.:Unrealplayground.com UT3 CTF Server:.

[Valis]

Server is @ 69.12.107.14:7777
Listed as .:Unrealplayground.com CTF UT3:.

http://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/69.12.107.14:7777/b_350x20_C5A6C3E-383F2D-D2E1B5-2E3226.png (http://www.gametracker.com/server_info/69.12.107.14:7777/)

Current map rotation:

Anfractous beta (http://files.filefront.com/CTF+Anfractuous+Betarar/;9696295;/fileinfo.html)
CTF-Bloxeh2008 (http://www.unrealplayground.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=6625)
CTF-Citadel-UT3 (http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=606353) (Updated 3/11/2008)
CTF-Coret
CTF-DarkSide_v1 (http://www.utmadhouse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=17&Itemid=75)
CTF-FacingWorlds (Bonus Pack 1)
TF-GrendelKeep3_CE (http://files.filefront.com/CTF+GrendelKeep3+CErar/;9465781;/fileinfo.html) (epic forums thread (http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=598276))
CTF-Hexakaidecagon (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=600521)
CTF-Hydrosis
CTF-Incinerator (http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=590504&highlight=Incinerator)
CTF-OmicronDawn
CTF-Reflection
CTF-Reflection-FPS (http://www.utzone.de/include.php?path=content/download.php&contentid=6712)
CTF-Sprinta-2008 (http://files.filefront.com/CTF+Sprinta+2008/;9564343;/fileinfo.html/1/1)
CTF-Strident
CTF-ThornsClassic-NAW-v100 (http://www.utmadhouse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=17&Itemid=75)
CTF-W00TF (http://www.unrealplayground.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49262)

[Hawkwind]

wow, a UP ut3 server for real?, sweet:rockon:
i don't think anyone has made a "woot" map exactly, but there are several popular maps out there:
Impasse
http://files.filefront.com/CTF+Impassezip/;9188911;/fileinfo.html
Protresse-beta
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=599143&highlight=protresse
and -will-'s Bloxeh2008
http://www.unrealplayground.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=6625

[Valis]

There are more UP UT3 servers coming, vCTF & Warfare I believe. Server is almost ready, aside from Epic needing to fix vCTF & Warfare gametypes in UT3 Server after the most recent patch (patch2).

[Hawkwind]

np, glad to see someone on top of things, though you might want to bump the bot skill up a bit, hehe.
ah ****, have to pretend to sleep,
:hammer:

[Valis]

Yea I agree about the botskill, and Kingster is the man 'on top of things' when it comes to the other UT3 server(s). :coffee:

[Flying_Killer]

wow, a UP ut3 server for real?, sweet:rockon:
i don't think anyone has made a "woot" map exactly, but there are several popular maps out there:
Impasse
http://files.filefront.com/CTF+Impassezip/;9188911;/fileinfo.html
Protresse-beta
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=599143&highlight=protresse
and -will-'s Bloxeh2008
http://www.unrealplayground.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=6625

Who's -will-?

[Hawkwind]

-will- is the original author of ctf-boxeh,blockeh, and ctf-bloxeh.
simple, yet enjoyable maps all, made for ut2003.
haven't heard from him in 4 years, so he's probably left the ut mapping scene :(

[Scott]

I dont play UT3 much since my pc sucks, but from the games I did play online I can say.........its pretty much the consensus that Vertebrae is a pain.


Also congrats to UP. WOnder if there will be relics soon!

[Valis]

I dont play UT3 much since my pc sucks, but from the games I did play online I can say.........its pretty much the consensus that Vertebrae is a pain.
Vertebrae seems to be designed with 20-32 players in mind, doesn't it? Although I pulled one or two other maps for being of similar size I left Vertebrae in since it's a stock map. If there's consensus on pulling it from rotation I'm sure it can be done. It's probably unlikely to stay on indefinately anyway.

Also congrats to UP. WOnder if there will be relics soon!

