new glacius custom maps server

[adminless]

hey hi guys

ok, it looks like following this season changes and the over the years refinement really made a difference and it definitively had a noticeable impact on the servers popularity which had lead to almost full completely both official UnFreeZe servers in last days/weeks/month. that's obviously a extremely serious situation, it would be absolutely disrespectful and unacceptable whatsoever if just one single person would fire up the official UnFreeZe client and it couldn't get a spot in the game at any single given time. consequently following this emergency I deployed a new custom UnFreeZe server named "glacius" (yeah I know that you're gonna hate so much "latinized" stuff, sorry about that, I couldn't come up with anything better at the time being) replacing another old (kinda death) server I was running here at fpsclasico.de too.

so that's it, I had planned to deploy another mod from scratch kind of server for this season but I believe that the situation at the moment calls for this rather than for a "new" mod. I probably will end up looking at that at some time or another but by now I believe that this server is more necessary and it will, I mean at least it should theoretically, do better.

this new server has nothing of groundbreaking about it, it's just the well know official UnFreeZe setup we all know and love and proven to work so reliably but this time following your demands running on a entirely custom maps rotation 24/7 to finally bring that variety you all asked about. I believe that given the current players load (high thirties at prime time) it should probably eventually deliver some casual games without interfering too much with the current well established servers. this way we will also see (once again) for real what's the real support of these custom maps people always talk about and I hope that from now onward every guy that asks for overkill gets forwarded to this glacius server.

the rotation is the last custom maps rotation that run at UnFreeZeII and that you can view and vote for at this thread here, so go and check that out. "luckily" (from this point of view) I haven't launched a new UnFreeZe version as it would have become instantly obsolete by this addition (which is probably in part some of the reasons I haven't put much effort into it) then you will need to manually download these maps to get to this server. anyways as I use to say it should not be big deal as anyone ever mentioning about these maps is supposed to count at least with several hundred of hours of experience on each let alone have them installed. anyways that being said, for easiness in the event of data loss or another major force event you can just get these files to get going:

• osp_Quake3_maps0.zip
• 6pp.zip
• 7pp.zip
• overkill.zip
• poq3dm5.zip
• map_phantq3dm1_rev.zip
• pro-q3tourney7.zip

the ips for this new server are 2a01:4f8:a0:5363:85:10:197:108 and 85.10.197.108 (ipv6 and ipv4 respectively) and port is 27963. the dns is glacius.fpsclasico.de (or glacius.fpsclasico.eu both should work) but anyways you should have both at the fpsclasico.de master server (both in-game at the official UnFreeZe game client as well at the master web page). there should not be any serious problem to find it and connect to it (provided you have installed the custom maps).

and that's all for now, the server is still not 100% complete, it's still notably missing its corresponding stats/rank site and I will probably deploy an alternative ip (which is supposed to be mainstream stuff) "soon" as well as other minor things but I believe that it should be at least fully working by now. so go test it out and as usual feel free to drop any feedback/suggestions/issues you may have about it here.

have fun and enjoy

[Dr.GreenThumb]

Omg omg omg this is so cool!!!

Dibs on the first games and wins ...I just had a few rounds with my good buddy Visor, and these maps are awesome! I'm not familiar with them, but having new maps is fantastic news!!!
I will spread the word to all.

Thanks so much adminless!!

[BALONY ILONY]

A lot of fun, great maps!

[...jutuli...]

Olala, I missed this, I have to try today. With fresh new opened bottle of wine, should be fun...

WTF!Wrong - you have to come there with just 50% capacity of your rail batteries

[adminless]

np guys, like I said I believe that it was the best option at the moment, we'll see how it end up doing then. anyways as requested at the unregistered sub-forum I just added now pro-dcmap7 to the rotation of this server then please add this file here to your installation in case you haven't already. in the next days (probably this weekend) I hope I can bring the corresponding rank/stats for this server and may be around the next week or so some alternative route as usual. for the rest beside some adjustment or some minor bug here and there I think that it should be done.

in addition I hope "some day" I come up with a new properly packaged UnFreeZe game client with everything included/tested/new features and all that stuff but currently that seems a bit more remote then by now I also uploaded a new mappack containing all the maps at this server that you can (double) unzip and drop under the current regular UnFreeZe installation to get the server going.

• glacius mappack: glacius_mappack.zip

[WhoAmI]

@...jutuli... - at the weekend I had only 50% batteries but this week I charged

New maps and new server. Cool. It is a pity that few people play there.
I know these maps. They all appear in Quake Live

I have a question. Is the ranking on the second unfreeze server? Recently, I noticed that two servers were full.

