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Happy Thanksgiving! posted by karmann
Thursday, 28 November 2002 | | Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Shopping Mall Day! Enjoy your turkey and the food-coma that follows. I know I will. |
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Happy Thanksgiving! posted by karmann
Thursday, 28 November 2002 | | Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Shopping Mall Day! Enjoy your turkey and the food-coma that follows. I know I will. |
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Congratulations cousteau! posted by karmann
Wednesday, 27 November 2002 | More big news from a veteran (gs) member.
Nicholas Jordan Hoelscher was born to Tracee & Brian "cousteau (gs)" Hoelscher on 11/24 at 3:15pm. He weighed 8 pounds and 15 ounces and was 22" long.
Congratulations!
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Message from Talon (gs) posted by karmann
Saturday, 5 October 2002 | Talon ICQed me and asked me to pass this along...
*-------*
GS was and has been my gameing home since Action Quake 2, and I wanna thank you all for takeing me in and everything even tho i wasnt around much, this is my goodbye for now, and hopefully, after i get settled in a dorm and everything ill be able to come back or what not, but if not i wish you all the best of luck.
Signing out, Pvt. Jack Anthony McClelland, 54b Chemical Operations Specialist, US Army
*-------*
Best of luck Talon. You're always welcome here. |
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Congratulations wl! posted by karmann
Wednesday, 2 October 2002 | | For those that didn't know, wl was married Saturday September 28th. He and his wife are currently on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Ron "wl" Penna helped found this clan way back in 1998 and currently hosts all our servers and this website. I'd just like to send my best wishes, congratulations and good luck. =) |
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Taking yet another break posted by karmann
Tuesday, 24 September 2002 | Effective immediately The Goon Squad will cease RQ3 competition and is going inactive again. I woke up yesterday morning having every intention of simply shutting down the clan but after consulting with some members I've decided to just take a break and come back to this if and when we find something that keeps our collective interest. Allow me to explain:
1) RQ3 has been fun ONLY because of the old-school members of (gs) that came out of "retirement" to play with us. With school starting and schedules becoming tight (and only going to get tighter) I don't want to forfeit matches because of roster issues.
2) RQ3 is not going where we want it to go. The community is too small and I think most (gs) would agree that the community that is here isn't exactly the nicest.
3) I'm tired of all the egos, attitude and general bullshit regarding trying to keep so many people happy. I'm certainly tired of setting up matches with sometimes prickish opposing clan leaders and dealing with league admins. In short, I'm too old for this shit.
4) To be able to compete in RQ3 (given our growing roster issues) or Battlefield:1942 (which is what has people's interest) I'd have to recruit. I'd have to recruit HEAVILY for bf1942. I just don't have the stomach for that. The last year and a half has given me more than enough examples of recruits to make me never want to do it again. I think I'd have to hunt down and kill the next 18 year old punk that clan hopped their way through (gs).
The servers aren't going anywhere. I don't intend to stop playing and as long as wl can hook us up we'll have servers and this website. There's no longer an Active and Inactive section to our roster. Those still on the roster will have RCON privledges to any servers we happen to be running. The same rules apply to RCON usage as always. You should, obviously, feel free to join another clan if you'd still like to compete. Yoda and me competing in the Reaction Rumble 2v2 tourney will be the only official Goon Squad match(es). Consider this a Gaming Community for now.
Thanks,
Paul "karmann" Witt
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No news is good news? posted by karmann
Thursday, 5 September 2002 | I just realized that Newspro expires old news so the news page is blank. Oops. haha
Anyway, please know that I'm still actively involved in this product and am always available to answer questions. As to the next release, I've said before that I have a "day job first" approach to coding this. I won't work on the Spy unless my plate is clear from my day job. That's why I haven't released the next version. Rest assured that I'll release it when it's done and will continue to release patches when needed. |
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I can't believe it's September already posted by karmann
Tuesday, 3 September 2002 | Did some house cleaning today. I removed Nullset, Shalott, Cheech and Nomac from the roster. Nothing personal just trying to keep our roster accurate. Only long-term veterans can sit on the inactive list forever. =)
We're still playing Reaction Quake 3. Things are going pretty well. We're not doing as well as we'd hoped but given our uncertain roster and the small size of the community I'd say we're doing good. Hopefully school schedules will settle down here soon and more people will start to play.
Finally I'd like to welcome Nitrox to (gs)! Most of us know him from our RQ3 servers and some of us know him through Aggression Rangers (=AR=) from our AQ2 days. Watch out for his mad knifing skills. |
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What would it take to kill CS? posted by karmann
Monday, 19 August 2002 | Counter-Strike has had a lock on online competition for three years now. Most of us have played it. A lot of us have competed in it. The following is as objective an analysis as I can put together on what it would take to create a next generation MOD that would draw in CS enthusiasts. To break it down...
First let's look at what Half-Life and Counter-Strike have to offer:
1) CS runs on slower computers. You simply can't discount this fact. It will take an amazing new pre-packaged game like UT 2003 or Doom III to give people a reason to upgrade.
2) Half-Life has provided amazing support for their MOD community and is an easy engine in which to MOD. It's still the preferred choice for new mods even given the age of the engine.
3) Half-Life has amazing back-end support for server ops and 3rd party application developers. The ability for coders to make applications like Admin Mod, The Server Spy, and PsychoStats is much easier in Half-Life than any other game. The server software itself is easier to configure, has a lower CPU/memory footprint and has more useful features (like logaddress) than other dedicated server products for other games.
4) Half-Life improved their netcode to the point that it's as good or better than any other game on the market.
5) The WONID system is the best system around for handling the lesser lifeforms that plague public online play.
6) CS has the gameplay that people want. Real world weapons, map goals (other than just killing the other team) round based play, tactics and just enough eye-candy to keep people happy.
Next let's look at the previous top competition MODs:
1) Team Fortress started it all. CTF style games are tailor made for competition and the class-based aspect of the game added just the right twist.
2) Action Quake 2 had the same basic structure as CS (real world weapons, positional damage, round based play) but at a MUCH faster pace and with bleeding.
Next we look at what's wrong with CS:
1) Weapons accuracies are a joke. Having to take the time to figure out just exactly how to fire each weapon in each situation is rediculous. If I put my crosshair over someone and click my mouse I'd better hit them. If I put my crosshair square over their head at 200 yards I'd better kill them. The biggest problem is there's a way to make each gun super accurate at any range and the guy I'm fighting always seems to know it. I KNOW my aim is good. I know when my crosshair is over someone and I fire first. In CS too often the victory goes to the 2nd guy that fires. That's just not right.
2) Purchasing weapons doesn't add anything positive to the game. It promotes a slower pace and a fear of death that might add realism but does not add fun.
3) There are no really satisfying frags in CS. You come around a corner and snipe someone. Big deal. It just doesn't feel the same as sneaking up behind them and slitting their throat or kicking them off a rooftop.
4) It's simply too slow. I thought it was slow back in the betas, now it's a joke. Realism takes away from the fun!
5) Lack of a competition mode built into the mod. The ability to declare team captains, switch maps, ready your team and change the settings according to the league you're in should NOT require RCON access to the server.
So where does that leave us? Well here's my formula for the next big thing.
A game company should:
1) Release a kick ass game that everyone has to have and is willing to pay to upgrade their computer to play. No small feat to be sure but it's coming. It has to be! Or I'll die of boredom!
2) Support your MOD developers early and often.
3) Make the server op's life easy by giving them the ability to easily manage their server.
Then a MOD team should make a MOD that has:
1) Multiple game modes such as DM, CTF, straight teamplay (just kill the other team), plant the bomb, rescue the hostages, escape (totally underrated CS mode) and assasination.
2) Built in matchmode settings.
3) Real world weapons with not quite real world accuracies. Reward good aim and fast reflexes not research. Fun over fact please!
4) Allow players to select their load out. No money! Allow for the plethora of weapons that CS has but setup loadouts like AQ2/RQ3 has. One primary weapon, one pistol, knives and one item (vest, defuse kit, lasersight, silencer). This allows for an almost class-based team while not actually having different classes with different attributes (like running speed, armor or health points).
5) Make the pace of the game somewhere between CS and AQ2. Don't allow the wild flying/skiing/long-range jumping of AQ2 but don't restrict people to walking like the current versions of CS.
6) Use full-clip reloading and limited ammo (like AQ2/RQ3) instead of partial-clip reloading and abundant ammo (like CS).
