ZM Update Thread

[Natalya]

06/29/2008

Did some beta testing with two different beta versions of zm_salon_moon. So far things look good, but I need to add more to the map before it's released. This map isn't in the rotation though.


Added Map:

zm_lila_panic_hero

Random Hero made this map so I added it for him. It's sort of an Italian-themed lila panic v2 with some changes like the vents on the main building and the big cooling tanks have been knocked over.

[Natalya]

06/30/2008

Added Maps:
zm_acid_export
zm_salon_moon




zm_acid_export

This is a small map, but has 64 spawns. It's an urban industrial feel. This map is almost exclusively a climb camping map, but it does have a couple barricading spots. No secrets here, but there are a few hard to reach areas.




zm_salon_moon

I made this over the last few days because someone confused Sailor Moon with Salon Moon in game and someone else said to make a map of it, so I did lol. The map is a space salon on an asteroid. There's also some underground portions. Cool stuff here is turning off the gravity and the shuttle that circles the map.


Skins:
- Fixed a bug in the Jr. Owner skin menu.
- Switched the predator models. Random thought the old one was too cheap.

[Natalya]

07/01/2008

Added Maps:
zm_crazycity
zm_holdout_mountain

zm_crazycity


This is a remake of the crazycity maps done by MoOnLiGht and me. MoOnLiGht did most of the changes here... I just added a couple rooms and did some optimization in the sewer area that Moon added.


zm_holdout_mountain


A mountain base. Lots of climb camping outside, cade camping inside.

[Natalya]

07/02/2008

Map Removed:

zm_mall_beta1

This map crashed the server two times in a row when we switched to it. (It would crash on map change, server didn't even get to the map itself...) It never did this in the past but it's getting removed for now.

[Natalya]

07/03/2008

We have moved up to rank 128 now, up from 137 a week ago. Here's an activity graph of this month:



The very start is the end of the 2-month dead period, followed by a big activity spike when we started to turn this server around. Then theres a week of slowdown while I was away, but after that its started to pick up again. We're starting to see really heavy activity this week, which matches levels we haven't seen since February with 20+ people on at one time, so things are looking up.

[Natalya]

07/07/2008

I replaced the GIGN skin with a new Umbrella version of the SAS that I made today. The model is slightly customized by me too, with elbow pads, so it's a re-skin and a re-model. I replaced the GIGN because the GIGN says Admin on the back, which meant that skin contest winners couldn't be allowed to use it, thereby giving them only Sailor Moon as a skin choice while they were on CT. Now they can use the SAS too. Admins have also had the GIGN replaced with the SAS, so the GIGN isn't on the server anymore. (To save download time.)

[Natalya]

07/09/2008

Added the Map Rater plugin. Type !maprate to rate a map. Type !maprating to see the ratings for other maps. It's set so that if you haven't rated the map you're on before it will prompt you to rate it after you have been in the server for 5 minutes.

[Natalya]

08/11/2008 & 08/12/2008

Okay so I did a lot of stuff the last 2 days...

Player Models:
Okay so I updated the model menu to the newest version. This one has the access glitch fixed, so if you click the wrong menu you don't have to worry. With this in place Random and I felt it safe to add a couple public skins, to see how stuff works out. (Players in the server constantly ask for skin access when they see admins with special skins on.) So I added a Public Skins menu to the bottom of the current menu. It has the Umbrella SAS (which used to be on as an admin skin) and my bunny girl skin for the CT's. There's also just the default CT Urban listed there so that admins or players can select it to get a normal human skin. I didn't add any zombie skins, but the menu was buggy without one so I set it up so that one of the normal zombie skins is selectable when you're a zombie. Since I took the SAS and gave it to the normal players I put back the NU GIGN with the Admin tag on the back for the admins. I also took out the Alien skin for the Jr Owners and Owners to save some file space. (Random's the only Jr. Owner who plays on ZM anyway and he didn't mind too much...)

Admins kept the rest of their special skins, which can still be won in the monthly skin contest. (So there's still something for players to fight for.)

Sounds:
I removed a lot of unused sounds and 2 of the mini-songs, including the one that plays when you join the server. I ended up just setting that to the Final Fantasy victory tune. At Null's suggestion I also removed the No Racial Bigotry quote from FMJ since it had the N* word in it, but for now it's left on all the other servers.

Night Vision:
Players now spawn with night vision. Many maps are dark and sometimes you want it, but it cant be re-bought for some stupid reason. Everyone gets it now for free.

Weapon Spawner:
I wrote my first script ever today for the server... It's a script that lets you type !weapons, and a weapon menu will pop up. You can then select any gun and it will spawn right in your hands -- unless you're already holding something whereupon it will drop to the ground. In any case, this is useful for when you die, you only respawn with a TMP... Well now you can choose a gun of your liking and actually have a chance. I was inspired to do this because I saw a similar plugin on a different zm server. The plugin won't let you spawn any grenades, but you can give yourself night vision (which is now pointless because of the script mentioned above) in addition to the guns. You can't spawn weapons when you're dead or in spec, but zombies still can spawn guns. I need to fix this but haven't been having luck with it.

