2013-03-09

Disabled incapped grenade plugin

I have disabled the incapped grenade plugin.
It causes some bug (see forum)

Installed Simple AFK Manager

Installed Simple Afk Manager on all servers.
Settings are the plugins default.
Idle players will be kicked after 2 minutes.
Admins are immune (with flag "k").
Hope it works.

2013-03-08

Updated the dynamic list of maps on the servers

Updated the dynamic list of maps on the servers.
Added further columns.
Added sorting by "Campaign Name" and "Changed" column.
I know these columns are not filled so much at the moment but I will add each new or updated map.
Older maps may be completed later.

2013-03-06

New coop map: Lambda L4D2

We have installed a new coop campaign on alServ2016:
Lambda L4D2
Seems to be a nice campaig.
9 maps.
The first 5 are quite short and easy then it is getting more difficult.
Didn't play it till the end until now.

The talker.vpk also has problems with this map.
Crash dump occurs when connecting to the map.
Talker.vpk is disabled therefore at the moment on alServ2016.
We have to find a compatible talker.vpk version quickly.

Some also report incompatibilities with the "I hate mountains" campaign.
So if you see any problems please report them in the forum.

New survival map: Left For Evil Dead

We have installed a new survival map on alServ2020:
Left For Evil Dead
Seems to be funny with a lot of details from the movie "Army of Darkness"

Map update: Crash Bandicoot: The Return of Dr. Cortex

Updated custom map Crash Bandicoot: The Return of Dr. Cortex to v2.0 (final) 10/22/2012
When I tested the map, the bots were all dead when I connected.
The same problem has the Helms Deep survival map.
As a workaround you can vote for campaign restart via game menu.
After that the bots were alive.
I have loaded the second map and this problem did not occurs there.
So maybe only a problem on the first map (campaign start)

And have a look at the dynamic list of custom maps on our servers here

2013-03-05

"Newbie" names are banned now

"Newbie" seems to be a new generic player name.
The HLstatsX shows 44 "Newbie" from several countries.
So this name is banned now for 5 minutes as all other bad names.
So change your name if you want to play on the servers.

2013-03-04

Update of dynamic custom maps list

I have updated the dynamic generation of custom maps list.
See here
Now nearly all is automated.
It uses a MySQL database now.
The URLs to the maps are currently extracted from the VPKs itself and they may not always point to the correct location. The map creators seem not to care about this URL sometimes.
So soon I will fix the URLs by hand.
But you can always search on l4dmaps.com for the campaign name by yourself.

The dynamic generation now takes also care about the maplist files used in the votmap plugin.
So these files are now generated automatically too.
 Just one step is missing atm.
I will integrate the dynamic generation to our server start/stop scripts so that everything is automated.

So now it should be as easy as this:
  • Add a new VPK to some servers addons folder
  • Add the meta data (campaign name, map name, vpk name, gametype,..) to the MySQL database (has to be done only once for a new VPK)
  • Stop the server with the script (has to be done anyway for each new VPK)
  • Start the server with the script. This will execute the following:
    • scan the servers addons folder
    • update some data in the MySQL database
    • generate the maplist files (maplist.txt, mapkick, maplist_sv.txt)
  • Now the list shown with !votemap in game shows the currently installed maps
  • And the dynamic list of maps web site shows the same list with links for download (this list is generated from the MySQL database and is way faster than the approach I have used before)
  • Now the VPK can be copied (better hard linked to save hard disk space) to any other servers addon folder
  • After stop/start of these other servers everything is updated automatically too (no need for manual MySQL edit of meta data. This has to be done only once for each new map. Delete in MySQL is not needed when a VPK is deleted. This entry can stay in the database and does not hurt.)
Also easy is deactivating a VPK:
  • Delete the VPK from a servers addon folder (or just rename from e.g. "2ee.vpk" to "2ee.vpk_" to deactivate the VPK)
  • Stop server with script
  • Start server with script
  • Done! The map should now no longer be in the !votemap list and it is not visible anymore in the dynamic list of maps web site.
So the players should now be able to see exactly what custom maps are installed on which server on the dynamic list of maps web site and the in game !votemap list should show exactly the same.

