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The Bring-Back-SFO-TF2 Initiative


Scourge

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Okay I can't take it anymore. Someone open up a donation link and prepare to receive my money. I need to remember why I loved you asshats in the first place, and I need to do it through the glorious power of crockets. 

Scott? DZ? either of you feel like maintaining one again? If so, I'll love you forever. 

In all seriousness, now may be a good time to re-vitalize the server: with the suspected increase in community population with the upcomming release, roping some of the fresh blood into the TF2 matches may be a way to bring back the population we lost gradually over the literal decade of inactivity. If I recall correctly, Cost was a major factor to the server's inability to stay alive, as well as population numbers. I dunno about the others that used to help with the costs but I'm more capable now more than before to donate and am willing to again (Hooray for paid internshiiiiiiiiiiiiips~)

So lets have it: is this the starry-eyed delusion of some loser who misses his friends, or is a new TF2 server actually achievable?

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The nice thing about AWS is that it is pay for what you use. I'd have to run the numbers, but it may be feasible if I don't run the server 24/7 and only during scheduled meets.

Plus, it would be actually on the SF-O network and I could give it a DNS record (like tf2.starfox-online.net) so you don't have to memorize an IP.

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  • Owner/Technical Admin

If someone can help me with the installation process, I could attempt to run a server through my dedicated box. It's currently being used to host 2 minecraft servers, as well as a server for RTCW, and potentially one for Wolf ET. If it's not resource intensive, I could try it.

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Sideways, if you need help installing a TF2 server, hit me up on Steam. I've done TF2 server administration, and I also know someone who does it for multiple TF2 PUG sites. 

Also DZ, a friend of mine uses a service I believe is called Duck DNS for TF2 servers because it's an on-demand service. If you want, I can get information on that. If not, EVL Gaming hosts TF2 servers 24/7 for dirt cheap (I don't know what their pub rate is, but their comp rate was $4 USD a month when I bought a server from them).

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a hard time believing the prices are that low tbh; $4 a month sounds way to good to be true for a pub server

Fuckin' awesome if thats the case, but still- skepticism.

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On 4/4/2016 at 9:56 PM, Hidi said:

I don't know what their pub rate is, but their comp rate was $4 USD a month when I bought a server from them).

you know the rules hidi!

Linky or you stinky.

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I might be cooking something up this Summer, but y'all are going to have to stay tuned. Need to make sure the financial/infrastructure feasibility is there.

That being said, hit me up with the old server hardware specs (or at least what was allocated to the VM) especially with regards to storage and storage performance if any of you have them.

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AWS estimated cost is ~$20/mo for a single-core 2GB RAM instance that runs 24/7. That could probably run 1 TF2 instance just fine (srcds is pretty lightweight). If I didn't run it 24/7 it would be less as AWS only bills you for what you use. EDIT: My old host for the TF2 server charges the same for that same spec

Note that I do not really want to maintain anything like HLStats or SourceBans, so there's that. Though I think I still have the Star Fox kill streak announcer laying around on my HDD somewhere. I did like that, though I would normalize the gain on all of the sounds this time. lol

For those of you offering to host, what specs do you have?

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23 hours ago, DZComposer said:

For those of you offering to host, what specs do you have?

I'm shooting at picking up/building a dual CPU Xeon rig (probably something LGA775/2011 with used parts) with as much ram as I can throw in. I could easily allocate ~4-8GB of RAM to whatever VM we host it on and there would be plenty of CPU overhead at all times. The only challenges I see are storage performance (going to try to do two 7.2k drives in RAID unless I can get a decent sized SSD for cheap) and network cost (for a fixed IP) and performance (completely unknown at this point, I'm moving soon).

Otherwise in a pinch I have a really shitty Pentium D machine with like 2GB of DDR2 RAM (I could find some more on Craigslist). If I throw an SSD in that then it might be viable.

Again, nothing is guaranteed at this point since I don't know if my ISP offers fixed IP's for reasonable rates (or at all for consumer level stuff). I also have no idea what my network speeds will look like (I could easily have <1Mbps if I'm unlucky).

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Make sure read your subscriber agreement. Most ISPs will start to throttle the shit out of your upload if you run a public server on a residential account (they'll want you on a business account for that).

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Would a Dynamic DNS cut it? Configure it so we can route to the TF2 server by hostname even if the IP changes? I can't remember what Source games use to identify servers, pretty sure it's IP addresses. We'd just have to re-find the server every week if that holds true.

I ask because I did look into fixed IPs, and at least with my current ISP they're not even available on a non-business plan. Comcast telling hobbyists to fuck off doesn't surprise me.

On a slightly different note, I just realized port forwarding might be a concern too depending on where I move. If it's an apartment complex I might have to get a little creative with my config. VPNing the whole thing might be an option.

EDIT: Looks like if I pick a provider that supports it I might be able to tie the SFO TF2 server to the SFO domain name which is hype.

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I would be very weary of running a public server on residential Comcast. I've heard that they do port-scan. May not pick-up a game server, but it sounds like you're wanting to run more than just game servers. In that case, you may very well want to consider a business account if you want to run servers.

As far as giving a server an SF-O subdomain, all you'd need is a static IP. All I'd then have to do is plop an A Record in my AWS Route 53 DNS config to point to it. But that's getting the cart way before the horse at this point.

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22 hours ago, DZComposer said:

I would be very weary of running a public server on residential Comcast. I've heard that they do port-scan. May not pick-up a game server, but it sounds like you're wanting to run more than just game servers. In that case, you may very well want to consider a business account if you want to run servers.

