Update

Poll has been resetted because of server optimization which should improve page loading times.

Original message

Hey guys,

I would like to know if someone experience faster downloads or faster page loading times after the server move.
( or the opposite )

Simply answer the poll and leave some words if you would like so.


We ( UGX ) want to make sure our site is running great and reliable.

Update 2

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Update

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TL;TR

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Hello folks,

You might have noticed in the past few months some issues with our server.
Mostly noticeably the bad uptime and the long page loading times.

As we grow and get more and more popular, we receive more incoming traffic.
On top of that, a few months ago we received a nice DDoS attack for around a week... some of you probably remember that.

We are well-prepared for 2015 and as a result we will finally move to a new server which can better handle the increased traffic and DDOS attacks.
( It is our 4th big server move now =D )
We hope that we are from now on better prepared for the future.


Beside the lower price and better performance ( double win! ) we will try to improve technically EVERYTHING

- Increased overall security of the new server
- Better preparation for data loss or worse
- Better DDoS Protection
- Overall bandwidth should be higher for everyone as well! ( faster downloads, *yay* o/ )


Administrating a server ( I have done this for over 4 years now ) is an ongoing learning process for me and everyone else in the team as well.
We are only a tiny team and therefore everything takes a bit longer than you might expect.

But besides that, the migration to the new server should go smooth and without any issues. *fingers crossed*
The Forum will go into maintenance mode soon, which means you can only read but not write forum posts or personal messages.

The UGX MapManager, UGX Chat and UGX Launcher should be unaffected by this.
The UGX Teamspeak³ Server will be down for a short time.

Everything should be resolved within the next 24h and WE / I hope there are no other issues.

But if you have an issue, please send an e-mail to [email protected] ( which hopefully works then, hehe )


A BIG THANKS to all our donators - without you we couldn't improve our service for EVERYONE.


- Alexander 'Delta' Diller

Hey guys,

for one day, Payday: The Heist is forever free if you install it today.

Get the game: http://store.steampowered.com/app/24240/
Some info why: http://steamcommunity.com/games/218620/announcements/detail/220999919816458756

Enjoy.

What is the UGX Scripting Reference?

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If you're not a scripter then this probably won't interest you. For those of you who are scripters the UGX Scripting Reference is unlike any scripting reference you've ever used before. The UGX Scripting Reference has tons of cool features and functions that have never been seen before.

Features

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• You can direct link to specific functions in the reference without linking to a broken page. Example link to a function. Example link to Broken page on Zeroy's reference.
• It keeps track of your recently viewed functions.
• You can save functions to a Favorites List.
• You can copy a function to your clipboard for pasting directly to a script.
• Autocompleting search box.
• You can filter out function categories that you don't want to see.
• All functions have written summaries of their functionality and parameters. Around 700 of the functions have handwritten descriptions by either myself or treminaor which are more detailed and informative than other script references or docs. Any functions which we have not handwritten a description of uses the same description from other script references or CoD documentation.
• Around 700 functions have custom script examples which actually show context and usage rather than just a copy/paste of the function definition with some parameters thrown in. We believe this is key to understanding how a function should be used.
• All utility functions and their summaries are viewable - no other script reference has this information indexed.

Alpha? What's left to do?

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Everything needs to be tested. Obviously there are still bugs we have not discovered and releasing a public alpha for everyone to test is the fastest way to find them. If you find a bug with the UGX Scripting Reference, please reply to this topic describing what you were trying to do when the bug occurred and what the bug is.

Lots of functions are untested or missing and we need your feedback on this. There are also certain functions marked with tags that indicate their functionality is unknown, or that they might not work at all. We have tags to indicate the status of a function, such as if a function exists but does not work or has not been verified as working. If you find a function which should be marked with these tags please let us know in this topic.

We want your opinion. Do you have any suggestions for improving the UGX Scripting Reference? Features that should be added, changed, or removed? Please let us know in this topic.

Edit by treminaor: I took some time today to look into the legitimacy of these discussions and I have added some facts in blue to this post.

So there is currently some discussion going on in the UGX Chat Room and forum about "ripping" maps from Source games and taking scripts from people's IWDs in the community.

This includes ripping a map from a .ff file from ANY call of duty game AND ripping/converting a map from another engine to Call of Duty World at War. This was just a rumor started by certain unknown people. No one in this community is currently working on a map decompiler that will result in stolen maps. There are certain people who have ripped "entities" from map files, but this is not something to be concerned about. The entities in a map are things like script_structs and script_models that are needed by the scripts of the map. These entities are stored as plain-text in the fastfiles and also can be dumped using a console command in the game itself! So this is nothing new and nothing to be worried about. Even if a decompiler was made for .d3dbsp files, there is currently no way to rip the .d3dbsp files from the fastfiles themselves and it would not be easy because they are compiled, not just zipped. The Value BSP extractor that people are using on L4D2 maps cannot be adapted for use on COD .d3dbsp files - they are different formats, even though the engine is similar. TL;DR; there is no threat of WaW community map decompiling currently in this community and therefore these is no need to have any more paranoid discussions on how it should be prevented at this time.
I also had to read over and over again that someone stole this script or this gun from someone else.

