long-range sniper duels, the 'blind knife fight' of an urban map with maxed fog as you said, maybe a nightime swamp map (yeah, as frustrating as that sounds, I found it interesting back in MW4veng-sp)...

All-in-all, a variety is fun.

4. Well, your suggested games at the bottom sounds good....I even have UT1, sorta (see this comic of my wife's) But...eh, MechCommander/MC2? uhhh *digs thru his collection* lol - maybe the rebuild of NETMECH from MW2? Something from the Jedi Knight games? (few things are more fun than Force Choking an enemy, whilst flinging them around the room like a pinball ) Heck, old-skool Counter-Strike? (and I don't me CS:Source ) or Quake2? Or maybe something light-hearted like Worms? (I got W:Armageddon)

Meh - I ain't picky; I'll go along with whatever (if I got the game in question )

5. Not Applicable.


Well, I hope there's sufficient interest here to make this worthwhile for ya; and that you get plenty o' technical tweak advice to make it painless!

OOOHH ME ME ME ME ME TOO!

I at least want to mech it up but dammit my game is still down! Somebody please help me fix this! I wanna play!!

as far as maps and settings goes I don't care I'll fight anywhere in any conditions. Toob ad there is no patch for Crimson skies and that I could get a few of you interested in it. So far the only community Iknow of htat plays that hangs out on Game spy.
Speaking of which what about Mech 3? ANyone still have that laying around? I have mine up and runnign as it is the only way I can play in a mech at all these days so it would be fun to see how other Banzai's would fair in it.

well, that's all the games I have, but I might be convinced to play BF2142 if people are still playing that. I'm sure I can find a copy somewhere.

Heh, I may have to dig my old mech4 backups out for this. I'd be down for some Worms as well.

Thunderbolt, as far as MW3 goes, I'd hate to play that on anything higher in latency than a LAN, nevermind a trans-Atlantic cable... >.<

Ah well tis true, tis a laggy beast isn't it?
But what about Crimson skies?

Wait a mo-

Yeah, I do have a copy of CS! Completely forgot about that...

Sure, I'd be up for that, too.

yessssssss! full armor, 2-60 caliber cheyennes on a Hughes aircraft Devastator loaded with Dum Dums and flak rockets, that's all ya need man. Let's fly!

heh, i'm only putting 3 games on it at 1st, and I figure they have to be fairly mainstream for the server to get used.

Initially It looks like i'll be setting it up ::

Mech 4 : Mercs - Run up to the last Official MS patch, plus the Mechstorm Map Pack. Game Mode will Team Battle, with varying weather conditions.
C&C Red Alert 2 - Again, run to last official Patch - Not sure on game mode yet, because I've not played it in so long I'm not sure what the games modes are.
UT 1 :: Patched up last official version. - Playing Capture the flag I think.

Running alongside that will be a TS2 server for "open" use, in as much as there will be an open channel or 2, with some passworded ones for each group to use. i.e. a Private one for TB to use, another for another website I use, and one for my own guys from my website. I'm thinking multi-use here, and as the resource is available you might as well use it.

The idea behind the "Limited" patches and maps is that the server will be used by non-mech players as well. I want to make it as easy as possible for them to use, while also allowing those of us with more experience at the game to have a play around.

If this does work out OK I'll grab an X2 4400+ or similar with 2Gb and run up some newer games. I also have the possibility of putting the server on the end of a Big Fat Connection (OC of some kind) because someone I know is opening a "Serious" computer shop/digital arts shop with a big connection, with an Onyx, Onyx 2 and some Origin 2000 boxen. I believe he is selling time to to people on the Supercomputer, and he should have plenty of spare bandwidth.

So that'd be Mercs pr1, right? Will you be handing out the address or use the MekMatch patch to let others know about it.


and if you guys are gonna have official TB only play then I officially make my plea for someone to sponsor me in as an official TB mechwarrior. Please? ANy takers?

Empy?
Rat?
Gwyd?

T-Bolt, I don't think I've ever sponsored anyone, and Empath isn't a TB member so he can't help you. If Rat turns you down, let me know and maybe I'll set a precedent.

Beak, I'd patch up to the latest MekTek patch if you want anyone outside of this place playing on it. Purist considerations aside, most of the non-NBT player base is in MWL, and that's what they use.

Thanks Gwyd! I'll let ya know what Rat says. I asked Lemur too but it occurred to me that he has never played me in mech. Only you and Spiff and Rat have had the privilege of blasting me into scrap metal and only Rat has played me on an official banzai server' Ronin, (may she rest in peace).

*checks profile*

Um, yer asking another beggar beside you outside to let you in, son.

But if this is going be a TB server rather than BI, I second the grovelling on the threshhold.

(I just wish my UT1 disc wasn't toast...)


EDIT:
Just on a whim, I tried to install ol' UT, and expected to see "Assertion Failed: {some long mix of object classes and hexidecimal to fraudulently make it seem like there's the remotest hope of fixing the error}" like before on my 'old' system...but it completed the install just now.

[Colin Clive-voice]It's ALIVE![/CCv]

Ahhhh, to go on killing sprees and rampages again; to pull HEAD SHOT after HEAD SHOT...

Um. BTW, UT1 'Game of the Year' edition is fine, right?

I'm pretty sure it's BI server Empy...but he did mention TB only stuff that may happen and that was as good an excuse as I have run across yet to petition to make my dream of becoming a member of Team Banzai come true.!

nah, it's going to be an Open Server, with some quite serious interest from my own website, and another I use. However I thought of TB as well. I know the old server admins here, they did a good job, and thought they might like to have admin access to the server. If TB do at some point want to reserve the server for something specific then they just need to give me some notice, but that particular offer extends only to the BI and to the occasional game sessions I'll be organising on my own website. As said though, if there is more interest in one particular game more than any other i'll add a second machine. I should still be able to get some stuff added onto another very fast connection.

The actual admin of the server will done through Log Me In. I like it, it works and it doesn't cause any issues that I have found. I Prefer logging directly into stuff rather than telnetting.

Okay man that's fine but keep it quiet till this whole team membership thing pans out, okay?

right then, server is up and running, but it's only got UT1 on there at the moment. I'm giving it a few days of burn-in before I pull it down again and add in a 2nd game. if anyone want to have a play around post in here and i'll give you the details. Next game to be installed will likely be Mech4 : Mercs and i'll patch it as high as seems appropriate. After tinkering with a few things on my main box though I have to say i the MekTek Mechs feel massively unbalanced. That along with a tradeoff between usability for casual users as well as old school players may force me to keep the patch level fairly low.

Everyone knows how I pretty much live to display my ignorance and this is no exception What is UT1?

Unreal Tournament, the origional version. I think it;ll play 2004, but I had more people saying they would like the 1st one installing because its more fun. It's also handy because it's a lot lighter on my machine and bandwidth!

I'll be rolling Mercs into it over the weekend, but I work nights Sun-Wed at the moment, and i'm knackered during the daytime.

AWESOME! All I need now is for Mercs to start working! All I know to do at this point is to uninstall (again) make sure there are no reg items, or any files related to it left on the machine and then reinstall.