As far as giving a server an SF-O subdomain, all you'd need is a static IP. All I'd then have to do is plop an A Record in my AWS Route 53 DNS config to point to it. But that's getting the cart way before the horse at this point.

I'll cross that bridge when I get there, if Comcast want to be shitlords about the whole thing then they can be, and I'll figure out a way around it.

I can't get a static IP from Comcast unless I move up to a business plan, which I'm unsure I can afford (100/20 seems to run about $200/mo, plus static IP's for businesses are also ~$20 a month on top of that). Any idea on how much bandwidth a TF2 server eats long term? Especially if it's empty? I can't imagine heartbeating to the server list is more than a few KB/ping, and as long as it remains empty most of the time (which it likely should) I can't imagine it uses much. 

Point is, as long as my hardware lines up I'll probably be able to figure out a network config that works. 

EDIT: Can we talk about how "Large Email Attachments" is a selling point in fucking 2016

fRfIXtF.jpg

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Server cost donations would greatly motivate me to set-up a new EC2 instance and throw TF2 on it.

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2 hours ago, DZComposer said:

Server cost donations would greatly motivate me to set-up a new EC2 instance and throw TF2 on it.

On 4/1/2016 at 1:39 PM, Scourge said:

Someone open up a donation link and prepare to receive my money. 

 

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  • Owner/Technical Admin

How much RAM would you allocate to a server? I don't think the CPU will be an issue, but my box at current usage has ~4gb free out of 16. This is running 2 minecraft servers, a starbound server, and an rtcw server (was thinking of putting up an ET server). The minecraft servers are what take the most memory. One is a modded server and is allocated 4GB alone.

 

The box I am using is hosted by OVH. 

It has a Core i5 processor, 16GB RAM, 2TB HDD, on a 100MBPS connection. I don't know how to test it to see how reliable it is.

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I think the old server had 2GB, at most 4. I could run multiple TF2 instances on it. Obviously, if what I initially allocate isn't enough, it can be adjusted.

Remember, TF2 came out on 2007 and SRCDS was already a couple of years old at that point. 4GB was considered a lot of RAM back then.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/19/2016 at 9:59 PM, Scourge said:

I have a hard time believing the prices are that low tbh; $4 a month sounds way to good to be true for a pub server

Fuckin' awesome if thats the case, but still- skepticism.

I got the deal through a gaming community called EVL. The price is for competitive players, and to get that offer I had to write it under the team I was leading then. Here's an example of what their offer for this upcoming UGC season looks like: http://www.ugcleague.net/forum/showthread.php?48633-TF2-Competitive-Server-discount!-Chicago-Dallas-and-Montreal-w-DDoS-protection!

 

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  • 1 month later...

It's been a while without news in this thread, but I just nabbed a decent entry-level server off eBay for pretty cheap. I'll be working on setup for a while, but should have a working TF2 server up in the next twoish weeks (no promises tho, I'm also working full-time and have a bunch of other projects this summer).

That being said I'm fuckin hype

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Alright, double post, but I'm making this happen. I configured Windows Server last night and am going to be setting up a dedicated TF2 VM in the next few days. I'll likely contact a couple of you once I get it set up to help me test it out; if you want to be part of the testing phase and I don't get a hold of you then please hit me up with a PM.

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TRIPLE POST

The server is up, you're all welcome to beta test it; post your technical issues and thoughts on how I can improve it here. Your feedback is super important to making this work.

As it stands, stock maps, rock the vote and mapvoting are enabled, spray tracing, and a few other things. It's pretty basic but it'll get the job done.

Add this to your favorites:

sawtoothserver.ddns.net

And enjoy Sawtooth's Shitfest!

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13 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

sawtoothserver.ddns.net

tf2 says invalid direction :/. is the server online?

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What did we say we need for the server? 

*No weapon grabbing.

*Team balance

*My face in the sun.

Also the direct connect is: 73.19.74.165:27015

 

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Yeah, the server was seeing some issues earlier today. It should be back online. I also added an MvM server at the same hostname. 

EDIT: MvM Server is definitely misconfigured. I'll try to get it up soon.

7 hours ago, Dr. Orange said:

What did we say we need for the server? 

*Team balance

I added a marginally better autobalance plugin but I have no clue if it's configured correctly.

Again, add sawtoothserver.ddns.net to your favorites or direct connect. It should show both a regular 24-player server (supporting Rock the Vote so y'all can manage maps when I'm not around) and an MvM boot camp server (which I haven't tested at all, so be warned). I make no guarantees regarding uptime for either server though; I'm going to do my best to keep them running but if they aren't just let me know.

To Do (in no particular order):

  • Actually configure autobalance
  • Configure mapvoting plugin
  • Change server bandwidth restrictions
  • Ensure server is consistently up
  • Test server with more players and see if dynamic RAM on the VM causes any issues
  • Ensure MvM server works  Edit: It sure as hell doesn't 
  • Sell user information to the feds
  • Check for performance problems (the server's a Pentium so cut it some slack)
  • Write a proper MOTD page and set up rules
  • Maybe configure text-based ads on the MvM server's MOTD (Thoughts on this one guys?)
  • Figure out how the fuck to use rcon since it's been years for me
  • Add maps
  • Potentially allocate more minimum RAM if I can find ECC shit for cheap
  • Disable weapon grabbing
  • Insert a picture of orange's oompa loompa ass face into the sun texture
  • Do what I can to improve performance and squash bugs
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