A post regarding a server idea

[SLO_Fila]

Hello everyone,

I'll just get it out of the way. I've never played on any skial tf2 servers and I just registered to make the following topic hence my name will not be known by anyone (and thus I cannot back it up with any credibility).

The reason that led me to post this is the following: The skial servers have a pretty active TF2 population which is great. What is not great, from my point of view, is that the servers have exclusive maps. Now people that run this place have been doing it for far longer than I ever looked into the possibility of hosting a server so no doubt there are reasons behind it.

Now here comes my idea/proposition. Personally I love playing on mixed map servers (minus koth. So PL, PLR, CTF and both CP modes). Ok, nothing particular so far. The other drawback is that I enjoy vanilla TF2 (hence no fast respawn which is my biggest pet peeve) and 32 slot servers. I know, the game is old and there's not as many players as back when it was released (of course) but what I'm looking for (mixed server, vanilla settings, 32 players) basically rules out 99% of the servers that have any decent ping for a west coast based person.

So... what if I create my own server... and affiliate it under the skial.com banner? Now now, hear me out before I get yelled out of the forum.

I've no idea how to run a community or much less how to start one. And let's face it, based on the changes Valve made to the quickplay it basically means starting a 32 player server is impossible without an already established community behind it since there is no quickplay traffic coming your way. So what if I create this divine server (divine in my eyes) and have it named and run like it was a skial server? Basically the only thing that I'm looking to get out of this is a populated server that I can play and have fun on. That's it. There's nothing else I'm interested in. I don't want any god powers or instant access to general skial admin powers or whatever.

I would only like to be able to chose the mods (if for example maybe disable random crits?) and the maps. That is all. From any other point of view this server would run, be named and operated under and by skial admins. I would be perfectly fine with giving all the skial admins power over the server, have them administer bans or whatnot according to skial rules, have game tracking be done under skial tracking and all this would come at no expense to skial. I would pay for the server out of my own pocket. And if people would want changes to the server I'd have no problem talking about it. If it's a good idea I'd not be against it.

I have tried it with a different community, on a server I used to play a lot but they turned me down. So I don't really expect it to be any different here but I thought that I could at least give it a try.

The server would be based on the west coast (most likely San Jose, CA area).

 

[Ruelel]

no

 

[Bottiger]

Why would we let random people who don't know how to run a server take advantage and ruin our reputation?

You're not the first person to think we would be dumb enough to agree to this.

 

[SLO_Fila]

Well... mostly because I'd have no problem being told what works and what doesn't and what the server needs to be properly administered? I admitted straight from the get go I have no experience in running a server. Which is why I also mentioned I'd have no problem with skial admin-ing the server. But looking back it was the wrong choice of words. What I wanted to say was that I would like for skial to basically control the server like it was one of their own. The only things I want to get out of this is being in control of what maps go on it and to keep the server as vanilla as possible as far as gameplay changing mods is concerned (no insta-respawn or quick respawn for example).

Hell, I wouldn't even require admin rights on it for all I care. (I think a server can be configured without being admin on it? though I might be mistaking in that)

Edit: And for the outside world, naming the server would be completely under skial naming. Nothing to point out that it's anything but a skial server. I am not coming up with this suggestion because I'm looking for any sort of internet fame. It's literally because I cannot find a damn TF2 server in all those 2000 servers that show up on the list that, for me, ticks all the boxes. Unless I wanna play with over 150ms ping (basically servers in Europe).

 

[Bottiger]

• How do we know you aren't going to steal the plugins?
• How do we know you aren't going to take control over after we populated the ip for you?
• How do we know you arne't going to mess around with it?
• How do we know the server of yours is even any good?

The answer to all of these is we don't. And as someone who hasn't played on our servers we have no confidence you don't have any ulterior motives.

This is why we don't let anyone host servers for us period. If you want us to have free servers then send us money.

And also about instant respawn, it isn't up to us. Valve forced us to do this when they made quickplay default to official servers.

 

[SLO_Fila]

So what if I pay you to set up a server according to what I've been asking then? And let me decide those two things I mentioned. I'm pretty sure TF server rentals aren't long term contract right? You can cancel it on a monthly basis. If I stop paying you can just kill it.