That's it. Someone please make it happen. Pretty please! |
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It's been a while posted by karmann
Tuesday, 30 July 2002 | | RQ3 match play is underway. We have finally started winning matches and have a record of 3-2 overall (not counting the OGL-RQ3 Uberladder loss to [DMK]). We'll be playine E# for first place in the STA-RQ3 league this coming Monday. |
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Reaction Quake 3 posted by karmann
Monday, 17 June 2002 | Reaction Quake 3 was released this last Friday. I'd like to congratulate the RQ3 team on producing something much better than I expected. It's a damn near perfect reproduction of AQ2 in Q3A. The maps are beautiful and the gameplay is as good as the original.
For those wanting to download it, or if you're curious, the install can be found here.
For those that have no idea what AQ2 or RQ3 are, think Counter-Strike at 90mph. Same round structure. No bullshit money. Fast pace. And most importantly, a return to the days of the satisfying frag. Do yourself a favor and check it out. |
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Nomac posted by karmann
Thursday, 13 June 2002 | | Please welcome Nomac to The Goon Squad. |
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Files posted by karmann
Wednesday, 12 June 2002 | | Note that the HL client full update is not yet on this page. When it is you'll note the link update to "hl1110.exe" instead of "hl1109.exe". Enjoy! |
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HL and CS patch day posted by karmann
Wednesday, 12 June 2002 | The HL and CS patches will be released today at 2pm. I have all but the HL client patches on the website right now. I'll post the URL at 2pm and will hopefully have the HL client patches soon after. Keep checking back. Remember that the more people you give the link out to then less bandwidth we have so don't go posting it anywhere that'll kill us.
Also, the stats page is back up at stats.goonsquad.net. The URL hasn't propagated around the web yet. It should be working within 24 hours. I also cleaned up the table of contents and links a little. |
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More clan news posted by karmann
Tuesday, 11 June 2002 | Spankler has been removed from (gs). No friggin clue where this guy disappeared to. I missed him in the previous round of cuts. Thrall has been moved to the active members list (yay).
Congratulations to Brenter! He recently graduated from high school and will be starting college in the fall. (Note that Redlead did not actually graduate - heh) |
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BizZ and Treset posted by karmann
Monday, 10 June 2002 | | Some of you feel the need to constantly test me on the "no stupidity" and "no gay bashing" rules for our messageboard (and servers for that matter). With that in mind BizZ and Treset have been banned from goonsquad.net and removed from (gs). Don't think I won't do it to you to. After four years of this I have zero tolerance for bullshit. If any of you want to do that then find another community to pollute. |
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Been a while. Here's an update. posted by karmann
Tuesday, 4 June 2002 | The following roster changes were made recently:
- Neo Omega enlisted in the military and has been removed from (gs)
- Carson no longer plays Half-Life or DoD and has asked to be removed from (gs).
- Cruel disappeared and has been removed from (gs)
- Scrappi broke several clan rules, never showed up to anything and abused his position in (gs) with regard to a player on our servers. He has been removed from (gs) and permanently banned from goonsquad.net.
- Scoobi broke several clan rules, never showed up to anything and abused his position in (gs) with regard to a player on our servers. He has been removed from (gs) and permanently banned from goonsquad.net.
- Karde has joined (gs). He's well know to most of us and is a welcome addition to the clan.
- Dirty_J has joined (gs) and will now be wearing the (gs) tag when he's kicking our ass on our own server.
In addition:
- Ducky broke several clan rules, abused rcon and in general showed a lack of respect for a player on our servers. He has been permanently banned from goonsquad.net.
- (gs) was dropped from the STA-DoD because of too many forfeit losses. I am currently searching for a more suitable league for us to join. STA was 8-on-8 and I'm searching for a good 6-on-6 league. I hope to have us signed up and scrimmaging soon.
- In light of the above changes all rcon passwords have been changed and posted to the private section of the board. If any of you give them out to a former member or allow a former member to play or post from your IP, you will be removed from (gs) and banned from goonsquad.net.
That is all. |
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It's out! posted by karmann
Tuesday, 7 May 2002 | We have a beta version of the Half-Life Server we'd like to begin testing. The issues we have addressed with this version are listed at the bottom of this e-mail.
You can download the new beta server here:
http://files.valve-erc.com/
login: server_beta
pass: kalafornia
Windows
=======
filename: hlds_4109a_beta.zip
engine build: 2020
md5: 07bf28a060e7967f6fa814dd56d99d61
files: 4109a_changes.txt
hw.dll
sw.dll
swds.dll
hlds.exe
hltv.exe
cstrike\dlls\mp.dll
dmc\dlls\dmc.dll
Linux
=====
filename: hlds_l_3109a_beta.tar.gz
engine build: 2020
md5: 0f6dcd041ba3a7969021db9beea66540
files: 3109a_changes.txt
engine_i386.so
hlds
hlds_run
hltv
cstrike\dlls\cs_i386.so
dmc\dlls\dmc_i386.so
All you need to do is download the appropriate file(s) and replace your old one(s). It's always a good idea to back-up your old versions first. Clients using 1.1.0.9/1.0.0.4 should not have any problems connecting to your servers. If you have any questions, please let me know (mailto:erics@valvesoftware.com).
Thanks.
Eric Smith
VALVe
===================================================
HLDS
====
- Linux: Fixed server using 64 MB more memory than it needed to.
- Linux: Added -pingboost command line parameter. Currently supports two different methods ('-pingboost 1' or '-pingboost 2'). Only one method can be active. Method 2 is the same method used in the old 3108 hlds_run_test beta build. Method 1 is a new method. These may not work well (or at all) on some OS environments.
hlds_run script
===============
- Linux: Added "-debug" flag to automagically run gdb and pull out useful
info.
- Linux: Quits script on "quit" from console, restarts on crash (via
"-restart" flag).
Engine
======
- Fixed incorrect WonIDs/SteamIDs in logs.
- Fixed 'undefined symbol: __strtouq_internal' on some Linux systems.
- Fixed sv_allowdownload being required to be set to 1 for clients to connect to secure servers.
- Fixed segmentation fault on some Linux systems when attempting to run in secure mode.
- Fixed 'bad address type' fatal error on servers that attempt to run in secure mode but have no DNS resolution.
- Fixed DropClient messages for Steam clients who were banned or have a duplicate Steam ID to properly show the SteamID of the client.
- Added logging of the anti-cheat system catching and kicking detected cheats.
- Added logging of "kick" commands.
- Added logging of "banid" commands.
HLTV
====
- Fixed HLTV reporting wrong spectator numbers if connection to server was pending.
- Fixed "multicast 1" not working if it was issued before HLTV connected to game server.
- Added "serverversion", can be set to '1108' to view/re-record old demos.
- Added new debug message for mod makers if a packet couldn't be parsed correctly.
- Fixed relay proxies reporting wrong spectator/slots numbers in multiplayer/LAN menu.
- Changed error message if clients try to download missing resources to be more helpful.
Counter-Strike
==============
- Restored "mp_fadetoblack" server variable.
DMC
===
- Fixed DMC powerup bug where the invisibility ring would make people glow red.
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v4.0.60 posted by karmann
Monday, 6 May 2002 | Small update to fix some problems with 1.1.0.9:
- Status responses weren't being properly parsed due to a change in their format.
- Kicks based on ping restrictions will now respect the immunity flag.
- Status box wasn't displaying the number of players in the server properly
NOTE: CS 1.4 has a MAJOR logging bug! It displays the killers WonID as the WonID for both the killer and player they killed. This will obviously screw up all stats programs (including mine). A server-side fix is due soon but until then I'd recommend not using the Spy for TK enforcement and stats gathering. When the fix is implemented it will probably require a wipe and reinstall of the Spy's data tables to clear our all the crap this bug added in. |
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Issues with SteamIDs posted by karmann
Thursday, 25 April 2002 | VALVe in all their wisdom decided that SteamIDs will be issued AFTER the initial connection to the HL server. That creates the following log entries:
"Player<655><STEAM_ID_PENDING><>" connected, address "IP"
"Player<655><STEAM_0:114658><>" STEAM USERID validated
Version 4.0 of the Spy isn't setup to handle that connect message. I'll fix this when I get back from vacation. Rest assured that the Spy will still work with SteamIDs and track all their behavior on the server. It will just take it a second or two more to log their connection.
I'll also be adding a feature to disallow Steam clients from your servers. See the previous news post below.
Watch for a patch sometime the week of May 5th.
