Master Server Changes Upcoming

[CSN NewsBot]

To any server admins running either Half-Life 1 based game servers or Half-Life 2 based game servers, you may want to take notice of a few upcoming changes in store for querying the master servers. This comes courtesy of Alfred Reynolds via the HLDS mailing list.

We are doing some network re-arrangements and the external master servers for Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2 games are moving to a new location. You should now use:



Half-Life 1 games (CS 1.6, HLDM, DoD, etc):

hl1master.steampowered.com:27010



Half-Life 2 games (CS:S, DoD:S, HL2DM, etc) and 3rd party games (The Ship, Dark Messiah):

hl2master.steampowered.com:27011



We expect to move the location of the master servers on a more regular basis going forward so it is important that you update any software requesting details from these servers to uses these DNS entries to track the correct endpoints to use (and have them check that the entry has not changed on a daily basis).



The existing server on 207.173.177.11 will cease answering requests at the end of this month.

Got that? Good!

[HACKER HELL STORM]

does this mean 27015 will no longer be the standard port???

[GZero]

No it won't, this only affects hlds master queries (so people who have there own servers will need to take notice of this update). So you the client won't notice any difference. The port 27015 is still the standard port you the client connect to. All hlds's report to valves master server (unless working in offline mode) so you the client can see them when you search for servers using valves server browser.

[DevgruSeal H.E]

Right, because moving the master servers on a regular basis helps..how?

[DaRk-AnGeL]

DevgruSeal H.E wrote..

Right, because moving the master servers on a regular basis helps..how?

Exactly. I'm curious to know the reasoning behind this :/

[Hutz]

It helps slow down automated hacking attempts...?



I dunno, just a wild guess. They're probably just renting those servers on a month-to-month basis now, moving to the cheapest possible host whenever they can.

[DaRk-AnGeL]

Hutz wrote..

It helps slow down automated hacking attempts...?



I dunno, just a wild guess. They're probably just renting those servers on a month-to-month basis now, moving to the cheapest possible host whenever they can.

That doesn't seem like the sort of thing a company like that would do. Generally large companies have long contracts worth very large amounts of money rather than short term contracts :p

[DevgruSeal H.E]

I think they have better things to do than sporadically and spontaneously move master server locations all day. Do I really need to bring up the CS Source discussion...?

[Zips]

Dev: Please do. I haven't heard it in a while.

[Hutz]

CS:S has several annoying problems that haven't been addressed since its inception, and Valve instead dances around them with maps that run poorly and features that nobody wants.



Now you've heard it again. :)

[Zips]

Yes.... Yesssssss!

[Thortok2000]

CS:S Development team: Missing in Action.



All other teams, such as the master-server-dislocator team, (whatever the heck the point of this is), check.



From what I gathered (which isn't much), they need to change the IP of the master server pretty regularly, probably because no IP wants to get stuck with the job for too long, and instead they're changing it to a domain name that will point you towards the right IP at any given moment.



But I could be totally wrong because I wasn't paying attention much because it wasn't a CS:S update.



I played CS:S tonight for the first time in awhile, and the small thing I wanted changed -- for mp_dynamicpricing to be a variable Xfire would let me filter by -- has been changed, since I last checked. I'm gonna play CS:S for a bit tonight and see what's left to complain about.

[DaRk-AnGeL]

Hate to bring up these points AGAIN but:



1) Defuse bug (You cannot defuse the bomb if a defuse kit is sitting on top of it).



2) Shadows (They still clip through doors and walls sometimes).



3) Lighting (Many areas of maps are overly dark).



4) Barrels (They still have the effect of pushing the player back. Regardless if whether they are server or client side, they should not have this effect unless they actually hit you with X amount of force).



5) Map geometry (Seems very random at points. Displacement occurs in places that it shouldn't, leaving an uneven and sporadic playing surface).



6) Skyboxes (Still do not have a universal standard. You need someone to sit down and decide exactly how and if you can throw over a specific area).



7) Smoke grenades. (Still take a ludicrously long time to deploy).



8) Flashbangs (Are still far too overpowered to the point where they are now a gamebreaking device, even if you spin 180).



9) Grenades (Are far too powerful and also are becoming a gamebreaking device).



10) Wallbanging (Material properties need to be revised since the aspect of shooting through one material and not another is fairly random with regards to hits / deaths).



11) Bunnyhopping (As much as I love doing this, it is still a bug that allows you to reach places much quicker than you should do.) (A ct rush on cobble for example).



All bugs that if anyone from Valve actually sat down and looked at could have been fixed by now. These are not gameplay differences, they are BUGS. And they have been around for about two fucking years now. So all of those people who go, oohhh the source team is working on it or, ohhhh this team isn't designed to do that are using the same moot point. The fact is that NO ONE is trying to actively further the game, otherwise these anomolies would have been fixed by now.



By god ! Why doesn't someone from Valve come forward and say 'oh, yes, we are aware of bugs and we are trying to fix them' ? This shows that Valve has done nothing to try and further the game into something as smooth and reliable as its counterpart.



I have played the series for over 7 years now, and these were just some minor observations...



Dark.

[Hutz]

3. Crank up your gamma, I have zero problems.

5. Practice the map more. I do agree that overly heavy displacements ruin strafe-bursting unless you don't aim for the face, but you can get used to it.

6. Practice the map more.

7. Our team's gotten used to them. They take longer than 1.6 but are worth it, as you can't see through them (especially if there's 2 in the same spot). Plus you can throw them ludicrously far to make up for the plume time. Even in pubs, a guy I know uses them all the time to his advantage.

8. They are not overly powerful. They are overly RANDOM. As in, they land behind you and sometimes you're blind for 3-4 seconds, other times it hits you for a quarter of a second. There's zero consistency with flashes at the moment.

9. Nades are fine. They don't go through walls like in 1.6, and as such they do more damage. Plus they have to be ridiculously close to do REAL damage anyway, so they're fine. Just bait out the nade spam like our team does.

10. Again, practice the map and find good spam spots. It's fairly consistent with what I've seen - wood and thin sheet metal can be spammed, most solid walls can't. Spam makes no sense in the game anyway unless it leaves visible holes through the surface - seen as how the .bsp format can never support that, well...



I agree with your other points though. As much as it pains me to say this, bunny hopping shouldn't be in the game, even though it takes a ton of skill to do. It just doesn't fit with the rest of the game IMO.

[DevgruSeal H.E]

The smoke delay can be used to fake a flash in a few cases. Bounce the smoke off a wall, people turn away fearing a flash. I've fallen for a few times myself.. =\