 

[SLO_Fila]

And when I say "let me decide" I mean: I tell you guys to please take out those maps. You guys do it. I never get anywhere near the control of the server. And it's easy. If I feel ripped off in case let's say we have a fight about what maps to go on I can stop paying, you kill the server. You feel ripped off by me, you kill the server. The end.

Though the only way I can rip you off is by not paying I guess.

 

[Kirbyhancock]

So what you are asking is that they set up a personalized server for YOU specifically. They would put in the work, time, and money, so can have your free personalized server configured to YOUR liking. That sounds like something that is possible if you donated buttloads of money to Bottiger.
FYI you need to have the RCON flag to configure the servers which is a flag that only trusted admins get considering you basically get root admin if you have it. Which I seriously doubt some random dude like you is ever gonna have considering you could do some real damage to Skial's reputation if you ever get the inkling to abuse it.

 

[SLO_Fila]

I don't want to sound rude but I have already mentioned, two posts above yours, that I would pay out of my own pocket.

Edit: Fixed comma placements.

 

[Kirbyhancock]

Even so I would imagine you would still have to pay Bottiger some serious cash for him to endorse and put the hours in configuring the server to your liking. If your idea is so great whats stopping you from going out and creating your own servers and generating your own population?

 

[Sheev_Palpatine]

Here's an idea: Make your own server with your own name stapled to it and not Skial's.

 

[SLO_Fila]

I posted in the opening post. Have you tried to create a 32 player server with no community ties? It's pretty close to impossible. You cannot advertise it anywhere because communities ban you (makes sense). You cannot get any quickplay traffic in order to try and get randomers to like your server because under the new-ish Valve policies 32 servers are automatically taken out of the quickplay redirect.

The only way to really do it is to be a popular member of A community and set up your own server and basically create a split. Considering the situation of the game nowadays, a split is of no benefit to anyone over longterm.

Edit: Directed at Kirbyhancock.

Edit2: And also... the harsh reality is that most likely I have no idea how to create traffic to the server anyway since I'm not big on any of this online persona/generating hits type of thing.

 

[Bottiger]

From what it sounds like your real problem is that you don't like instant/fast respawn.

This is caused by Valve changing quickplay to default to official servers.

Anyone that tries to compete with them gets crushed as they get all the new players.

Slapping the Skial name on a server isn't going to fix that problem.

 

[SLO_Fila]

To Chel: most of the above post can be used as a reply to your suggestion as well.

 

[Sheev_Palpatine]

To Chel: most of the above post can be used as a reply to your suggestion as well.

If you would like to reply to someone, just click the little reply button in the bottom right corner of their post to quote them. It's a little easier and it alerts that user that you're replying to them because otherwise they might not see it.

 

[SLO_Fila]

-

 

[SLO_Fila]

From what it sounds like your real problem is that you don't like instant/fast respawn.

This is caused by Valve changing quickplay to default to official servers.

Anyone that tries to compete with them gets crushed as they get all the new players.

Slapping the Skial name on a server isn't going to fix that problem.

Yes, that is true and many of the custom servers use the instant/fast respawn to try and get those people to come to their servers. And the other issue is that I prefer 32 man servers which again is against Valve policies for official servers.

My logic into asking this for skial was this:

In my mind, considering that the community is of a pretty decent size, I was thinking that maybe some would be interested in playing a "regular" 32man mixed mode server. If they are, by keeping it as a skial server it basically keeps those players inside the same community.

Now I might be totally off on this but that's what I was thinking.

Also I know that the server doesn't mean it's guaranteed success. Maybe skial people will not warm up to playing a "regular" 32 man server. But I'd be willing to pay for the server for a good number of months to give it a go and see if it there is any interest in it.

 

[Kirbyhancock]

If you run a tight ship and you provide a good server for others to play on and have responsible,decent, admins its not impossible. The problem is usually the owner doesn't pick decent admins or they don't put enough time into the server.

 

[SLO_Fila]

If you would like to reply to someone, just click the little reply button in the bottom right corner of their post to quote them. It's a little easier and it alerts that user that you're replying to them because otherwise they might not see it.

Oh.

Thanks.

 

[SLO_Fila]

If you run a tight ship and you provide a good server for others to play on and have responsible,decent, admins its not impossible. The problem is usually the owner doesn't pick decent admins or they don't put enough time into the server.

Well that's a problem then because due to the nature of my industry I can be completely free for a week and have the time or if I find a job I'd work between 14 to 16 hours a day for 6 days a week for months at a time.