New! Host, AWE Mod & Maps

_FFC_

First off, hope you like the new site style here; I figured it was time for a change. Note: you can now "Call Me" if you need gaming assitance.

I spent most of Saturday gathering up enough new maps for a full rotation and get'n the AWE4 1.2 mod installed & configured. I was trying to wait until AWE4 2.0 releases but that's taking longer than expected. And then our game host (BranZone) was take'n much too long to get the changes made so I found us a new home...again.

Here's the new game and Ventrilo info...passwords are same as before:
Game - ffc.nuclearfallout.net:28960 (or 72.5.102.233:28960)
Ventrilo - chicago-ventrilo.nuclearfallout.net:7270

Primarily what AWE4 adds is more control over various features; like now we can still play "HardCore" mode but retain the minimap/compass. I may be able to limit weapons like in COD2 (via script/restart) so we can have some pistol-only small map sessions. Speaking of COD2, that game is now retired...no one showed up the last couple times I sent out email about it being online so figured it was time...R.I.P. COD2.
AWE4 also adds a few new CTF gametypes that are nicely done. And it appears that the "rank up" will work, as we noted online. Of course we'll all start at the bottom again but we should be used to that by now. ;-)

As for the maps, I cleaned out three that weren't that great so you can delete them locally if desired:
mp_ze_spray
mp_tlotd_deserteye
mp_sps_industrial_zone

The new ones are:
mp_vok - largish desert/dunes map, mainly sniper
q3ctf3 - nicely done medium CQB CTF old-style Quake
mp_bb_arch - smallish CQB arena map
mp_palms_v2 - medium open desert CQB/sniper
mp_dhc_carentan - classic medium in-town CQB
mp_backlot_night - night-vision remake of stock map

These maps and the mod files will auto-download or grab them off the new redirect link. You'll also need to grab the AWE4 folder and contents if going that route. Note that the IWDs for the new and old custom maps have been combined into one file now, the FFC.IWD file.

As usual, get in or manually download the maps ahead of time to save on delays in-game. I'll probably be around early.

Mamba, out

Hosting Woes & Maps & Mods

_FFC_

I'm still going rounds with our server host about the inconvenience of their game setup. Now that maps and mods are fast appearing it's get'n to be a RPITA to make changes. Unfortunately I don't think they are going to be able to do much about it...they are small fry and not a lot of extra $ to buy more drives and servers. So I'm going "host shopping" again. I really hate to leave BZ and may not if there aren't affordable alternatives. It's a choice of stay'n with a cheap, clunky but good-service-level host vs a more expensive, modern unknown-service-level host.

Speaking of maps and mods, I looked at the latest AWE4 1.2 release. It offers a lot of granular game control (weapon limiting, healthpacks, message displays, etc) along with adding CTF gametypes but nothing "must have" that I can see. So I think we'll hold off on that for awhile. Whenever the "zombie" mod gets ironed out I'd like to try that one...might be a fun alternative game type. But any new mods will probably wait until the host issues are resolved one way or another.
I'm watching the development of several new maps and as soon as they are sufficiently publicly tested will add another new rotation into the mix. Really want at least a couple open sniper maps included in there too.

That's it for now...I'm "gone shop'n".

Custom Maps Finally Working

_FFC_

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First off a little news from the official site:
We were overjoyed with the recent news that COD4:MW surpassed Halo 3 as the top played game on Xbox LIVE. (check out Major Nelson's coverage here)

Even more impressive, it was just announced that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the best selling video game title worldwide for the 2007 calendar year according to The NPD Group, Chart Track and The GFK Group! The fact that this game was released in November and only had two months to achieve the top position is phenomenal. (read all about it!)

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Now about the maps:
I've made progress on get'n custom maps working on our server. I won't bore you with the details, but the 1.5 patch that just came out makes it possible to load custom maps WITHOUT running a mod file. AND the server stays "ranked", meaning you can build rank, create custom classes and so on. That's the good news.

The not-so-good news is that when running in this manner you are starting at the bottom again. Different tracking files are being used so even with the same player name the rank tracking is stored in a different file. So it won't impact your rank on the "stock" server. In one way this sucks, but in another it levels the playing field (for awhile) again. Also, I'm not having any luck get'n the "free" redirect server they gave me working for map downloads. I can get this to work okay on our old redirect server but that one is outta room and frankly I'd rather use the free one. So I'll be submitting a ticket today to have them help out with that.

Meanwhile, direct downloading from the free server DOES work. So for now we can download the maps and manually install them on our game systems. This might work out better anyway, since even when redirect downloading works it's a wee flaky. On big files the "progress bar" disappears so it looks like nothing is happening even tho' the map IS still downloading. Plus the average map file is 25MB or more and this would be very slow for the "bandwidth challenged" among us. By manually installing the maps ahead of time you can avoid the in-game delay.

Here is a list of the custom maps so far:
* mp_bunkermayhem
* mp_pk_harbor
* mp_subway
* mp_village
* mp_darkroom
* mp_warehouse

The first two are re-makes from earlier COD versions that many of you will recognize. "Subway" is an underground map with a large central "war room". "Village" is a single-player conversion that is a largish map and could be good for snipering (eventually, when we "rank up" and get a sniper gun). "Darkroom" is a CQB dark map, fun for night-vision play. "Warehouse" is daytime CQB map, good for pistols only (yah, right ;).

In order to download/install the maps do the following:

1) Within your "Call of Duty 4" game folder root there should be a "usermaps" folder. If not, create one.
2) In your internet browser, goto http://www.ffc.branzone.com/cod4/usermaps/
3) In your "usermaps" folder (from Step 1) create the same map folder names you see listed in Step 2 (wthout the end "/" of course)
4) In your browser, click on a map folder name and download the *.ff files to the corresponding map folder name created in Step 3
5) Repead the above steps for all the maps
6) Within your "Call of Duty 4" game folder root there should be a "mods" folder. Within that create a "custom" folder.
7) In your internet browser, goto http://www.ffc.branzone.com/cod4/mods/custom/
8) In your browser, download all the *.iwd files to the "mods\custom" folder created in Step 6
9) Done!

I've walked the server map rotation and as long as you follow the above steps and get all the map files in the right places there are no rotation/load problems. FYI, this would be a LOT simpler if I didn't have to separate out the %$#@ing IWD files (not all maps have them) but there is still a bug in the game that requires this...for now, to avoid crashes. Hopefully that will get fixed in a patch soon.

As usual, email me with any related questions/problems. Hopefully I'll get the redirect working properly soon, but even then you could follow the above steps if you want to "get ahead of the game" so to speak and avoid the in-game download wait. I'll also let everyone know when I add new maps again.

Mamba, out