Please join, and read our Forums for up to the minute Game Server Status, News and Community information. 

The News Items are not kept current here, but our Forums are active and updated many times daily.

Cain's Lair Forums

After a long, and very successful run, UT2004 ONS will be coming down today.  I'm looking for newer games, and am getting ready for ET:Quake Wars, and Quake 4 CTF.

New Game here at Cain's.  Day of Defeat:Source.  It was made available at 6PM September 26th, and we had two servers up and running at 6:10PM.

We have moved!!  (Just new IPs, same great ISP) !!  

The game servers have gotten new IP addresses. 

NOTE:  All Servers got new IP Addresses Last Night (4.15.05) !!

Day of Defeat is now = 63.113.60.3:27015

UT 2004 ONS is now = 63.113.60.2:8000

UT2004 CTF is now = 63.113.60.2:8100

Server Upgrade, the Saga...  
It all started when I purchased two brand new Opteron 252's (OEM), and a Tyan Dual Opteron Motherboard (S2882), with on-board SCSI to run it all.
  
March 12, 2005

I brought the old Athlon 64FX-53 Server (Onslaught) home and planned to simply swap out the MB (with the new CPU and RAM) and upgrade the HD, and format it, and go.  Problem was I forgot that the Power Supply for the Dual Opteron is different from the one for the AMD64FX.  So I ordered a new PS. And waited....

March 19, 2005

Brought the ONS Server home again, tore it to pieces, then discovered that the new MB simply would not fit the old case!!  So I did  a lot of research and settled on a GigaCase from China. And ordered it. And then I waited... 

March 25, 26, 27, 2005

I got the new Case and all the new pieces parts and with help from Fizbanrt got everything configured, installed, moved over and set-up.  I fired up the new Server on Sunday March 27 around mid-day, and the ONS Server was full within an hour or so.  

Go to the Servers page to see the details of all the components in both boxes.
I ended up settling on 24-26 players for CTF and have installed two forms of anti-cheat there. 

Big news, brief update....

1) Cain's Lair has been chosen to be a BETA Server for Day of Defeat: Source.  I am excited about being able to help the DoD Community and Valve, go to our Forums for info and screenshots. 

2) New Server coming soon!!  I am replacing the AMD64FX53 (UT2004 ONS), with a Dual Opteron 252 box.  It will be running on a Tyan MB, Thunder K8S Pro (S2882).  Both UT servers will move to this box, and CTF will go from 18 players to 30.  w00t !!

  More details soon..

Long time, no news update.  I do most of my updating on the Forums, which is much easier and faster for me.  Let's see what has happened since the last news update: 

CS:Source has come and gone.

  I finally got out of the CS business, and am now running Day of Defeat, which really is a lot of fun, and has become very popular. 

We are running a bunch of custom maps on both UT2004 servers thanks to Dark4SE's fast re-direct. I am adding stats to all servers (been a long time since we had that around here). I am still toying with the idea of a new Dual Opteron server, or should I say $erver. 

We are slowly migrating to new Forums provided by Dark4SE, the transition will be complete by mid-March, 2005. 

You can read the Forums and the Server announcements (in the Forums) for more day to day news items regarding the servers. 

Take care, 

-- Cain

Well, you know how I hate to give up, or give in, right??  I finally discovered the only way to get a top notch 32 player UT2004 ONS server was to use a different CPU !!!  After much research I discovered that the new AMD Athlon 64-FX 53 Chip kicks the living crap out of any P4/Xeon Chip on the planet, even when running a 32 bit OS and 32 bit applications (this will get even better when the new 64 Bit Win2K3 ships, and Epic releases their 64 Bit UT2004 Server).

I asked Logicsouth to give me another IP address so I could build a second box, and they graciously did so (Many thanks and a big shout-out to Taylor, John and Matt!!)..  

I built a new server (Friday and Saturday) based on an Athlon 64-FX53 CPU, and this thing is a beast.  I popped up a 32 player ONS Server tonight and it is smooth as buttah, even with 32 players in Primeval, at the center node!!  I am seriously thinking of making the old server into a UT2004 CTF Server, at least until a new game comes along that we want to play.  I'm thinking I definitely wanna run a HL2 server when it comes out.

The UT2004 ONS server has been doing great, very, very busy.  I have tried everything under the sun to allow more players, but the game is just a CPU HOG, and I can do nothing to change that.  They (Epic) tell me they will look at CPU optimizations for ONS in the second patch.  

