DescentBB

I saw a monsterball server yesterday and decided to play. It was great fun. But I hardly ever see any servers that have monsterball games going.

I'm asking any of you server ops out there to set up a dedicated monsterball server, or anything else besides anarchy. I'm getting kind of bored of anarchy.

Is there some reason why most games are either anarchy or ctf?

/edit/ oops, i just realized this is probably better off in the "servers and server ops" forum. Mods please move it if you think so.

MOst games are anarchy or CTF cause that is all the people know how to play. Monsterball and Entropy are to difficult to learn and MB requires you score not kill players.

CDN_Merlin wrote:MOst games are anarchy or CTF cause that is all the people know how to play. Monsterball and Entropy are to difficult to learn and MB requires you score not kill players.

but who says you cant kill anyways

Don't mind Merlin... he's implying that most people are too stupid to learn how to play monsterball and entropy so he can feel better about his own mediocrity.

Truth is, most servers are ctf or anarchy because thats what most people prefer to play. Personally, I love monsterball, but it's rare to find a good monsterball game. If there were a Circuit Breaker server up with at least 4 people in it, I'd jump all over it. These days, I'm just happy for the occasional Halycon and Indika game.

Xamindar,

I can setup a Monsterball server for those who wish to play it, although for some reason the Linux server seems to crash at random points. So ....

I'm wondering if it's something wrong with my current setup. I'm currently using the Linux client loki game with the -dedicated flag as the server, but I might try to download the Linux dedicated server, and use the Win32 d3.hog and mission files instead and see if that will prevent the crash.

I'll have this done later tonight I hope, as I'm currently out of town. Last but not least, is there a particular map you want to play?

Circuit Breaker ROCKS!

SkyNet wrote:Xamindar,

I can setup a Monsterball server for those who wish to play it, although for some reason the Linux server seems to crash at random points. So ....

I'm wondering if it's something wrong with my current setup. I'm currently using the Linux client loki game with the -dedicated flag as the server, but I might try to download the Linux dedicated server, and use the Win32 d3.hog and mission files instead and see if that will prevent the crash.

I'll have this done later tonight I hope, as I'm currently out of town. Last but not least, is there a particular map you want to play?

Thanks SkyNet, any level is fine as long as Linux D3 can connect to it. Will it be same ip as other server but different port?

About the server, I don't remimber it crashing on me but I didn't run it much. It might depend on the kernel version?

This fixed Descent3 (not the server, the acual game) from crashing in linux on me: link PPics.Hog to ppics.hog. Some bug in the game that only surfaced sence 2.4 kernel. Probably a totaly differnt problem but it might help.

I will play. I like monsterball

Hey, cute pic, i like your new avatar.

bet51987 wrote:I will play. I like monsterball

What is your pilot name in the game? I don't think I have ever seen you in any of the games I play.

rofl @ MB/E being hard

shoot the big green ball

MB is teh own, I should run a game on server when ppl arnt whoreing the ftp

I Lol too at saying Monster BAll is "hard" .. ! great Vauss and MD Practice on a Big, slow target !

But, what must I do to make Monster ball work on my D3 install ? Do I have to install D3-Mercenary ..? The only MB level I have made it into lately has no ball ..? ..

I used to load all MB games no problem, and Circuit Breaker Rocks ! Do I need to do a full re-install of D3 ?.

You shouln't need Merc to play MB, since it originally came with D3. Try the reinstall.

El Ka Bong wrote:I Lol too at saying Monster BAll is "hard" .. ! great Vauss and MD Practice on a Big, slow target !

But, what must I do to make Monster ball work on my D3 install ? Do I have to install D3-Mercenary ..? The only MB level I have made it into lately has no ball ..? ..

Did you start the game? If so, make sure you selected "Monsterball" as the game type.

bet51987 wrote:I will play. I like monsterball

I'll Join!

BTW, Nice Avatar.
^_^

What is your pilot name in the game? I don't think I have ever seen you in any of the games I play.

My pilot name is my real name...Bettina
Are you a girl? I rarely see girls play.

bet51987 wrote:Are you a girl? I rarely see girls play.

uuuh... NO! Don't you think Xamindar sounds masculine? I think it does. Oh pleeease say it does.

Don't let the avatar fool you. Hmm, Guys put girls as their avatars because they like girls (I think) , and girls put girls as their avatars too. hmm, something wrong here. This is hurting my head.

Oh....Sorry. The avatar threw me off.
My avatar is me...pic taken about a month ago. I like being real. Real name (I nvr changed mine) and real faces. I really enjoyed all the photos of the lan party and the names on each photo. Now I know who I'm fighting and I can picture them grinning (or cursing) I wish everyone did that.....it would be kool.

