Reserved Slots are now functioning 100% on the TF2 Server. I would like to thank everyone for their patience while we worked out numerous issues with the admin tool situation (Thank kormendi for all the time and effort he put into this).

What does this mean? Well, it means that if any of the TG TF2 servers are full: Supporting Members will still have access to the server.

Here, I'll go into the steps needed to make sure you have Reserved Slot access (I'll go ahead and thank Waffle and Silver for their help creating this):

First off, you will need to ensure you have your SteamID in your TG forum profile:

Find your steam ID

• Goto your Steam program directory, by default this is C:\Program Files\Steam
• Look for a file called Steam.log and open it in a text editor eg right click on it and open in notepad
• If this file is blank, check back after you have connected to a Steam game
• You should see something like the code block below
• Look for the lines that start with "Did not find an existing connection, attempting new connection" (they are the longest lines.) The number at the end of these lines that looks like 0:1:1274531 (not my real ID) is your steam ID. You should append this number to "STEAM_" so that it reads STEAM_0:1:1274531 in this case

Code:

CsComm        Session               Mar-13-2007  19:03:38.410  [3976]  ReconnectThread (3976) Starting
CsComm        Session               Mar-13-2007  19:04:51.670  [3960]  CreateSession(SteamUserName,7,29)=0 attempt 1
CsComm        ConnectionPool        Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.057  [3960]  Did not find an existing connection, attempting new connection 0,11.11.212.11:27030 for 0:1:1274531
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.058  [3960]  {Cnx=0,0,11.11.212.11:27030} : Attempting new connection
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.221  [3960]  {Cnx=0,0,11.11.212.11:27030} : connected
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.222  [3120]  Recv Worker (3120) Starting
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.224  [3960]  {Cnx=0,1,11.11.212.11:27030} : Adding session 0
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.266  [3960]  {Cnx=0,1,11.11.212.11:27030} : Binding client session handle 0 to server session handle 0
CsComm        Session               Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.266  [3960]  CreateSession(SteamUserName,7,29)=0 attempt 1 succeeded, CS #33
CsComm        Session               Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.266  [3960]  DestroySession(0)
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.299  [3960]  {Cnx=0,1,11.11.212.11:27030} : Unbinding client session handle 0 to server session handle 0
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.299  [3960]  {Cnx=0,1,11.11.212.11:27030} : Removing session 0
CsComm        ConnectionPool        Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.299  [3960]  Disconnect(0)
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.299  [3120]  Recv Worker (3120) Told to exit
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.399  [3960]  {Cnx=0,4,11.11.212.11:27030} : disconnected
CsComm        Session               Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.400  [3960]  CreateSession(SteamUserName,7,88)=1 attempt 1
CsComm        ConnectionPool        Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.401  [3960]  Did not find an existing connection, attempting new connection 1,11.11.212.11:27030 for 0:1:1274531
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.401  [3960]  {Cnx=1,0,11.11.212.11:27030} : Attempting new connection
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.569  [3960]  {Cnx=1,0,11.11.212.11:27030} : connected
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.569  [3960]  {Cnx=1,1,11.11.212.11:27030} : Adding session 1
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.569  [4068]  Recv Worker (4068) Starting
CsComm        Connection            Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.619  [3960]  {Cnx=1,1,11.11.212.11:27030} : Binding client session handle 1 to server session handle 0
CsComm        Session               Mar-13-2007  19:04:52.619  [3960]  CreateSession(SteamUserName,7,88)=1 attempt 1 succeeded, CS #33
CsComm        Session               Mar-13-2007  19:04:58.458  [688]  CancelPendingCall(1,5099)
CsComm        Session               Mar-13-2007  19:04:58.458  [688]  CancelPendingCall(1,5101)

Enter your steam ID into your TG forums profile

• Click on the UserCP link under the forums listing at the top of the forums, as shown in #1 in picture below
• After you bring up your UserCP, click "Edit Profile" labelled #2 in the picture below
• Once you are at your profile, add your SteamID that you found in Steam.log to the appropriate Textbox and then Save your changes
• This field in the forums UserCP is only available to fill in by supporting (paying) members and is linked to the server. Once you have completed this field it takes 10-30 mins for the data to be fed through to the server. Then your reserved slot is activated

Once this is done, you'll need to give the server time to update the user's file. This will generally take between 15-30 minutes. If you haven't seen a result an hour after entering your SteamID, please contact me or another available admin if I am not around.

Now, how to actually connect to the server if it's full: Normally, trying a connection on a full server (even with reserved slots) will just garner you a "server is full" message. In this case, you have to "force" a connection to the server. There are a few ways to do this:

Enable the developer console

• Click 'Options'
• Click 'Advanced' button
• Tick 'Enable developer console'
• Click 'OK'

Hit the ~ key

• To bring up the console hit the '~' key (top left of the keyboard)

Type in the connect command

• To connect to server 1 type 'connect tf2.tacticalgamer.com'
• Click submit
• This method of connecting is sometimes known as force-connecting

• To connect to server 2 type 'connect tf2-2.tacticalgamer.com'
• Click submit

You're in ! have fun !

• You connect to the server and the map starts to load, enjoy !

If you have any issue or questions about the preceding write-up, feel free to contact me and I will help you the best I can.

Addendum: There is an issue in the way BAT handles the reserved slots. Even though we had a 24 players server with 2 reserved slots, it was only using one of them based upon the configuration. So, the server would go to 23 players and imbalanced team aren't something I think we want.

I fixed the problem by setting maxplayers to 23 and using one reserved slot. Now, what this means to you is that there's only one reserved slot for members to connect to for the SM kick system. So, if you try to connect and get a "server is full" message, then you need to wait a few second until the reserved slot clears. Then you can connect.

Other than that, they work fine. I'm going to work with the configs to see if I can't figure a way to have 2 functioning reserved slots and an even player count.