I’m not sure the time table on them fixing this, I’m at the point where I want to send them emails every 5 minutes, but I dont think that will help them get anything done…

On to the good news -

98.158.146.158:27015 NewbsTF2.com #01 24/7 2Fort (Los Angeles)  NO CLASS LIMITS

I’ve added a new West Coast 24/7 2fort server..  I am thinking about adding a Chicago based 24/7 2fort server also (thats in another post)
while our servers are down, we still have some other fun servers we can hang out on

208.43.15.128:27015 NewbsTF2.com #09 STOCK-MAPS RTD [SMACKworld]  – this servers a little +lols but not so much that you need to be suffering from major head trama to enjoy.  The flavor and format of this server may change around a little bit, but we have a _GREAT_ person donating this server to us, and he can do all the customization and cool modifications we could ever want – so check out Psychonics server and give it a go round.  I think his round times are too short, but what do I know, I’m a 24/7 2fort player.. :)   This server is in DALLAS

tf.packhead.com:27015 NewbsTF2.com #11 — Chicago’s Payload  Server | HLXCE – I don’t think many people know, but we do have something real special here.  We have The Pack[head].  The Pack offers great VPS hosting to people at a reasonable rate, and even offers discounts to TF2Newbs Members.  Besides being one of the most on the ball hosting providers I’ve ever talked to he runs a great Payload rotation server in a datacenter in Chicago.  He needs a bit more love from us, since I’ve been slacking and not working to help get this server populated.  If all goes well the Pack can do waht the Pack can, which is a lot – which means more servers and more fun.
If you’re sick of all the normal payload and 2fort crap our community seems to want to serve up, we also have 2 crazy funhouse servers bringing such hits as cyberpunk, and cyberpunk…

74.53.203.12:27015 NewbsTF2.com #10 Crazy CmptrWz’s Insanity [Dallas]
216.6.231.134:27015 NewbsTF2.com #10.1 BAN’s Ice Cream Party (AllTalk|RTD|FastDL)

Sorry about servers being the bust, but at least we have some options

I don’t have a god in this fight, but I thought drunken contributed far more than he took away from the greater community. I’m sure the whine from the forum people hurt everyones ears up at valve, but I think a VAC ban might be a bit much. If you feel one way or the other feel free to post below, I’m also going to link to the ‘unban fool’ community group.

Unban drunken f00l steamcommunity group

Now usually I’m not into petitions, but a recent policy change by Valve impacts our community. So I have decided to pass this along to everyone so they know whats happened, and can maybe help change this policy.

Valve in their recent updates made entities that are ‘parented’ to a player invisible. You may be wondering how this effects you. If you’ve ever been on the Newbs servers (which I assume you have been since you’re in this group) you know that we have ‘extra’ hats that you can wear while on the servers. Some of these are just fun items to see someone have. Examples of these are our traffic cone, the pale rider, and devil horns hats. The way these work is we parent the entity (which has the model we want to show) to the player entitity, then as you run around people see you ‘wearing’ a hat or a cape or whatever we decide to attach to you. With this recent change this no longer will work – the item will be invisible.

All we want is the ability to parent items to the player – I frankly don’t care if they let us use the ‘real’ hats or not, but I would like to be able to put cones on peoples heads or put funny hats on people when its their birthday.

Please be civil if you decide to leave a comment after signing, I don’t know if Valve will even give a crap about this petition or not, but I do know if its full of idiotic comments it will mean even less to them.

https://secure.voogru.com/petition/

…

That said, lets look at some possible reasons why they may have made a change like this. I can think of three different possible reasons why Valve suddenly took away our ability to parent an item to a player (well technically you can still do it, its just invisible).

1) Support costs – Everytime someone lodges a complaint with tech support, or emails Robin or any of the other developers complaining about idlers or server ops, or how unfair people having caps is it costs valuable time, and this spent time has a price associated with it. If the current staff can not at least read all of the emails sent each day then they need to add more staff (or decrease services). This is even worse if the people that are programming or creating content are getting bogged down by emails. Maybe servers using TF2 Equipment Manager were generating a lot of hate mail and they decided to try to decrease the butthurt email.

2) Punishment / Justice – Just as people who idled were punished for gaming the system, people who installed a hats plugin were gaming the system. So smack them in the head and level the playing field.

3) Money grab – If you control the supply of hats, the hats have value. And as with all things with a value, you can charge people money for them – and the more exclusive they are (or appear) the more you (typically) can charge.