Problem is......I rarely see anyone in the lan playing the times I play which is between 8 and 11pm DST.....Im in the east.
Bettina

My avatar is a picture of me. I am a blue swirly energy being.

Back on subject... usually people just find that Monsterball isn't as fun as Anarchy or CTF. If I see a Monsterball with people in it and an Anarchy with people in it, I'll only join the Monsterball if I haven't played Monsterball in a while (which is usually true).

hey! that's my eyeball.... with metrosexual, trendy glasses, and red overlay in my avatar!

I'd always join monsterball if it was a choice between that and anarchy. It's like a choice between a gourmet meal and some m&ms.

Btw, my avatar definetely does NOT feature a picture of me!

Good recommendation on the Monsterball Mayhem levels. (Like Circuit Breaker, a favorite of mine ). Put about 4 hours into them since yesterday. Itâ??s such a break to see fighters populating other games now besides VV, Subway Dancer, & Stadium.

Xamindar, it was fun playing M-Ball with you. ^_~

Fezzik, shut up! You're lame as ice! =P

Suncho, I hate your sarcasm. =P You Birdseye-loving bastige.

heh Circuit Breaker sucks. =P I hate that Mayhem mission. =P I usually just light up all tha n000bz while they try to play monsterball. In Crossfire, I like to MD my own teammates and mess them up. ^_~

Somebody should host a Frenzy server. ^_~

I don't need an avatar to be cool. =P I like ArcherOmega's avatar, though.

Xamindar,

Sorry for not being able to get my server up as soon as I'd like. I'm having alot of troubles converting to the 2.6.8.1 kernel.

I've almost squared away all my problems. The only two left are a hda CRC error which from all the research I came across points to a faulty IDE cable. I believe this is probably true, as my 2.4.26 kernel is giving the same error now. After I replace the cable I hope that should solve that problem, then I have to worry about the Nvidia drivers. They work for Quake, but not for D3. Those are the only errors left atm.

Thanks for the update SkyNet:)

SkyNet wrote:I've almost squared away all my problems. The only two left are a hda CRC error which from all the research I came across points to a faulty IDE cable.

That wouldn't be this error would it:
hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }

I get that same error. There is an option in the kernel that will stop this error, I just haven't had the time to recompile my kernel, so for now I tolerate it.

SkyNet wrote: then I have to worry about the Nvidia drivers. They work for Quake, but not for D3. Those are the only errors left atm.

I had this same problem too. I thought this was only a problem on my machine, or a Debian problam. Maybe what I did will help you out. I had to make a script for starting Descent3 (and Unreal Tournament which had the same problem):

#!/bin/sh
killall gdesklets
sudo mv /usr/lib/tls /usr/lib/tls.temp
/usr/local/games/Descent3/descent3 --gllibrary --glfog --nomousegrab --deadzone0
0.0
sudo mv /usr/lib/tls.temp /usr/lib/tls
gdesklets

Don't worry about the gdesklets, that just takes up a lot of cpu so i kill it.
There is a directory /usr/lib/tls which contains GL libraries and for some strange reason if I move it (or delete it) then Descent3 works fine with 3d Accell. But, if I permanently delete that directory 3D will be "broken" the next time I start my xserver so I just move it back when Descent3 closes. That fixed it for me! Oh, and the --gllibrary flag also tells D3 to use OpenGL instead of Glide.

I hope some of this helps you in any way SkyNet, good luck!

I used the last line of Cowboy's dialog from Full Metal Jacket in a Monster Ball game the other day when the teams where 3 to 1. Cowboy is shot and right before he dies he says " I can Hack it! ". I am worried some think I was talking about cheating; some players left right after. I just wanted to let the other players to know playing Monster Ball is fun for me even when teams are unbalanced. I will be more careful in the future. I do use a homemade custom controller that lets me tri-cord with my feet. I can kick it for a old guy

Neo wrote:Suncho, I hate your sarcasm. =P You Birdseye-loving bastige.

Nice joke. I love how everything you say follows a logical order.

Xamindar,

Yeah, that's the error. Alan Cox say's it's a bad cable. So I'm going to attempt a replacement later, and see how it turns out.

As for the Nvidia, I'll try some of those solutions, and hope for the best. There are alot of things I can do reguarding that though, as I've changed quite a few graphic options during the switch over.

If I thought it might get played, I'd bake a monsterball level... I've never made one before, but I'm always willing to give new things a shot. Anyone interested in a new MB level? If so, e-mail me with an idea of what it should look like, or a feature or two you think would be cool. Or just post it here...

Here's and idea: How about a mb level where the ball is affected by gravity and there are many ramps you have to push the ball over to get to the goal. The final goal should be over a jump. Also, there should be several places where the ball can fall through the floor and go back to the beginning.

I'd play it...

Liquid Fire,

I actually like that idea alot. I'd have to host an MB level like that.

