Calculated Chaos Group Meet/LAN Party...

[Viano]

Sounds cool, but being poor and Canadian doesn't bode well. But if you ever choose to come to Canada we have cheap weed and a low drinking age

I'll see what I can do once we get some more info on the event but yeah I'm definitely interested.

[steve09]

I'm totally up for it. Last time I played a LAN game was a few years ago during class in high school. Halo Combat Evolved trial was what everyone played between 2 rooms, no lag, loads of fun, about 3 different games going on between about 30 people in 2 rooms maybe 3. This would be my first LAN party, and as of now I only have about £50 in my bank account and no job so coming to the US would be somewhat impossible. I suppose I could try and tap in over the net but last time I tried TF2 it just kept going to 1FPS and locking there, very annoying. Thats why I've not been on the servers for a few months, need money to buy new hardware (motherboard, PSU, CPU, videocard, possibly a case). I also used to be able to play 1920x1080 videos on my 1280x1024 screen but that also has stopped working .

[Sastora]

We are talking about Chicago, IL Right? 'Cause if so its about 18 and a half hours drive but I could stay a night at my uncles house in Huntsville Alabama and then drive on up. Goose and I have been wanting to take a rode trip.

[Äusländer]

Well let me ask this then, does anyone on these boards have a location that would host 20 people packed in with computers playing games for 24+ hours? Looking for a location more north central, and one possible south central. I'm in Nebraska so Vortex and I could drive North or South and pick up probably one other person on the way depending on how much equipment we'll be moving.

Note: if you have a location you should probably be at least 21 because more than likely there will be Beer or other spirits involved and I require that if you will participate you must be of drinking age or I wont be there. I'm not risking my clearance on some contributing to a minor charge. Or right now are we going to make these events "Dry" because of the age of some of the people attending?

[captainAngry]

It won't be dry, I assure you of that.

[Sastora]

I didn't think we had to decide, the people who want to drink should do it, the people who don't want to or can't...Well I'll bring the soda! C:

[steve09]

Well I would be happy to come apart from I'm in the UK, I don't know about any other British players apart from Corned and he's really too young to be going. In the UK I'm of age to drink (legal age is 18, I'm 19) but I'm pretty much a non drinker so I would be on the soda . If I had the money I would maybe come, if I manage to get TF2 working properly then I'll play online (just started steam found updates for TF2 & client, hope to try TF2 after this) if you guys go anywhere with this party and have it online that is .

[Riftoff]

So are we thinking this winter around Christmas or sometime this summer? And how many people would be at each of these parties?

E: And do any of us have the equipment to support 10+ PCs with a decent internet connection?

[g_e_oos]

Between Cap and Aus and Zoth I promise you they will have whatever anyone needs.

[Äusländer]

As of right now Captain and I agree that a good timeframe is late spring/early summer of next year. This way we have plenty of time for planning, finding a venue if need be, renting an internet connection and the like. Also since people are driving we want to make sure that the weather is good and no one finds themselves trapped in a snow storm.

As for equipment I am working on building what I would consider a "portable lan party" system. Right now I have a pretty robust file server that also hosts a Killing Floor and L4D2_demo server on it right now without much hassle. What I am going to do is rebuild that into a 4U rack case and then purchase 2 or 3 used servers off ebay and build them into dedicated game servers. From there I'll also pick up two Cisco 24 port 10/100 switches with gigabit GBIC ports to break up the packets and prevent collision. I'll throw all this into a 12u portable rack and make sure that it's ready to plug in the internet connection and go.

This server solution is going to be for the main LAN event, any smaller events shouldn't need this kind of horsepower. I'm planning this solution for 40 people, if we're going to have many less than that then I will scale it down but I would like to start purchasing things now so we're going to have to start nailing down a rough estimate before the end of this year.

EDIT: We now have gameservers... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT

[[DAWN]HellFire]

Well, honestly, even if I was of age to have a vehicle and legally go to a Local Area Network party for cC, I sadly probably wouldn't go far out of my home town to get to it, I mean, holding down a job, house, bills and feeding myself doesn't really allow for much of a free-time schedule. And an added bonus would be the fear of having to meet Gyspy Joe in real life...he's such a freakin' Canadian.

[genie]

He's not Canadian. He's from Texas.

[genie]

As of right now Captain and I agree that a good timeframe is late spring/early summer of next year. This way we have plenty of time for planning, finding a venue if need be, renting an internet connection and the like. Also since people are driving we want to make sure that the weather is good and no one finds themselves trapped in a snow storm.

I'd like to second that time frame on the basis of school. Even if it was during winter break, I wouldn't be able to afford a trip because I need to pay for school for the next term. In the spring/summer after school ends would work much nicer that way I can save up some money.

[Sastora]

Wow, so we are really going to do this!?
I'm super excited and now have to restart my piggy bank.

[marcus]

I'm there, bringing my room mate and gow if he's on the east coast.
I'll have my octagod, a macbook, ed's macbook pro that he'll be playing on and gow's rig. I'll also have a spare monitor if anyone's flying in and can't bring theirs.