So is the Free Ride of TF2 content coming to an end? I would not be surprised if the crackdown on idling (which was more of a limiting of how many items you can find per week) was in preperation for ‘for purchase’ hats or weapons. I really hope I’m wrong and this is actually about #2, justice is cool – hell overzealous developer would be fine by me too :) I don’t want anyone to think I’m against Valve making money, I want them to make money, I spend more money than I like to think about each month just because I like TF2 a lot. Heck I buy games I don’t even plan on playing just so that I can test things or add support for them in HLstatsX:CE. Just please don’t ruin my almost ready to be released birthday celebration plugin because you’re afraid you might not make money off of selling me hats.

As I’ve told a lot of the people I’ve talked with on this subject, I don’t care if valve wants to keep the ‘official’ hats to themselves, thats fine by me – but let me put a traffic cone or bunny ears on or any of the other bajillion hats that the community has made.

-octo

PS. oh yeah, heres a thread about the selling hats idea – Steampowered.com – sell hats once again, I’m down for them selling hats, hell I might buy them all if they do – but please don’t limit our ability to do cool things. Oh also, thanks for the after the fact exception for prophunt – but really, would TF2 prophunt ever have happened if there was this restriction? Nope.

Dallas – NewbsTF2.com #9 NO CLASS LIMITS (24/7 CTF) [SMACKworld]
208.43.15.128:27015

Even if you aren’t a great artist, and just like to doodle some we are interested in having you help – I will hand color your art in MS paint if thats what needs to be done. =) If you aren’t good at art, but are good at posing in GMod you can use that to create the strips.

There are no minimum per month commitments, so don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of time, we just want to have a healthy pool of talent to spread the load between.

All contributors will get full credit and acknowledgement for their contributions. On top of this I will offer any of our community based perks to contributors. This includes things like reserves, hats, advertisements for events or services, etc.

If you are interested in helping, join the Newbs Daily TF2 Webcomic Steam Group – or contact me on steam (Octodhd on steam) – you can leave a note on my comments and I’ll get back to you.

I wanted to be able to bind my G-Keys to build and destroy buildings and to specific disguises.

So I wrote a simple plugin (see link below) to enable that. Extracted to the tf folder, normally found in
<steam install dir>\steamapps\<username>\team fortress 2
it will create a “Named Pipe” whenever the game is running. Dumping commands into this pipe will run them as though you typed them into the console directly.

This will ONLY work when you are actually in a game. It will not work in menus, or after being disconnected. It is also one way, console output and command output from the commands you run are not fed back the other way. There is also, due to the way it is coded, a built-in rate limit of sorts.

The named pipe is \\.\pipe\SourceConsole and, for me, I use a program that allows me to run cmd.exe invisibly. I then pass it parameters like so:

cmd.exe /C echo "build 1" > \\.\pipe\SourceConsole

The entire command line (entered into the G-series Key Profiler via “Assign Shortcut”) actually ends up including the program I use, but this is enough for now. What this will do, when bound to a key, is tell TF2 to build a teleporter entrance, as though you typed “build 1″ into the game console or had it bound to a key normally.

This plugin is written in a very simplistic manner, and a number of things can prevent it from working properly. A major thing being something grabbing onto the named pipe and not wanting to release control. It works for me, and as people were asking me about it, I am posting it here.

And for the record, it will NOT allow you to do things that you can’t do by typing into the console already. I will not make it do anything like that either.

To get the plugin, click here:
http://www.tf2newbs.com/newbs_blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/consolein.zip

Then they found out it didn’t work. Apparently the source engine has G15 support, and they didn’t ship all the pieces with TF2.

But you can rejoice, for the secret of getting TF2 to work with a G15 (and, as a result, G13 and G19) has been discovered!

Requirements:

• Steam
• Team Fortress 2
• Zeno Clash (The Demo will work, and is what I tested with)

Recommended:

• GCFScape
• Text Editor of your choice (Vim is my choice)

Basic Setup

First, install Steam, Team Fortress 2, and Zeno Clash (or the demo). Run Team Fortress 2 and Zeno Clash (or the demo) at least once.

Once you have done so, open up
steam install dir\SteamApps\common\zeno clash\bin\
(or the zeno clash demo folder) and copy g15.dll.

Next, open up
steam install dir\SteamApps\your username\team fortress 2\bin\
and paste the g15.dll file there. If the folder now contains “client.dll”, “server.dll”, and “g15.dll” you found the wrong bin folder. Go up a couple of directories and try again.

Now that the DLL is there, all that is left is to tell TF2 to load it. Open up steam, go to your games list, and right-click on TF2. Select properties, then hit “Set launch options…”. There you need to add -g15 to the list of options. (Side note, I recommend “-novid -g15″ at a minimum.) Hit OK, then hit Close.

Run TF2, and you have a working health/ammo display on your G15, once in a server anyway.