In my never-ending-quest to get more UT2004 players I bought and installed a Pro/1000 Server NIC. It made little or no difference to UT2004, but CS loves it, so I'll probably leave it in the server. 

I am experimenting with anti-cheat for the UT2004 server, it works well but it also takes quite a bit of CPU to work.  I'll switch it on, and off randomly. 

The First UT2004 Player joined the server for one map !!  
I hope you are reading this, you just made history here !! 

NetComeGo: Open myLevel 03/16/04 02:35:23 68.169.xxxx.xxxx:xxxx
Log: SET PLAYER!
ScriptLog: New Player [CTCR]TheCatcher id=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ScriptLog: START MATCH

5:30AM March 15, 2004

Full Version UT2004 Server is on-line!!  16 Players until the Demo comes off-line.

I'm going to bed now, I have a long day at work ahead!! 

The server re-build was a pain, and took most of my weekend.  In the end I'm not sure what we gained, if anything.  We'll see how it plays.  I re-enabled the O/C and I also enabled Hyper-threading, and it seemed to help UT2004 Demo a little bit.  We can now play with 26 players almost lag-free (the very end of a full map will get a little jerky), and 28 lag-free about 80% of the time.  I hope we can play at least 30 players for the full game, 100% lag-free.  We will see. 

Speaking of my server for the full game (UT2004), I will wait until Epic releases the Dedicated Server-only version, and the date for this is unknown.  I'm guessing Monday (3/15).  Stay tuned, I want to switch the Demo to a Full Version server as soon as possible. I will probably have the Full Version on a slightly different port so as not to confuse all the Demo folks still trying to get in. And I may scale down the Demo and leave it up a day or two.

ATTENTION: The servers will go off-line Friday (March 12, 2004),
 and hopefully be back up by Saturday night (March 13, 2004).

  I am adding a bigger HD, changing my SCSI controller card to an Adaptec, but most importantly changing the Operating System.  I am switching to Windows 2003 Server, since I hear nothing but great things about it.  For some reason UT 1,2,3 hates Windows 2000, and it always has.  I want to see if it likes Win2K3 better, I hope it does.  

I believe the new OS will make better use of my hardware, and hopefully allow more players in UT2004. 

I'll keep you posted on server status in the Forums....... .........  Stay tuned...

Updated the Mother-Board's BIOS, and while I was at it I tried to overclock it..  Not a good idea, since I did not know how to reset the CMOS.  Grrrr, sorry we were off-line almost all Thursday night and most of Friday.  We are back now. 

I finally got it to slightly O/C, and will leave it at 3.333 for a while. 

The UT2004Demo server has a new address, actually a new port:8000. So the server is now located at 63.113.48.60:8000. 

It will likely stay on port 8000 even for the final game. 

I switched Network cards on the server, and went with an Intel gigabit card that is actually built into the motherboard.  It lowered the pings by 15-20% which was surprising, but very pleasant. 

Also, I missed our birthday!!

January 1999 is when "Cain's Lair" first went public. 

Happy 5th Birthday to us !!

Lots of stuff going on, but lately I just do most of my updates in the Forums, rather than here in the news section.  

If you are new around here, "WELCOME!", drop by the Forums and say "Hi" to everyone.  

I flirted with a DMC server (HL Quake mod) and it was a lot of fun, but when the UT2004 Demo came out mid-week - DMC got redeemered !

The ET server which killed the UT2003 server, got killed this week by the new UT2004 Demo server!!  I am running the new gametype -Onslaught.  

I am glad so many folks had fun playing ET here, but it was time to move on to a newer game, and I always planned to give UT2004 a shot.  

The UT2004 Demo is REALLY fun, I like it a lot and I know many of you will also.  I have been working very hard to increase the player counts and still maintain a smooth game.  I also can't just let it take over the box, I do not want the CS players to have their pings skyrocket, so it is a delicate balance.  For the next week there may be frequent reboots of both servers, so please be patient and just keep reconnecting. 

The Sprint/UUNET backbone that Logicsouth switched to late Summer 2003 continues to be amazing.  The CS server stays packed from mid-afternoon to early evening, and pings stay sweet.  

Lately the UT2004 server has also stayed packed but it is 24/7.  Players do constantly drop and join, so just be patient and you will get in. 

I finished the new Game Server and installed it this evening.  The new machine is a beast, Dual Xeon 3.06 CPU with 2048 CL2 DDR RAM.  Click "Server" on the left frame to see the details of the server hardware. Two players were the first in the server (milliseconds apart), I'll post their names and SS of them connecting in the Forums section.  They were both ET players.  