So I would like to know how we should handle this?

Possible examples of rules that could be implemented:
(NONE OF THESE RULES ARE REAL YET, THEY ARE MERELY SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION)

Tools:
Any map-ripping too is disallowed on the site.

Map / Script
Distributing / using a ripped map from another game / script needs permission from the original author first.
He needs to be aware of all changes and where the file will be hosted. (+ has to agree obviously )
Proper credit with direct link to the original map / script

Reporting
Any reported conflicts need to be solved asap.
Until it's not solved any download links will be removed.
If this happens too often - we take the right to ban the account or disallow distribution on our sites.

Please keep in mind. - We can only make sure that this site offer a service of quality. And therefore the rules can only be forced on this site.

I would love to start an open discussion about this issue and I hope we can find together a good solution for the future.

Your input is needed now!

This post has been copied from the private Exclusive Donor's Section to the public Announcements section. Donors saw this post on 03 MAY 2014. We will continue to copy these Tech Blogs to the Announcements section as they become old enough that the donor exclusivity was long enough.

Hey there,

Welcome to the first UGX Mods Tech Blog.
This blog is dedicated to any projects which might not be directly related to the UGX Mod, but are still important^^

I would like to introduce something for scripters which I was working on for a while now and which will be released ( hopefully ) soon as a beta.

UGX Scripting Reference.

Wait? Like this one? http://www.zeroy.com/script ?
HELL NO!

Background:

When I started writing my first scripts ( damn that was at the end of 2008 ! ) it was a bit tricky to know all these functions.
What do they do, what do they need and can someone give me please an example?

As it all started, I had to learn them from CoD 2/4 by taking a look at the 3arc scripts by myself.

I also disliked the "workflow" a lot with the scripting references out there on the web.
You forgot this one tiny little simple function and it felt like it took 10 minutes to find it.

Or a function didn't work as expected because you didn't know what it needed as an input or what exactly it returns.


Well, Andy ( treminaor ) and I wanted to change this.
So I wrote an advanced Scripting Reference with all the features he and I wanted to see.

So what can you expect pretty soon:

• Modern UI
• Favorites and Recent list
• Filters ( Singleplayer / Multiplayer, per module, per category )
• Search with autocomplete
• Easy linking to someone else
• Core functions and utility functions ( more are planned: zombie functions, ... )
• Nice syntax highlighting ( actually a bit outdated, need to tweak to the UGX Mods format! )
• Copy & Paste support.

We also added datatypes, better descriptions, examples and valid values.
Please keep in mind, this is still an ongoing process! - We're talking about ~800 core function + all others we want to add!

Oh and did I mention that we even added some functions which aren't listed anywhere else?^^

Take a look for yourself:

Feel free to leave your feedback. Suggestions, criticism.. anything is welcome ( as long as you don't break the rules )

How did we get all the data?

Please note: Nope we didn't rip this from another site. ( Apparently I have to write this to keep haters on a minimum level, again, apparently they won't be avoidable I guess )

The "core" (engine) functions were taken from the CoD 2 documentation.
The utility / common functions were taken straight from the script files.
For this task, I wrote an application which gathers all the information.

Andy ( treminaor ) found / added some additional, not mentioned functions. ( They were added in WaW )

We both, added all the datatypes / valid values / descriptions ( mostly custom ones, based on our scripting knowledge with more insight and better / easier descriptions^^ )

So what's next? - When is the release

After we add all functions, we will make sure it will work fine for the beta.
Then we will release it and keep extending it ( correct incorrect stuff, fill in examples, datatypes, ... )
As I mentioned already, this is an ongoing and long process - we want to make sure everything is correct.

[Scripters are welcome to help us on this - more on this when it's in beta and available to the public]

Ok guys, that's it for the first Tech Blog.
I promise the next one will be even better!!

Oh, btw, Tech Blogs won't be released in a certain interval or specific day. Just keep an eye on the forum


Thanks for reading

Alexander alias Delta

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Original Info:

Hey guys,

just a quick heads up. We will move to our new server soon. ( in the next few hours! )

TL;DR You might expect a short down time of some UGX Services

As some of you already noticed, the chat server is down. It will be up as soon as the server move is done.
Everything should work already on the new server - we just need to verify it ^^

FAQ

Q: Why is UGX Mods moving to another server again?
A: We have multiple reasons for it. More about this soon. ( yeah I know, well answered, right?! )

Q: How long does it take until I can access the site again?
A: Thats not up to us. We have a new IP for UGX-Mods.com, therefore we need to update the DNS Server. This should take less than 24 hours to take effect for everyone !

Q: Can I still write forum posts / private messages?
A: Yes, until we set the site into maintenance mode. ( we announce this on twitter 15min before it will take effect )

Q: How can I track the current status / progress?
A: https://twitter.com/UGXMods

Thanks for your understanding.