TAKE NOTE: Getting the Zeno Clash g15.dll file may no longer be needed if Valve ever includes it in an update for TF2. The -g15 command line parameter will likely still be needed. This blog entry may or may not be updated should that ever happen.

Making it look better

Unfortunately, there is at least one problem. The TF2 logo is missing when you aren’t in a server!

Pop open GCFScape and open up “team fortress 2 content.gcf” in the SteamApps folder:
steam install dir\SteamApps
In there you should find a tf\resource folder. In there right-click on game_1bpp.ico and select “Extract”.

In the Browse for Folder dialog find your tf directory:
steam install dir\SteamApps\your username\team fortress 2\tf
If you already have a resource directory there then select it. Otherwise select the tf folder and then click on “Make New Folder”, entering “resource” for the name, then select it. Hit OK.

Now when on the “title” page a really crappy black and white TF2 logo will appear, which is strangely an improvement over the blank space that was there before.

Viewing other pages

The First two buttons on the G13/G15 under the display (or on the G19, the left and right arrow buttons) control what page is shown when TF2 is running. The left one changes the page, the right one changes the sub page. And there is a difference.

The pages are, by default and as of this writing:

1. Title – Only shown when NOT in a game
2. Health/Weapon Info
3. My Team (Dead/Alive)
4. Scoreboard Data (Score/Deaths/Ping)
5. Chat

Aside from the title and Health/Weapon pages, the other pages will likely not hold everything in the 4 lines or so you can cram onto the display. Hence sub pages to, for lack of a better term, “scroll” the page.

Customization

While you were in GCFScape you may have noticed a g15.res file, a couple of lines above the game_1bpp.ico file. If you put that in the same resource folder as the game_1bpp.ico file you can customize what your G15 shows you when in game.

To do so, open it up with a text editor.

You will notice that the file is in KeyValues format. If you don’t know what that is I suggest looking it up quick, or just following along to figure it out as you go. A //, at the very least, represents a comment, but you cannot use /* */ commenting for multi-line or mid-line comments.

I suggest leaving the “icons” section alone, as well as the “game” and “chatlines” values above it. The “replace” block, however, can be very useful. All replacements are applied last, just before the values are crammed into the defined fields. This allows for some interesting tricks. For example, you can change “Jar Based Karate” to “Jarate” with a single line. What is being replaced is on the left, what it is replaced with is on the right. Use “” for “replace with nothing” on the right. For example, I added:

"Flame Thrower" "Flamethrower"
" Launcher" ""
"Jar Based Karate" "Jarate"
"Battle Banner" "Partyhorn"

Although to my disappointment the Battle Banner doesn’t normally show up when selected. Bummer. The ” Launcher” one shortens the names of the Rocket Launcher, Stickybomb Launcher and Grenade Launcher weapons all in one go.

After the “replace” section you will find the pages. I suggest leaving the title page, the first page there, alone. In fact, I recommend doing ALL of your customization to the default page when playing, the first page, just after the title page. The one that contains your health/ammo values.

By default, that page looks like this:

	"page"   // Player health/wpn info
	{
		// Only show this if the player has a player entity in the game
		"requiresplayer"	"1"

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"left"
			"x"			"10"
			"y"			"4"
			"w"			"150"
			"text"		"Team:  team_%(localteam)m_szTeamName%"
		}

		"static_icon"
		{
			"x"			"144"
			"y"			"4"
			"w"			"16"
			"h"			"16"
			"name"		"icon_%(localteam)m_szTeamName%"
		}

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"left"
			"x"			"10"
			"y"			"18"
			"w"			"150"
			"text"		"Health:  - %(localplayer)m_iHealth% -"
		}

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"left"
			"x"			"10"
			"y"			"32"
			"w"			"150"
			"text"		"(weapon_print_name):  - (ammo_primary) -"
		}
	}

Basically, that means put “Red” or “Blue” in the upper left, a non-existent icon in the upper right, your current health to the left in the middle, and your current weapon with ammo under your health. I didn’t like that.

I won’t go into all the details of how to put information, largely because most of it is useless, but here is a handy list of ones I find useful:

(ammo_primary)

Current weapon’s primary ammo, AKA the current “in the clip” ammo, or for single reload/non-reloading weapons all of it.

(ammo_secondary)

Reserve ammo for the current weapon. Will be 0 for a number of weapons.

