Brett's Blog

Well, it’s been a good 12 hours since Left 4 Dead 2 was officially released! I’ve been having quite the fun time playing on the various servers I’ve setup for the community and ReplayIRC. A few of our servers are in the top 1000 and top 100 list! Makes me feel good that this game is quite popular, but yet at the same time i feel that there isn’t enough servers to go around currently because all of our servers in versus mode is FULL since launch. Anyhow, I have something that might be useful for server admins – mainly ones on linux/unix flavors. This tutorial is assuming that you’ve made a NEW account for the game – We named our user, l4d2.

1. wget http://storefront.steampowered.com/download/hldsupdatetool.bin
2. chmod 755 hldsupdatetool.bin
3. ./hldsupdatetool.bin
4. type ‘yes’ at the prompt.
5. ./steam
6. It’ll probably update and want you to type it again, so type ./steam once more.
7. Once updated, type: ./steam -command update -game left4dead2 -dir ~
   • Where ~ means your home root directory.
8. Once installed which can take a while, you will need to edit/create a server configuration. See below for some basics.
9. Once configured, (tip: use screen command) go to the left4dead directory of where you installed the server files to and type: ./srcds_linux -console -game left4dead2 +ip “IP.IP.IP.IP” +hostport 27015 +map c5m1_waterfront.bsp +exec server.cfg
10. Whalaa! Your server should be up and running.

Now for the ReplayIRC Server Configuration. I hope this will be useful for you server admins. The CONFIG FILES have to go into the ~/left4dead2/cfg directory, named server.cfg. It’s a good idea afterwords to remove the excessive comments that I’ve added in.

hostname "ReplayIRC.com Server"
rcon_password "set_this_or_be_damned"
sv_contact "some@email.tld"
sv_clearhinthistory 0
//Essentially 100 "tick"rate for these sv_* settings.
sv_minrate 15000
sv_maxrate 30000
sv_mincmdrate 66
sv_maxcmdrate 101
//MOTD
motd_enabled 1
motdfile "motd.txt"
hostfile "host.txt"
//Logging
log 1
log_level 99 //Absolute verbose logging, set lower if you don't like spam.
sv_log_onefile 0
sv_log_logfile 1
sv_logbans 1
sv_logecho 1
//
//boring stuff
//
sv_downloadurl "" //Leaving this as blank - no use, yet.
// sv_gametypes sets the game types that you want your server to run.
// survival, versus, coop, there's a few others out there.
// To set multiple types, set a comma,in,between,the,settings.
// See bulleted list below this mono-text format.
// Note: mp_gamemode does not appear to be in l4d2 unlike l4d1.
sv_gametypes "versus"
sv_lan 0 //Lan(1) or Internet(0)
//Steam group number to assign to server.
// Used for steam groups in game from steamcommunity.com
sv_steamgroup #######
//1 = Do not connect to the Match Making Service, 0 does.
// Keep at 0 if you want to be public.
sv_steamgroup_exclusive 0
//Allow connections without creating lobby. If set to 1,
// this would disallow outside connects.
sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0
//Region - This sets the lobby in which your server will be part of.
// You will want to set this to the closest location to your server
// eastcoast:0, westcoast:1, south america:2, europe:3, asia:4,
// australia:5, middle east:6, africa:7, world:255
sv_region 0
//Allow use of cheats: 0 Off, 1 On
sv_cheats 0
//All talk - Allow both teams to use audio chat to speak with each other
// 0 Off, 1 On
sv_alltalk 0

Notes:

• If you get: “sh: uncompress: command not found” after typing yes for ./hldsupdatetool.bin, as root type: ln -s /usr/bin/gunzip /usr/bin/uncompress – You will need to have gunzip installed for the command to work.
• Much of the games configuration variables are the same as the original left4dead. So if you’ve previously administered that game, this should be a walk in the park.
  
• Server variables for game types: versus, survival, coop, scavenge (i think). There’s another one, but i haven’t found it yet.
  

Final thoughts: The server for linux still has a ways to go, hopefully future updates will be better than what is currently supplied. Happy zombie hunting!!

Comments are welcome, however I’m not any sort of guru when it comes to Source Dedicated Servers…

Made a few updates to it tonight( November 19, 2009 at 14:53), some changes were found and applied.

Hey all, would like to get the word out about this. ReplayIRC is having a writer chat with Robert Hewitt Wolfe this Tuesday. This is the quote from ReplayIRC.com:

Just in time for Easter, we’ve got a special surprise for you. The German Scifi Forum – in association with ReplayIRC ‐ organizes a fan chat with Robert Hewitt Wolfe, the creative mind behind some of the most popular science fiction TV series.

In our fan chat, you have the opportunity to ask Robert anything you’d ever liked to know about the shows and behind the scenes for an entire hour. If he’s got some additional time left after that part, it may become a loose discussion circle.

Our session begins on Tuesday, April 14th at 19:00 GMT.

About Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Robert Hewitt Wolfe was born in 1964 and currently lives in Los Angeles.
He visited the UCLA and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in film and television as well as an MFA in screenwriting. His first script was “Paper Dragons”.

Five years later, he sold the story for "A Fistful of Datas“ tot he series "Star Trek: The Next Generation“. Robert wrote the script for the episode and thus secured himself a job in the new series “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”.

In 1999, RHW developed the series "Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda“ from notes left behind by Roddenberry himself. The series first aired in fall 2000 and became the “number one original hour in syndication” – a title that it kept for most of its run. RHW was the head writer of Andromeda and
executive producer for the first two seasons. During this period, the series was nominated for two “Saturn Award for Best Syndicated Series” and a “BC Film Comission ‘Leo’ Award for Best Dramatic Series”.

RHW left Andromeda in fall 2001.

Furthermore, he was busy as producer in various TV shows and films, such as "The 4400“, "Scarlett“ and "The Dresden Files“. Currently, he is working on a script for the relaunch of “Riverworld”.

How and when do I participate?

The event takes place on the channel #scifi‐forum on irc.replayirc.com
If you do not yet have an IRC client installed, you can use this webchat with any browser of your choice: http://widget.mibbit.com/url/t6acL3
In order for the session not to turn into chaos, the chat will be moderated for one hour, which means that only Robert and the moderators may talk freely in the channel. To submit your questions, use the following command:

Code:

/msg Q your question

If your question is picked up, it will show up on the channel and Robert will reply to it. After the Q/A session, the channel will be opened for free discussion for everyone.

We look forward to our creative guest and hope that you’ll have a lot of fun during the session!

Earlier today, I had a chat with another IRC network. Got to talking about merging them into ReplayIRC. Apparently they didn’t get the gist of “Your network merges into our (ReplayIRC) network”. So I spent about 45 minutes talking to them thinking that they were ok with it after me stating as such. Towards the 45 minute mark, they then turn around saying “Your network (ReplayIRC) has to merge into our network”. So yeah, I’m thinking to my self literally: What the hell. Sure, I can understand changing IRCd and Services. But come on, I spend nearly an hour talking about it and the tables get instantly turned? That’s not very cool.

Anyhow, ReplayIRC is staying put as is. Great things come in due time, I just hope I can apply that saying to the IRC network at this time. I was hoping our network would be at a steady 200 to 250+ users by this time of this post. However as SGW hasn’t had any news, the user count on the network plummeted from 150 users daily down to 100 on low time, and 125 on peaks daily now. That may not seem like a lot, but it’s quite the substantial amount in terms for a small IRC network. Back to working on building our existing communities out on the network and to quit trying to expand by adding in other IRC networks.