Edit. If interested in helping out with the new games. Make yourself known in this server. You don't have to be a TF2 admin to help out, or possibly admin the other games. I'll add you to the list at the bottom of this first post.
A while back we asked the Admin base where they were. We saw a drop in TF2 'popularity.' And it wasn't TF2. It was our long term players and admins who help populate the servers every day graduate to other games. There's nothing wrong with this. But if we are to survive we must adapt. So I have come up with a plan, or guide for the future of the community. And that starts with other games. When the community was young we tried to expand into other games, but didn't really have the player base to support multiple platforms. Years later, and plenty of open space on our servers. We're trying it again. Everyone who plays on our servers, play other games. Now it's time to connect them all. If not via hosting a server itself, but expanding our forum/ blog to cater to all things not Source.
All MOTD's in all servers have been brought back to the original. No more elite group. Focusing on the website is better.
And we need your help!
Here's my thoughts.
TF2 -
Not looking to really change much. Yes we're down on population now, but we have Halloween coming up. This will draw a lot of traffic to the servers, and give us a new opportunity to win people over. For existing admins and regulars who have moved on. Come help us out for a bit. You're going to play anyway. Let's shepherd a new group of fresh young blood to CSN and brainwash them into thinking popping is a fun task.
Current TF2 plans.
1) Stick through Halloween. After, depending on server usage change things up a bit
2) Possibly disband the Elite group. We use it, but 96% of those in the group aren't active. Start a new one.
3) During Halloween move Snow's and SB2 over to Halloween maps
4) Find some new blood. Especially for Westbox.
5) Recruit a min. of 10 new admins.
6) Remember empty servers mean no donations. Which is our primary source of server funding.
CS:GO
When CS:GO came out it was getting beat by Source on a daily basis. Just too different for the hardcore player. 7 months later, people have adapted and for the first time CS:GO is beating Source in players. Our server(s) have existed. But we've never had anyone to really pay attention to them. They sat out of date, ect ect. They were also improperly configured for classic comp. The server is now updated and properly config'd.
Current CS:GO plans
1) Find a 'redmin' for CS:GO. This person will be responsible for building and tweaking the server.
2) This person will be responsible for building the admin base on the server.
3) This person will get the 'blah's CS:Go chicago slaybox. Congrats your famous!
4) Otherwise it should be easy to fill with 4-5 people playing now. Bots were added to follow the setup of Valve servers.
Minecraft
We never really took Minecraft seriously in the community. This is going to change. We're going to host a proper server with the proper mods. Including stuff for donors.
Current Minecraft plans
1) Find 2 people. 1 'redmin' type person. And 1 person who understands server architecture and modding. The latter doesn't need to know how to mod. Just understand how they work. What is the right thing to have, and how to adapt it to our community.
2) Having a proper server.
3) more to come. Don't own the game. Don't understand.
Terraria
Pending how much resources a server uses now, we'll put one back up.
Current Terraria plans
1) Having a 'redmin' type person in charge.
2) There are mods for the game. Including donor benefits. We'll use those to our advantage.
Natural Selection 2
OK why this game? Well the game is actually really good. It just got and update, and had a bad rap for awhile. There are plenty of maps now, and a very devoted group of players. And game mods. It makes sense for us to do someone odd. It doesn't hurt anyway.
Current NS2 plans
1) Open server.
2) The few that own the game will try to draw traffic. Perhaps a clan or group of regulars to take over the server.
DayZ -standalone-
This game will be huge. For the MOD i could probably bring in 20-30 people on principal. But the MOD is full of problems and overall it's not worth it to host. So we wait for the standalone, and hope it has the same potential for server mods as the MOD does. MOD MOD MOD MOD. You need an admin on 24-7 to stop hackers. Or stay private which is very hard to pop, obviously. But the donation potential for the MOD is huge. Again, not worth it.
Current Dayz Standalone plans
1) wait for game to come out.
2) Open server
3) Profit.
Chivalry -game-
Not really sure on this one. But there are dedicated servers, and community interest.
Current Chivalry plans
1) Someone with this game will have to take charge. Finding game mods, ect. ect.
Website plans
We need to expand our non-gaming options. As in chat, funny threads ect. Someone will be elected to make this happen.
Admin plans
No admin will get fired unless they do something stupid. If you've moved on. Resign or let us know. Just so we know we have an open spot. Otherwise sit tight. We may expand into other games when it's offered up as a good idea.
I do think we need to get rid of the separation of admins. Fun/ Slaybox. Doesn't matter to me. You all care about the community and help each other out. We always had this no admin level rule. Everyone here is mature enough to know how to act in said server. Thoughts?
Donation plans as we expand.
We're going to offer something special here. Less random Minecraft things. The $5 donation will stick to all games. No other community does this. Start playing TF2. Donate for that. Then buy NS2? Yes you have a reserved slot. Congrats!
::::Game Supporters::::
TF2
-given-
CS:GO
Rosey
Dunn
cloud
Minecraft
Repoman
Harri
Thomas The Train
Terraria
megamoose
cloud
NS2
HausOfJoel
Chivalry
Legendary
HausOfJoel
GoDM1N
cloud
DayZ Standalone
ToeKnee
OK now rage at me.
