Important Server Information

Armadillo of Doom

Group Founder, Lover of Pie
aa
Oct 25, 2007
949
1,228
I realize it's been a slow couple of months, but we are back w/ a vengeance. We now have a genuine partner, in the form of coltsplayground.net They're a really cool bunch of guys, who have offered to share their servers. They're also just as enthusiastic about TF2 as we are, and are more than happy to test maps and provide some much needed feedback for us. The only catch is their servers are located in the UK, which means 100 or so ping for people state-side. Still, I think it's a small price to pay. Lately our gamedays have been somewhat disorganized, with members putting up last min. servers to accomodate people.

Well now we have plenty to choose from. With a place to house all of our maps, there's no reason we can't start providing each other with feedback and testing as well. The TF2M community will always have priority along side the Colt guys. We can also have the Steam player of the week actually mean something now. When I first started the group, I always imagined the PotW having his favorite map featured, a few admin powers, etc. Also feel free to register at their site and put up a few screens of your latest work. Though not all of them are especially interested in mapping, they love to play, and will certainly give feedback and suggestions.

Our main server is going to be here; 84.45.84.166:27015 This is where we're going to dump all the maps that get submitted, at least for now. We'll work out something more refined later. For now though, this is the place to find all the maps from the site. Here are the other servers, if your'e looking for a regular game.
81.19.219.104:27015
84.45.84.166:27016
84.45.84.166:27017

So go play a bit, show off your latest wip on their site. I don't know about you guys, but I am thrilled that we finally have a server to call home. This means you could go play, 99% guaranteed a spot, and actually discuss the map w/ your fellow mappers. TF2M is back baby! .... we never actually left, but it feels like a fresh start. Anyways, I'm excited, how about you?
 

Geuel

L1: Registered
Feb 28, 2008
49
7
What's the procedure for getting maps uploaded for testing?

The impression that I have is that:
1) Dev uploads a map onto TF2Maps
2) Admin will put map onto server
3) People play through the map.

So, at what point would it be appropriate to upload a map for testing? My first map's layout is pretty much initially done, but I would want to get some playtesting done adding cover so that I can see where it will be needed. I'd also like to make sure there aren't any kinks to hammer out, no pun intended.

And then, once the map gets put on the server, how often would it be played and how would devs get feedback from players if they're not around when the map is played...or will maps get tested only when the dev is available?

Any information would be appreciated =)
 

Termaximus

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 11, 2008
229
32
Good news indeed. Any chance to expand the tf2maps community is a good thing.
 

Colt Seavers

L6: Sharp Member
Dec 30, 2007
288
82
Hello all,

Fantastic news :cool: Really excited about our new partnership - here's to a happy future :cool:

This may get a bit wordy, but i wanted to give a propper background to Coltsplayground.net so you understand the place and what were about. It's a place where we try to empower our members to have as much involvement and flexibility as they need to enjoy creative gaming with friendly people. We have a huge team of friendly easy going admins who are always around to change maps and maintain the friendly server atmosphere.

We have a Game Lab server (which any member can run their own developed games - however small or large - and have other members test with them). The game lab server also runs all manner of HL2 Mods - which are switched by admin at the request of members...so one day PVKii the next Zombie mod. If members want to try a mod - we stick in on an jump on the server for the night.

We have a TF2 Machinima server - which by default runs a huge green screen map - but contains many more - and enables any forum member to easily record acting in tf2 to be superimposed on any other video source. A cheats enabled server, passworded (see the forum), and bookable by members if they want a bit more privacy and already have actors. Otherwise, theres lots of peeps on the forum who love a spot of machinima acting :p

Finally, we have a Garry's Mod Lab. Heavily modded by our resident GMod expert Jimbomcb, it's passworded to ensure it's a members resource as opposed to a public popular and tard filled typical gmod server. It is used in conjunction with our GMod Machinima server and runs a customised map 'gm_playground' with lots of goodies built in.

The Main reason for Coltsplayground's existance, is an extreme love of teamplay gaming and TF2 in particular. Lots of us have been gaming together for 3 years or more, lots more are new friends, and we all really love to play all flavours of maps.

It started one day in November 07 when i hired a server for a laugh and cos it was really cold outside :p Within hours of the server running it was full of great friendly peeps and I was taken aback. I knew I had enjoyed many games with many people over the years, but never expected so many old and new faces to fill the server. People like Youme were a great inspiration for me, as they were interested in mapping. I have a love of creativity and a huge respect for anyone who puts the time and effort into crafting a map. So, when Youme presented me with a version of cp_station, I was thrilled to have it running on our server rotation - and it soon became a popular map with all of us.

The custom map lab was the obvious next step. It's a 'stock free' server. The idea is that it runs all the latest maps, and that I encourage all the Coltsplayground collective to jump on for test sessions. It's new - so it's not packed with people like the teamplay server - but it's easy to fill for a testing session (there's usually 15 -20 people on vent who will jump on for a few hours whenever). It was named Youme's Custom Map Lab after 3 months of great efforts in mapping by Youme and the respect I developed for him. It is now amended to note the Coltsplayground|TF2maps partnership. Youme is senior admin for this server and has full access to it. he can upload all your maps - with assistance from myself, Arma, 3jorn and Seric - the senior admin team. You should all feell free to request an upload when your map is playable. You decide what stage you want to release a test version.