Unfortunately LogicSouth is having MAJOR problems with a new Internet worm and as a result are constantly having to shut off their connections, then block ports, and then rebuild the routes.  The result for you folks is getting dropped constantly from the servers.  Hopefully this will subside within the next week or so, then we will be back to our sweet pings from the new Sprint routes which have been stable and really terrific.  

Lots of big news.  The biggest news is I have decided to move forward with building a new server.  It will be a Dual Xeon 3.06 which should allow me to run three games, CS/HL2, UT2003/2004, Enemy Territory.  The added CPU will hopefully allow me to run cheat detection on all servers and Statsme for the CS Server. 

Also, the server has now almost completed the changeover of our Internet backbone from Cable & Wireless to Sprint.  The changeover has been very good, and for most players their pings either stayed the same or dropped.  We definitely got a more stable and reliable Internet connection, particularly if you suffered through the horrible problems in the Spring of 2003.  The changeover gave us a new IP and different routes to the server, so if you had problems in the past, try it again. If you had friends who had poor connections here tell then to try it again also.  

If you have not gotten around to making a donation for the new server, please do it now. All this stuff really costs me a lot of money, so every dollar contributed is one less dollar I have to fish out of my own pocket. 

Contributions

I'll keep everyone posted on the status of the server upgrade. 

The CS Server is off-line for an indefinite period of time.  I'm looking for a replacement, until HL2 arrives. 

After all these years our IP address is changing!!  

We are going to the Sprint backbone, so our old Cable & Wireless IP address has to be changed. 

The new Sprint IP address is: 

63.113.48.60

(For history purposes our first IP address was:166.xxx.xxx.xxx, our second IP address was 207.2.252.100)

Well the UT2003 Server server is officially gone, at least for the next few months.  It has been replaced with the first FREE game we have ever had here -- Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.  The game is a lot of fun and many of the regulars from both servers have taken up residence in the new ET server.  

Counter-Strike Stuff

I installed Cheating-Death on the CS Server this AM. It is a client side anti-cheat that does not detect cheats but it stops them from working. 

I have gotten a shorter fuse with BS in the Forums, especially CS Forum and CS related BS. Run your mouth, be a jerk, and you can post elsewhere, can I make this any clearer?  I am tired of reading "Cheater!" "Liar!!" "Cheater!" "Liar!" over and over and over and over. 

The Columbia CS LAN Party was a lot of fun, but we keep learning from one to the next.   I promise the next one sometime this Summer cannot be missed!!  Start telling friends and family you are heading to Columbia, SC this Summer for the next LAN Party, guaranteed to be more fun than ever.  We have lots of time to plan this one, and will have a fantastic set-up.  MsNomer, ICE and I are the "planning committee".  We will be picking a date in the next few weeks, and will advertise it heavily at that time. 

I am strongly considering having a dual LAN Party, UT2003 AND CS at the same time. 

I installed StatsMe on the CS Server, and it has become very popular.  After seeing it at the LAN Party I decided to put it back up again.

The Counter-Strike has a Admin, and Melissa.  Melissa is the youngest Admin I have ever had and the first female Admin in the history of Cain's Lair!!  Congrats and Welcome. 

A BIG Shout-out and thanks to Gutshot for sending me a microphone/headphone!!  That thing is fantastic, and really improves the CS gameplay.  I have never used headphones before and now see why they are critical for improved gameplay.  I recommend this exact model to everyone who plays Counter-Strike. It is a Labtec Axis-502. 

Thanks Gutshot !!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  I hope everyone has a happy, and healthy New Year !!

Starting our fourth year this month.  Happy Birthday Cain's Lair !

January, 1999.  Guess what happened then??  That was the first date that a "Cain's Lair" game server went public on the Internet.  It was a Quake 2 Server, and I had to beg and plead for folks to play there.   It sat empty most of the time unless I was sitting in there hoping someone would join, or my friends were in there playing Quake 2 with me.  Geddy, 8Something, Hazmat, FearFactory, Feynman, and some others.  It was not until I put up a Half-Life DM server that things started to get busy.  Then the Tribes server was a run-away success and spent most of its life as the Number 1 Tribes Server in the World.  Next big thing was UT, then later CS, and CS put a bullet through the brain of the Tribes server.  Now UT has faded and UT2003 is in its place. CS is still going very, very strong with no end in sight. 

I continue to tweak the servers.  CS has settled in at 26 players, and UT2003 is settling in at 20 players.  This always leave lots of CPU so both servers do not step on each other's toes. 