Lastly, a reminder, I will be on vacation from 4/27-54. I might be able to check the messageboard to answer a tech support question once or twice, but I will NOT be able to handle registrations (create and email keys) while I'm gone. Sorry. |
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Steam Powered? posted by karmann
Thursday, 25 April 2002 | Let me preface this by saying that this is a gut reaction to my initial test of VALVe's new Steam program. It could be completely unfair of me to make this post and gross misrepresentation of what VALVe's gameplan is. Regardless, here goes...
Most of you understand how the current system of game distribution, mod development, server setup and content delivery is handled. For those that don't know, it's a very manual process:
1) Purchase game from your local retailer and install it.
2) Go to the support website to download the latest patch.
3) Find and download the install for the mod you'd like to play.
4) Download and install a suitable server browser.
5) Find a good server, connect to it and play.
Sound easy right? It is for the most part. The problem is that everything has to be perfect in this process or you will not be able to connect and play. Both the client and the server need to be running the exact same version of the game, mod, map and other content. It's also simply a very manual process involving web searches, downloading large files and tracking versions for the game and every mod you play. But what's the biggest problem with this system? Game companies have no revenue stream after step 1!
This typically is not a problem. Most games have a shelf life of a year or two where they make their sales, support the game and move on to the next one. VALVe Software, on the other hand, first sold Half-Life way back in 1998. What's the most popular first-person shooter in 2002? Half-Life. They extended the life of the game by releasing various versions of it (Game of the Year Edition, Counter-Strike, Blue Shift, etc.) but it still boils down to the same game. Anyone want to guess how many of the people playing the various Half-Life mods today purchased the game in the last 12 months? I'm guessing around 20%.
Enter Steam. Steam is VALVe's answer to all of the above problems. We'll buy the game, authenticate (no more CD key), patch and download content (custom maps) automatically. Sounds like a great system doesn't it? Reminds you of the way MMORPGs handle their patches and content. It should, because VALVe plans to setup a monthly subscription system. Granted they've said they don't plan to do this with Half-Life nor do I think they legally could charge us for a game we already own. But they seem to be making it pretty clear that whatever is next will be distributed via Steam for a monthly fee.
No thanks.
These are not MMORPGs. I setup and run my own servers for these games. Nor do I expect this to change in "the next big thing". Am I as a server op going to be paid for my services? I'm the one that gives the people that buy their game a place to play. If it weren't for we server ops their game would die a quick death.
VALVe has been AMAZING with their support for Half-Life. Their developers are always around to answer questions for server ops, mod developers and 3rd party application developers. I'm not suggesting that 4 years down the road they don't deserve a solid revenue stream for the amazing product they produced. I have a simple fix for that though, release the next big thing! Then they can setup the same great support structure for it and the mod community can get to work creating content for this game. Repeat this process every 2-3 years and watch the money just pour in.
Right now I put in a lot of work to give myself, my clan and thousands of other players a good place to play. Unless I don't have to go to that effort in the next big thing there's NO WAY I'll pay VALVe a monthly fee.
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It's ready posted by karmann
Tuesday, 23 April 2002 | I uploaded v4.0 slightly ahead of schedule. Those that unzip the patch need to make sure they run DBCleanup.exe before restarting the Spy.
Enjoy! |
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The Server Spy v4.0 posted by karmann
Monday, 22 April 2002 | I will be releasing the next version of The Server Spy tomorrow afternoon (4/23). The website has been updated with the screenshots and documentation for the new version. I hope everyone likes the changes. The biggest thing on my to-do list that didn't make it was fixing the IRC bugs. As you'll see in the Release Notes this is scheduled to be fixed in v4.1 which will follow shortly after v4.0.
I will be on vacation in Orlando, FL next week (4/27-5/4). There will be a link to an older install of the Spy on the messageboard just in case you have problems to the point where you'd like to switch back. I will be unavailable for all tech support questions and more importantly registration fulfillment. Please be patient and I will fill any registrations as soon as I'm back home from vacation.
There will be a patch version of the install available to v3.1.74 users. This will require that you run DBCleanup.exe before you restart the Spy however. The full install and patch should be about the same size as the current install and patch. |
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More roster info posted by karmann
Monday, 11 March 2002 | BizZ and Treset have rejoined our roster to compete in DoD. Technically they never left. They were going to play RQ3 with 20ID but we all know how that ended up. Scoobi has finally joined the clan after hanging around and annoying us for a couple of years. He insists he's good at DoD and will try not to annoy everyone. That leaves Ducky as the only member of the Orlando Four that is not a member of (gs). I think we're done for now. =)
Howser has also rejoined the clan for DoD although his time will be very limited.
Welcome (Back) All! |
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Chapter 3 posted by karmann
Tuesday, 5 March 2002 | We quit competing in CS back in September for a few reasons. We were just plain sick of the game, punks, cheaters, gameplay changes with each patch, same 10 maps over and over, etc. Well here we are six month later and we're getting set to compete in another Half-Life MOD. Day of Defeat Beta 2.0! Not that I'm anymore happy with the HL engine than I was in September but this seems to be the only mod with serious competition that we all enjoy.
On a related note, our good friends over at 20 Inch Dongs ([20ID] for those that might recognize the tag) have been using our DoD servers for their matches for nearly a year now. Given the recent demise of the 20ID/sK DoD squads we were contacted by their members about joining (gs). Please give a big Goon Squad welcome to Stibs, Inx, Ashes, Nullset, Neo-Omega, Carson, Stewy, Cheech, Cruel, Akiro, Nightmare, SovKhan and StelthMonkey. Also please welcome back NightShade to the clan (again).
We are set to start practicing DoD on 3/16 and expect to play our first match around the first of April. Where does this leave (gs) and RQ3? We'll play it when teamplay comes out and if it doesn't suck we will see if there's any interest and start competing in it as well. I'm not holding my breath for this one.
Finally, I'd like to wish WorthlessWonder all the best in whatever he does next. He resigned from the clan several weeks ago. |
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[B|T] Clan Assholes posted by karmann
Tuesday, 26 February 2002 | I took the time yesterday to track down the IP addresses and WONIDs used by [B|T] clan members on our servers. Four different players, four IP addreses and 14 different WONIDs. They've been banned by WONID from our game servers and by IP at our firewall. What was it they said on our messageboard...
DESTROYED!!!
Please try to come back. I'd love to be able to track down the rest of the WONIDs you punks use.
So this morning I got the following email:
Hey dude,
I noticed this evening that I was banned from your servers and message boards, and I have no clue why? I really don’t care but at least give me a reason. I was just on the regular FF server a couple of nights ago with a couple of my teammates and we had a good time. So please tell what I have done wrong to deserve this treatment.
Dazed and confused,
[JFF]Ghost
aka Korie Bruce (or is it the other way around J )
BTW..my WONID is 498425
That's [B|T]PhukMeHrd to you and I. Nice try. Again... keep begging. This is fun. |
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LMAO posted by karmann
Wednesday, 13 February 2002 | Do you guys remember "Four_Horseman" from the messageboard? Well after wl banned him the fun has continued via email. It's so funny I've made this guy his very own tribute page.
Read and enjoy! |
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DoD 2.0 and other information posted by karmann
Thursday, 7 February 2002 | wl was kind enough to download and post a link to Day of Defeat Beta 2.0. The link can be found on our messageboard. The servers have been patched and the ports and maps have been switched around so go to our servers page and check it out.
Yes, it's been a long time since I've posted anything here. Reaction Quake 3 has been a bit of a disappointment but we're still waiting for teamplay mode to be added before we make our final judgement. There have been some discussions about what we'll be playing next. Frankly everyone is clueless. I'll be announcing a clan meeting very soon so we can discuss our options. |
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New Admin Mod Plugin available for download posted by karmann
Thursday, 31 January 2002 | Yes, you aren't seeing things I actually updated a piece of the Server Spy! woohoo. :-)
I am about to begin work on the next version of the Spy (for real this time). Please repost your feature requests to the messageboard so the other users can see your ideas and shoot them down for me. j/k. Seriously though, I do want all the ideas posted there for discussion.
As far as the new Admin Mod plugin goes, I'd like to thank Alfred and the AM team for taking the time to include some code in the base product. This will mean that any time Admin Mod is patched that the plugin will work with the new version. This also means that the plugin will now work for those of you running Linux servers. I did not include the source for the plugin this time however. I'll provide the reason behind this if asked.
You'll need to patch your servers with the latest Admin Mod and then install this new plugin. I'm not sure you NEED to redownload the plugin but it's only 3k so what's it gonna hurt? |
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Registration keys posted by karmann
Saturday, 26 January 2002 | Recently I've had a couple of people try to lie to me and claim that they registered The Server Spy but never received their key. What these fools don't realize is that I communicate personally with every registrant AND both RegSoft and PayPal keep detailed records of every transaction that takes place AND I keep my own spreadsheet of all registrants and their key information.
