Eye on the Community: Brian J. Stewart



The CAP'N'Yo Ass server is almost legendary as the home of some of the best maps, it's always first when a new map or map beta is released and never keeps bad or laggy maps in rotation. At the moment they boast the largest range of user maps available anywhere and don't mind telling us all about it. Here as a representative of their success is the [BC] clan leader and the guy behind the server, Brian...

1. Could you introduce us to yourself and tell us about the man behind the server.

I am a 29 year old professional GEEK-BOY. I personally have 23 years of real hands-on computer experience, which broadens every year as I take on new contract jobs and for-hire work tasks. I am a above normal GEEK-BOY in the sense that I have a full-time job, and have worked 40+ hours a week since I was 15.

I am currently the Web Services Manager for a large firm responsible for slave driving the HTML and Web App coders into a frenzy, and making sure things work between the internal and external sites. In the past I have worked as a Network Administrator, Unix Admin, and task leader for a national Help Desk... I have lead a varied career in my short 9 years out of college. Most of my day is spent debugging Web Apps, and NT or UNIX server security/admin issues along with plenty of HTML and ASP/Cold Fusion coding.

I live in the midwest USA with my wife Nicole (JADE[BC]), 5 year old son Tucker James (TJ_Nator[BC]), 2 year old daughter Kaitlin (not playing KP yet), 2 cats and 1 new puppy. Yes, my son is 5 and he plays Kingpin deathmatch with me when he behaves -- Don't get me started on violence and videogames.

2.What made you decide to setup a dedicated Kingpin server in the first place?

I started a dedicated KP server up for a couple reasons: control and variety. I like to control the server so that I can figure out what makes the game tick. Running a server has been very helpful when debugging new maps, or helping other map makers out by beta-testing and providing feedback. The varity came into play about 3 weeks after the game was released -- can you say boredom? KPDM1-5 are great maps, but after spending weeks playing them something new was needed. A large majority of high speed, stable, quality KP servers just did not (and most still dont) seem to have the balls to run custom maps... Why? Indifference I guess, setup a server and forget about it... what's the point in that?

We currently house 150 custom maps which are available for play, not counting 25-40 that we won't play for various reasons... Mostly probably due to insane R_Speeds, or lack of spawnpoints.

3. How do you choose the maps that appear on the server?

If you email me a map (or a link to it for download) for KP, I'll load it. Very simple. Worked great in the beginning when only 3 out of 125 KP servers even ran custom maps. We play the new map a bunch during the initial release checking to see if it is a "keeper" -- very few get tossed; they have to suck real bad. Like I said, I like variety.

4. Whats the wierdest thing anyones ever done (in Kingpin)?

Weirdest? Hmmm. Nothing comes to mind. Plenty of stupid things like: hacker attacks, ping floods, constant whining about LPBs, or the frequent "this map sucks"... We play a strict rotation, if a map really really bites one of my crew will let me know and I will pull it from the list.

5. How would you say the Kingpin mapping scene has gone thus far? Does it satisfy your needs?

Nope far from it. KP mapping like any Q2-based engine seems to be a complete 125% bitch. I know I have hacked my way at several maps (Flashlight_Madness, Frenzy(convert), Quad Towers, BloodyClouds Junior (tweak), DMtnt meets BC) -- and every one was better than the previous in some manner, but was an enormous pain in the ass.

I know plenty of people that can make a kick ass single-player map, but DM maps are a pain due to the R_Speeds. We personally have several maps with excessive Rs, but we keep them but they are great maps otherwise. I have k6-300, and p2-350's at home with V2, TNT, and TNT2 cards, so I can attest they play fine on those machines -- some slow yes, but they play.

Maps have seem to slowed down 200% in the last 6 weeks, which I attribute to interest falloff, holidays, Q3/UT/pick your new game of the week, and MODs. I'm hoping most of the map makers are busy working on maps for all the MODs being worked on -- would hate to see the maps just dry up.

6. Ever thought of branching out into Mods?

We have been running ReactiveSoftware's COMPETITION Mod since day one almost and Papa (the head coder) has been very bend-over-backwards helpful when it comes to bug reports or feature wants. Probably half the options are things I requested. And we don't even run OGL matches ... just use the MOD for map rotation, map voting, and the nice player-keep-your-score-on-reconnect feature.

I have looked at the other MODs but have not had time to visit a MOD server to see what sparks my attention. Hopefully I will have some time this month to look around.

7. Is there anyone you want to mention, thank or generally be nice to?

I'd like to thank both PlanetKingpin and Poisonville for pimping me in the news on a constant basis, it really helped bring the maps to our server, and ultimately their maps to everyone else.

Nods to ControL=3DFX=, KungFu and Optimizer for various map tweaking tips -- many of which helped to improve several of our maps.

Big kudos to my crew who have represented our server very well. Always friendly to newbies, and more than willing to change maps for the authors when they visit so they can test a map, or show off a feature. Running a server is much like being a bartender... you have plenty of regulars for good fun and conversation.

Our little group consists of: Truzenzuzex[BC] (thats me), Freddy[BC], Wolfman[BC], DrEaMsDoA[BC], The Jackal[BC], Chuck[BC], Mrs.Chuck[BC], TommyBlack[BC], Ganthet[BC], Rogue[BC], JADE[BC] (my wife), IceMan[BC], SassyBoy[BC], and TJ_Nator[BC] (my son) --- I always look forward to playing with our crew, and having some fun chats while kicking ass...

8. A few last words...

I am alive, regardless of my lack of activity on the server lately. Just freaking busy. The server has been up, and has had very little downtime aside from the occasional IP address change -- regardless of the constant little hacker boys.

Misc Info

Our KP server has been generating 75 gigabytes of game traffic per month from day 1... kinda boggles the mind... and that is with a 8-player/6000max rate limit... just imagine what the big 16/24 player servers are shelling out...

We have had 117000+ hacker/probe attempts in the last 90 days since I upgraded firewall software -- in excessive of 700 million probing packets. Some people just don't have a life... 60% of those are just people sweeping the DSL and Cable networks, but still -- thats crazy.

Is [BC]'s CAP-N-YO-ASS closing down? Not that I am aware, just a rumor I had to address... Doesn't mean a Unreal Tourney server with the same name might not pop up eventually...

Have a good one.