TF2 Newbs (Team Fortress 2) Blog

You have been solicited to make a new TF2 Newbs logo.. I tempted you with everlasting fame, karma, and a reserved slot. This much I can give you.. But wait that’s not all folks! For the extensive participation, I’ll be awarding a special honorz icon to the top 3 entries!

How does this work? I’ll tell you. The anonymity of it all is pretty shot because you can just look at who posted the pics in the thread : ) so rather than making some funky number system to keep this from being a popularity contest.. We’ll just go on the honorz system. (HA.) No really. You guys seem to be pretty non partial and since all the people who posted stuff are badass as it is, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Check it out:
http://www.tf2newbs.com/forum/…

Jib…

This is a short post, just reminding everyone to get your pumpkin carved and submitted for the contest for a chance to win Left4Dead! Woo!   So far there have been 4 submissions in the competition, but I’ve been assured that there are more coming.  Remember that the contests closes Nov 2nd, so you MUST have your pumpkins sent in by then.    This contest is open to everyone, even if you have never played on the newbs servers.   Good luck everyone.

For additional details see: http://www.tf2newbs.com/contests/2008-Team-Fortress-2-Pumpkin-Carving/

-octo

Today the newbs servers accomplished something that it has not accomplished ever before.  We had all 8 of our servers 100% full.  This is a total of 192 players on at the same time.  Sure some of the larger server groups are full all the time, but this is a pretty big deal to me, especially since we just got done migrating to new addresses across most of our servers (and one of the servers was JUST added this week).

A large part of this success can be attributed to the die hard newbs, who try each day to start up the servers.  Today after the server updates came out (which I happened to be pretty quick on upgrading our servers for) I saw regulars joining the servers when they came back up, some of these servers filled almost instantly, a couple others took the usual 10-20 minutes of 1v1 to get going ;)

As for the server updates, here is the list, and my take on it…

Added rate limit for several client commands to prevent server spamming

^– I hope this addresses the bugs when poeple change class a billion times in a minute (I’m getting sick of banning people for it)

Added consistency checking for particle systems

^– yay, hopefully this fixes some of the see stuff you shouldn’t be able to cheats

Updated r_particle_timescale ConVar so it can only be changed if the server has sv_cheats set to 1

^– I’m guessing this was being abused in the clients?  (See teleport/cloak forever?)

Updated loading/disconnect dialogs so they’re easier to read

^– New font it seems, is easier to read

Updated Dustbowl, Granary, and Badwater Basin with several exploit fixes

^– anyone have any ideas what these were?

Updated Granary to remove the setup time and gates

^– yay.

-octo

Edit: If you are interested in promoting this contest, please link to and check out http://www.tf2newbs.com/contests/2008-Team-Fortress-2-Pumpkin-Carving/ which will have up to the minute information on whats going on….

Its not very often that you can kill two birds with one stone, and be eligible to get the chance to also kill a bunch of zombies too.  If you’ve been waiting for this kind of opportunity, today is the day for you.

The premise is simple, the results will be amazing, and there will be much rejoicing.
Lets cover this in a what you do, what you get format.

Stuff you do:

1) Acquire Pumpkin, Gourd, or Suitable Squash.
2) Come up with a really cool TF2 related design
3) Carve, Cut, Etch, Scratch, Skin, and maybe even paint this design on your vegetable
4) Take picture of your masterpiece.
5) Send picture to Jib or Octo.  Upload to forums, upload to the newbs_upload section, etc.
6) Sit back and wait

What you get:

1) Fame
2) Glory
3) Sense of accomplishment
4) Badass Pumpkin (or gourd/squash)
5) Chance at winning Left 4 Dead.

As you can see, this is a complete no brainer.  Many will enter, many will be marvelled at, kudos and happy warm fuzzy thoughts will rain down upon all that enter.
Unlike our usual contests, you do not need to be present to win.  Enter as many times as you’d like.

The grand prize winner will win Left 4 Dead – Courtesy of TheJib.  There will be additional prizes given out.  The categories have not been finalized but even if yours sucks, its worth sending in.  =)  

We will be running this contest (accepting submissions) until at least Nov 2nd.
If there is enough interest, then prizes will likely be added.  Lets make this our biggest contest yet.

-octo

Update:

You need not be an active player on the TF2 Newbs Server, just be sure to send in your submission with enough information so I can track you down.  Prizes will be awarded as ‘Gifts’ on Steam.

Entries can be submitted the following ways:

Posted to Forum (Requires registration, registration limited to Players from #4/#5): http://www.tf2newbs.com/forum/index.php/topic,1102.0.html

Email: [email protected]

Website Upload (like photobucket) – http://www.tf2newbs.com/newbs_upload  (please name the file in a way that we can contact you back, putting your steam community id would be great (its a number that starts 765…..)

Its the day we have all been waiting for, the last 2 newbs servers have changed ips!  wooo! Yay, go team..  Hmm, yeah I know, its hard to get excited about having to change favorites (again).  As I think I mentioned before, I wasn’t real excited about having to move things, since it takes time, energy, and a lot of annoying the users with notices, reminders, handwritten letters, phone calls during dinner – all to remind them that they should go to the new addresses rather than the old addresses.   Some people thankfully look up the newbs servers in the server list, which means they have no problem moving.   Others (like me) just look at their history.  These people take time to get back, so if the server seems like its empty for longer, or filling up slower than it was a couple days ago, thats probably why. 

I’ve noticed that theres a few of you that have been doing a real nice job trying to get the servers populated, sometimes sitting there mostly alone for 30+ minutes.  It makes me sooooo happy everytime I see it.  I’m going to name names, but I gotta go back over my list so I can try not to leave anyone out, so maybe i’ll list em out next blog post.

=)

And the new addresses are:

69.12.37.15:27015 Newbs TF2 #5 (24/7 2Fort) [Koans Kingdom]

69.12.37.16:27015 Newbs TF2 #6 (Custom Rotation) [Koans Kingdom]

-octo