junktext.net : News

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News

New NS Administrator!:
(20080827 - Wednesday)

I just wanted to announce that we have a new administrator on-board of our Natural Selection (NS) game server! His name is TREX and he is currently residing in Canada. As you can guess from the previous post, he has been running a few Half-Life game servers himself, so he knows a thing or two about what we're all about.

If you happen to see him on the NS server sometime, make sure to say "Hello" as I'm sure he'd be glad to speak with you!

Better Game Server Performance!:
(20080711 - Friday)

Thanks to advice from my friend TREX, you should have a much more enjoyable playing experience on the Natural Selection server! This performance gain deals primarily with in regard to a better hit-registration on the server, which means your attacks are more accurately accounted for. I have definitely noticed the difference myself, so come see for yourself how the server runs for you!

Scripts are now ENABLED! (mp_blockscripts 0):
(20080416 - Wednesday)

Just an FYI: The recent vote about script blocking has ended, and due to this, scripting is now possible on the NS server.

However, feel free to post any additional praises/gripes about this issue via the thread itself: http://www.junktext.net/forums/index.php?tid=30...

Thanks!

Forums/Website News - Back Online!:
(20080322 - Saturday)

Okay, well the database information was finally restored by my web host - and I just got done verifying everything was pretty much back in working order. There was a little bit of Forum data lost, just a few posts worth, but they were mainly only general conversational postings. Which isn't exactly a good thing, but at least it wasn't dealing with reporting abusive users or any feature requests and so forth...

All in all though, this is just a reminder that we're back in business!

New Loading Songs!:
(20080304 - Tuesday)

Here's some good news I'm sure you've been waiting to "hear"! Okay that was corny, but seriously, I've taken the old loading song down and put up FIVE new ones! And to make things interesting, I've put a nice mix to hopefully satisfy the majority of musical tastes. There's now music from the following genres: Hip-Hop, Rock, Punk, Trance, and even Country!

I've hand chosen each song personally, which means I actually enjoy each one of them. Also, I'm still trying to resolve the MySQL issue, but the website/Forums will be back up as soon as possible!

Thanks for reading!

- junktext

Forums are DOWN (Again...) - RAID/MySQL Problem:
(20080223 - Saturday)

Attention:
Due to a major RAID (hard drive) failure on my web host's MySQL server, the News and Forums are currently disabled. It has been offline since 16 February 2008 and is expected to be back up and working on or around 28 February 2008.

I apologize very much for the misinformation I recently posted on the Steam Community group and the NS Game Server, as it was out of my control. I originally had the Forums back up and working JUST before this RAID issue happened, so it was just bad timing for this event to take place.

I will post another update once the situation has been resolved. Please be patient until my host's MySQL service is up and running like it once was. Thanks!

- junktext

The Forums are ALIVE!!! No, seriously...:
(20080216 - Saturday)

You don't know how happy I am to bring the Forums back to life. I'm sure many of you were curious why they were down in the first place, especially during an important policy vote on the NS server (about blocking scripts). Well, in short, the major problem was I wanted to have a better look to the board, except there were no decent themes already created... So I decided to create one myself - all while still working full time and going to college.

Well, as you can see I've finally finished with developing a new theme to the board, but this wasn't an easy task as I actually revamped a lot of the HTML/PHP structure that was originally there. It wasn't a matter of simply changing a few colors around to make it look pretty, as most of the code for everything is scattered in a lot of smaller files (which I can understand I guess); but it took a little more than Notepad/VIM to see what needed to be worked on.

I could of course go into more detail than this, but in the end, I think I finally got a workable version ready. However, if you spot anything out of order just send me a PM [Private Message] within the board or send me an e-mail to: webmaster AT junktext.net.

Thanks for your patience on this!

Vote to enable/disable script blocking! (mp_blockscripts) [For the Game Server]:
(20071215 - Saturday)

I know this is a sensitive subject within the NS community... So I am asking for everyone's input. Just follow the link below to vote in the poll and if you want, you can also respond in YOUR own words to put in your two-cents!

Thanks!

Here is the link: http://www.junktext.net/forums/index.php?tid=30

Updated Game Server:
(20071214 - Friday)

I made a few changes to the game server, but most of you probably won't see much of a difference.

The most notable change is that I re-worded the "rules" of the server, so just check it out on your next connect ;) .