So, if anyone thinks you're going to get somewhere by lying and claiming that you paid me and I never sent you your key... then you might as well just save your breath (keystrokes). Idiots. |
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Finally some real news to report! posted by karmann
Thursday, 17 January 2002 | Alfred from Admin Mod has agreed to integrate my two custom functions into the base Admin Mod product. He will not however make the functions available to all of his users. In other words the Server Spy Plugin will still be required. This is a good thing. =) This means I won't have to keep up with their new versions AND we'll have both Win32 and Linux binaries. The next release of Admin Mod is due in about a month.
In other news... one of my original users (Privateer) runs LAN parties in Western Australia. Two weekends ago he ran a 750 player LAN party where the Server Spy was used to monitor 40 HL server from one PC. According to him it worked flawlessly with no missed messages. Not even I thought it could handle that load. Here's a photo of the event:
Impressive party Privateer! Thanks for using the Server Spy.
No ETA on the next version. I'll be testing it with DoD Beta 2 when it's released. I am still working on it and supporting it. Keep checking back! |
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Happy Holidays! posted by karmann
Friday, 21 December 2001 | | It's been a long time since I've updated the site. Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! If you're traveling over the holidays, be safe. |
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Happy Holidays! posted by karmann
Friday, 21 December 2001 | Just a quick note to everyone wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. If you're traveling over the holidays, be safe. I and my family will be doing our annual Western Ohio Tour and be offline for the most part from Sunday 12/23 through Thursday 12/27. I may be able to get online to answer any tech support questions you may have but will not be able to fulfill any registration requests during these days. I don't imagine anyone will be working too hard on the HL servers over this period anyway.
Thanks,
karmann |
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I'm still here! posted by karmann
Tuesday, 20 November 2001 | Fear not! I am still working on The Server Spy. This is NOT a dead project. Quite the contrary. Sorry for the lack of news updates, just didn't see the need.
Anyway, there still is no pending release date for the next patch or version of the Spy. I have a very small bug list so the urgency to release something just isn't there. I have come up with a feature that I think would help us all out a lot. Punkbuster integration! The ability to send commands to the Spy that would be passed on to the Punkbuster server via telnet. So you could run a specific PB league config from within the HL server. I'm also investigating a way to take screenshot from PB via the Spy and post the JPGs to a stats-type page.
Like I said, no ETA for any of this. Hopefully by mid-December though. |
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All good things... posted by karmann
Thursday, 25 October 2001 | Well maybe not so good but at least competitive. =) Effective immediately The Goon Squad is ceasing competition in Counter-Strike. This decision has been a long time in coming. The recent release of Dark Age of Camelot and it crack-like addictive nature has been the final bullet to the brain. It's been a fun year and a half as a CS clan. What's next you ask? Well as addictive as DAoC is, it does not satisfy our collective thirst for high speed bloodletting. Most likely (gs) will return to the Action scene with the release of Reaction Quake 3. Unless this mod is completely horrible it will be what's next.
wl has found yet another IBM Netfinity server for our use in Rochester, NY. Same specs as the other two. This boosts our HL server capacity to 12. The current server plan is...
NY1 - 1 CS, 1 AHL, 1 DoD Hill and 1 DoD (w/rotation)
NY2 - 1 CS match server (for our friends to borrow), 1 DoD Caen and 1 RQ3 Deathmatch server
NY3 - 1 RQ3 Capture the Briefcase server and 1 RQ3 Match server.
Any (gs) that would still like to compete in CS can feel free to join another clan. I would like to congratulate Brenter for being added to the RoTF CS roster. Great bunch of guys over there. Thanks for waiting for the clan to make a decision Brenter. The only other two active (gs) members that I believe will continue competition in CS are Shalott and Titmonger. They have formed a 2v2 OGL squad. No doubt in my mind that they'll be on top of that ladder soon enough. |
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Out of town and other bits posted by karmann
Wednesday, 10 October 2001 | I'll be out of town and offline beginning tomorrow around 9am through late Sunday. Please check the FAQ and documentation for the answers to your questions. If you should register the software while I'm out of town you won't receive your key until I return. Sorry about this but my key generation program is manual and requires some interaction from you (the user) as well.
Also, some of you may have noticed that my clan (The Goon Squad) is slowly getting out of playing Counter-Strike. This will in no way change my support of CS or Half-Life (or any other currently supported MOD).
Have a great weekend and I'll see you Sunday night. |
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Happy Goon Squad Day! posted by karmann
Tuesday, 9 October 2001 | | Today marks the three year anniversary of the founding of our little clan. It's been a fun three years. I'll be updating our history page to include info on the last 6 months. We still haven't made a decision about what we will be playing next. We will be running Urban Terror, Reaction Quake3 (when it's released), Wolfenstein, DoD, CS, AHL and AQ2 servers for the time being. Please express your opinions! If you don't speak up we won't know how you feel. |
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Resigning from STA-CSX posted by karmann
Monday, 8 October 2001 | I sent the following email to the STA-CSX admins this afternoon:
"The Goon Squad is resigning from STA-CSX effective immediately. Sorry to not have given everyone a couple more days notice but I personally have been having difficulty deciding the direction of (gs). We may continue on in the BiTE league for all or part of next season but may also move on from CS competition entirely in favor of something else. Thanks to the STA for running such a great league and to the other clans in the STA for their professionalism and maturity."
That pretty much sums it up. |
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What next? posted by karmann
Wednesday, 26 September 2001 | GS has been planning to move on for months now. Here's the plan.
Overall comments and membership status:
For the time being we will continue competing in Counter-Strike. I expect our current roster to stay the way it is. When we decide to stop competing in CS entirely then anyone here that would like to keep competing in it can feel free to join another clan. Not before.
Once the switch is made your membership in another clan will not cause me to remove you from our roster unless you tell me to. We had several members that played in other clans for AQ2 once we moved to CS. This is not an issue for us. I also realize that we may choose to compete in a game where some of your former clans may compete. There will be no hard feelings towards anyone choosing to play with their former clans.
This entire decision is based on the general distaste for CS 1.3 and the decision of PunkBuster to no longer support HL and CS.
Games:
I need everyone to let me know ASAP any games that they feel we should consider playing. Given our history I would limit those suggestions based on the following: No MMORPGs, RPGs or RTS games (with the possible exception of PlanetSide-style games – i.e. FPS-type RPGs). No games that involve heavy use of rocket launchers, rail guns or other futuristic weapons and no grappling hooks or jet packs. Basically if it uses real-world weapons (present or past) it’s appropriate. Class based games are being considered as well. Because of the PunkBuster situation, no HL mod will be considered. Make a case for your game of choice to get it on the short-list.
Our current short-list is Reaction Quake 3, Operation Flashpoint, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Urban Terror and Global Operations. Please download and play those that are available. Consider the current and potential level of online competition in your decision as well as the quality of the game and network code. Post your comments on the messageboard. |
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Clan meeting posted by karmann
Tuesday, 25 September 2001 | | Clan meeting tonight in #goonsquad on GamesNet at 8:30pm eastern. Be there. This meeting is open to all current and inactive members (and most former members). |
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Version 3.1 has been released posted by karmann
Tuesday, 25 September 2001 | New features:
- Fixed to work with HL 4.1.0.8, 3.1.0.8 and CS 1.3 (minor tweaks)
- Team wounding enforcement (kick, ban, mirror or reverse damage)
- More admin mod integration including a custom admin_mm.dll (AM source included)
- More IRC display options
- Ping restrictions
- Damage inflicted/taken statistics
See the documentation and FAQ for details on Admin Mod integration, mirror damage and reverse damage.
IMPORTANT: If you're patching from a previous version you will need to run DBCleanup.exe before restarting the Spy. Otherwise there will be crashes, errors and much nastiness. |
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Version 3.1 posted by karmann
Monday, 24 September 2001 | I tested one method of team wounding enforcement this weekend. Basically it allowed you guys to say "Treat X points damage within Y minutes as one infraction". So if you said 50 points of damage within 3 minutes and someone unloaded on a few teammates then it would basically count that as a TK. The problem is that because I don't track each and every shot there's no way for me to allow people to forgive. Eventually even the best FF players will do that much damage to a teammate. So the next method that I will be testing is "Kick for causing X points of damage within the first Y seconds of a round". This will interfere with the instant perm ban for TKing feature but should keep people from dying at the beginning of the round. I'll be testing this method out tonight. I have a feeling it will work a lot better.
