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Posts Tagged ‘CSS Servers’

Quake game servers were the first to hit the online gaming crowd in 1996. Multiplayer online gaming was a new drug for gamers, where Unreal Tournament on dialup was as good as online gaming was. To some, it still is.

While playing COD now on our XBOX might seem normal, or a right, 15 years ago the whole concept of playing against a friend in another room via a network cable dragged through two rooms was thrilling. Now, shooting someone in a different part of the world, or even more amazing, someone in another country was an amazing buzz.

Since then, game servers have evolved, rapidly. At the crux of growth for online gaming, arguably, Counterstrike was at its peak. Thousands of gamers across the world would pit their wits against each other. Counter-Strike was the ultimate competitive game. In fact, watching people play COD is nothing compared to CS!

In 2003, Call of Duty hit shelves and was a massive success. All original game servers were unbiased in platform. The servers ran on Linux as well as Windows (although with the early Call of Duty series there was always a delay for Linux binaries!). Here, started a trend -Linux was neglected. And this was Much to the misery of seasoned Linux admins, and linux game server companies, such as gaming servers. There has always been the argument that Windows game servers are easier to administrate, which makes them more friendly to manage. But on the other hand, hosting game servers on Linux gives so much more freedom and scope!

It’s only fair when talking about game servers, that we mention Valve. While Valve receive a lot of criticism (usually because then they release software updates it can cause problems with game servers), they deserve an incredible amount of credit.

And with the recent blockbuster COD6, there were NO dedicated game servers for the game- instead Activision set up a ‘match making’ system- again, much to the dismay of the game server enthusiast. EA / Dice only allows a few number of ‘trusted partners’ to host their game servers.

Valve on the other hand have always provided Linux and Windows support for their gameservers. From the early days of CS, to the mega popular release of Counter Strike Source Servers. or tf2 game servers

So where now for the future of clanserver hosting? Speculation says clanserver will be obselete, as they are in two years. While Valve continue to release games on Linux and Windows, with free, easy access to the game files, game server hosting will never die. Console gaming is tempted, and will pull gamers away from the PC. Although expect game server hosting to be around for another 14 plus years!.

Varying skins, skills, health and movement ability, there are currently 9 classes for Team Fortress 2. Like CSS servers, Team Fortress 2 has a large community of mod and map developers out there working tirelessly to make the game better for everyone. So Team Fortress 2 game servers have been out for 2 years and is still as popular as it was when it came out

tf2 game servers have 9 classes are split into 3 sub classes formed on support, defensive and offensive. You don’t neccessarily have to play thse roles, however they have been set to exploit the best skills in these positions.

Without an effective defence, you will lose on Team Fortress 2 servers. Having players on the backline is vital to stop the snout from sneaking through.

You have to be skilled at this class to know to play it without a proper gun or using the bottle to melee. The Demoman uses the game engine and physics to his advantage. A weapon that can take out small health pools such as the scout, medic and spy is the grenade launcher- normally with just two hits! For sentry guns hidden round corners, the grenade launcher can be very effective. Laying sticky grenades as traps near intelligence or control points is a very good tactic. Simply lay a few sticky grenades and watch the kills roll in. Try this class if you are awful at aiming, but like explosions!

Next up is the Heavy. You guessed right this guy is the one that likes to pack a punch. His high health and most powerful gun makes up for the fact he’s the slowest of all the classes. He can take down most things in a matter of seconds. The only thing he struggles against is his opposite number from the other team. He can take on large number of enemies at once and has a great range and wide range However his minigun does take a while to rev up. Once he hits you, don’t expect to move in a hurry! These guys work well when placed with someone else to help draw fire away from them so they can just concentrate with mowing people down. If you want to make an impression on game servers, choose this guy!

The engineer only normally attacks in retaliation. His role is to deploy and maintain buildings that are helpful to his team.The engineer is best known for his sentry gun which he can repair and upgrade with his wrench. ” Best known for his sentry gun which he can upgraded with a twist of his wrench. However, you need to gather metal either from downed players, ammo crates and also their own dispensers. Strategically placed dispensers also resupply players. Teleporters allow classes to instantly move from one section of the map to another. A hidden spot near the enemy base is always a good position. When it comes to getting their hands dirty they are not down and out with their slightly generic weapons. However, they are still very capable at close to medium range and best to stick to within their own buildings . If you like turrets and building, the engineer is for you.

All gamers will have heard of Counterstrike and Half Life. The original game and the new source engine version. Its become just about a house hold name for gaming servers like Quake and Doom were in the 1990′s.

CS in the early days

CS was originally a hobby mod based on the Half Life engine. Then in 2000, Valve took the game over. The game had 19 beta releases until version 1 was made available. Despite that there was also 7 major updates, the upgrade from version 1.5 to 1.6 being the biggest.

Counterstrike meets Steam

A large group of people believed the 1.6 ruined Counterstrike. Even after 2004, when WON was shut off, there are still players on 1.5. Some would say they just dont want to buy a legal copy of the game. 1.6 allowed modders to add maps, sounds etc. There is still a large active community of developers supporting this game after 10 years! This proves just how big Counterstrike Source gaming hosting still remains.

Valve also released Counter Strike Condition dubbed as CS:CZ in 2004. The game was essentially a facelift that allowed you to run bots single player. Based largely on the Quake II server engine it didnt do as well as expected, selling only 2.9 million copies from December 2009 as opposed to 4.2 million during the same period.

Source server engine is introduced

Back in 2004 when Valve brough out Half Life 2, this also saw the release of Counterstrike Source, or CSS for short. This version now had the same level of graphics of other games for its age and so was making older PCs struggle to run the game. Half Life Episode One, also brought a new release to the Source Engine in 2006. With the original engine needing a reasonable powerful pc for the time did mean that it took a while for people to start getting into CSS. When they did many did not really look back, some people still prefer 1.6 to this day after playing CSS for many years. Like 1.6, CSS maintained the ability to change the game content with mods and maps etc.

CS servers and cheaters

All three versions of Counter Strike have been plagued with issues of cheaters and hackers on CS Source gameservers. VAC is a popular deterrant, however its not the best anticheat. Which is Steam Bans works well- an organisation that works on submissions from clan server admins. But still there is no substitute to good old fashioned human admin but for many clan servers One problem though is having admins on the servers 24/7. Which is why we have recently seen a lot of scripts that automatically kick and ban hackers.

The future is unsure on Counterstrike as we write this. CSS has lots a great deal of players to both Battlefield and COD.

What we see next is up to Valve.