And the server admins now only have very little to do when adding or removing a custom map (VPK)

r0r plugin fix for special ammo

There was a problem with special ammo in the r0r coop plugin.
Sometimes explosive ammo was activated even if you don't have any special ammo left.
There was also an error message in the sourcemod log file about "player not in game" during map start.
It seems that this error was preventing some cleanup code.
So I added a check for "player in game" so that this error should no longer happen and the cleanup code should run.
This may fix the special ammo problem.
We have to test more thoroughly on the r0r servers to see if it works now (also after map change and during the whole campaign)

I just forgot to blog about this fix.
If I remember correctly I have added the fixed r0r_coop.smx about 14 days ago (2013-02-17)

2013-02-26

Fixed the buffer overflow error in alServ2020

This was caused by the HP Regen plugin.
Used the same splitting trick as described earlier.

Enabled Points again & AFK Manager

Seems that I have found a workaround.
Points are enabled again.

And I have installed a AFK Manager on alServ2018 and alServ2019
Hope it works.

Points system deactivated again

Splitting the files was only half the solution.
The splitted cfg files are not read atm.
So still some work to do.

Points system activated again

Points system activated again on alServ2018 and alServ2019
I found a quick solution.
I had to split the point system cfg file in 10 parts (yeah right 10 parts).
Then the buffer overflow error disappeared.

Feedback would be nice if alServ2018 and alServ2019 are running fine so far.

Point system problems

Had to disable point system on alServ2018 and alServ2019.
It causes buffer overflows in the console.
Other plugins get not configured correctly therefore.
Working on a solution.

2013-02-24

Coop with !buy, Knife, Adverts, MOTD

alServ2018 and alServ2019 are now Coop servers with a !buy system.

Knife animation and sound should work now on all L4D2 servers (at least after the next restart I hope)

I have adjusted the advertisements on all servers. Now the same messages on all servers should be shown and only one easy the remember URL is displayed to the players. So it should be easier to find the portal page where all other information is linked (Homepage, Forum, HLstatsX, SourceBans, Left4Maps2000)

We have deployed a new MOTD page to be displayed in the game. It offers links to the portal page, the HLstatsX and the SourceBans page.

2013-02-18

Alternative to multislots plugin

The multislots plugin had problems on both L4D1 and L4D2.
On L4D1 the player sometimes spawned without even pistols.
Really crazy when you have to run around with just pills in your hand^^
I tried bebop plugin instead of multislots.
This one had other problems.
(Maybe I will add the problems here later^^: Some bots stayed in the map, "Join team" dialog on screen, ...)
I tried to improve it with using the "sappy fix" plugin.
But it did not help.
Then I tried "Bots control in coop" plugin also with "sappy fix" plugin.
This one seems to work really fine.
New players spawn right at the team, not in some rescue location.
Bot spawn and remove seems to work.
"/afk" and rejoin with just left mouse click works fine too.

So I tested it on L4D2 too (currently only on alServ2019. I hope it was 27019^^. Will have a look.)
It seems to work fine too for L4D2.
Better than the multislots plugin.
The multislots always gave on player a Magnum and another good second tier weapon.
This problem seems to be gone now with using "Bots control in coop" and "sappy fix" plugin.

2013-02-17

Updated plugin: Add Player Country to Name

I have updated the plugin "Add Player Country to Name" on all L4D1 and L4D2 servers.
With the fixed version this kind of error in the SourceMod logs should be gone now:


L 02/17/2013 - 12:12:39: [SM] Plugin encountered error 15: Array index is out of bounds
L 02/17/2013 - 12:12:39: [SM] Displaying call stack trace for plugin "PlayerAddCountryTag - No Cities.smx":
L 02/17/2013 - 12:12:39: [SM]   [0]  Line 100, /home/groups/alliedmodders/forums/files/7/3/6/8/7/63785.attach::OnClientPostAdminCheck()


Updated "Defi in Saferoom" plugin

I have improved the "Defi in Saferoom" plugin.
Previously it only replaced a Medikit at map start (OnMapStart).
If the maps was restarted because all died no replacement was made because OnMapStart was not called.
Now it listens to "round_start" too.
Still in some custom maps the replacement does not work properly.
The debug says, that a medikit was replaced but maybe it replaced a medikit somewhere else in the map and not at the starting point.
Maybe I will have a look for some other possibility to ensure some defibs on our Realism servers.

2013-02-15

Back to 7 players on L4D1

I have enabled multislots and now 7 players can play at once.
But there is still a bug with missings pistols sometimes.

r0r Realism removed and set max players to 4

r0r Realism:

I have removed the Realism setting from alServ1013.
Some things are not working as expected.
E.g all informative strings like r0r special ammo, other r0r hints and even our own advertisements are not shown anymore.
Actually too much of the HUD is missing.
Also without defibs in L4D1 we should have some rescue possibility.
We need to test and tweak more before bringing it back online.
Until then the normal r0r Legacy is running.