(weapon_print_name)

Current weapon’s name

%(localplayer)m_iHealth%

Current health

%(localteam)m_szTeamName%

Current team name (valve prefixed this with team_ for replacement above, or with icon_ for the non-existent icons)

%(localplayer)m_iAmmo[1]%

Primary weapon ammo

%(localplayer)m_iAmmo[2]%

Secondary weapon ammo

%(localplayer)m_iAmmo[3]%

Metal (100 for everyone but Engineer, who can actually USE metal)

Due to the way things work, I recommend something like this:

	"page"   // Player health/wpn info
	{
		// Only show this if the player has a player entity in the game
		"requiresplayer"	"1"

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"left"
			"x"			"10"
			"y"			"4"
			"w"			"100"
			"text"		"H: %(localplayer)m_iHealth%"
		}
		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"right"
			"x"			"110"
			"y"			"4"
			"w"			"50"
			"text"		"team_%(localteam)m_szTeamName%"
		}

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"left"
			"x"			"10"
			"y"			"18"
			"w"			"150"
			"text"		"(weapon_print_name): (ammo_primary) / (ammo_secondary)"
		}

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"left"
			"x"			"10"
			"y"			"32"
			"w"			"150"
			"text"		"A: P: %(localplayer)m_iAmmo[1]% S: %(localplayer)m_iAmmo[2]%"
		}

		"newsubpage"	"1"

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"left"
			"x"			"10"
			"y"			"4"
			"w"			"100"
			"text"		"H: %(localplayer)m_iHealth%"
		}

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"right"
			"x"			"110"
			"y"			"4"
			"w"			"40"
			"text"		"team_%(localteam)m_szTeamName%"
		}

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"left"
			"x"			"10"
			"y"			"18"
			"w"			"150"
			"text"		"(weapon_print_name): (ammo_primary) / (ammo_secondary)"
		}

		"static_text"
		{
			"size"		"medium"
			"align"		"left"
			"x"			"10"
			"y"			"32"
			"w"			"150"
			"text"		"A: P: %(localplayer)m_iAmmo[1]% S: %(localplayer)m_iAmmo[2]% M: %(localplayer)m_iAmmo[3]%"
		}
	}

This creates two pages (see that “newsubpage” “1″ thing? That says make a new sub page). The first will show your team in the upper right, your health in the upper left, your current weapon with ammo below your health, and your current ammo supplies for primary and secondary below your current weapon. If you hit the sub page change button it will toggle your metal showing up. It does away with the – around the health/ammo, and removes the non-existent icon. It could likely use some work, but it works well enough for me.

I would go into more detail, but there is only so much I can say I know in the day I have messed with this. I know that x is horizontal position and y is vertical, that w is for width and h is for height. The align value can be left, right, or center, and I have seen small, medium, and big sizes. Yes, big, not large.

You apparently CAN’T show cloak, rage, or charge levels properly, nor can you show ubercharge levels, or easily show your own ping. I tried all of that already.

Go ahead and check it out – http://www.tf2newbs.com/build/crab_spy_calendar_2010/

Since the calendar was incredibly popular last year, be sure to spread the word so that no one misses out on it.

Also a quick update on Newbsmas, due to me not being able to dedicate the proper time to the contest I’ve extended the deadline until Midnight Feb 14th (Pacific). Be sure to get your holiday themed entries in with this extra time I should be able to get some ‘unique’ prizes in to hand out =)

A big thank you goes out to Control Point for featuring our little contest on their podcast, I think its really kicked things up a notch – Thanks again!

All people who participated won 1 years worth of reserve on the Newbs servers, a forum honorz (will be added tomorrow hopefully), and 1 year of !hatme access (enables you to wear any classes hat). If you participated and want the Newbs server rewards contact me on steam, most of the participants I couldn’t find in the stats db under their entry name so I don’t know their steamid :) I can be reached @ http://steamcommunity.com/id/octodhd

I would like to take this chance to announce the next Newbs Contest… (drum roll) The next contest is the – Newbs Team Fortess 2 Christmas and other Winter Celebrations Contest. All entries will be TF2 and winter solstice themed. Entries can be winter decorations, confections, other food stuffs, songs, snow sculptures, or any other creative work. I will be announcing further details very shortly. If you want to keep track of the latest Christmas contest news please join http://steamcommunity.com/groups/TF2Xmas/. I’m not certain on the prizes yet (looking for some sponsors) but I promise that it will be worth your time :)

Back to the Pumpkins…..

The participants (in alphabetical order) -

Winners:

• Gearpunk
• kitty_tiky
• LlamaMaster

Runner ups:

• binjin
• nfreak
• nil.kemorya
• odinspeed

These were the winning Pumpkins, I’ll be posting all entries in our hall of fame soon (which means by Christmas).

Lets hope valve takes this idea and incorperates it into the client.

[Edit - The live generation of custom lists seems broken (it shows unverified servers in the list), I recommend using the lists that can be found @ http://tf2app.com/blacklist/lists.php until this is fixed]