New Website Released - App & Server Browser + More!

General Discussion
1

Hey everybody,

I’ve got some neat updates to share with the community!

New Website Released (App/Server Browser)

I silently released the new website last night after continously working on it for the past couple of weeks.

I wouldn’t consider the new website a major release considering there are still so many things I need to work on and add, but I’m just happy to finally release something functional under TMC other than blog and forum posts. A lot of the foundation for the new website is done as well which takes a big weight off of my shoulders when developing things further along.

I will be adding feedback sections under the forum for each new service as well.

Server Browser

This is an exciting project I’ve been working on for a long time now, in short bursts. Initially, it was going to be its own side project under TMC called Best Servers (with the bestservers.io domain). However, I decided to merge it into TMC after readdressing things.

Here is a list of things you can do right now and what stands out with this server browser:

  • Users may browse, connect to, and view basic details of game servers.
    • Games supported right now include:
      • Garry’s Mod
      • Counter-Strike 2
      • Counter-Strike: Source
      • Team Fortress 2
      • Left 4 Dead 2
  • Server browser includes a smooth UI design and allows users to filter the server list by things like app/game, user count, region, map names, and more.
    • Also includes infinite loading option for those that like servers to load as you scroll down the page!
  • A neat custom query system that queries servers for details like player count, map name, etc.
    • Contains a system that attempts to eliminate as many fake and redirect servers as possible.
    • Populates the server list by adding servers automatically from the Valve Master Server.
    • Once we get a feel of how the query system handles x servers, I’ll add more games!
  • Each app/game is currently limited to 5000 max servers.
    • This is only for tuning the custom query system.
    • This limit will be raised in the near future.

Expectations

One big thing I wanted to address due to some things finally moving within the community is what are the expectations.

When I first started TMC back in 2022, I was very optimistic for the community’s future. There were quite a few people onboard with everything and I thought the community was going to take off, but one of the problems was things took much longer than expected which was my fault because not only did I undestimate how long things were going to take to create, I spent so much time working on side projects for TMC like Best Mods and Best Servers that it left TMC itself with only a forum and a recently added blog. The side projects also either failed or were discontinued as well, unfortunately.

It also resulted in becoming burned out quite often due to how much work was required for some things, but the one positive that came from this all is it gave me the experience to get started on building TMC’s website!

Anyways, as for my expectations for the future, I simply have no clue how things are going to turn out, but I’ve been regaining a lot of passion for working on the community, especially recently.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous update here, I’m going through the roughest period of my life right now and working on this project recently has helped distract me.

This project is honestly one of the only bright spots I have going on for me right now and has made me really happy/excited at times recently, so I really enjoy working on it and will continue doing so when I have free time (I am a bit worried I’m using it to cover up pain, but oh well, that’s the best cover up lol). I’m not sure what my life schedule is going to be like in the future with contract work I’m getting and all, so there will be periods of inactivity as well of course.

To Do

Here is my to-do list for TMC at this time.

[S] - Shorterm
[L] - Longterm

General

  • [S] Overhaul home page.
    • Will require better branding images including icons, logos, and more.
  • Continue creating articles on the blog and KB topics on the forum.
    • We’re starting to receive more traffic on our blog from the articles I made over the last couple of months.
    • Start looking into

Apps

  • [S] Improve app view page.
    • Move popular servers now and recent servers into carousels (slideshow-like).
    • Retrieve blog posts for the specific app/game and display latest posts in carousels as well.

Servers

  • [S] Add support for more games including the following:
    • Rust
    • Counter-Strike 1.6
    • Day of Defeat: Source
  • [S] Allow users to favorite servers and show only favorited servers.
    • Deciding whether I should store favorite list in TMC settings cookie (for things like view, tech, etc.) or enable user signin through Discord and store it in database tied to user.
    • May try to do both for better convenience for the user and make it so you can only favorite up to x servers without an account (to avoid cookie value becoming too large, even though they are just server IDs).
  • [S] Store and display a list of players currently connected to the server for servers that support it.
  • [S] Implement functionality into the query system that assigns servers to categories based off of server and map names (e.g. in Counter-Strike, map names that start with ze_ are typically associated with the Zombie Escape gamemode/category).
  • [S] Start tracking user counts and display a graph of the server’s user count history.
    • Depending on how much storage we’ll have, we may be able to store historical data up to a year.
    • Need to decide what graph/chart library to use.
    • Also need to determine what type of storage to use. I haven’t messed with displaying charts/graphs in websites in 10 years now, so I need to relook into everything.
    • This’ll also allow us to retrieve the average player count of servers which can be used for sorting.
  • [L] Integrate a modified version of the web server browser into the future TMC application that’ll act as a mod manager and server browser.
  • [L] Allow users to claim ownership of their own servers and modify details regarding this server including icon, banner, name, description, rules, and more!
  • [L] Look into potentially adding a ranking system. Still not sure about this:
    • If so, should we allow users to rate servers via upvotes or written reviews/ratings?

Mods

  • [L] Start working on mod browser.
    • Going to need to figure out how to process and store user-uploaded files along with everything security related.
    • Which games should we support first?
      • I’m thinking popular modded games like Minecraft, Skyrim, and GTA V.
  • [L] Allow users to create mod collections that includes an API for client or server owners to retrieve the list of mods and their details.
  • [L] Add support for installing mods into game servers for supported games through the TMC app.

[L] TMC App

  • Will be a web browser as a base and display a modified version of the TMC website including the app, server, and mod browsers that is better suited for an application.
  • For Apps:
    • Users will be able to choose install directories if the application can’t find it automatically.
    • Users will be able to adjust app-specific settings for mods and servers.
  • For Mods:
    • Users will be able to manage and install mods through the tool.
  • For Servers:
    • Users will be able to browse and filter servers like through the website.
    • Non-like official web browsers, this application would allow the program to send UDP packets which can be used to retrieve up-to-date information and typically the accurate ping from the client to the server.
      • I’m planning to make it so it only actively queries servers unless they’re visible in the window view.

Conclusion

That’s it for now. Still a lot of work to do, but it’s nice to finally have something with a lot of potential released under TMC!

Thanks for reading!