New Loading Song! (for the Game Server):
(20071211 - Tuesday)

I know some of you have been getting annoyed at hearing the same loading song for the past few months (sorry about that), I have finally uploaded a new one!

I felt it would be cool to put something a little more chill this time since the last one (Deftones) was loud and hardcore... I'm hoping you guys don't hate the new song, but if you're curious to know who sang the new song, it is "Boy Sets Fire" and the song is called "When Rhetoric Dies."

However, if you think you know of a better song, just post your request on the Forums!

Thanks,
-Will

Combat "Time Limit" Changed:
(20071209 - Sunday)

I changed the time limit on the NS server for Combat ("co_") maps. It originally was set to 35 minutes, and it has been reduced to 20 minutes to speed the game play up a bit.
If you're not a fan of the switch, just post a message on the Forums!

Another Web Update:
(20071206 - Thursday)

I updated the Game Server's web section again, which mainly focused on rewording the rules and admin application portion to make it clearer. That's all for tonight!

Better Forums!:
(20071202 - Sunday)

I have finally put got the new Forum system up! I think it suits our needs a lot better, and it has some cool features to! I hope everyone else agrees ;-)...

Kudos to "vts" for the Idea:
(20071108 - Thursday)

I have updated the NS server's rules on the website to better match the rules that we are currently using on the game server. Hopefully, this helps to clarify the general behavior expected while playing on the server...

Help Me, It's expensive!:
(20071103 - Saturday)

I added a donation button to the bottom of the web pages. The donations will ONLY be used to help fund the website, game server, or related connection/registration fees I normally pay myself to keep everything going. I'm not sure if many people will donate, but it's worth a shot :-).

Some Small Web/Game Tweaks:
(20071101 - Thursday)

I made some more web updates (especially to the Game Server section), and I've also worked on the NS server a bit. I'm just trying to get everything working perfectly...

NS Server Up! (With a New IP Address):
(20071030 - Tuesday)

The NS server is finally back online! Also, note that the IP address has changed to 208.167.249.107:27015 (so update your Favorites list if you added it originally). It seems to be running pretty great as I just got back from a small 6 player game... Just let me know if you spot any issues.

Sorry for the Downtime:
(20071028 - Sunday)

I know that the NS server has been down for a little while... I am actually surprised it is taking so long to bring it back up. I upgraded the server's connection, so it should now be able to handle 21 players (as originally I was having latency problems when there were over 12 players); but there have been other issues at play, which have factored into a longer overall downtime.

I am hoping to bring it back up early this week, so hopefully this actually happens. In other news, I have been working on the website a little, making improvements here and there. So I hope the changes are for the better.

Fancy'er Forums:
(20071008 - Monday)

Today, I have created a new image for the Forums' main banner, while also making the Forums more consistent with the home page's layout. It took a little bit as I had to play with the original template/stylesheet used on the Forums already to match my home page's stylesheet (or as good as I could).

Forums Added (During my Bedtime!):
(20070924 - Monday)

I have been working on the website this (early) morning. I have added a forum system to the website, which will mainly be used for the NS game server and IRC activity. Currently the look is very vanilla to the forum board, but I will change that up later on to reflect the theme I already have incorporated from my main web design. Now, I'm off to bed for four hours until I awake for work, ugh...

Moving Woes...:
(20070923 - Sunday)

Well, I had the NS game server temporarily offline while I was moving apartments, but it is back up! There's a new IP address due to the new location, but other than that it's running like normal.

Yep, the NS Server Went Public!:
(20070818 - Saturday)

Well the Natural Selection gaming server has been public for about a week now! I have done a lot of customized coding behind the scenes to make some changes I felt were needed to some of the most common plugins you run into. I haven't really seen any issues so far from my changes, but I will keep my eyes open.

Also, if you're interested in becoming an administrator on the server (as I currently need a few), just make sure to read my "Gaming" section before applying... Thanks!

NS Server Went Live! (for a Bit):
(20070721 - Saturday)

Today I tested the NS server live for a little while, and it seems to be working quite well. I pulled it down later in the evening as I am re-programming a particular plugin that needs a few more fixes before it is up to my standards. After this, there may be a few this and that type of things needed, but the bulk of everything on the server checks out to be okay (i.e., no major lag issues seen by clients).