Actually someone has a relics mod already: mm45 Relics (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=589280). He needs some help with the models for the relics though imo, and I don't know how stable it is.

At the present moment the server is running sans mods until it builds a userbase. If there's enough people playing & wanting mods in place, I'm sure it can be accommodated. :D

I wonder what the Warfare server would be like with relics...

[Hawkwind]

vertebrae needs quite a few players, and transloc so you can use the "secret " passageway.
i don't mind it so much, but its a game killer (as soon as someone accidentally votes for it, everyone leaves :loopy: )

[Valis]

removed (removed atlantea too) :cool:

[Hawkwind]

i was on the server today with :TsT:Havoc, and as he likes to do kicked my behind.
when is the best time to play.
left coast time?

[Scott]

We should try and get this server populated on the weekends?

"Frag Saturday" afternoons in the future?

If a server is populated, others will come!


Also, regarding the relics mod. Yeah, I saw it. Id rather he export the models from UT1 and retexture nicely, instead of doing what hes doing. Id wait for something more professional looking.

[Scott]

Bots are way too tough for the average player, I think.

I suck at this game, but still.

[Mayor_McCheese]

That's awesome a server is up I've been waiting, I'll definitely be on if there are enough people playing.

[Valis]

I work for myself and my working hours vary wildly based on what I've got going on that week. So I've played at various intervals, and in most cases the server will be empty. I'll either join the server and just idle or practice learning the maps/piston jumps etc until people join (they almost always will due to the lack of populated CTF servers) or I'll start elsewhere (like flag junkies) and when the griefing gets out of control (and idling etc) get a few people to follow me over to the server. My observations on playing times so far:

5am-8am PST (8am-11am EST) on weekdays I will typically be able to get 2-3 "US" players and as many 200+ ping players as the server can hold down to only 3-4. Not really hot as it makes the server lag like mad, but I would guess this is just because there's more people in Eu/Nz/Au/Asia playing those hours than Us. Weekends as it gets closer to 8am PST/11am EST more US players show up, typically younger.

11am-2pm PST (2pm-5pm EST) weekdays I'll get decent US players for short intervals, most are typically working like me and just taking a break, a few college aged people (or similar age but not in college & off work for the day) will stick around longer. Handful of high pingers. Weekends the server gets more action from the younger sect during these hours, older people tend to not be around (typically speaking).

4pm PST - 8pm PST (7pm EST-11pm EST) ideal gaming times for actual gameplay. Good mixture of US players (ie, under 200 ping) of all ages. Weekdays or weekends.

As the night draws on it's harder to get a draw from the US. Often it'll be me with several 200+ ping players. I would assume this will change as people learn that there are more CTF servers around.

Also for those that are interested, madhouse also has a decent CTF server which is midwest located. Sometimes I'll be over there instead just because there's ggs to be had...

[Hawkwind]

i'll try to hang 8-10 pm EST.
monday morning meeting, tuesday dog and pony show, wednesday journal club
:scratch:
"the day is short, the night is long, why do we work so hard to get what we don't even want?"

[Valis]

My wife typically gets home 7pm PST (10pm for you). I often get some playtime in before then, work permitting.

[Hawkwind]

hopefully you get some play time in after 10PM EST, work permitting ,:evil:

[Valis]

Sorry, I fell asleep around that time. Spent the afternoon watching firefly with the wife and passed out cold.

[Valis]

6-7pm tonight I've got a conference call I'll be recording for a client, but I usually game during that as I just need to monitor the audio quality and answer the occasional question. I might have to field a technical issue or two but it should be fast when I do.

[Mayor_McCheese]

i'll be hopping on at least once a day once my school's network is fixed. It's been slow enough since this weekend that pings are always >500, so hopefully by the end of the week things will go back to the way they were.