I was disappointed with the performance of the P4 3.06, so I drove back to Columbia today and enabled Hyper Threading.   It is not supposed to be that much of an improvement with Windows 2000, but WOW..  It was.  Much, much improved performance. The two game servers do not trip over each other any more, and pings are better all the way around.  

I increased the CS player max to 28, now I'm having to be sure all of the CS maps support 28.  We *may* be able to go to 30 players, but I want to look at Statsme and PTB first.  I think folks would prefer that over the extra players, and both will probably take about the same CPU utilization. 

Installed the new P4 3.06 today.  I took all the recent contributions from several CS players and re-invested it into the server.  That CPU was EXPEN$IVE !!

I installed the Full U2003, along with the first patch.
  "Geddy" was the first person to play in the new UT2003 Server.

Another server upgrade.  I installed a new more powerful CPU, a P4 2.8 Ghz, changed the OS to Windows 2000 Professional, installed a new HD, it is a SCSI 18 Gig Maxtor, with an 8 meg RAM Cache, and made a few more tweaks. 

I'm holding off on the full UT2003 Server until they finalize the first patch.  The Demo CTF Server is still up and is doing extremely well, in fact it is difficult to get in there at night.  It looks like about another week for the full UT2003.  

UT 2003 Demo is here !!

Check it out, and let me know how it is working.  Post any bugs in the Forums here. 

Update: Mix (aka Mixit) from California was the first player in the UT2003 Server early this AM.

Update 2:  WOW!!  This game is a Server CPU HOG!!  It makes UT look efficient..  More later.  

Major server upgrade completed!

I restarted the new server Friday afternoon, after completion of a major overhaul.  The OS was upgraded from Windows NT WS 4.0 to Windows 2000 Server.  The CPU was upgraded from a dual Pentium 3 -1000 to a single Pentium 4 - 2.53 Ghz, 533 FSB (and obviously a new Motherboard as well).  The Ram was upgraded to DDR PC-2100 1,024 Megs.  And finally the Network Card was upgraded to an Intel Pro 100+ Server card, which handles packets much more efficiently, uses less CPU, and has lower latency.  I also made a few tweaks here and there, and minimized the services running and deleted everything that would not contribute to a good game server.  All this took me almost a week to complete, spending at least 6 hours per day (more last weekend).  The earliest I got to bed this week was 1:30AM (last night).    All the effort, time and money was well worth it.  Earlier I played in a 28 person CS game and the pings, and the FPS were simply amazing (with AdminMod, and StatsMe running).  Before I decide the maxplayers for CS let's wait and see how the UT2003 Demo does......

Nice segue there........

UT 2003 Demo coming this weekend!!  I am getting it on the server tonight, but I will need to drive back to Columbia to install it and set it up this weekend.  Before that I need to do some research, on how to run a server, and hopefully it can be run without much of a video card. The server has a ten year old video card that barely does 1024, and has 2 megs of RAM. 

Server and OS upgrade will be complete by Saturday.  
Hopefully everyone will be fragging away on or before Friday night. 

I am not replacing the UT Server, but I will put up a UT2003 Demo, then full UT2K3 server ASAP. 

I'm pulling the UT Server down soon in preparation/expectation of the Demo for UT2003 shipping.  We have had a lot of fun in there, and it has always been a top 5 server worldwide.  I hope UT2003 is as much fun and is as successful as UT was/is!!

Counter-Strike 1.5 is up now!!

We are now running the latest Beta Server Version of CS 1.4.  I also put AdminMod back up, along with the anti-cursing filter, which has been improved to blank only the word that matches the banned words list. 

I have also installed the latest Version of UTPure for the folks suffering with aimbots in the UT Server.  Hope that helps. 

Wouldn't you know it, but the exact same day Counter-Strike 1.4 gets released, my Domain name cainslair.com lapses!!  We had a billing/payment snafu, that got resolved Thursday but took a couple more days to get the Domain name back..  Grrrrr..

Anyhow, CS 1.4 is now up and running. I'm still learning about it, and tweaking it.  For now it is naked; no AdminMod, no CSGuard.  Let's see how 1.4 runs before we add stuff back.

Have fun gang.......... 

UT Pure5e seems to be working well on the UT Server. 

I added a new feature found in Statsme to the CS Server, it is a center screen notification of who planted bomb and a voice countdown until detonation.  It roXors.. 

CSGuard has been the best thing to ever hit Counter-Strike.  It makes it harder for cheaters to play, and it makes them much easier to spot.  

