T w e n t y S i d e d
A reader* was kind enough to rent some server space, so we now have a dedicated Left 4 Dead server for the Twenty Sided group on Steam. This means Twenty Sided members can play together without needing for everyone to add everyone else as a friend, which was quickly becoming an untenable solution. (157 members as of this writing.)
The server should show up in the server list for all members, so you can jump on and know you’re playing with other people from the site. This should keep out the riff-raff. (He said, adjusting his monocle.)
A new graphics card is on order, and as soon as that arrives I’ll be joining in. I tried using my integrated graphics card in L4D yesterday, and:
1) The results were hilariously bad: No lighting. No fog. Abysmal framerates. Graphical artifacting. The smell of brimstone and the sounds of children weeping.
2) So bad, in fact, that I can’t believe it worked at all. Kind of impressive that I got the game to run. Although full-bright no-fog L4D is sort of pointless.
Once I have some civilized hardware in this thing we can resume our zombie-killing adventures. I’ve had a great time playing L4D and Team Fortress 2 with other Twenty Sided members. Maybe I’ll formalize it a bit with a dedicated thread on Friday nights. We’ll see. As always, I have to balance these games against my need to play, review, and lampoon other games on a regular basis.
* I forgot to get permission to print a name or pseudonym. Since the name I have looks like a real one, I don’t want to put it out without permission.
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I do wonder if the fact that you can play in full-bright with no fog should be considered an exploit. Then again, what does it mean to exploit a cooperative game, anyway?
(Is it possible I actually got the first post?)
Many thanks to our anonymous benefactor! I look very much forward to further adventures with this fine crew. This has actually inspired me to pick up Team Fortress 2 again, and thus reminding me why I stopped playing in the first place–I’m miserable at it. But hey, I’m still having fun. That’s what counts, right? …right?
Yes, it is possible.
What time does everyone play, it’s difficult to get a game down here in Oz.
Soon we (our) dnd group will be LEFT 4 DEAD!!!! but on a side note my computer has also died on me practically so i must also rebuild. Thanx Shamus, thanx alot.
I’m actually building up me a new comp too as my current one will BSOD before it gets to the windows logo. If I press the restart button enough times, it makes it through, but even then ya gotta leave it alone for an hour or so before it’s calmed down enough to crash. But I can still play L4D on it, so plus there, and I finally dropped the wireless, which is moar plus!
Can’t wait to start in and help with making the server buckle under the pressure! See ya there!
Darn it.. I’d like to join. I guess when I have dought 4 paying :)
Just got done playing a game with a few guys on the server. Was good fun. I hadn’t played the game in about a month. Thanks, Shamus, for getting this thing going. Thanks also to our anonymous host.
Damn. Oh well, see you when you’ve got the card in.
As my rando-team proved last night, playing with strangers is dicey business. I just want to know where he *found* a nekkid Bloodrayne spray…
@Rutskarn
Playboy. Or girls of gaming, one of these printed an almost nude version of our favorite dhampire Rayne, cue to the internet to make it fully nekkid.
Damn. Wish I could join. I’ll lag like hell sadly enough. I wish I could join the group in the first place. Steam refuses to let me view the community pages for some reason.
Look forward to playing with you again Shamus, it was fun playing with you on your first time through Expert. Anytime you want to work on your achievements, looks me up. :)
Wait, is there a Twenty-Sided TF2 server? I hate to sound like a noob, but I don’t remember hearing of TS TF2 before.
How do you organize those games?
Nico: There is not currently a TS TF2 server. Now that I see how much they cost (not too bad) I’m open to the idea of renting one once I get the ads on this site working. (That is, making money.) I think I’ll see how well the L4D server goes and how many people are interested.
Hmmm…my gamer tag is “Riff Raff”… am I still allowed to play? (Assuming I had L4D and wanted to play)
I’m all for playing L4D when I eventually am able to buy it. (Yay! for being poor!) A TF2 server would be something I’d frequent. I love the game, but am not quite good enough for the masses (and I loathe snipers).
The snipers really aren’t so bad – they mostly just shoot each other.
I’d probably play on a TF2 server a bit. I do enjoy the game although I’m not very good.
Played my first game on the server today, was a nice group indeed. Maybe a tad bit too fond of crouching and moving. If no one is shooting and there isn’t a zombie in sight it is a tinsy bit over cautios :)
But still, this is a great initiative, I was wondering how to get into a game with someone from the group.
I’m kinda surprised at the sentiments here. While the worse L4D experiences I’ve had did involve cussing and the occasional nude or rude spray, this is pretty much the behavior I expect on the internet.
It occasionally it’ll happen that I run into someone who is verbally abusive or a true dick. In those cases I’ll lash back, leave the server, or politely ask them to calm down.
I’ve come to accept that the internet isn’t my parents church, or even my local neighborhood. I do what I can to not become a part of the distributed network of greater internet dickwaddery, but dealing with the internet dickwaddery is a part of the price of dealing with the internet.
Hmm, seems this thing is taking off proper! What about a community chip in type thing? Somewhere we can donate to the server costs.
On a side note, dunno if you remember talking the other day, but there are Garry’s Mod add-ons that have the Left 4 Dead ragdolls.
Gahazakul: I had JUST gotten L4D models working in GM through some sort of dodgy hacking. I was working on it late into Satuday night. It was literally the last thing I did on my old computer. The next morning it was dead.
It will be nice if I could get back to that point without so much hacking. Looking forward to checking things out once I get the new graphics card.
I’d definitely play on a TS TF2 server. Left 4 Dead doesn’t really interest me as much, and I do say I would make good use of that hard-earned (potential) TF2 server.
It’d be nice.
A dedicated server is brilliant and the renter deserves much praise.
Maybe in the not too distant future we can a teamspeak server up….
(Heck, I have a server with low overall utilization and 250G of bandwidth, hosting TOS says no graphical game clinets but say nothing about VoIP…)
/me starts thinking…
Silly Shamus. This is the internet, someone has already done it better than we ever could.
22 minutes of total time. That is downloading, deciding on a joke, and posing.
Panel 1
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg253/gahazakul/gm_construct0018.jpg
Panel 2
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg253/gahazakul/gm_construct0017.jpg
@ Marauder:
I would totally enjoy hanging out on Teamspeak.
It is rather amusing how fast this loose community of gamers we have here on Twenty Sided has connected to each other. The steam group has hit 170 members in about a week, we now have one game server and are thinking about a second, and now a TS server.
Its awesome :D
This makes me want to get someone in the States to actually buy me Team Fortress 2 ($20 dollars is insanely low for a game with so much playtime)
Awesome.
Also, I support Gahazakul’s idea; a community chip-in thing could let us have several servers (I imagine just one would fill up pretty quick with almost 200 members?).
And yet we only needed to start our own group and suddenly I can get games with people that *don’t* call me a French-speaking fag. Imagine that.
It’s only the price of dealing with the Internet because people continue putting up with it.