The other features that are new in this version are ping range enforcement. It will use the ping reported in a "status" to enforce ping restrictions. I've also coded in a damage statistic. The new version of HL and CS allows you use the mp_logdetail cvar to turn on logging of team wounds and/or enemy wounds (0-off;1-enemy;2-team;3-both). If you have it set to 3 it will track the amount of damage you deal out to the opposite team. I'll generate stats pages for this as well. Sounds cool but the traffic generated by sending each and every bullet hit could be too much. Especially for those of us that monitor several servers from remote locations.
If my testing goes well this evening you should expect a release tomorrow or Wednesday. |
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HL & CS files posted by karmann
Wednesday, 19 September 2001 | We -were- an official mirror. That lasted all of two hours until this server died. The files are still on this box and we'll post a link to all of them to our members and friends very soon. But it will not be made available to the general public.
Check back later. |
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HL Version 1.1.0.8 & Server Spy Version 3.1 posted by karmann
Tuesday, 18 September 2001 | As I've said before the version of The Server Spy that's currently available for download will work with the next HL patch. I will be releasing sometime later this week v3.1 that will activate the team wounding features. As well as support for AHL (if they release on schedule). I just need a few days to test it on my servers before I release it to you.
There is one bug in the software that you may have noticed by now. It does not accurately track total time played on the server. There is an issue with duplicate disconnects, changelevels and invisible disconnects that has been completely screwing up my time tracking code. I'll be fixing this one this week. Hopefully. |
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Servers are back up posted by karmann
Saturday, 15 September 2001 | I'm not sure what our schedule is for next week. I'll let everyone know on the messageboard.
Please keep up the prayers. |
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Servers are back up posted by karmann
Saturday, 15 September 2001 | I'm not sure what our schedule is for next week. I'll let everyone know on the messageboard.
Please keep up the prayers. |
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Helping out posted by karmann
Wednesday, 12 September 2001 | If you're a regular to our website or servers you've probably noticed that our game servers are offline. It just doesn't seem appropriate to celebrate killing in any form at the moment. You may also notice some other gaming sites displaying a "Gamers Against Terrorism" page. We will not be doing that on any of The Goon Squad web sites. If you sincerely want to do something for this nation then contact your local Red Cross chapter and ask about donating blood or donating money.
I also realize that there is a lot of anger about these attacks. I would simply urge everyone to use the same (or more in some cases) common sense you've always used to deal with your fellow man. Racism, bigotry, threats and just plain stupidity are not helpful.
As for The Goon Squad and more importantly to this audience, The Server Spy... The clan side will be taking at least the current week off. The Server Spy side will be business as usual. I will be providing technical support and fixing bugs as needed. I'm not trying to be insensitive. I have simply decided that my small part of this great nation and economy will not be stopped by these cowards. |
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Helping out posted by karmann
Wednesday, 12 September 2001 | If you're a regular to our website or servers you've probably noticed that our game servers are offline. It just doesn't seem appropriate to celebrate killing in any form at the moment. You may also notice some other gaming sites displaying a "Gamers Against Terrorism" page. We will not be doing that on any of The Goon Squad web sites. If you sincerely want to do something for this nation then contact your local Red Cross chapter and ask about donating blood or donating money.
I also realize that there is a lot of anger about these attacks. I would simply urge everyone to use the same (or more in some cases) common sense you've always used to deal with your fellow man. Racism, bigotry, threats and just plain stupidity are not helpful. If anyone decides to use anything (gs) to promote these ideas then they will be banned from all things (gs).
As for The Goon Squad... We will be taking at least the current week off. I will post here when the servers are restarted. |
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Busy day posted by karmann
Saturday, 8 September 2001 | | At about 3pm this afternoon I discovered that for servers of more than 18 players the "rcon status" results were being split across 2-3 packets. I know what you're thinking... "What the heck is he talking about?". Let me put it this way... The Server Spy never friggin worked for full servers of 18+ players. Yes, that's right folks... it just didn't work. It does now! I just uploaded v3.0.102. Go get the patch. Have a nice night/morning. :) |
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6 game win streak posted by karmann
Friday, 7 September 2001 | | We've managed to put together our longest win streak since we started playing CS. 6 games! Woohoo! Let's keep the streak alive next week. Next up are -RoTF- and ++ on Monday and Tuesday. Expect lots of scrimmages in preparation for these two. |
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Version 3.0.91 posted by karmann
Wednesday, 5 September 2001 | I just built the install and uploaded it. For anyone that's downloaded the Spy in the last day or two this is an essential download. There were a few things that should not have slipped past me but did. Sorry everyone.
One of you asked me for a changelog. Well I'm really lazy about that kind of thing (I just fix the bugs as I find them and don't document that anywhere). So always assume that you NEED the latest patch.
The next version of HL is due for release any day now (for real this time). It includes some minor changes to the log format and now logs console "says". This version will handle these changes. If will probably take me a day or two after the release of HL 1.1.0.8 to get the team damage things working as I want them to. The code for them has been in the Spy since February but of course it's never been used. I need to test it before I release it.
The only other new feature that I'm going to try to include in v3.1 (that wasn't in the readme.txt already) is a IRC bot throttle. Hopefully that will do a lot to prevent Excess Flood kicks. |
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Upcoming Schedule posted by bLaCkLoTuS
Saturday, 1 September 2001 | Got a couple tough matches coming up this week,
Tuesday we face ]R-Syn[ on de_village at 8:30pm EST
Thursday we face u238 on de_dust2 at 9:30pm EST
We will probably be having a bunch of scrims to prepare for this, so show up in irc each night if you could around 8:30pm EST.
If you don't have de_village go download it off bite.playway.net Look under their files section.
The one off our files page doesn't seem to be the right version.
Its nice to see that Titmonger was cleared up by the PB Admins.
gg UberMensch, Nice Try. |
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Quick update posted by karmann
Saturday, 1 September 2001 | [21:41] <[gs]Howser> is there a verdict for the dispute?
[21:41] <[-L-]Skegs> they dropped the dispute after talking to the pb guys
I guess we don't get an apology...? Oh and the score was 31-3 not 30-4 as reported on the STA website. |
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Judge for yourself posted by karmann
Friday, 31 August 2001 | To achieve our 5th straight win this evening we had to defeat [UberMensch] which we did quite quickly and quite easily. 31-3 was the final score. After the match they checked their PB caps and found the following "evidence" that Titmonger (gs) was cheating. I stand by my clan members 100% but I want everyone that knows us to judge for yourself. Here's the screenshot taken with PunkBuster...
So yea... it's screwey. But anyone that's taken a lot of screenshots with the PB screen capture utility has probably run into this before. I have. Anyone that wants to see how Titmonger played in this match can simply download and watch these demos...
Titmonger as CT and Titmonger as T
It's a boring watch but please, watch them and judge for yourself. |
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A four game win streak! posted by karmann
Tuesday, 28 August 2001 | It's been a good week for us. GG to |iN|, |Gen|, =G|S= and [TacOpS]. Ordinarily I wouldn't brag about our wins but I would like to point out the following prediction from the BiTE website... "TacOps will win...by 6".
Our latest recruit GoldChuck has made an impressive debut in our last few matches. He even lets us know in advance that he will be here for matches (unlike some other members *cough*titmonger*cough*).
Lastly, I would like to say congratulations and good luck to BizZ, Treset, Yoda, Shalott and Master. These five are starting their freshman year in college. When the drunken haze wears off we'll see them online again. |
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Installation problems posted by karmann
Friday, 24 August 2001 | | When you install the software it is supposed to give you 15 full-featured days of use before it starts limiting the features. If anyone here has a situation where it is expired immediately upon install then PLEASE let me know asap. Thanks. |
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Version 3.0 has been released posted by karmann
Wednesday, 22 August 2001 | See the previous post for full details. Thanks.
Note that if you're patching from a previous version it's always a good idea to run DBCleanup before restarting the Spy. |
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Version 3.0 and other things posted by karmann
Tuesday, 21 August 2001 | The latest version of The Server Spy has been up and running on my servers for a week and half now with few if any bugs. I think the changes in this version resolve all the issues people were having with the software. Especially the "status" requests from the server. Changes/New features:
- More separate and configurable punishment settings
- More IRC display options
- Less bandwidth required (fewer status requests sent to server)
- Permanent ban immunity for server regulars
- !punishtk immunity for server regulars
- More customizable warning messages
- More configurable generated stats
- Our very own master server (tn.goonsquad.net)
- DBCleanup now allows:
- Resetting all stats rankings
- Deleting players that are not server regulars
- Deleting older kills
- Deleting older events
- Clearing all players aliases
This version will be released early tomorrow. I will have the documentation and FAQ updated later today.