Also, I made some changes to the Gaming section of the website, and will continue to revise this as time goes on. Lastly, I registered a channel on Gamesurge.net's IRC servers - which is simply titled #junktext.net - and I envision this to be a meet and greet location for various administrators of the server, and whomever in the public wanted to sit and hang out and talk with us from time to time. We'll see how it all works out, but I'm still in the pre-planning stage at this moment. But at least I have a lot more momentum going for the gaming server and related projects finally! I'm really excited as I have a lot of big ideas to try out :D...

Many NS Server Updates:
(20070711 - Wednesday)

I have made a lot of progress on the NS server tonight! I fixed some weird bugs on my modified version of Crab's Map Manager plugin, and I added a "loading music" plugin (which actually took forever since most of those plugins were built for CS, so I luckily found one that worked).

I'm still working on modifying a few more default and "commonly used" plugins, after which, I'll begin the work on the previously mentioned custom plugin. Good night!

Well, I gave it a shot...:
(20070710 - Tuesday)

I attempted to utilize Jaba TV (from Olo) on NS, but it seems like it just won't work right. Beyond that, I just made a few small updates to the website...

NS Server Updated!:
(20070708 - Sunday)

I've been putting a lot more energy into the Natural Selection server this weekend. I've been hard at work customizing some of the most common plug-ins for AMX Mod X, that I feel needed a little "touch up" here and there! This should hopefully make the server much more enjoyable to play on, than if it was just another clone-like server.

All I'm waiting on now is to finish a few small things, here and there, and some fixes to the bot system (when there's only a few actual humans online). Then afterward, I need to actual build my own script/plug-in for the server so that I can try to implement a nice vote kick/ban system. I don't want to release any details of it yet, but from what I envision, it should be pretty neat!

More to come...

Web Update & Game Server is Almost a Go!:
(20070212 - Monday)

I have done quite a lot of work on the website tonight. There is now content in the "Gaming" section, and have tweaked a lot of little details like the colors throughout the site (and making it compatible with different resolutions/browsers).

Also, the NS server is a almost ready to release to the public! Should be fun when that happens...

woot! Read all About Me!:
(20061229 - Friday)

I made some more updates tonight, which included some more behind the scenes changes and finishing the content for the "About" page. More updates soon to come!

;D No, I'm Serious this Time:
(20061009 - Monday)

Wow it's been a long time since I've updated my site. But, I am actually serious about updating it this time. Tonight I have been setting up the new Natural Selection server, and have made a lot of progress. Also, with the NS server, I have made some behind-the-scenes and some public changes to the website. I have restructured it better, and have better templates to work off of. This will help me out when I actually put content online. It'll happen, trust me ;).

Need some Adventure?:
(20050412 - Tuesday)

I have finally done some updating! So far I got the "Adventure Information" page created, which describes what basically I've gotten to experience being over on this side of the world.

Lately I have been extremely busy, and will do my best to get those pictures posted up that I have been promising everybody. And what I plan on doing is adding some blurbs to each image to help describe what it was I am taking a picture of.

But thats all for tonight!

Reasons for My Slow Progress:
(20050211 - Friday)

I know I haven't uploaded any images for ages. But there is good reason:

1. Deployed again.
2. Lazy.

I will be back to my home soon, and I have many plans set for this website. Keep your eyes posted.

New and Improved!:
(20041018 - Monday)

This is the beta stage for my new look. I wanted it to be easy to read, and fast to load. So I'm chopping off most of the images :D. Don't worry I will put the content back online, and with new stuff included!

FYI:
(20041006 - Wednesday)

Sorry I haven't kept my site more up to date. I was recently deployed over to Australia and had no real way of keeping it current. But my plans are to do a complete redesign of the site, with more content! Keep you eyes posted.

Vampire Slayer (VS) Map Ported to TFC =) :
(20040605 - Saturday)

Added vs_blade-tfc to my Half-Life section. Good old map that I modified back in the day.

Fancy Website Effects + Tech Note:
(20040530 - Sunday)

Added some effects to the website, and added an old Note that I wrote back in the day.

Quick Update:
(20040529 - Saturday)

Made some minor updates here and there.

TFC "Heap" (Check it out!):
(20040524 - Monday)

I updated the Half-Life section again! This time I added my TFC Heap available to the public. Lots of good stuff in it, check it out.