Whee... that's an idea. I'd need to create a new gametype for it tho--hey, maybe not... hmm...

/me gets evil grin

Ok, I've got some ideas: tell me what you think.

Ball starts out hovering over a volcano-like thing that is constantly spitting out air.

Ball is affected by gravity

Players shoot the ball to their base through a choice of 3 paths, the most direct path having the largest slope (and thus making it harder to get the ball up it).

The goal is separated from the rest of the level by a gap in the floor. The floor slopes up in front of the gap, so as to give the ball a 'ramp' to jump from.

The gap would be closed for 15 seconds once every minute by a forcefield.

If the ball failed to make it past the gap and fell in, it would fall into a hole much like the pocket in a pool table that funnels the ball to the start point, where it would be ejected by the volcano-like thing and resume the position it had at the beginning of the game.

Each path to a base would slope somewhat up from the ball's starting point.

There would be two sniper bases, one per team, facing out over the arena where the ball starts.

CTF and TA compat, but it would lose something with these gametypes.

Edit: Optional addition: You cannot enter the starting arena. You have to shoot the ball into a hole from your sniper ports. Depending on the hole the ball is shot into, the ball will travel through a wind tunnel to the side or into a wind tunnel that takes it towards one of the bases.

Ok people, if you want any other changes, suggest em now... this thing is officially under production!

I think monsterball arenas where you can't get to the place the ball actually spawns are really lame. Like, there's a set of 3 MB levels with circuit breaker, one really tiny level, and one really long MD level where you can't actually get near the ball. That level takes way, way too long to finish.

Wow. That was fast.

This would be different in that getting the ball out of the area will be relatively easy to accomplish. I've set it up to where you have 2 sniper ports per base, each with an upper and lower deck. The ball will be close to the tunnel entrances, and there will be only 2 MD in the level (and there will not be any extra ammo). Plus, I've decided to allow players to enter the arena. There will be only two entrances, through a high-speed tunnel connecting to each base. These tunnels will also serve as the ball returner in case the ball doesn't make it over the gap. The level will also be larger, with ample room for the ball and 4-5 players AT LEAST in the tunnels surrounding the ball. Think of it as 2/3 the size of VV.

I've decided on a couple of other interesting things:

There will be a slight slope upwards to reach the base if you are travelling by the side tunnels.

The tunnels will have braces in them which will serve as A. the light sources and B. slight obstacles for the ball.

The level will be a lot like VV in architecture, except for the center room and sniper rooms (possibly some of the other box rooms too). Err... Let's just say that the tunnels will be like VV.

On the subject of that circuit breaker level, I hate it too. It just gets old after a very, very short time. If they hadn't included the BS or invulnerability, and had put vauss instead of MD, supers and other primaries in, it would be a lot more fun. As it is, yuk.

Edit: I might as well give a status report while i'm at it.

Geometry: 10%
Texturing/light faces: 5%
Objects: 0%
Bugfixing: 0%
all other gook: 0%

Stryker,

I don't like levels where you can't get to the ball either. I would suggest changing the idea based around that. Also I thought it would be neat for multiple drop off points, thus creating a network of air tunnels under the map to return the ball to it's starting point. Or maybe even move it to various places on the map randomly as the air flow shifts directions. if that's possible.

Xamindar,

My conversion to 2.6.8.1 is almost complete. I've solved the ide problem by switching to a UDMA ATA/100 cable and using my Promise controller to load /dev/hda except it's now /dev/hde. That solved the error messages, however I originally switched out cables with many others, but it didn't solve the problem. The problem was only solved after moving over to my UDMA ATA/100 slot.

As for Descent 3. I don't have that tls directory you refer to. I also tried the CLI options to no effect. I've noticed that my problems occured after the kernel switch to 2.6.8.1 and or moving to Fluxbox 0.9.10 from 0.9.9. So one of these could play a factor, and I'll continue testing till I figure out which or what is the cause, because we can't live without Descent.

Suncho wrote:

Neo wrote:Suncho, I hate your sarcasm. =P You Birdseye-loving bastige.

Nice joke. I love how everything you say follows a logical order.

You still suck.

CDN_Merlin wrote:MOst games are anarchy or CTF cause that is all the people know how to play. Monsterball and Entropy are to difficult to learn and MB requires you score not kill players.

Pretty dumb coment about monsterball seeing that ctf requires score not kills.

SkyNet wrote:Stryker,
As for Descent 3. I don't have that tls directory you refer to. I also tried the CLI options to no effect. I've noticed that my problems occured after the kernel switch to 2.6.8.1 and or moving to Fluxbox 0.9.10 from 0.9.9. So one of these could play a factor, and I'll continue testing till I figure out which or what is the cause, because we can't live without Descent.

What is the exact problem?