[adminless]

sure the rank for the secondary server is freefun.fpsclasico.de and I also added now the rank for this new galcius server here as I had announced I would, you can view it at glacius.fpsclasico.de. it took a bit more time than I had expected as that server was completely empty and I had to deploy/set absolutely everything but now it's finally added. I hope I make a few more adjustments about it in the next few days and I bring that new alternative route for it and it should be done.

and yes I know as I expected by now is pretty much a completely death server. not trying to pick on anybody or just being "that (annoying) guy" yet another time but that at least should evidence you (once again) what's the real performance of custom maps regardless of what people always brag about. in the long run the main server wouldn't look much different if I run those kind of maps there. I mean, I did it just for a single month at the secondary server and it completely killed it altogether for a year but look how UnFreeZeII is doing now instead, not even a chance. anyways, that being said I would still expect it to make some small casual games from time to time. server is meant to stick so we'll see where it goes in the long run from here.

[WhoAmI]

Yes. This will definitely prove how many people are willing to new maps. 10 people have played so far. I'd love to play but I don't have anyone to play with there. Strange that nobody even talks about the new server anymore. But it's good that you did it. Even better, there are new maps on a separate server, not the main one.

I still have one question. From what time does the server calculate statistics? Between 18-24? I have played a lot of games for fun after midnight. I haven't focused. And I noticed that my statistics were down. It was similar when I was drunk I played somehow at 22 - 2:00. And I had the impression that my statistics got worse because I didn't play very well:D

[Dr.GreenThumb]

Well the initial spike in use was because I went in three times to the normal server and told everyone about the new server. Then you guys came over, and probably told a few others. But I've been sick, so I couldn't play, and I'm wondering if anyone told the same.

What would be nice and helpful is there would be a way to put up a MOTD when each player logs in, displaying it for like 3-5 seconds. Sort of like the "Unpure client files detected" message was. This message could give the most important news and alerts to the players, hopefully cycle through them for each connection (or randomize). For example, it could say things like:

- "Try our new glacius.fpsclasico.de server, look for it in your unfreeze client, download maps from forum.fpsclasico.de!", or
- "Join our forum at forum.fpsclasico.de for fun discussions, players statistics and more!", or
- "Feeling generous? Donate to your favorite unfreeze server project at https://paypal.fpsclasico.de" (I know this is controversial )

Now this may be completely unfeasible technically, I don't know much of anything of the server back-end. Maybe it's a terrible idea, maybe you've already had it and got rid of it... All I'm trying to say is that something like this would enable a level of thin communication between the admin and the players without being too obnoxious or begging. I suspect most random joiners would ignore it, but at least regulars may actually read it after joining so many times

Just a suggestion...

Yes. This will definitely prove how many people are willing to new maps. 10 people have played so far. I'd love to play but I don't have anyone to play with there. Strange that nobody even talks about the new server anymore. But it's good that you did it. Even better, there are new maps on a separate server, not the main one.

I still have one question. From what time does the server calculate statistics? Between 18-24? I have played a lot of games for fun after midnight. I haven't focused. And I noticed that my statistics were down. It was similar when I was drunk I played somehow at 22 - 2:00. And I had the impression that my statistics got worse because I didn't play very well:D

[...jutuli...]

I do some advertising to the new srv. in game (bind), usualy once per game to avoid spamming, because I would love to play there. I played there just few times, when more than one player was there. Hope more players will try.

[Dr.GreenThumb]

I am going to start to hang out there more, even if I'm only there with my good buddy Visor
Especially at the times when the normal servers are full, and everyone is just enjoying the grenade and rocket spam

[adminless]

ok, I just finished updating all the links around the site for this new glacius server and reviewing its connectivity and finishing what was left about it now. as last "final" (by now) change to the rotation I decided to remove poq3dm5 as that map peak popularity was probably around the late 2000's (likely that map haven't been notably played in years already) and it's just way too big for the current 3 or may even with some luck 4 players a day expected load and replaced ospdm1 by ospdm8 instead as it seemed much more fitting for the case being (reasons similar to poq3dm5, mainly way too big at the moment and it definitively falls short from its original/there's better original alternatives). anyways as usual if someone misses them (or want some other changes/anything else) in the long run (i.e. months) I can review that as usual by now the rotation for this server will stick as advertised on its poll here. as one is a removal and both osp maps are included on the same package people who downloaded the original links don't need do anything else (you can if you want just delete poq3dm5 by now) and the provided mapapck has already been updated accordingly to this change.

in addition on the upside while reviewing the connectivity for this server I finally found the switch that caused the 21 of January of 2020 evening incident. it turned out to be some bizarre broken bootstrap of the own internal root vswitch which is why that time hard cycling the server did actually fix the issue. so turned out I was right, the issue was indeed at a switch only that it was a internal one rather than a external one as I had though. anyways there's no much to do about it, the issue seems around a extremely unlikely condition and even so next time it hits (if it does) it should be properly handled now.

then that's it with this server, there's still missing a alternative route (that it's gonna be different from the current ones) but that's more like a minor/extra thing to the package and that I'll take more thoroughly. the server itself should be done and finished, at least, by now as usual.