It's a 'map lab' so there's no need to be shy about releasing unfinished works - though you'd be advised to display a map under construction type banner - Youme has a great one, which I'd suggest he modifies to include TF2Maps.net. Its a noitce our members are familiar with and they respond by keeping feedback to the forum and letting us all get on with a fun game to give the map it's best chance.

You guys now need to get used to thinking of it as 'yours too'. When you post maps here, Youme will upload them to the server. If your map gets to Beta it will at this point be uploaded to the main Coltsplayground TF2 Teamplay server and our admin team will select it throughout the week when the server is full to ensure it gets a thorough playtest and allows people to feedback on our forum in the mapping lab.

Finally, as the competition close date draws closer, we will run a competition maps only rotation at certain times (ie whenever you want). As they reach 'final' versions, they will make more and more regular appearances on the Playground TF2 Teamplay server - and may even be used by our competitve gaming partners - LnC (late night calm) - for friendly scrims.

Once the competition is closed, the winning map will be placed in our regular rotation on the Playground Teamplay server and stay there for 1 month. It will then feature regularly in future rotations.

It's hard for me to say where we're going to go next - but one thing i'm looking at it an interface to allow all you mappers to upload maps to the map lab server at the push of a button :cool:

This gives you a flavour of what we are about - unlocking a more 'creative, human, respectful and friendly side to online gaming.'

From my perspective, our new partnership is ideal - we are all enthusiastic friendly gamers who love to play tf2 and you are all enthusiastic mappers who love to create maps to be enjoyed by keen gamers who'll actually appreciate your efforts and give you constructive positive feedback. :cool:

So, here's to a long and happy partnership which will hopefully help you improve your mapping and help us all to have an even better online experience :cool:

Manlove (no not that sort :p),

Colt

ps. I urge you to sign up at www.coltsplayground.net since you'll get the place better then - say Hi and that you came from here (so I know to add you to the TF2Maps group) browse about. If youme's not about to load your map from here, the quickest way to get a map on the server is to post a link to the upload here, on the playground forum - i work from home and can sort most things out pretty quickly. Re when it gets played. It's more when would you want it to ;) In reality, as often or as little as you like - we'll give it time and appreciate its a WIP!

pps. It's important to me that this 'works' for you guys - so if you want something - ask!

ppps: TECH SPEC OF CUSTOM MAP LAB SERVER - 100MB up/down unlimited tier2 connection. Interl Xeon Quad 2.66. 4MB ram. 250gb HD1. Supported by a fast ftp download server, which runs on its own box with the playground teamplay server.

CLICK TO SEE COLTSPLAYGROUND SERVER STATUS
 
Last edited:

Termaximus

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 11, 2008
229
32
Wow that was a mouthful. Great info though and love the entusiasm.

/joining coltsplayground.net now
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
From my perspective, our new partnership is ideal - we are all enthusiastic friendly gamers who love to play tf2 and you are all enthusiastic mappers who love to create maps to be enjoyed by keen gamers who'll actually appreciate your efforts and give you constructive positive feedback. :cool:

You... you had me at hello Colt, you had me at hello

/tear

with all seriousness though, its excellent like termaximus said, to have a community on the other side *mapping/playing* who is as enthusiastic about testing playing and running custom maps as we are about making quality custom maps.

cheers to you =)
 

MacNetron

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 12, 2007
203
47
Looks great to me.
I already spend time at 'Youmes' server, so adding the other ones is easily done :)
This partnership looks win-win to me.

[...]
It's hard for me to say where we're going to go next - but one thing i'm looking at it an interface to allow all you mappers to upload maps to the map lab server at the push of a button :cool:
[...]
Just curious. Are you looking at an already built one or looking to build one yourself? Asking because I started to work out some basic TF2-server-admin thingies (editing cfg and txt and uploading files) from a java-webapp to a server. If such an application is already there, I can see what are the possiblities from such an app.

[...]
ps. I urge you to sign up at www.coltsplayground.net since you'll get the place better then - say Hi and that you came from here (so I know to add you to the TF2Maps group) browse about. [...]
Oops... I get a timeout. Are all us mappers trying to registrate overloading the server? :p
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
Not sure whats going on with the server timing out, we had a more formal error earlier in the day, I'm sure one of the guys is busy working behind the scenes to fix it, give it a while ;)
 

Termaximus

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 11, 2008
229
32
Had issues joining colts earlier today, but was succesful tonight. We probably overloaded, lol.
 

Colt Seavers

L6: Sharp Member
Dec 30, 2007
288
82
ello guys. what a day to suffer from network problems :( sorry for the terrible performance and eventual collapse of the forum. It happened to our vent server also. We've had the problem resolved now - it was apparently a network wide failure of certain UK ISP's.

Re the uploads - we are attempting to code it ourselves.

Thanks for the positive messages today all :cool:

Colt
 

Colt Seavers

L6: Sharp Member
Dec 30, 2007
288
82
(about 24 hours later) all up and running smoothly again today :cool: really just a bump cos i'm like an excitable child with insomnia (its 3am i have work at 8 :eek:) - and thats no small feat at my old age :p