The CSS server is back up. I opened a ticket to have it re-enabled. The guy said he didn't know why it had been disabled, since we are all paid up. Anyways it's fixed. Their billing system might have been confused by all the recent account changes we've been making: adding/removing servers, adding/removing slots, etc.,

Bad Company 2 PunkBuster Issue
Punkbuster released a change for Bad Company 2 that has rendered the game inoperable for online play. That's why our servers as well as everyone else's are empty. I'll post again when I hear that Punkbuster has released a fix.


Bad Company 2 Admin Tools
It was premature for me to instruct everyone to PM DevilDog for admin access to the Bad Company 2 servers. Apparently all of the admin tools are, like BC2 right now, virtually inoperable due to bugs. Please understand that it's been enough of a chore to keep two BC2 servers up and running as it is, without messing things up even worse using a buggy 3rd party tool.

After something comes out that is polished and reliable enough to use without bringing down the servers, we'll make a post in the cartel forums in which you can formally request kick-ban and/or admin privileges. This way everyone will know who are admins are.

Asylum was nice enough to set up a 12-slot Bad Company 2 server for us:

Squad Rush/Deathmatch Mode


This one is located in Texas. This will be a convenient alternative for [CgC] members who've been getting inadequate pings to our Chicago and LA BC2 servers. Plus we can lock it and use it for squad practice and trying out stuff. It can also be a good backup for when our other servers go down or an internet backbone server goes haywire. If we ever start matching again, it will also prove useful. Squad Rush mode is fricking great when you're stuck late at night with only a couple of players.

I now have admin access to our 3 Bad Company 2 servers. More members are being given admin access so there will be more admins on the way.

An FYI if you didn't catch it in the [CgC] forums: DevilDog is moving the NY BC2 server from GameServers to another provider, the same one we use for the LA server. So none of our BC2 servers are with GameServers anymore - time will tell if this improves traffic on the server.

Thanks DD!

The servers are back up, except for the TX one which should be up again soon. They went down for multiple different reasons - it was just coincidence that they all went down around the same time.

DevilDog put the map rotation on the LA server back to Conquest and 1 round per map, so we don't have to play the maps twice in a row. Something happened and the rotation got reverted back to rush, 2-rounds per map.

I've installed WolfCon, the admin tool that is set up on the LA server. From what I've read, it's supposed to be the best out there for Bad Company 2 right now. So we're going to use it for the rest of this month and decide if we should replace ProCon with it on all of our servers.

FYI: I renamed the CSS server to:

[CgC] Chicago - Beers, Boobs & Headshots

I figure this will help us on nights we want to play CSS for two reason:

• Putting Chicago in the name helps tell players browsing for a server where they'll get the best ping for their location
• The "Beers, Boobs" thing insinuates that we're an older, more mature group of gamers, not 12-year-olds.

DD's naming convention has kick-started our BC2 servers pretty well so I figured I'd try it on our CSS server. I also updated the cfg file to make sure we benefit from the 100-tickrate the server is set up for - in short it means more accurate hit-box detection and client-server response times.

The latest update to CSS broke our server. I contacted Branzone and got this response:



So we're probably going to lose ManiAdmin, unless they've already released an update for it. We may lose our custom maps as well. But apparently this update did more than just add stats - it migrated Counter Strike to a completely new game engine (orangebox). I'll work on this tonight. Next Tuesday is Terrorist Tuesday and I'll make sure it's ready by then!

I reinstalled the CSS server. Counter Strike is now running on the OrangeBox engine. I restored most of our server settings. Our server greeting text is black - I need to make it yellow again so guests can see the text.

So feel free to hop on and give it a try. Apparently some games have already been played on it since I updated it.

Set aside next Tuesday night, July 6th, for Terrorist Tuesday!