There are still some registered users that have not upgraded to the last version of the Spy. Before you install this version you will need to find me to receive your new registration key.
The next version of the Spy will be v3.1 and most likely will include the following:
- Fixes to work with HL 4.1.0.8, 3.1.0.8 and CS 1.3
- Action Half-Life support (including stats)
- Team wounding enforcement (finally)
- More admin mod integration including a custom admin_mm.dll (AM source included)
AHL support depends on the A-Team conforming to the Half-Life Official stats format. Team wounding enforcement depends on Valve's addition of team wounding to the logs. Something they've said they were going to do since December 2000. Last I heard it was being implemented in 1.1.0.8. We shall see. This version will be released to coincide with the next HL and CS patches. |
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Roster changes and other news posted by karmann
Wednesday, 15 August 2001 | Once again we've got some major roster issues happening:
Talon - Moved to inactive by request
Thrall - Moved to inactive
Gunslinger - Moved to inactive
Scrappi - Moved to inactive
Ripper - Rejoined the clan but put on inactive list
glowrider - Rejoined the clan but put on inactive list
JazZy - Joined the clan and put on active list
Fo0d - Joined the clan and put on active list
NightShade - Rejoined the clan and put on active list
Shalott - Inactive (college) but not moved because she's an honorary member only
Treset - Inactive soon (school) but still active for the next 2 weeks
BizZ - Inactive soon (college) but still active for the next 2 weeks
Welcome JazZy and Fo0d. Both of these guys are old-school AQ2 players from our old nemesis DeathSquad. We're quickly become a "home for wayward AQ2 players". Also welcome back NightShade! They always come back. =) Every person currently on our active roster is eligible for match play. Some need more work than others but I think we have a solid active squad.
We've joined a second CS league, BITE. It plays Tuesday nights at 8:30 in a 5-on-5 non-FF format. Our first match was last night vs =[OC]=. The outcome of this match was very different than the match against them last Thursday on Train. We avenged our previous loss. GG guys. We play EGO tomorrow night on cs_thunder. |
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Version 2.2.146 has been released posted by karmann
Friday, 27 July 2001 | This update includes a fix to the annoying "blank messages" bug. Finally. All registered users should check their email for important information about this patch. Do this BEFORE you install the patch.
Thanks,
karmann |
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Registration changes posted by karmann
Wednesday, 25 July 2001 | There have been two issues raised recently that are prompting me to change a couple of things. First I've added another payment method to the registration page. You can now purchase the Standard License through RegSoft. It will cost you $5 more but should be much easier for non-USA users. The additional cost is to offset the extra fees charged by RegSoft (among other things).
Secondly, some of you have issues with dynamic IP addresses and the current registration KEYs. To make life a little easier on everyone I'll be changing the registration method to the more standard long alphanumeric key generated from your name and some other piece of information. This change will be happening if not in the next patch but the one following. Obviously I'll be in touch with all the current registered users before the changeover occurs. |
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Version 2.2.131 has been released posted by karmann
Wednesday, 18 July 2001 | Changes:
- Fixed a problem connecting to certain IRC servers
- Increased auto-reconnect time to 3 minutes (from 1 minute). This should decrease the "This server being monitored by an unregistered..." spam as well.
- Various small bug fixes (that you probably didn't run into anyway).
I'm trying to keep up with the FAQ page. I hope everyone is reading it. |
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Congratulations and good luck! posted by karmann
Tuesday, 17 July 2001 | Sometime within the next two hours our good friend Ron "wl (gs)" Penna will be proposing marriage to his girlfriend. As far as I know this ISN'T being done due to familial responsibility and he didn't order her from a catalog. She's actually a normal person. Who knew? That said there is a chance she'll turn him down so I hope I'm not posting this too early. =) Good luck bud! Seriously though, I just wanted to pass along my congratulations.
It's also time to congratulate Ryan "Garrland (gs)" Stolle on his engagement and upcoming marriage. He and his fiancee will be married this September. He claims that this is the cause of his inactivity in the clan. Maybe. Again... congratulations!
Along the same line I would like to take this time to tell my wife of 8 years (as of 8/7) that I love her.
Lastly, one of our more recent members, Citrate (aka. Matt or as he'll be known in a few days "FUCKWAD"), left today for boot camp. Good luck and see you in January! |
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Version 2.2.126 has been released. posted by karmann
Sunday, 15 July 2001 | | Small fix. For those of you who are getting banned from your server you should try this patch. It should handle HL server crashes a LOT better. |
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Version 2.2.125 has been released. posted by karmann
Thursday, 12 July 2001 | It includes a fix to the IRC channel bug that I've been hearing about (sorry about that) and adds another Admin Mod dependant command (!slaytk).
I finally installed Admin Mod on my server. You can really have some fun with people (friends, punks and the unsuspecting - HAHA). Anyone that has a particularly funny thing that you like to do to people in Admin Mod please let me know and if necessary send me the script. =) |
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HL 1.1.0.6 to 1.1.0.7 Upgrade posted by karmann
Wednesday, 11 July 2001 | For your convenience I have once again uploaded the latest HL patches (1.1.0.6 to 1.1.0.7).
HL Client Patch w/o DMC
HL Client Patch w/DMC
In addition, all 5 of the HL servers on ny.goonsquad.net are now running Admin Mod. This is just a test to see how we like it. If anyone would like to get access to it please let me know. NY2-DoD is back as a GS/20ID server and the rcon has been restored to the same as NY1-DoD.
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An another... posted by karmann
Tuesday, 10 July 2001 | | Version 2.2.124 has been posted. This includes the new icon (thanks MutE) and a few small bug fixes. Only significant change is in the Admin Mod support. Instead of adding the health parameter to !punishtk I've added a separate command, "!slaptk", that calls admin_tkslap. As I am not yet an Admin Mod user would someone please test this and let me know if it doesn't work. =) Thanks! |
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v2.2.116 is up posted by karmann
Thursday, 5 July 2001 | | Go download it please. It fixes some minor bugs in Telnet and IRC support. |
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Couple small patches posted by karmann
Monday, 2 July 2001 | | I've release two patches since 4pm. Nothing major. Small bug fixes that most of you won't have run into yet. In case you're wondering, yes you can install the v2.2 over top of v2.1 and you shouldn't lose any of your data. You will however have to re-setup your settings as the format of the INI file has changed. Edit it in Notepad if you want to make your life a little easier. |
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The Server Spy Version 2.2 is available for download posted by karmann
Monday, 2 July 2001 | New features and changes:
- Improved documentation
- Limited Admin Mod integration (ability for TKed to take health from TKer)
- Last update date added to stats pages
- Customizable IRC topic
- Turn off certain IRC messages to reduce the spam
- Turn off auto-reconnect features (allowing for the use of logaddress redirectors)
- Send RCON commands from an IRC channel
- Settings are now Spy-specific (not global)
- Certain DoD 1.3 tweaks
I do not have the admin_tkslap function yet. As soon as I get my hands on it I'll post it to the download page. This version has been throughly tested with CS and DoD but as always was not extensively tested with DM or TFC. However this should not be a problem as the DoD support is the only section of mod specific code that was touched (due to the release od DoD 1.3 - PLAY THAT GAME!).
DoD admins should note that they are now logging MM1, MM2, TKs and certain other events. This should make the IRC bot much more interesting.
IRC bot users should note that I am broadcasting 2 CS and 1 DoD server with all detail except MM1 and MM2. I have yet to be kicked from GamesNet for excess flood. When I do disconnect it's usually a connection issue and the bot has consistently reconnected.
Please post any bugs to the messageboard. Expect patches to be posted frequently in the next two weeks. The next version (v 2.3) will coincide with the HLDS 1.1.0.8 / CS 1.3 release later this month. |
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Testing... posted by karmann
Sunday, 1 July 2001 | Version 2.2 has been online monitoring 3 CS and 2 DoD servers since about 4pm Friday afternoon. It's also broadcasting 3 of the servers to IRC (GamesNet #gs_ny1_cs, #gs_ny1_dod, #gs_ga_cs). No errors whatsoever.
My company's internet connection (T1 through UUNET) went down from 5:30pm EDT yesterday to 7:48am EDT today. How do I know this? Because the box that I use to run the Spy is at my office and the IRC bot stopped broadcasting between those hours. As soon as the internet connection came back up it reconnected and picked right back up.
