Recently, we've added a new feature to our TF2 servers. The alias command!
!alias "name", /alias "name" or in console, sm_alias "name"
Setting an alias allows you to use a different name in the server than on Steam. Additionally, you can use the settings menu (/settings) to optionally add the SCG Prefix to an alias, or your existing Steam name. This command is for everyone to use!
To help organized the interested parties of potential TF2 events, MvM has been given its own announcement role! Like other announcement roles, it is meant for organizing events on SCG servers. In this instance, this would be for folks looking for players on our MvM servers. Additionally, it will help curb spam for those who are simply interested in regular TF2.
You can add, or remove, this role using the /role command on Discord. Poe will help you!
Did you know what Mann Versus Machine came out 10 years ago today? Did you know also know our MvM server is one of our most popular?
If you weren't aware, our MvM server features a 10 player limit, over the usual 6, and a homemade difficulty modifier that stops a game of 10 from being wildly overpowered. With efforts from the MvM community, we have an impressive lineup of awesome maps, and over 1000 missions varying from casual sessions to some of the most insane tests of endurance.
Thanks to the assistance of the lovely Seabass, the experiences we provide are well curated, and we are constantly finding new content to offer, and new tools to keep track of it all.
There was coincidentally a large update today, https://www.scg.wtf/update/date/2022-08-15, we are narrowing the gap of missing icons and broken missions. Additionally, a whole new server to test some of the more complex missions has been made available! We look forward to seeing folks on the battle field, there is always more in store!
Happy Pride month, everyone! I wanted to start off the month with a different kind of post, I want to know about your fursona(s)!
Anything really (though try to keep it SFW X3), who are they? Do they represent you? Do you have more than one? Do you have none at all! Are they just a character to you, or is it something closer. Why did you choose your species, if you don't have one, is there something you think best represents you? Basically, go wild, there's no judgement here.
I'll start, most folks may know that I was a Crux for about 10 years! Cruxes represented me in many ways, they're very chaotic and silly but also quite edgy. That's basically who I was! But now I'm a ferret! Ferrets felt right to me, they're sleepy, silly, mischievous little floof gremlins. They're small, and I like to feel small. They're long, and I am tall.
My fursona's appearance represents aspects of myself, such as my love of oversized loose fitting clothes, or how my fur being shades of green represents my love of the forest. Being a ferret also relates to my personality in a spiritual way. As time went on, I began to feel that my Crux was influenced by depression I've worked through, and wasn't the entity I wanted people to see when they saw me. Being a ferret, I now hope to give off a more positive vibe, while retaining that gremlin energy. >:3
My 'sona is basically...me, a representation of myself, they're not a "character", it's me! I have other "characters" that I use to act out things or represent other things I do, but my ferret is all me.
Now, tell me about you! What led you to the sona you have today! If you don't have one yet or something like that, feel free to talk about your thoughts towards creating one if that is something you aspire to do!
Back in June we saw the return of Open Fortress, and immediately jumped at getting our server up and active. This has been a huge challenge, because we've seen activity in it to a degree we haven't seen in a long time. That has brought issues which we've been working hard to solve.
Our first is hackers. In order to help protect ourselves from hackers using cheats and exploits from the older version of Source, we have begun using a tool called StAC (Stephanie's Anti Cheat). This is a SourceMod plugin that does a fantastic job of finding players using nefarious settings + watching for suspect activity. We actually began testing this on Chocolate back in April with great success. To this date, we have not had a single person banned falsely.
In Open Fortress, we are using a version we modified ourselves to better match that game's unique environment. Again, we have not had a single incorrect ban. What we have seen though is a ton of bans overall. Cheaters, hackers, duplicate accounts, and more. Duplicate accounts use stored IP addresses, and we have checked every single one so far to make sure it is not an accident that someone was banned under a similar IP.
We also have more tools! I have created an "admin panel" of sorts built into our Discord, that allows admins to kick, ban, mute, gag, etc players without being in-game. To aid this whole "not being in-game" part, we've begun experimenting with SourceTV, a Source Engine tool that allows administrators to spectate the game without actually being in the server. I've also designed a panel for our admins to read through server logs / chat logs, as previously they were only kept in the server.
To help ensure privacy and to comply with privacy laws, IP addresses are not stored in logs available to admins. They are filtered out.
We intend to begin hosting Open Fortress events soon, we're just waiting to see how the first big update goes before we commit to events that may be shuddered by technical problems. There will also be more news this week, I thought it'd be best to space it out a bit!