UT Pure has finally arrived in the UT Server, many thanks to all the regulars who have hung in there without it.  I hope it does for UT what CSG has done for CS. 

1,853 Cheaters banned from the Counter-Strike Server in the last 60 days.  Cheating in CS without getting caught gets harder and harder each day. 

UT Pure coming to the UT Server soon. 

Happy New Year !!  

Good grief.. I had NO IDEA how many cheaters were playing Counter-Strike.  I am appalled by the number of cheaters that we have caught over the last week.  It strikes me as absurd that over 275 players have been kicked and banned from the Cain's Lair CS server in the last week alone.  

That is just sad..  What is the fun of cheating when you know you have no skillz and the cheat killed the other guy, not you?  Anyhow, the server gets more fun and competitive every day as more and more cheaters get cleared out.  

Since I am testing new software there have been frequent reboots and some lagginess as the software gets optimized.  It is getting very polished now, so the server should be back to normal, or better.

  If your console, or weapons buying seems jerky, don't worry, that is caused by AdminMod, it is not lagging you while actually playing.  AdminMod slows down the console and buying a tad, unfortunately, but I'm tweaking it more. 

Take care, have fun, and 

Happy New Year !!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone,
 and I hope everyone has a Happy,
 and healthy New Year.
 

Counter-Strike

I installed AdminMod on the CS Server, and it has been a huge hit.  The players really enjoy being able to vote problem players out of the game.  Remember though to jot down the WonID of players who get voted out so I can ban them. Sometimes players are voting cheaters out BEFORE the cheat detection can catch, log and ban them automatically. 

I have also installed new cheat detection software and it is working like a charm.  Unfortunately we have snagged some long time regulars, some of whom have been suspected of cheating in the past.  Remember guys, if you get caught with cheats, you get banned - no second chances - so you had better make 100% certain you are not cheating, have no cheats on your hard drive, and that you have NEVER installed any cheats on your system.  Some of these cheats make alterations to your Windows Registry, and can be tough to clear, short of a complete re-install of the game. 

Tribes

Well after almost three years I have decided to pull down the Tribes server. It was a fun game for a long time, but I feel the CPU and bandwidth is better used on the UT and CS Servers now.  I do not know a single person playing Tribes anymore, folks have moved on to newer and better games.  RIP Tribes! 

CS Server

Well, now I am seeing too many servers with too many serious problems with Paladin, to put it up on the CS server, for the foreseeable future. 
 I am now looking at alternate anti-cheat software for the CS server.  I am looking at plug-ins for AdminMod, but first I have to learn all about AdminMod.  I am also hoping TSC will update their software too, so I'll also be using it as well.  I prefer a server-side solution, if at all possible. 

Gimme some time to research them all, and let's see.  AdminMod also has some really cool features players will enjoy, but I really miss some of the TSC features, like the message that told everyone the bomb had been planted. 

Tribes Server

I am giving very serious consideration to pulling the Tribes server down to make room for more UT and CS players.  At this point I do not know anyone (personally) who is still playing Tribes.  It seems foolish for me to run a server that is not very busy, and I do not know any players, when my friends and I have a hard time getting in to the other servers. 

UT Server
I finally installed the Kick Idle Players Mutator and got it working properly. If you do not press fire about every 30 secs it warns you that you will be kicked if you are inactive. 

Counter-Strike Server News

Since TSC has generated so many "false positives" the TSC ban is only temporary now, so no need to e-mail me to be re-instated.  If I see you keep getting banned over and over though, I'll probably ban you permanently. 

With that in mind, if you have been banned by TSC more than once, I would suggest that you delete the game and re-install it again, then patch to the current version. 

I will be putting the newest TSC Version up on the CS server when it gets released.

I put a new mod on the CS Server. In addition to adding some really cool new features, it is the best anti-cheat I have ever seen.  Go here to read about it: http://www.tsc.austin2600.org/

This is much better than PB at cheat detection, and best of all, it requires nothing to be loaded by the client.  If you get caught cheating you will be banned.

Today alone almost 15 people have been flagged as cheaters by TSC, and have been banned.  I know several of you were probably not cheating, but you need to drop me an e-mail so you can explain your side of the story.  And be sure to tell me your WONID, I ban by ID Number not by name.  There are a few legitimate things that appear to TSC as cheating, if you are doing one of those, stop doing it, and I'll give you another shot.  If you get caught and banned again, you need to look for another server to cheat on! 

I updated the CS Server to 1.3 today.  It is pretty cool, but I need to get a microphone. The new maps are sweet, and a welcome relief from the same old maps, over and over and over.