I think this has been a damn good test. I just need to make sure I'm 100% compatible with DoD 1.3 and I'll release it. FYI... The DoD now logs team kills. So you can use the Spy to ban them instead of mp_tkpenalty. |
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Version 2.2 is up and running posted by karmann
Friday, 29 June 2001 | | It's monitoring my five HL servers (3 CS and 2 DoD) and if this weekend goes well I'll be releasing it on Tuesday or Wednesday (after I finish my documentation improvements/changes). If anyone is interested in seeing the new IRC stuff in action come to #goonsquad ad GamesNet and find me ([gs]karmann). |
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I've discovered a little IRC thing called "G-lined" posted by karmann
Thursday, 28 June 2001 | The latest version of the Spy was going to use this cool new IRC ActiveX control to allow you guys to do some very cool things like connect to several different IRC server and channels to bot your matches. Well I hit a snag when I turned the IRC bot on for my 5th HL server. Apparently GamesNet has a limit of 4 simultaneous connections to their server from the same IP. I got G-lined (temporary ban). Ironic huh? =)
So, the next version will only allow you to connect to one IRC server but as many channels as you have servers that you're monitoring. The rcon from the IRC channel is working.
I'm trying to decide between two ActiveX control. One is more stable but costs more. The other has just exactly what I need but is less stable. I'll be testing all weekend and give you guys the final decision on Monday. Regardless the ability to rcon from an IRC channel is friggin sweet! |
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Server Spy v2.2 posted by karmann
Wednesday, 27 June 2001 | | The next version is a day or two (or three...) away from release. I'm in the middle of updating the website with documentation for v2.2. Please take this into consideration before you flame me on the messageboard for having documentation that differs from the software you downloaded. |
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Unsportsmanlike conduct posted by karmann
Tuesday, 26 June 2001 | As most of you know we played X3 last night on de_train. I would like to point out a few things that happened yesterday to make it a very uncool day.
a) The Fighting Nun and BizZ offline and out of town.
b) Howser, Redlead and Treset couldn't play (thx for giving me some notice Redlead - the only one of the three to do so)
c) SuN (asshole) decided to add a third clan to his multi-clan schedule. Which I found out about at 7pm (about 3 hours after he told me he could play against X3). He's no longer in GS.
d) No practice at all.
e) We suck at Train.
f) I was forced to play (that's never a good thing).
All this added up to one shitty match with X3. I'd like to thank Titmonger, Shalott and bLaCkLoTuS for showing up. I'd also like to thank Image (formerly of DDi and OsK) for coming out of "retirement" at least for a night to play with us and try to add some last minute coordination. On a side note I'd like to say something about and to X3. I was warned before the match that you were a bunch of unsportsmenlike assholes (by a league admin no less). That you toy with people, play a man down just to prove you can, etc. Well all the warnings were true. I'll reserve my "good game" for a clan I respect. Or at least a real clan.
When I say The Fighting Nun is out of town and offline I mean he's back in Miami and without a good internet connection. So he's basically inactive for the rest of 2001. Combine that with the departure of SuN (asshole) and we have two holes in our Alpha squad roster. I'm officially moving bLaCkLoTuS to the Alpha squad and will be looking to move someone else up or recruiting someone good enough to fill it very soon. Nun's shoes are big ones to fill.
Our last outstanding issues is leagues and to some extent the mods in which we want to compete. The clan leadership will be meeting soon to discuss our short and long-term plans for the clan. |
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Busy week posted by karmann
Tuesday, 19 June 2001 | We defeated UN1s 27-13 on de_rotterdam last night to advance to the loser's bracket quarter finals. We play X3 on de_train next Monday night. Read the GS private messageboard for details. Our LAN party (www.dixielan.org) is this Friday-Sunday.
Noreaga and Seriph2 have decided not to join GS. Oh well. We still have not made a final decision as to which leagues we will be joining. We will be discussing it this week and testing out some mods at the LAN. |
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What next? posted by karmann
Sunday, 10 June 2001 | We were an AQ2 clan from 10/98-2/00 and have been a CS clan from 4/00-6/01. Are we at the end of our CS time? The STA has just shut down the general CS league. The invite tournament is still going on and that will have our attention for at least this week and maybe one more. I'm calling for a all-hands meeting tonight at 9pm in our IRC channel. I'd suggest that all GS start thinking about what game you want to compete in for the next 14 months.
I'd also like to welcome four new recruits: Yoda, BurnHavoc, Noreaga and Seriph2. I hope you fella didn't join at a bad time. =\ |
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A proposal to the CS "community" posted by karmann
Thursday, 31 May 2001 | Overview:
GS is old-school. Just about everyone knows that. A lot of us have been together for a very long time and those that weren't with GS in the beginning were mostly member of the AQ2 scene and/or came from allied clans (20ID for example). I've always said that longevity and friendship is as important to me as our accomplishments. That being said we do take the game seriously. Sometimes more than others. Currently we're in 3 STA leagues (Invite, Alpha and Charlie) to give everyone a chance to compete and hopefully win at the level in which they're playing.
I've never really considered CS to have much of a community. AQ2 had an awesome sense of community "back in the day". Clans were very close knit and inter-clan rivalries were at a minimum. Anyone who acted disrespectful, unsportsmanlike or cheated was ostracized from the community. A very tight self-governing group.
CS on the other hand has never had this. Clans form and disperse like a fart in the wind (and sometimes smell as rosy in the process). Players clan-hop their way up the clan hierarchy.
Proposals:
1) The CS community needs to come to an agreement between leagues as to the level of clans that will be allowed to compete in that league. Clans like DoP, xeno, ZuG, x3 (etc) have no business competing in the same leagues and supposedly at the same level as the rest of us. Lesser clans could also opt to play in tournaments and leagues with the pro squads but with the knowledge that those are the level of clans in this league. Players moving up to the pro level or between pro-level clans should be tracked to prevent ringing.
2) Punkbuster should drop clan tag registration in favor of WONID registration. Players should be forced to register their gaming nickname (with clan tag) and WONID with PB. Punkbuster should then make this information available via a website and in-game during PB authentication. IP addresses should also be tracked for a potential future cross-reference for those that might have two cdkeys. This would minimize ringing and let everyone know who the clan-hoppers are.
Why?
Professional online competition WILL do this eventually. It has to or the money will evaporate. Companies will only want to give sponsorship money to established clans and will be looking for marquee players. They have to be pretty certain that these players are who they say they are and are in it for a reasonable amount of time. They're also going to want to know how these clans compete week in and week out against clans of equal caliber. It's easy to rack up wins if you're allowed to join the OGL.
What does this accomplish?
It still rewards the pro players and clans the prestige and money they're working so hard to earn. But it also rewards those clans like GS that work hard week in and week out to not only win but retain it's members and make clanning a fun thing.
What it boils down to for me is that I'm fed up with clanning in CS. All the clanning news sites report that so-and-so just left this clan for that clan and this clan is falling apart. Or this super-clan just recruited this player away from their old clan and will now be invincible. Or this clan got beat by a so-called lesser clan and are now breaking up. This kind of crap is just friggin lame. I don't want to play a clan that would break up if a clan of our caliber beat them. I don't want to hang out with a player that would leave his clan for a better one. I like hanging out with GS people. I like the level at which we're playing right now. And I'm proud as hell that this October will be three years together for us.
Edit (6/4): I feel the need to explain this a bit further. I don't have a problem with professional gamers or cyber-athletes. As a matter of fact I think it's cool. My problem is with the mixing of amateurs and pros and pro teams calling themselves clans. Clanning is VERY different from professional play. Clanning is about friendship, camraderie and friendly competition. Sometimes more friendly than others but still... not for money.
Are there any clans in CS that feel like I do? Frankly I don't think I've seen a CS clan stay together with a single roster long enough to recognize their players. |
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Weird week posted by karmann
Friday, 18 May 2001 | We lost to EKA in a match that had more go wrong in it than anything we've ever done. We beat HATE after losing as Ts 13-4. Very weird. But overall a good week.
Brenter wants me to tell you that Strike Force 1.6 will be out on May 31 and to go download it. Ask Brenter for the URL. Happy now Brent? |
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We're back! posted by karmann
Saturday, 12 May 2001 | We scraped together a win Thursday against D*o*W. Good work guys! It was a close game on a very difficult map and I'm impressed that we actually won. Especially after getting stomped on it in our two scrimmages last week. Sorry but I didn't take screenshots of the round scores. =(
We have been accepted into the Rumble in the Desert (RITD) league. Please go to the Clan Schedule section of the messageboard for more details. This week's map is de_prodigy. A strat will be posted very soon. I'm also in discussions to start a STA-AHL league. We only need 6 clans to get it going. If you see any clan leaders around tell them about it.