- UGX Mods Team

Please note

We also play the ArmA 3 Zombie mod: Breaking Point.

http://www.thezombieinfection.com/

We were disappointed about the bad early alpha of DayZ Standalone so far. - The ArmA 3 mod runs better and makes more fun right now.

We probably play more Breaking Point until DayZ get's into an acceptable and enjoyable state.

If you have both, you are good to go

The Usermenu is a small bar on each side of the browser window.
Each bar can have windows attached, for compatibility the top bar is fixed and can't be customized.

It's a bit hard to explain with just words, so when I release the beta (which will be exclusive to donators!), a video and tutorial mode will be prepared to cover/explain all features.

The chat was rewritten from scratch and has many new features.I don't want to go into detail yet, be excited!

But wait, there is more. I still have two unannounced projects remaining; combined with the chat and usermenu, it will enhance your zombie gameplay experience.

So be ready for some cool stuff in the next weeks around the awesome UGX Mod.
Oh, btw, the scripting reference for modders will be out soon aswell. (took a bit longer^^)

Thanks for listening.

Alexander 'Delta'

(TL;TR)

If it doesn't work: write a mail to [email protected]
If your mail was in the spam folder, please comment to this news with your host
(thanks)

If you have already a second account, please delete the account which you don't use!
If you don't have access to this account, simply write a pm to Delta or a mail [email protected]

Thanks for your understanding and help.

- UGX Mods Team

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More info:

Apparently the problem exist now for a few month and I partially fixed it some weeks ago.
But it still doesn't work for some mail hosts.

I totally forgot about the problem and on top of this I'm very busy with other stuff.
(yayay, blame me - it's all my fault - but please keep in mind that we are doing this for free in our spare time )

If you have any other problems or issues, please let it me know so I can take a look at it.
We don't ignore problems like others do. (and I hope you know this, but I just say it anyways )

I try to fix our mailserver asap and will update this news once it's fixed (and 120% approved this time!)

If you have a secound account, please try to delete it.
I can also change the login name to your original one. ( no number suffix and so on )

And be sure to use the correct e-mail for your current account.

Hello lovely community,

It's finally time for me to let some more information out to the public. (Transparency YAY!)

You might be thinking "Who the hell is this guy and what is he doing!" - and thats exactly why I made this thread today
Additionally, I would like to announce some upcomming changes, so it's definitely worth reading this thread

So let's start with UGX Mod Standalone v1.1:

No, I won't say a specific date on when we release it. - It's impossible to predict yet.
BUT! - I want to give the community the opportunity to track our progress, aswell as maybe even participate a bit more into our development.

Internally, we use a planning software and I hope to enable a publicly-viewable section, which lists what issues/features we are currently working on.
Stay tuned for more about this in the upcoming days.

Finally I would also like to clarify some confusion about who is actually working on UGX Mod Standalone currently.
Although we have a team of 8 people, only 4 are currently active: treminaor, Delta (me) and SajeOne - Mr.Slagovich is doing QA.

The next huge thing which we want to deliver to the community is our own "Developer Package".
Included in this package is an example map with all UGX Mod features. ( you have already seen it in our recent YouTube videos )

We are also in the process of adding a ton of new Wiki pages, which will become public when they are all finished.
-> In our opinion we are providing better instructions and more detail than any currently existing CoD wiki.

For community mappers, we will deliver our own UGX Modtools Patch. - The advantage of our patch is that it contains all fixes from Sniperbolt's Tutorial Map patch, plus:
- fixed Juggernog hitcount
- an on-screen in-game debugging system for all types of zombie doors (blockers, sliding doors, etc)
- and more to be announced later on

I also have more exciting news to share with all scripters / modders out there aswell:
I personally don't like the current CCoD/Zeroy scripting reference and it has a lack of features in my opinion,
so UGX has decided to deliver our own custom scripting reference, with some neat features you have never seen or dreamed of

Last but not least, let's talk a bit about the UGX-Mods website. - You might have noticed recently some minor changes and a major one, the chat room.
While using the chat you might have encountered some ?;> &;> weird chat output.
This will be finally over soon. - I would like to introduce a fully reworked system:

I personally brand it as usermenu.
Technically, it appears on each side of your web browser as small bar, where you can have access to certain new windows / features. (similar to the tasklist in Windows)
My goal is to make the current site experience more userfriendly, so I integrated the chat and a couple of other features directly into each page.

That means, as long as you stay on UGX-Mods, you have the chat always with you on the userbar.
And yes, the chat system has been fully rewritten - a lot of cool new features will be added and I even plan to expand support for older browsers.
That also mean it will has a special version for mobile platforms aswell! (yay)

The new chat will be launched at the same time as the userbar.

I can't go into any more detail yet - But when time comes, any member who is interested in the new userbar can participate in the closed beta to test it out.

That's all the news I can give for now - check back often to see when all these new things will be released!

Oh and of course, thanks to YOU guys. Your feedback, support and sharing is just freaking awesome! - keep it up!