Hmm, where do I start ...
  Lots of happenings around the servers.
 Also, I updated the FAQ, the Guides, and other pages around here, more to come as I get the time.

Counter-Strike
I have used PunkBuster now for several weeks with much success, it has helped me identify and Ban about 15 players who were cheating.  I run it occasionally in Required Mode, however, since the IQ of the average CS player appears to be somewhere in the low to mid 70's, I do not run it in REQUIRED Mode all of the time (but will from time to time).  I do, however, expect all of our regulars (whose IQ appears to average in the high 130's!) to run PB all the time (I do).  In the future I may get more aggressive about asking regulars to run PB all the time to set an example for others.  Also, if someone accuses you of cheating, run PB to shut them up.  PB gets updated frequently (silently) in the background so if you are running cheats anywhere on your system, GET RID OF THEM, or PB will eventually catch you!  PB in Optional mode also has many tangible benefits for the Admin and the players, so don't feel as if we are wasting our time in Optional mode, because that is far from the truth. Plus, when I run it as REQUIRED for a few days, I usually catch, then ban a new cheater or two. 

I also made some adjustments to the map rotation, to make Dust come up much less frequently (it really was getting old). 

Tribes
I added a few newer maps and dumped Dropzone from the rotation.  I also made it easier to pass a vote, so be sure to vote for everything you see, or your wishes may not be heard.

Unreal Tournament
I added CSHP 49 this morning.  NOTE: You have to be running Version 4.36 in order to be able to play.  Apparently CSHP 45 also required the client to be running 4.36, so this may be old news for many of you.  If you keep getting disconnected, and you are running Ver 4.32 then upgrade to 4.36, it worked for me. 

I also added more maps to make the rotation much larger, and to dilute the frequency of Face.  I may add still more, and I'm also looking at several brand new maps (Thanks DARK4SE!)

Get ready....  Punkbuster is coming soon to a CS Server near you.
 Download it, install it, then run it in the background while you play.  

Counter-Strike Players, help me out!!  If you see a person you know to be cheating, and I do not mean just a very good player, drop me an e-mail and tell me the player name, the time and day, and most importantly their WON ID !!  All the other stuff does me no good unless you tell me their WON ID number, since I ban by WON ID.  Also if they are excessively obnoxious tell me that also.  Those of you I know and trust, I'll ban  players simply on your recommendation.

Should I put the CS server back to 28 or leave it at 26 players?? 

UT News: Since I put up CSHP 45 we are seeing fewer and fewer cheaters in the server now, which is a good thing.

I increased the CS Server to 26 players, and may increase it again.  With all servers running full, I'm only at about 65-70% CPU usage on the server so I still have lots of headroom left.  

I am running the latest CSHP currently 45 on the UT Server.  
Let me know if it is buggy, it is still in Beta form.  

Long time no update, been busy with RL, and playing CS!

Here are the latest happenings around "Cain"s:

The UT Server is holding its own at Number 3 in the world (even with only 24 players).  I made a larger map rotation of standard maps, and may increase it again further.  I will continue to add newer and newer versions of CSHP as they are released. 

The Tribes Server has camped out at Number 1 in the world for an extended period of time now. Also, I have added several Admins to address the TK'ing problems folks were e-mailing me about.  I assume things are working well, since the server has been busier than ever lately.  Tribes is clearly far, far from being dead.  

The Counter-Strike Server has seen some notable changes.  First, I am now allowing 24 players and may increase that to 26 soon.  Also, I modified all of the maps I am running to allow up to 32 players at all times, so no more getting into the server, then having to sit in purgatory for those maps that only held 20 players.  I know a newer version of HL and CS are coming out within the next couple of months with smaller head boxes, and some new weapons.  I may add some new Admins for the CS server to attempt to maintain the rule of law when I am not around.  I have had to ban more players from the CS server than I have from all other servers combined.  Fortunately with CS it is simple and foolproof to ban a particular player by his WON ID.  

And finally, let me say that Counter-Strike is overall the best on-line game I have ever played and is just about the most fun game I have EVER played.  It is just too cool, and just too much fun. 

As always if you have questions, comments, concerns, drop me an e-mail or post over in the Forums with my name in the message Title. 

The Tribes server has stayed Number 1 in the world for several weeks now.  

The CS Server has been so busy I had to wait almost 25 minutes to get into it and play the other night. 

And the UT server is also staying very busy.  I'm glad people are having fun. 