Null brought up that it could be cheap if a player gets an SMG to fight their way to a high point, then spawns an AWP, so maybe if people don't like this possibility I can remove the sniping weapons or something. Or even just restrict it to a few of the weapons. But right now it does everything except nades.

Maps:
I've added a bunch over the last month without posting here... Can't remember what they all were. But today I removed zm_labor_gigantic because it gets RTV'd a lot, and I added zm_deep_though_remix. I also put af_omega_v2 into rotation. I had it on the server for a few weeks where only admins could switch to it since I wasn't sure how well it'd fare as a zombie map, but when we've played it no one ever RTV's it or anything, and the fact that you can shoot the lights out in half the building really adds to the scary zombie element, so with Random's approval I put it in rotation.


Umm I think that's about it for now.

*EDIT*
I got the !weapons plugin to work only for humans who are alive. I had to update the events scripts version on the server to get this to work.

[Natalya]

08/13/2008

Only 2 things today... Vit had me disable the auto snipers in the !weapons list and I changed the admin chat colour to light green like in Mani. Team admin chat is unaffected.

*EDIT*

Added Harry Potter to the public skins list, but with a twist...


It's Harry Pothead!!







Harry's been smoking dope and getting high while fighting the zombies. I took hhp227's Harry Potter model and modified it for this skin. I gave him a blunt, made him look stoned with droopy red eyes and added a pot leaf to his jacket.

[Natalya]

08/31/2008

Zombies aren't allowed to use the .88 FlaK gun on zm_natalyas_ship_v3... They need to do their job instead of fucking around with the cannon.


Also:



How come whenever I leave the server goes to shit? I can't populate ZM by myself guys. I know I'm not the only ZM admin, where are the rest of y'all? Sure it hasn't been good 100% of the time that I have been around, but for real. :[ This graph shouldn't tell you if I'm in town or not. D:

[Null]

my 2 cents

Get RID of the JEDI SHIT, keep the props, people will come, ive had many people say they dont like to play because its not an equal playing field when admins with jedi powers use it to get to places faster, even though a legit spot its not fair as it normally may have teken you a bit to get there and be zombified.

Sounds.....took me at least 5 to 10 minutes to download them...GET RID OF EM
Skins.... Same thing as sounds....its bad ennough zm has default skins you need to get

[Natalya]

I took off 7 of the sounds as well last night. Forgot to mention that. Umm, I think the download server was fucked up last night anyway though because the forums kept re-directing and said Account Suspended or something, so that could be why it took so long to download everything. As for player skins, back at the end of May when I got serious about reviving ZM, I did a survey of the top rated ZM servers and found that like 7 of them had custom skins at least for admins, and a few of those 7 had public skins as well, so I really don't think skins are what's killing ZM.

[Natalya]

09/06/2008

Took a look at the sounds anyway... Umm there were 26 sounds on ZM totaling something like 8.5 or 8.6 MB. Anyway, I took about a couple hours to systematically go through them all and edit them to have smaller file sizes by either cutting blank beginnings and ends of or by reducing their sound quality. In this manner I was able to reduce their total size by half. There's now like 4.4 MB of sound files on the server. If you join you'll have to get them all new, but they are much smaller now so they'll go about twice as fast, and new players will be less likely to quit from download time.

[Natalya]

09/11/2008

Added Maps:
zm_roy_industrial_complex
zm_bphx_reactor_v4_2
zm_b-town_hood_night

Removed Maps:
zm_future



zm_roy_industrial_complex
This is a Roy map, but it wasn't released on FPSB. It seems to be a heavily modified version of de_nuke. There are lots of spots and a killer acid pit. Might be a little human-sided. There is a vent, but a fan can blow campers out of it.



zm_bphx_reactor_v4_2
We had the previous version on the server just to try it out, but it wasn't quite good enough. This new version is way better... You can actually exit the complex, there are more spots, and there's a giant swirling vortex of death. This is a huge improvement over the original.



zm_b-town_hood_night
This map is a small town at night. The skybox is shitty and the map wasn't constructed very well, but it has a lot of camping spots and fits the theme. The map is also loaded with secrets. It will take you forever to find them all.


Removed: zm_future
I liked this map but I removed it because so many people would rtv it and leave if I didn't change it so I took it out of rotation. Admins can still switch to it using the console though.

[Natalya]

09/12/2008


Canadian JTF-2 Skin:










This is now a player skin in the Public Models menu. I made it at Vit's suggestion that we get a camo public skin. It's only 1.5MB, and was made primarily by me. This guy is a member of Canada's Joint Task Force 2 which is basically their version of the Special Forces. In Iraq and Afghanistan they go after Al-Quaida and Taliban leaders, and have captured a bunch of them. They also have some domestic duties. The skin was originally meant as a client-side reskin of the ct_urban, but I edited the skin to look a little more like a JTF-2 soldier and then I made it a server-side skin so we could have it on ZM.