Multislots on L4D1:

Because multislots are not working correctly on all L4D1 servers I have set max clients to 4.
We have to test and figure out whats wrong there.
It is seems that more than 4 could connect but only as spectators.
They were not able to join.
So this was not the intention.
We will set it back to 7 after solving the problem.
 

2013-02-12

Defibs

Since there is no rescue closet for survivors in Realism mode it can be annoying when you die early in a map.

Very often there is no defib available and you may have to watch the until the map is finished or restarted.

Some time ago I tested an "item spawning" plugin but it seems that it caused some problems (download things from server to client or so).
And it was far to powerful (to big etc) for the intended purpose.

So yesterday I did some digging again and found a nice small plugin which could help achieving my desired goal.
The plugin converts all the Medikits to Pills at the map start in Versus game mode only.
Well not exactly what I wanted so I had a look at the source code.

First I changed the game mode detection from "versus" to "realism" in plugin start.
But this did not help.
Why?
I saw an error message in the SourceMod log file:

[SM] Native "CreateEntityByName" reported: Cannot create new entity when no map is running

Hm?
It seems that the plugin was acting to early.
It hooked to "round_start".
So I searched for some "later" event here.
I came up with "OnMapStart"

Now it seems to work fine.
All Medikits were replaced by Pills at map start.

Ok. But I want to have a Defib instead of replacing Medikits with Pills.
Some some more changes are needed.
I exchanged "weapon_pain_pills_spawn" with "weapon_defibrillator_spawn"

One step closer^^
Now all Medikits were replaced by Defibs.

So the last step now.
Let the plugin exchange only one Medikit with a Defib so that the survivors will get 3 Mefikits and 1 Defib at each map start.
So I just break the loop in the plugin after one replacement.

Nice.
Seems to work.
So after some testing I may install the plugin on all Realism servers.

And remember then:
Always take a defib with you.

Tell me what you think about this modification.

Update:
Early beta version of the plugin is installed on alServ2019 now (connect 85.214.222.39:27019)

Update 2:
I did a proper coding now and have installed the plugin on all Realism servers (but not on the Survival server)

2013-02-10

Buffer overflow

We had some errors in the server console of all Realism servers during server startup.
It was something like this:

...
Cbuf_AddText: buffer overflow
Cbuf_AddText: buffer overflow
Cbuf_AddText: buffer overflow
...

This caused that some plugin configurations were not loaded correctly.
Using "sm plugins reload [pluginname]" loaded the config correctly then.

After some searching I found a solution which seems to work.

The problem was that we had to many cvars defined in the server.cfg file itself.
This caused the buffer overflow messages and prevented some plugin cvar settings to be set correctly.

The solution was simple.
Move a whole bunch of cvars from the bottom of the server.cfg to a new file server2.cfg
Add the call "exec server2.cfg" at the end of the server.cfg to execute the cvar settings now from the new server2.cfg file.

So the buffer errors were gone and the plugins cvar configuration worked fine again.

I hope this problem is solved now.

Tell me if something is still not working properly.

2013-02-08

Plugins synced

I have synced nearly all plugins to all L4D2 servers.
So the nice things like "Pipebomb shove" etc should be available on all L4D2 servers now.

Keep Laser Sights & Health regeneration

I have installed "Keep Laser Sights" on all L4D2 servers.
I have disabled the "Health Regeneration" because it did not work as expected (was installed only on alServ27019 anyway)
And alServ27016 has the Pipe/Molotov/Bile shove plugin now too.

2013-02-05

Advertisements updated

I have updated the advertisement strings shown in the games chat area.

Player progress & Survival update

The "Player Progress" graph in HLstatsX is now visible.
I had to fix some access right in linux file system to get this working.

The Survival server now has its own category in HLstatsX.
This is to prevent mixing the survival stats with the normal Realism stats.
And maybe we will have another survival server in the future so a separate category is fine then.

2013-02-03

Some maps on "alServ2020 Survival - Realism" (85.214.222.39:27020)

Resident Evil Nevada Desert v3.0
Last Stand L4D2
White Prison
-Helms Deep- Reborn
Now a name checker is running on all servers.
If you get banned (5 minutes) check SourceBans to see why.
If it is because of your name, the change your name.
You can also protest the ban if you think your name is fine.
We will check it then.

2013-01-31

!csm to Bill maybe fixed

I have added another version of the !csm plugin.
Changing to Bill should no longer result in a crash.