Woohoo!!  The Tribes Server is Number 1 in the world again!!  
CLQ, popular Tribes CTF servers

New CSHP on the UT Server.  I will soon post the cheaters page again, so we can see who has been cheating for the last month or so.  I'll post it by the end of this week.  

Counter Strike continues to rock, and be tons of fun.  If you have not tried this game, check it out, it kicks serious BUTT.

Counter-Strike

The CS server has been a big success, but it would probably have been sitting empty were it not for two guys from Puerto Rico who stay in there all day, thus attracting more players.  I'm referring to PARAO-Charlie and PARAO-Panzer.  These guys will pay for hours at the stretch (I am talking like 7-8 hours!), and are a lot of fun to play. 
  Thanks guys, Muchas Gracias !!
-------------------------------------

Well, so much for Tribes 2 ;-)  I took it down.

I increased the max players in the Tribes, and CS Server, since I do not need the CPU/bandwidth for Tribes 2 any longer.  It seemed silly to have a lightly used server (T2) keeping people out of very heavily used ones. 

Also, I keep experimenting with the UT map rotation.  With the exception of Face, I'm currently selecting maps that aim botters and spawn snipers HATE.  There is a new stable bug-free CSHP on the horizon, it should be finished within a week. 

Tribes 2 is here, but so far it looks as if it will not be as big as Half-Life or Unreal Tournament, nor will it have the 'staying-power' of those games.  It has a rabid following, and folks either love it or hate it, there seems to be no middle ground.   The T2 on-line play has jumped into the number 2 spot on Gamespy's stats behind Half-Life/Counter-Strike (thx SL83), but I am curious to see how it will stack up in a year or so.

Well, I plunked another $700.00 into the server this weekend (yes I know I am an idiot), for my final server upgrade .  I changed the CPU's to Dual P3-1000's and increased the RAM to 768. 

I plan to test this configuration out over the next week, so let me know if you see any 'weirdness'. 

I just put up a Tribes 2 server.  It is named "Cain's T2 Lair"  207.2.252.100:28000.  Since I do not have T2 here at home yet, I have no idea if it is actually working properly, so please check it out and let me know, if you can connect, play, etc.  I'll probably break down and get the game within the next few weeks. 

Welcome to our new Counter-Strike buddies!  
For those of you who are new, Cain's Lair has been running a busy Tribes and UT server for a looooong time.  The CS Server is less than two weeks old, but we are getting a few very good regulars, and a few players from the UT and Tribes servers play there also.  TELL ALL YOUR BUDS!!  Anyone in the Southeastern US should ping pretty sweet to the server.  Tell all your buddies!!  Help me spread the word about the new CS Server..   If you see it empty, hop in there and sit for about 15 minutes, others will join you, it is just that nobody wants to be the first one in a empty server.. 

Well, the new Counter-Strike Server has been a hit.  Some very good players and some new regulars too..  If you have not played this game, give it a shot, and you will see why more people play this game on-line than EVERY OTHER GAME COMBINED!  Check the real-time Gamespy game Stats...  CS is FUN !!

www.counter-strike.net

Also, if you are new here, go post over in the Forums, and say "Hi", we have a terrific group of regulars in all of the servers, and many folks, like SL83, who play regularly in all three servers..

Counter-Striker rocks, but I am so new I do not know my way around the maps, or which weapons are best.  Also, I'm trying to weed out the maps everyone hates and narrow the rotation down a bit. If you have map suggestions, drop me an e-mail.

The server will be back on-line tonight..  

Counter-Strike ROCKS!!!  Check it out guys, it really is fun.
 Geddy and I had a blast last night playing it on the test server. 

I am bringing the server home late today, and I'll put it back up when I can fix the RAS.  I have tried everything including a complete re-install, but so far nothing has worked.. I am sick and tired of driving 35 minutes (one way), resetting the server, then getting home, starting RAS and it crashes.  Then I repeat the cycle above (at least 6 times this week!)..

Update:  OK I think I have my RAS fixed.  The server will be back on-line no later than Wednesday night. 

 After you folks have begged me for a year, I'm gonna give a Counter-Strike Server another shot as well, so load it up!!  The last Beta I tried sucked, but I hear it is much better and the HL netcode is much improved, so let's see. 

Whoah, news!!  I'm still hanging around.  ;-)
Work has been very, very busy lately, working lots of very long days.
  I have been having fits with my RAS lately, and every time I use it it crashes, so I have been unable to switch maps, update CSHP, etc. unless I drive to Columbia and do it manually.   I plan to install CSHP 4d as soon as it gets released, or 4e is they skip to that version.  I finally got CSHP 4b installed tonight. 

