I've made a few trial changes with Server Admin Curlysteve on the "OLD" server (now called Test Server). We are testing these changes out to make sure there first stable, and secondly if its what people want. AntiTCC 2009 This is a popular Anti-cheat detection. When you join the game it scans your UT2004 files and also actively running modifications to check for known cheats like Aimbots. On old computers it may slow down your PC for a little bit but it only runs at the start and end of a game so wont effect your gameplay in game. Once the game starts, it monitors certain aspects of your clients for cheating, for example if you did a 180 turn instantly and scored a headshot (by instantly I mean 1ms, something not possible ever normally) and other behaviour not possible by a normal client it will flag you up as a cheater, announce it to the game and ban you for the rest of the game. There is a ZERO chance of getting caught midgame for cheating unless your cheating so don't worry about false positives. This was installed as many people commented to me including one ingame earlier that a lot of people cheat in our server as we have no protection. UTComp This is an all round enhancement mod with a lot of features - most of which have been disabled server side so I will only explain what's enabled: Team Overlay in Team Games - Shows your teams status, each players health, weapon and location so you can have an overview of the game. Very useful and a lot of people asked for it. Its also set to the smallest size and can be made bigger in the options (F5 in game) so not to take up much screen space. Enhanced Netcode - This enhances the usual netcode and make it "Zero Lag" as its called. When anyone fires a weapon in game and on there screen it was a hit and the server agrees it will accept it as a fire. This allows people no matter what lag they have enjoy and take part in a fair game, removing lag advantage. Its basically called "Client Side Hit Detection" and is in most modern games now. Whenever a shot is fired the time ID (In-game Time) is sent with the shot, when the server receives it, it rewinds the game state and works out if at that exact time if it was a real hit or not. This ensures a fair game not only to laggers, but also people with good pings as the server still verifies the hit. Ingame Stats and Improved Scoreboard - Statistics are generated as the game plays like kill/death ratio, which weapons you used, % of shots hit which can all be viewable on the Scoreboard (F1). People not interested will just ignore this, but some people do love stats. You can even in the option set it so scoreboards are automatically saved for later viewing or even enable the entire game to be recorded. We will see how the mods play out and if they are approved by players in the server. I know we like to keep a basic approach and not overwhelm users with mods, so we have only picked two simple ones which keep the server "Standard" and also dont clutter up the interface. Please let us know what you think
I occasionally play it, I like playing CTF on facing worlds to enjoy the graphics once you get over how nice it looks you will probably realise you enjoy UT 2004 more if you have played that in the past. If you got the Steam deal with all the unreal’s I recommend you check our servers out, VCTF is awesome. The old one will probably be gone soon so we thought we would advertise the new server for all the players who have bookmarked it and aren’t Digiex members. It was actually supposed to go last October but so far our old host has not taken the server offline, were not exactly going to complain at them for that though Nimrod has posted below we are testing some mods out on the old one to stop cheats and improve the gameplay experience a bit. If these are successful they will be transferred to the new one, players balance teams is also enabled on the new server now. What’s better about VCTF-WGS-Horsellcommon? I thought the V2 was better to be honest, but I guess we can add them both!
Love the mods, havent seen the antitcc working yet but I'll be watching with much interest to see how the 'better' players fare now... It's nice for me to see how this is all evolving nicely, and I'm pretty convinced words spread because I'm seeing a lot of 'regular' players showing up and many games are now maxed out with few bots. Horsell Common (WGS) has a slightly different layout and a different more diverse range ofvehicles, I've played both and WGS is a lot better, but see for yourself. Could I ask for a 3 min idle kick to be turnd on? To discourage those players that join a game, then apparantly go shopping or something! hehe, I don't know what they do, but they're not playing the game.
The zero lag mod isn't proving too popular. I've seen instances where you shoot someone and it won't register for several seconds making the experience feel laggy, also there are times when you die for no apparant reason, because you were shot several seconds earlier and the game just registered it. The new server is slightly more laggy than the older one, the old server would give me a ping in the high 30's, the new one high 60's so this and the zero lag mod combined make the server feel sluggish compared to how it was.
Yeah I was just in the server earlier when people were moaning about the Lag Mod. I turned it off a couple of games ago so feel free to give it a go. The Mod Server (Ie: the Test Server) is the old server not the new one. Were testing the mods on the old one before putting it on the new main one. With the Enhanced Netcode turned off is the game any smoother?
Yes, much better, I'm also seeing the odd tcc comment like 'x' has a non standard skin, or 'y' could not be verified' so thats looking good too. The (test) server gets a lot laggier than the other, with pings of 180+ showing in the server list when it gets loaded with players, the hosting must be different to the other one. It's noticably worse.
hrmm the motd on the (test) server says 'this server is being retired' but I can't see the 'new' server in the server list when I look, is it down or something ?
Its down at the moment, found a major expoilt so its being upgraded. Should be back on tomorrow. I've also finished messing with the settings for the mods so it should be good now, do play in the Test Server and tell me what you think
The new server should now be back online and the exploits fixed. I see a few people are in there already Edit - the map pack has been updated with the new maps and you can download it from here
All looks well on the new server, although the anti idle is a bit... strange ? It didn't kick me when I idled in-game, but it did when I spectated so I'm a bit unclear on how thats meant to work, the forced respawn is a good thing, although it would be nice if it gave you a second or so of being 'dead' because you're back in it, before you even realise you're dead, a bit like you just teleported. A one second delay is a good way to act as a visual prompt.
the idle kick should be sorted now. Its set to 5 minutes. If your im spec make sure you move your mouse once every five mins incase.
the idle kick kicked me after a handfull of seconds - i just had time to go into settings when i got booted. this was on the 20th jan - maybe the idle time needs adjusting. cheers
Heya, I believe its been fixed by now. Though please do let me know if it hasn't. It should be set to 5 minutes.
something else i have noticed is that as the server fills up the ping and lag increase. this kicks in badly when there are 17 or more people in it. is there anything that can be done? i dont want to seem like a moaner but it is the best server out there at the moment and its great when its full - but.....
The bandwidth is there however the server is not hosted on the best hardware in the world, I think 16 players is about the most it can cope with. I noticed this myself when I was in the other day, The player limit is back at 16 players again.
ut2004 server the vctf server is down . I noticed it going bonkers last night and tonight its not even going bonkers. any news on it? cheers
The server should be backup now, can you connect ok? im not at home so I can't check. Edit - it appears 3 people are in at the moment so I guess its fine