I waited a long time for someone to put up a replacement for the old popular Face only server in Europe that disappeared a year or more ago but I only saw one for a short time that also went offline.

To be honest, I never wanted to deal with all the misbehaving players that frequented the Face only server so I was in no hurry to make one myself. 🙂

I'm not sure if it will do well but I think it is something new and returning players often look for so here it is.

The same sort of rules apply on this server as are in place on the other ESU CTF servers. Basically, any game style is allowed. For now, this includes flag boosting with the redeemer being allowed. For any that don't know "flag boosting" is the "bug" where if you kill yourself with the redeemer while holding the flag and aim against a wall or the ground just right the flag will go flying across the map so you can pick it up after respawning and make a quick capture. If enough people don't want this then it might be possible to stop it with the creation of a mutator (I'm not sure though) but way too many players will do it so policing it manually just isn't feasible.

Also, for now, piston camping is allowed but it is also up for discussion to be possibly stopped with some mutator.

@reg This is the server you requested long ago but try to go easy on the very new players for a while, at least until the server gets somewhat established with regular players 😉

    Kudos with the server launch!!

    In my teenages, I cloned a mutator called CTFPlus, which was written by Delimnar, which used to prevent Redeemer suicide launch and pinston camp behind portal, and named that NiceCTF. I still remember the server name, High-Speed CTF-Face, 69.93.101.77.

    The mutator allows you to launch the flag carrier only if the launcher and FC are out of some flag zone. The code may need little brushing up, rest should be ok.

      the_cowboy
      Thanks, will check it out and see what the consensus is on limiting these things. Some of this stuff, I believe, is part of the appeal for a face-only server but let's see what others think.

        Nice server plays well.
        Imho an all weapon face server needs the regular translocator. There's certain things you can do with it that makes face game play fun.
        Like using piston or shock to shoot translocator and port fast in enemy base or to hide it and port back to home base quickly.
        I know a trick to shoot translocator with primary shock and port fast in 3rd floor in enemy base,
        Also with grapple people are going to port and move under the map making it a mess.
        BTW in the middle of the map given the structure of it there's not a lot of places to set hook for grapple and bunny hopping could become a problem.

          drunken_fool
          Glad it plays well for you.

          Completely understand about the trans but the last popular Face server in Europe was grapple and it had quite the following. Just trying to get some of those players back for now. I am planning to make the sniper arena server trans instead of grapple but I have doubts that any new server will attract players, to be honest 🙁

          Might consider adding translocator in addition to the grapple on the face server if it's something that people want and if it doesn't create any issues trying to have them both.

          Bunny hopping shouldn't really be much of a problem on Face. You can't really bunny hop up slopes and the only way I can see it really being used to an advantage is if you impact jump from the center of the map with the flag towards home and get a bounce or 2 into your base. If someone is good enough for that, may as well let them have it.

              drunken_fool

              I can help with all that 🙂
              I can add hidden blockers for the lower end and add like a tower in the middle to grapple to.. Just a thought

                the_cowboy
                After that server went down a admin has been hosting a copy of that server. its still up 173.255.196.28:7777 im surprised he has kept it up for so many years. anyways that server has the best anti piston camper mod imo it gives you 3 seconds of piston camping before killing you. it also has the best face map but snow already has it.

                I must say playing face with the grapple feels so weird but whatever attracts more players. I always enjoyed the translocator tricks you could do on face.

                    friendofafriend After that server went down a admin has been hosting a copy of that server. its still up 173.255.196.28:7777 im surprised he has kept it up for so many years. anyways that server has the best anti piston camper mod imo it gives you 3 seconds of piston camping before killing you. it also has the best face map but snow already has it.

                    I noticed there were a few Face only servers in the US over the last year or two but hadn't seen much activity on them whereas the old one in Europe was pretty popular. Probably won't get that way again but thought it was worth a try.

                    As for the LE200 version of the face map, it was a difficult decision to make to choose that one actually. It fixes a couple glitches and if it didn't also fix some BSP errors etc. I definitely wouldn't have chosen to use it since all the glitching and tricky stuff is exactly what the face players seem to look for or learn to use after so much time playing the same map repeatedly.

                    This is the main reason why I'm carefully considering what to allow and disallow. If you sanitize things too much it will just make playing the same map over and over even more stale.

                    Not saying I won't use an anti-piston camp mod at some point and the 3-second one sounds ideal but there was a nice write up from a self proclaimed piston camper that makes a good case for allowing it. I posted it here before and both links from the thread are a good read so I'll link the thread here for anyone that might have missed it:
                    https://eatsleeput.com/d/115-the-making-of-facing-worlds-unreal-tournaments-most-popular-map

                        SnowGuy thinks we are all poor and can only afford the demo version of UT 😉

                        snowguy
                        That's what I liked about LE200. It didn't remove any glitches(that i know of). It just made the map balanced. All it did was remove the invisible wall next to rockets on blue base and I think some more invisible walls on the tower. All the glitches that i'm aware of like falling off the ledges still work.

                        I dont think the server needs the mod at all. back in the day sure, but not now. it was just a suggestion after many years of 24/7 face that was the final mod they settled with. It was much better than instantly dying like other anti camper piston mods out there.

                          14 days later
                          8 months later

                          The hosting provider for this server is unfortunately discontinuing their London location. This server will be moved to a new server in Amsterdam with a new IP address in the next week or so.

                          There really hasn't been many players on this server at all anyway so I'm considering discontinuing the face only server at this point.

                          I'm also considering moving the Normal Weapons London server to this new location as the hardware and connectivity is supposed to be better. Will finalize the plans after the server is moved and the new server is tested. I will then update this thread accordingly.

                          snowguy For any that don't know "flag boosting" is the "bug"

                          I know you can do this with a flag, and I used to often capture flags this way. But I didn't know, it's a bug. This throwing of the flag after the explosion does not seem strange to suggest otherwise. Besides, good to know.

                          snowguy Bunny hopping shouldn't really be much of a problem on Face

                          ...and that's where you're wrong 🙂 I know that you can bounce on gentle hills, but it's much more difficult, and on a slope like the one on the Face map or the one at the top in Fragwhore.

                                Ooper Are the servers running 469D?

                                Not yet, I'm very behind on my updates and task list for everything really. Are you suggesting to use the new DNS feature? I definitely need to set that up for times like this.

                                    it takes a better bouncer than me to bounce up that hill. I honestly don't think you can get more than 1 or 2 bounces before you lose momentum the incline make each bounce shorter so for lack of a better word you stub out.

                                      player_0 I know you can do this with a flag, and I used to often capture flags this way. But I didn't know, it's a bug. This throwing of the flag after the explosion does not seem strange to suggest otherwise. Besides, good to know.

                                      Well, from a physics standpoint I suppose it isn't really a bug in that you would expect an explosion's blast wind to send a flag flying like it does but using this to make quick captures was likely to be unintended by the designers so I have called it a bug. In reality, the flag being so close to an explosion would probably obliterate it so there is another argument to it being termed a bug 🙂

                                      player_0 ...and that's where you're wrong 🙂 I know that you can bounce on gentle hills, but it's much more difficult, and on a slope like the one on the Face map or the one at the top in Fragwhore.

                                      Cool, I didn't know you could bounce up the hill on face. It's no longer my problem though if I shut the server down 😌

                                          snowguy Not aware of the DNS thing, just the significant reduction in CPU usage I was thinking about.

                                              Ooper

                                              Forgot about that, thanks for the reminder. 🍻 I will try to get to that soon, very eager to see how much of a difference there will be.