Upcoming...

I've been ranting on and on here and there about this supposed new server environment I am working on. So I figured i'd let you all know what I am doing and also see if anyone has anything additional to add?

First, I am creating a way to have more than one rifle type in your inventory. I've always had a way to do this, but it required a higher degree of computer programming skill then I currently have. But today a bolt of lightning hit me and I figured out what I hope will be a much easier and faster way to get this accomplished. Much faster; I will know in a day or two if this is going to work.

Next, I have a new scoreboard for the server. This is done via a mutator and as such wasn't much work to get up. But the end result is great, you will all like it very much.

Next, I will have the server set to display a DOU logo whenever someone enters the server. I will again need some help here if anyone wants to take a stab at it. If so you will need to contact me as it must be a certain size and saved a certain way. If I get no takers I will ask XerXes to modify one of his graphics for it (there are plenty of good ones there).

Next, I will have the server set to play a sound when someone joins the game. Right now I have a sound clip from the movie "Blade Runner" that I plan to use. It goes "Wake up!....[pause]...time to die!! Again, like with the above, if anyone has any suggestions on other sounds please let me know. We can change the sound every once in awhile too.

Next, get the Vahalla Avator working properly. This is all but done. The cool thing is that I am NOT going to ban the Gollem skin, but rather, not have it on the server, that way the twiggys can use it but it will show up as a normal skin for the rest of us. They will think they have this great advantage, but in reality they will be meat

Next, the maps. There will be 4 sets of 100 maps. Every month I will rotate the sets so that we will have fresh maps to play on. No need to fear losing your favorite map, it will come back again in a few months. I will also consider a few maps that are requested to be in each rotation.

Next, a custom version of BunnyFooFoo. BunnyFooFoo is the name of the spawn protection mutator we use. I am going to change the sounds to make it interesting. I have not started this yet, but assume it will be a 1 day project.

Next, I am going to completely re-do the server welcome screen. I haven't thought about this much yet but it will also be a simple one day project.

Next, I am making a voice pake to go with the Dr. Freak skin. Thats the skin that is of the old man in the wheelchair. It's actually an old Quake 2 skin that the original skinner converted to UT99. I have no idea why he didn't make the voice pack too as the original q2 version had sounds. Since the sounds already exist this is a simple 1 day project too. I've already collected together what I need to do it.

Next, I am going to explore adding NBSP to the server. It is cheat protection but works a bit different then the others. It doesn't so much look for specific cheats but rather suspicious activity. If it sees it, it logs what it though was suspicious. Many server admins rave about this but until recently it also wasn't Mac friendly. It now is so I will see what I can do with it. I'm going to try and see if it can work along side with UTDC.

Last, I am going to re-do the bots. This will be the very last thing I do. I am going to give them all custom skins and set them to favor different weapons once I have the multi-rifle thing in place (thus the reason this will be the last thing I do). I also see the bots pick up the redeemer but rarely if ever use it. So I will set a few to favor that weapon. So you guys may have to chase down a few bots to get to the redeemer first, lol.

Also, not 100% related, and something that will not be done before I roll all of this out, I am writing a UT99 server set-up manual for our game hosting company. It's looking pretty good so far, but it still has a long way to go.

So, this is what I mean by the new server. Once this is running, when you guys first connect you will think that you went to the wrong server. But when you see how cool it is, you'll know it's the right one.

Most of this is more a server management issue then a coding issue. The maps are what is taking the most time but I hope to finally have them done tomorrow. It was no small feat let me tell you. I am all mapped out for a good long time. But I think the effort will be worth it.

So thats it. Please post comments and suggestions here. Is there anything I forgot? Anyone know of an enhancement they would like to see added?

Tommy