I also made some minor changes to the Web page here, mainly removing the regulars page.  I have just been too busy to update it, and I'm trying to spend less time fiddling with the web page, while still keeping the game server humming along.  

I am thinking of taking the UT server down to 26 players, I think it will actually play better with 26, we'll give it a go and see.  It may be tough to get in at night, but we'll see.  E-mail me if you have trouble getting in to play, and I may put it back to 28 again. 

Tribes

Well gang we did it.  The Tribes Server became the busiest Tribes Server in the world again on Feb. 16th!!  For those of you who are new here, we used to be consistently in the Top three servers and spent a lot of time at Number 1, then we completely fell out of the top 50 for months (thanks to BWAdmin).  I switched the server back to base, and we began a slow, steady climb back up.  I am glad so many folks have had so much fun in the Tribes Server, and I want to thank all the old timers who hung in there when there were only 3-4 players all night long! 

 Click here for a screenshot of Cain's Lair's return to Number 1 !!  

If you are a new to our server, head on over to the Forums and introduce yourself, welcome to "Cain's Lair".. 

UT Stuff

  Friday before last (Feb. 9th), I enabled the "advertise" setting on the UT server for CSHP, but ngWorldStats issued us a new UID!!  This meant server stats for about 4 days got tracked to a new UID.  To complicate matters my RAS crashed on me, and then the server crashed and I could not reboot it.  Anyhow, long story-short, we lost about 4 days of server stats on Cain's Lair CTF, all of you players got your stats recorded, but the server lost stats for those days.  We should get back into the top 5 this week with no problem. 

Well the Tribes comeback story continues.
  We were up to Number 2 in the World today on the CLQ Rankings page.  
Feb 3, 2001 Tribes CLQ Ranking

----------------
I put up the new balanced FACE-LE map today on the UT Server, let's see how it plays. Also after much thought I cut the UT Server back to 28 players.  For some maps, particularly November, 30 players gets a tad bit jerky, even though the server is at about 30% CPU usage.  Since 32 players is the absolute max for UT, perhaps 30 gets a bit too close, so let's see how 28 plays, I think it will be sweet.  I think everyone's ping, when it is full, will be about 25% lower. 

-------------------

Well talk about the comeback of the century.  "Cain's Lair" had been one of the top Tribes servers in the world for well over a year and a half, then we spent the last few months as one of the emptiest tribes servers anywhere.  (I actually considered pulling it down permanently.)  But guess what, WE ARE BACK!!  The Tribes server is now the 3rd busiest Tribes server in the world!  I am flabbergasted, really surprised.  Thank you to all the regulars. And everyone who hung in through the lean times deserves a medal!!  

Tribes 1/16 Ranking

----------------

The UT Server had a horrible week last week, and guess what..  They did not reset the weekly stats on Saturday night like the always do, so our ranking is being weighed down by last week.  We are now starting to run down those other servers, and we are up from fifth to third, and closing on second..  We would be back in first place on ngWorldStats if *cough* a bunch of our regulars *cough, cough* would be playing here rather than fiddling around *cough* over there in "packet loss city"..  ;-) 

If they were gonna pick a week to stretch into two weeks, I wish they would have picked the week we had 245 days, not the week we had about 95 days!! 

BTW The CLQ has us at Number 1 as of this week!! (Where we all know we belong.)

CLQ UT CTF Server Rankings

"All your rankings are belong to us"^*

 ^{* TM} Cain's Lair, all rights reserved  ;-) 

November has returned to the UT Server, and it is rocking!!  

Also, I may soon be adding the "fixed" Face-SE which is now known as Face-League Edition.
 Click the link below to see what he fixed with this new version.

http://24.18.41.172/xDxEx/projects/Face-LE/

I updated the UT CTF Server to Version 4.36 this weekend. This means you must have AT LEAST Version 4.32 of UT to be able to get in there and play.  If you are having problems connecting, e-mail me and I'll try to help you get it fixed.  I put CSHP back to simple detection to get that funbot2.  Also Dr' Sin is in the middle of a major upgrade to CSHP, we will have it here as soon as he releases it.

I switched the Tribes Server back to just Base, and it is making a miraculous comeback.  I'm amazed, and stumped.  I guess most folks like Base the best, eh?? 

Happy New Year to everyone.  I wish all of you all the best in 2001.

OLD NEWS 

---------

The term "Cain's Lair" and all associated images,
 text, and photographs are the property of Cain
Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003.
  Unauthorized use or duplication is expressly prohibited.