Dear members and visitors of Soldiers of Demise,
Soon the year 2015 will end for once and for all, and we will continue to live on in 2016.
In this post I’ll clarify some changes that happened late 2015, and give a small window to things planned for 2016.
First of all my favourite topic: the Trophy system.
As many of you probably have discovered by now, we have added those little rewards called ‘trophies’ that appear under your user avatar. These trophies are part of a larger system that is currently being worked on. For now they are just assigned to your rank, but in the future there will be trophies given away during events and perhaps trophies linked to in-game achievements. We’ve also been debating about a point-reward system, with each trophy carrying a certain amount of points, but that currently hasn't the highest priority.
We will be experimenting with event trophies as early as December this year. Since they have to be distributed manually it will be quite a task, but with some luck we’ll be able to automate the process in the future.
The following events will see trophies being given to participants:
- Surprise Gifts
- Xmas Event 2015
These will be unique trophies, so be sure to participate 
Second I’d like to thank all of those who participated in the testing of Joux’ new browsergame-to-be: The Colonies.
The testing-phase went really well. Thanks to you guys we now know the game has ways less bugs than expected by its creator (get some confidence Juxie! 
) and at the same time we have had a lot of fun invading one another.
The community also brought in some great ideas, some of which we might see back in a future testing.
Next I’ll talk a bit about the servers.
As most of you know, we currently have 4 recognized games we host dedicated servers on, those being: Killing Floor 2; Counter Strike Global Offensive; 7 Days to Die and Zombie Panic: Source.
First of all: the Killing Floor 2 server.
Although it doesn’t have many regular players yet, the new updates to bêta-stage KF2 look promising and in the future it might be worth it to either code or use the steam-workshop to put some nice mods on it. Until then we’ll just have to rely on occasional plays from our members, which isn’t bad either. After all, the server itself was set up in the first place so that we have a place to go to when we want to play some Killing Floor 2.
Second: the 7 Days to Die server.
Although quite successful in the past, the server now is on a temporal hiatus. This has several reasons. First of all it currently has no hosting-address. Joux is working on setting up a new internet protocol, but it might take some time.
The reason it went down in the first place however is because some bugs kept popping up every time the developers updated the server, mainly because I coded in some things the devs took out of the main game for little to no reason when switching to alpha 11 status, and these things went crashing once the files were externally updated. Aside from that it turns out the Random World function has been buggy ever since alpha 10. I’ve thus decided that with the introduction to alpha 12, the server will be switch to the default Navezgame map. It might be limiting, but it won’t have many of the bugs people were complaining about. It comes with one mayor disadvantage though: in order to set the new map, playerdata from the previous map will be lost. I’ll think of some ‘compensation’ for these players, although it’s too early to say something about that. As long as the server is on alpha 11, the alpha 11 map will stay online.
Having told the bad news, let’s bring forward some good stuff. At first, somewhere in January I’m planning on hosting a 7DtD meeting with some epic events. As a second, alpha 12 is coming soon and will provide us with some needed and awesome updates. Either me or Lex will post more info regarding A12 soon.
Then we have: the Counterstrike server.
The server hasn’t been running very well ever since it was launched. After making some tweaks and alterations, we determined that it was not the mod that didn’t attract enough players, but simply the fact that a modified server doesn’t stand a chance on a rank-oriented game. Thus the sad decision has been made to temporarily shut down the server. With no hope of a regular playerbase in the future, our counterstrike server will most likely officially be terminated early 2016.
Forth comes: Zombie Panic: Source.
Our main game has been doing quite nicely, even though the general amount of zps players is dwindling. The JX-mod has been the most balanced system we’ve had so far, and it has attracted quite some new, unique players.
However, as with the RPG-mod and the Fungrades before it, JX has also gotten critics about its point system. With the difference between ordinary and regular players getting larger, the latter has become a bit overpowered compared to the former. There is quite some discussion behind the screens about this problem, but a solution has yet to be found. As far as one can be found, since this problem is simply a natural occurrence that pops up once a system has been running for a long time. Technically the best solution would be to reset all stats and start over again, perhaps on a new mod so that people have new things to explore. However, we know this would stumble upon a huge resistance from the community, so we are thinking of other ways to ‘fix’ this cycle of life. For now, we’ll have the memorable RPG-mod running on EU#3 and the unforgettable Fungrades running on EU#4 aside from JX on EU#1 and EU#2, so that those seeking to play some oldschool where the statistics are different can enjoy themselves there. Be aware though that the main plugins are not yet synchronized, so events, tokens, vip-days etc are counted differently for JX and the other 2 mods. Xerox is working on synchronizing everything though.
And last but not least: Garry’s Mod.
You thought Zombie Panic: Source would be the last server I’d talk about? You were wrong, cause our fabulous castle and our beloved printer are currently working on setting up a server for Garry’s Mod.
We cannot promise anything regarding this game, especially since the new system for this game is still in early development and code GM works with (lua) is a pain in the ass, but we might see an official SoD server on Garry’s Mod somewhere in 2016.
Next up is the new member-ranking system introduced back in June.
In its original concept it was intended to be a small step in a larger system, a bridge between the old and the new way of categorizing players and members. However, this setup has proven more successful than expected, so we’ll keep the member-ranking like it is until the need for large changes pops up, which it probably won’t for at least the next twelve months.
Something also worth mentioning is that all servers soon will or already have switched to a different internet protocol address. This won’t change much for you, the users, aside from the fact you’ll see a different IP below the server name. In case you search servers by IP, you can ask Joux or Xerox what the new IP of the server in question is.
And before I forget it, the Did you know suggestions.
Remember that topic I made way back in June regarding some (funny) facts regarding SoD and its members? I’ve gotten quite some replies, but haven’t had the time to finish the list yet. Somewhere around Christmas I’ll put everything together and place it somewhere for everyone to see and remember. I bet you didn’t know everything on it yet.
I think I’ve mentioned the most important stuff to keep you guys up-to-date about what is going on behind the scenes.
I hope this info was useful. Feel free to leave a like or subscribe t… oh wait, wrong medium.
Which reminds me: please don’t use the shoutbox as Telegram or Twitter, nor to shout in.
With kind regards,
Crispy Bacon