Stats available now

Now we have HLstatsX running.

We had to remove the country tags because they did not work well together with HLstatsX.
Anyway you can type !pactlist in the chat to see where the clients are from.

2013-01-29

Left4Maps2000 v1.3.0.0 released

v1.3.0.0 (2013-01-28)
  • Added alServ2000 servers as featured Servers (Ports 27010-27029 are scanned)
  • Updated IPs of Choco servers (Ports 27010-27019 are scanned)
  • Read the updates about the Ping columns in previous Beta versions
Get it here

2013-01-28

Server News: Problems mostly solved

L4D2

It seems that there are only some connection problems left.
Maybe it is due to some custom maps.
We will have a look at that.
"Resident Evil" map has been disabled therefore.
"Claustrophobia" map always crashes in the hidden armory in map 5 (but it may be possible not to enter the armory to progress through the map anyway)

Some clients had problems when connecting the first time.
The first connection ended just with a black screen on the client.
The second connection then worked.
If you get a black screen after the loading bar has finished,
try to connect again or connect to some of the other servers.

We are also testing some new plugins to improved the "Realism" experience even more:
  • Throw grenades when you are incapped
  • Stick grenades to normal and special infected
  • slight health regeneration (e.g. to 40%)
  • boomer explosion does damage too and blinds you more (HUD is removed)
Currently we test then on port 27019
If they are stable they will be installed on the other servers too.

We have also created a "Realism Survival" server.
Testing happens on 27020.
Custom maps will come there too.

L4D1

We started on new L4D1 server on 27013.
Same configuration as 27014 and 27015.
Clients which cannot connect to 27014 or 27015 should try to connect to 27013.
It may help to get feedback which server works for you. See "Notes" to register to the forum.

Notes

Have a look at the homepage, register to the forum to give comments and proposals and download Left4Maps2000 (next version will have our servers included and other features):
  • http://h2120704.stratoserver.net/hlstatsx/

Server List

Here is a short list of the servers running at the moment.
It may change often so the list is not carved in stone.
You should download the upcoming version of Left4Maps2000 (see "Notes" above) because it will show you which servers are running (it has a smart scan feature to scan for servers in a certain port range)
But here is the list for now:

  • 85.214.222.39:27013 L4D1 r0r Legacy (for clients which cannot connect to 27014 or 27015)
  • 85.214.222.39:27014 L4D1 r0r Legacy
  • 85.214.222.39:27015 L4D1 r0r Legacy
  • 85.214.222.39:27016 L4D2 Realism
  • 85.214.222.39:27017 L4D2 Realism
  • 85.214.222.39:27018 L4D2 Realism
  • 85.214.222.39:27019 L4D2 Realism (testing some new plugins there)
  • 85.214.222.39:27020 L4D2 Survival Realism (testing Survival Realism configuration there)

CU on the servers
Al

2013-01-24

Problem connecting to the L4D2 servers

It seems that some clients cannot connect to our L4D2 servers currently.
No matter with or without custom maps. 
Working hard to fix that.
So stay tuned

2013-01-23

Custom Maps in L4D2 disabled

Custom Maps are currently disabled in L4D2 server.
Have to test something.
Maps will be enabled ASAP.
You can use this server in the meantime which has all the custom maps running:

85.214.222.39:27017 L4D2 Realism

2013-01-20

Servers left testing stage

We have removed the [TESTING] tag because the servers seem to be stable now.

Check them out at:

85.214.222.39:27015 L4D r0r level 4/4 (7 slots)
85.214.222.39:27016 L4D2 Realism (7 slots)

Both have a lot of custom maps.
More details will come (list of maps and commands etc.)
More adjustments will be made and further plugins will come (but for sure no teleporting tanks^^)

CU on the servers
Al

2013-01-15

Servers are coming

Working on some servers:

85.214.222.39:27015 L4D r0r
85.214.222.39:27016 L4D2 Realism

You can try to connect and check your ping.
It may take some time until everything is set up properly.
So don't expect too much at the moment.
The servers may not be online all the time during our setup and testing period and they may be rebooted often too.

2013-01-03

Left4Maps2000 v1.2.0.0 released


v1.2.0.0 (2013-01-03)
  • Several custom maps added to L4D and L4D2 (with mapshots extracted from the campaigns VPK file)
  • Added Choco Servers to smart scan list (will find new Choco Servers automatically in port range 27010-27020)
  • Fix: non-printable characters are now removed when saving the friends list.
Get it here