as for the rest, well I don't think that it's even worth write yet another novel, but as I've been saying around here for years already, most people talk shit about stuff they know nothing about for real and then the rest take it for granted and it ends up creating a toxic snowball completely detached from the actual reality. it's like with dm12 for example "everybody" (many people) bitching about small maps and spam until they got dm12 and then they complained times ten and quit. with custom maps is no much different, plenty of people talk about them to feel "important"/"skilled" and to put the blame of their (arguably low) performance/presence on something else but them (i.e. they too "pro" for the "noob" maps) when in reality they might not even have them installed in the first place let alone the real skills and hundred of hours of experience that it takes to fully master a map for real. that's personally how I see it but anyways I don't feel like beating them now for that, that's ok, I mean, that's exactly what I was expecting. all that really matters to me is that "strange(ly) nobody even talks about" all this map stuff anymore. so it's all good to me, that's life.

the ranks are a continuous cycle (of 2 weeks, 2 months and 1 month respectively for each server) so every match counts, there's no such thing like different times. the only particular thing is that they have some degree of inactivity correction to prevent fake nickers for example to get consistently on top this way encouraging people to stick to their names. that could might have a minor effect on what you have described (i.e. recent games generally weight more than old games). anyways that's just "normal" (acceptable) rank entropy/reactivity.

about server spamming, I don't think that it's a good a thing to take people for fools or idiots. I don't think that is a good thing to think that they need to be remained every single damn time about something to know it or if not they just can't do/find anything else by themselves. I don't think that's the "problem", I believe that probably most people already know about this server (as they did for the tournaments for example) very well but they simply prefer to ignore it (as with the tournaments despite claims of people being experienced duel specialists since eight years of age), straight and simple. like I said, it's ok, I don't mind, that's not my problem, but I don't think that anything good might come out from trying to "force" (coerce) a situation. if people can't get things going it's probably better to just let them be than spamming them to death and be a pain. so yeah like jutuli just said, normally talking about it and telling people about it is perfectly natural and good but I also hate spam with a passion and my understanding is that automated server messages are more a pain and bother (specially for the regulars) than anything else. I think that of those the only probably worth would be just drop a paypal link at the server info header (might do that, as for other than the urbanterror and openarena server this is all quake now). the rest like I just broke, it probably wouldn't even have a meaning.

in my opinion the best shot for this would probably be arrange you on this same thread to meet among you at some peak times like Friday nights or any other time of your choice and things like that for example because for the most part that's my expectation for this server (i.e. 3 or 4 of the forum top players eventual games). I don't see it anywhere near a "mainstream" server like the other ones ever I'd say or, at least, in a long long time.

[Dr.GreenThumb]

Yeah you are probably right. Well we'll see where it goes organically then
Thanks!

[adminless]

ok, then as intended to finish out with this new server this week I finally deployed that new alternative route (both ipv6&ipv4) I was talking about. then starting this weekend this server should also be accessible through [2a03:4000:3f:1f4:5:181:48:249]:27963 (glacius.fpsclasico.eu:27963) and simple 5.181.48.249:27963, for each ipv6 and ipv4 respectively, in addition to the main advertised routes that unless one experience issues or there's some significant difference always keep being the preferred ones. currently the alternative ipv4 route (5.181.48.249:27963) has no (good known/relevant) dns name as I'm already messing with that server then I think that by now is probably the best option to address that route directly by its ip rather than make things more complicated either now and/or in the future.

these new alternative routes are of very good quality so I strongly advise you to, at least, give them a try and see how they do for your connection in particular. I'm specially interested in hear about how 5.181.48.249:27963 do for you as that route is initially intended to replace the current alternative routes of the main servers. probably in the short term I don't feel like dealing with that right now but likely in some months or at "some time" it should end up happening. probably I think I'll start by replace the south-east low latency route as that route is absolute garbage by Sunday 23 of February of 2020 at 21:15 CET standards and is partially broken then it would be important that you guys give it a try. the south-west route will probably live a little longer as it host more stuff (that it's intended to be migrated) and it's still relatively relevant however spend 10 euros a month for it seems probably overkill and this new route is better in many more technical ways.

anyways despite that, report that all the job with the server has been finished now (I mean by now as usual) so now when this server does zero actual players and it just tops at a casual 1vs1 per week getting even outclashed by a buggy and ages old outside 1vs1 server as the masters hosted here there's no excuses anymore other than just evidencing once again for a fact that custom maps don't work on public servers contrarie to virtually unanimous popular belief.

ok, so that's it with this, as a bonus as I updated the links and sites for this new server and after realize that the 1vs1 server I started for the inside tournaments is actually starting to work out I also moved it to the main master server monitor to give it full visibility. I know it's still a bit disappointing as one of the things I had intended for the new UnFreeZe client release I failed to deliver yet was add support for that server but well I don't think it should be a major problem in the short term and I hope that (among other things) I can bring that in some time (once this main servers tasks stabilize a bit I hope I resume that).

[Dr.GreenThumb]

I just tested both ipv4 and ipv6, smooth as butter!
Zero lags. I definitely need to play more on ipv6
My ping was better on ipv6 as well.