[Äusländer]

I'm there, bringing my room mate and gow if he's on the east coast.
I'll have my octagod, a macbook, ed's macbook pro that he'll be playing on and gow's rig. I'll also have a spare monitor if anyone's flying in and can't bring theirs.

Imagine a toyota yaris hatchback with the back seats folded down and stuffed with computer equipment... that's what I'll be bringing.

[Joe's Crab Shack]

As of right now Captain and I agree that a good timeframe is late spring/early summer of next year.

Ill be 21 by then, im considering this now.

[BigJohn 308]

Note: if you have a location you should probably be at least 21 because more than likely there will be Beer or other spirits involved and I require that if you will participate you must be of drinking age or I wont be there. I'm not risking my clearance on some contributing to a minor charge. Or right now are we going to make these events "Dry" because of the age of some of the people attending?

So far as the subject of “Risk” goes – I’d just like to point out that random urinalysis are common with many employers. I’d hate to see someone (like me) terminated form their job due to the “Second Hand Smoke” of the player seated next to them.

So far as location goes, being someone who has traveled extensively, I would recommend in the strongest terms possible AGAINST Chicago! Overpriced as all hell, inconvenient, crime ridden and just plain dirty. Hell, it costs about $20 just in tolls just to drive through it on I-90. The regional opposite of Chicago is Indianapolis. Much safer, cost effective, cleaner & friendly.

FWIW…

[Riftoff]

Note: if you have a location you should probably be at least 21 because more than likely there will be Beer or other spirits involved and I require that if you will participate you must be of drinking age or I wont be there. I'm not risking my clearance on some contributing to a minor charge. Or right now are we going to make these events "Dry" because of the age of some of the people attending?

So far as the subject of “Risk” goes – I’d just like to point out that random urinalysis are common with many employers. I’d hate to see someone (like me) terminated form their job due to the “Second Hand Smoke” of the player seated next to them.

So far as location goes, being someone who has traveled extensively, I would recommend in the strongest terms possible AGAINST Chicago! Overpriced as all hell, inconvenient, crime ridden and just plain dirty. Hell, it costs about $20 just in tolls just to drive through it on I-90. The regional opposite of Chicago is Indianapolis. Much safer, cost effective, cleaner & friendly.

FWIW…

If were not going to do Chicago, I'd recommend Madison because it is a beautiful city, low crime, and cheaper than Chicago. (I know because I lived there ) Indianapolis is quite a haul for a lot of us.

[BigJohn 308]

LOL, I’m not trying to move the event any closer to my home, just venting the fact that I would rather attach electrodes to a particularly sensitive area of my body rather than re-subject myself to the horrors of Chicago!

I would suggest the first thing to do would be to find where most people are planning to attend are coming from and find a center point on a map based from that information. Years ago I belonged to another forum that had had a feature of a map where the user would upload their location and it would appear as a dot on a map of the United States. I wonder if somebody here has the ability to locate his program and install it on this server for this purpose?

[AgeNt_]

i was thinking the same thing, posting all players locations on a map, find the central most area.

[Äusländer]

Years ago I belonged to another forum that had had a feature of a map where the user would upload their location and it would appear as a dot on a map of the United States. I wonder if somebody here has the ability to locate his program and install it on this server for this purpose?

Please see first post in this topic for the link to this map. Thanks for the idea Big John.
Note: This mapping service was the best I could do through the limited network connectivity here at work. If anyone knows of a better service please let me know and I'll change maps.

[Noodlefoo]

I like the map here. I added Blue and I.

[Hanzo_blade]

don't feel like reading all this - so where is this all going to be held?

[Noodlefoo]

To be determined once everyone goes to the front page and puts in where they live on that map that Aus has in the link in the first post.

[Joe's Crab Shack]

Im still iffy about whether ill attend or not, although im leaning towards it. So i went ahead and put myself on the map.

[rudedog04]

As for the quote-on-quote "kids" on the servers I guess i can help with webcam support. No way in hell will I attend to this. Love the amazing idea, but how will I be able to spend the weekend/summer with a group of approx. 16-30 year olds who I barely know and expect that everyone will be fine and dandy that I left the house? I have my location on the map.........for the hell of it.

[Sastora]

So far as the subject of “Risk” goes – I’d just like to point out that random urinalysis are common with many employers. I’d hate to see someone (like me) terminated form their job due to the “Second Hand Smoke” of the player seated next to them.

Wait what kind of smoke are we talking about?

Other than that confusion I am super stoked and ready to go, but I wont be legal to drink and all that jazz, I'll only be 19. C: But that just makes me cooler.

[AgeNt_]

Wait what kind of smoke are we talking about?

I think he is talking about illegal drugs, same here. I don't want to lose my job because of this therefor I think we should leave smoking/drinking out of it and do a old smokehouse misfits style gathering(come as adults and act like them)

[Äusländer]

I have the servers!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.gerva ... directlink