SuN has decided to "retire" from playing CS. Hammeri has disappeared. That leaves two holes in our roster. See the GS private section of the messageboard for details.
End Ramble; |
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Version 2.1.88 posted by karmann
Friday, 4 May 2001 | I just released another patch. Some of you have been having some random crashes and data-intergrity issues. This should help to improve both areas (related issue really). This is an essential download for all users.
On a related note... the last patch I released was supposed to be v2.1.86 but due to the fact that I'm a friggin idiot it was uploaded with the wrong name. So most everyone here is still running a pretty buggy version of the Spy. PLEASE download the latest patch ASAP!
Thanks. |
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Team meeting results posted by karmann
Monday, 30 April 2001 | Good meeting last night guys. For those of you who didn't show we've decided a few things as a clan.
a) We're going to stick with the STA-CS league and start setting match rosters based on skill. Although this will remain the less serious league.
b) We're going to join either the IGL or RITD and put together a semi-separate squad for it. Recruitment will be open and based on skill alone.
c) We're trying to gather support for a Action Half-Life league. There aren't any leagues for it now but we should all be trying to get our friends to play it and other clans to compete in it.
Also some of you have been questioning the clan tag situation. For now the "[gs]karmann" style tags are for IRC only. We will probably move to another tag scheme for the other league squad. I'm considering making "[gs]karmann" the IGL tag and "karmann (gs)" the STA tag. I'm also trying to come up with a tag scheme that allows us to show our time within the clan "[gs]karmann.10.98" or "[gs]karmann.3" (i.e. years in). Just some ideas. Comment on the messageboard.
I also got a copy of Cliff for AHL last night. Ace12GA claimed that the rspeeds sucked but I tested it out alone and got 60-70fps which is good for my rig. There were a couple of bugs in it but I have the source and are considering porting it myself. If anyone here is a HL mapper and would like to port it please let me know. |
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AHL Maps posted by karmann
Saturday, 28 April 2001 | | I found Teamjungle for CS and Actcity2 for AHL, renamed them and repackaged them. Here are the links: Actcity and Teamjungle. |
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It's website spring cleaning time! posted by karmann
Friday, 27 April 2001 | With us coming off hiatus on Monday I'd like to take this opportunity to clean up the website. Please everyone go to the Roster page and check your information. Also send yourself an email at the goonsquad.net email box and make sure that's working properly. Also take a look at the rest of the site and let me know any problems with it. Dead links etc. Also let me know if you can't get to the GS private messageboard. I'll authenticate you ASAP. If you'd like to change your messageboard nickname let me know and I'll forward you the link.
We've got a scrimmage against USMC set for Monday night. It will probably start between 9:00 and 9:30pm EDT*. Please be on IRC no later than 8:50.
Also I'm about to make two posts to the private section. One with a day and time for our clan meeting and another with all the various RCON passwords to our servers.
*EDT = Eastern DAYLIGHT Time. Every year this confuses you guys but for most of you that simply means Eastern time. We DO have some members in Indiana which does not change for Daylight Savings Time. As in they basically follow Eastern time in the Winter and Central time in the Summer. Don't be confused. It's really not that hard. =P |
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Coming off hiatus posted by karmann
Monday, 23 April 2001 | We will be coming off hiatus and the STA inactive list a week from today (4/30). I'm still considering joining a second league but need to hold a clan meeting to discuss it. I'm also considering playing a second mod. Please watch the GS private messageboard for details on the meeting.
*** UPDATE ****
The NY server now has 2 CS, 2 DoD and 1 AHL server running. For anyone who's curious go to the Action Half-Life Website and download Beta 4. It's pretty fun! |
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DoD plug and TK enforcement update posted by karmann
Tuesday, 17 April 2001 | Got some sweet press on the main Day of Defeat website tonight. That's very cool. Thanks guys!
Also I figured out what my problem was with TK enforcement. The DoD CVAR is "mp_tkpenalty" (not "mp_tkpunish"). The default is 6. Set it lower to keep those pesky TKers off your servers. Props to the DoD team for coding this into their mod. If everyone else would do this the Spy would've never been written.
I'm also offering a free registration to the person who can come up with a better name for The Server Spy. I've never been too fond of the name and people keep calling it GameSpy (duh). Also, GameSpy Industries (the AOL of online gaming IMHO) thinks they have some kind of copyright on anything called "spy" that relates to online gaming. Not that they've asked me to change it mind you I'd just like to come up with something cool and am willing to part with a free registration KEY to someone creative. |
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DoD support and other stuff posted by karmann
Monday, 16 April 2001 | Version 2.1.84 now supports DoD Beta 1.2. Sorry I didn't update the news sooner but I had a busy weekend testing out my new cable modem. =P Supposedly there is a new cvar included in DoD 1.2 that works like the Spy's TK enforcement. mp_tkpunish 3 will kick anyone that gets 3 TKs. No idea the details of it and it didn't seem to work for me but supposedly it's in there and using the Spy to keep your DoD servers TK free isn't necessary. They don't log TKs so the Spy is still useless there. Oh well. It now logs language so language enforcement is now possible at least and of course the stats work as usual.
I'm going to add a Screenshots link to the Table of Contents later today with some shots of the Spy in "action" (oooh ahhh). I received the following from Privateer:
Just back from our 350-400 person lan, The Server Spy was a great success.
Ended up running a complete tournament with the Spy. Looking at 19 servers, spread across a network. Most servers didn't have monitor/keyboard/mouse either, so everything was done via the Spy and sharing mapcycle file across network. The !captain and !war commands worked great.
I've included two screenshot in case you want them. One is of Server Spy, a 32-player public server, and three 12-player WAR servers, and Task Manager open showing loading of CPU.
The second is the same server spy, but full screen, looking at 20 servers. Just after I had clicked through all servers and pasted "warmode" into each console :)
There was 19 war servers and the one public server being monitored. Lastly, I'm trying to get the Spy listed in the tools section of Counter-Server. Could some of you please send an email to Ronin and tell him that you think the Spy should be included in his Tools page.
Thanks, |
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DoD 1.2 posted by karmann
Friday, 13 April 2001 | | DoD 1.2 is now compatible with the HL logging standard. I will be fixing the Spy to work with it tonight and should have a patch available tomorrow. For now you'll have to shut down any Spy's monitoring DoD servers. Thanks. |
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Version 2.1.81 posted by karmann
Tuesday, 10 April 2001 | Just a couple of minor fixes. The code that prevents you from running two copies of the Spy at once has been tweaked. Hopefully this will fix any issues Windows ME users were experience. I've also removed the requirement to fill in the game server's IP and Port. You can now tell the game server to send the logs to the Spy the "old fashioned" way. You'll just need to add these two lines to your autoexec.cfg.
logaddress spyip spyport
log on
Obviously replace spyip and spyport with the IP and port of your Server Spy server. This change was made to accomodate NAT firewall users. Hopefully no workarounds will be necessary now.
I also made the "warmode" changes that Privateer suggested on the messageboard. Hopefully it will actually work this time. If not then I have no idea what to try next. |
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Two new members posted by karmann
Monday, 9 April 2001 | Welcome Citrate and Ap0k to the (gs) family. Everyone should give them a big Goon Squad welcome! (i.e. frag their ass)
NY3 is now clan OsK's server. This accomplishes several things. a) It keeps them from borrowing or asking to borrow one of our servers all the time and b) gives them a place to call their own. The rcon password for NY3 has been changed for their use and the map rotation is of their choosing (please don't blame me for their rotation).
We're still on hiatus. Please use this month as an opportunity to build your individual skill. Also be thinking about what we should play next. (Note the poll in the Table of Contents). |
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I guess it's over posted by karmann
Sunday, 8 April 2001 | Season 1 is over. Sorry for the delays but it just kinda died. I would really like to thanks all the clans for participating. I have learned quite a few things about running an online league. Not the least of which is that round-robin tournaments should NEVER be played online. Oh well. Live and learn.
I will update and post the final rankings tomorrow. All I know now is that ZuG is the season 1 champion. Congratulations! Not only for the championship but for the ability to finish what you started. It's appreciated.
Season 2 is on indefinite hold. |
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Important update... posted by karmann
Monday, 2 April 2001 |
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