[Valis]

Added Impasse, Anfractous beta & Bloxeh2008
removed CTF-AnkalaBubble, CTF-Orbital2007, CTF-1v1TrainingDay & CTF-Vertebrae

Server is now set to players=2 so there's only 1 bot when you're solo

I *think* I lowered the bot's skill too but I'll look it up later and make sure I do it properly (it's command line instead of ini atm)

Also the map rotation in the topic has been updated to have most of the maps linked to their downloads for your convenience

[MortalPlague]

I was just on, getting my ass handed to me by a bot named Scythe. Doesn't help that I haven't played UT3 in ages, but it's nice to know that I'm not alone in thinking they're too tough. :p

Anyway, I'm going to fire up the ol' Ed and try and whip up a CTF map for the server. Something fun.

[Valis]

Well I was just going to complain that webadmin seems to interact with the commandline / server ini's in a way that makes setting the bots up confusing, but low & behold there's a new webadmin 4 days ago with the following changelog:

v0.10 - 2008-03-16
------------------
- Added the ability to manage the bots. You can also edit the bot roster
(similar and drop interface as the maplist editor)
- Various HTML/CSS tweaks.
- General settings are now grouped by section

=====================

(edit) well all they really added was checkboxes to determine what bots are active. I thought perhaps that would determine what the server picked from when checking several favorites, but after restarting I found the server had 14 bots, which wasn't really what I wanted. So Loque it is for now. No place to determine the bot's individual difficulty so trying a slightly different approach again...let me know if the bot is any easier.

[Valis]

Updated webadmin on the server, not many changes that affect end users.

Also updated rotation, see topic parent for current rotation. Basically added CTF-FacingWorlds from the bonus pack & removed a few maps to clean up the list for casual UT3'ers.

[Valis]

Added CTF-W00TF (http://www.unrealplayground.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49262) to the rotation.

[Berjj]

I get around 300 ping on the server, but apart from that the lag wasn't too bad. It's nigh impossible to hit anyone with hitscan though. :p

[Valis]

Server is located on the West coast of the US, solly :angst:

[Berjj]

Unless people have something against it, I would seriously recommend UTcomp for UT3 if it still has the improved netcode option. I used to play UT2004 with JuggaloKyle on 200+ ping servers with UTcomp and it worked great!

[Valis]

I don't think that UTCompIII has clientside netcode, but there are InstaGib mods that have it (ZeroPing mod). UTComp started out as CustomUT v1a/b, and then someone 'extended' it to be UTCompIII, but unfortunately the CustomUT v1b & UTCompIII allow voting for all kinds of things (change number of players for instance) that can potentially violate leased servers. I tried BiaVote for a while, but it was very buggy since it uses a command line method of restarting the server, which works counter to where UT3 has headed (moving command line options in the ini's to increase stability, reloading less core functionality between maps).

That being said, I stripped the server down to not have ANY mods after observing that most casual visitors disconnected immediately on connecting due to the downloads. I know this because I followed a few of them to other servers that are pure/vanilla (Flag Junkies) and asked why they left. Seems for some reason most casual UT3 players only want to play the same old thing over & over. However since these changes haven't resulted in any upswing in the players for the server I'm willing to do whatever at this point. The only time I've seen a consistant player load is when I'm able to stay on it for a few hours straight...

[Red_Fist]

What happened to UP, did this UT3 put the final nail in the coffin around here?

ahh well, next gen games, hope it goes away from consoles, these kids need to learn something.

[Lunarbunny]

Yeah, I barely check around anymore. UT3 felt like Epic pretended to care, but deep down we all knew Gears of War is their new love child.

[TheSavant]

:hammer: I agree that UT3 was an EPIC Failure for many reasons. :C

UT3 Failed because:
(If I were to pick the primary reasons they would be.)

#1 Removal of the F4 Toggle Cockpit View!!! :tsk:
(My opinion, it just ruined for me. That one little thing.)

#2 Too much emphasis on HQ Video cards which eliminated a vast pool of 2004 players right from the start. :scratch:

#3 The game just did not play well. It was obviously not properly tested. :sour:

I have reloaded my UT2004 and it plays great. Still lots of fun. I miss the mapping. :a_Ambient