Official TotalFreedom GMod Server

Please Note: The TotalFreedom Forum has now been put into a read-only mode. Total Freedom has now closed down and will not be returning in any way, shape or form. It has been a pleasure to lead this community and I wish you all the best for your futures.

    Today marks the grand unveil of the TotalFreedom GMod Server. I will be running and managing this server, with a team of a select few individuals aiding me. If you wish to be included in beta testing, please DM me at redeastwood#8559

    Four Key Principles

    The TF GMod server, hereby referred to as TFGM, has one mission statement that me and my team aim to commit to fully. It stands as the following

    “TFGM is a sandbox Garry’s Mod server, which boasts far more addons and expansions than any other server of a similar nature can provide. We ensure that players will have a surplus of activities, games, items and NPCs they can play around with.”

    The nature of GMod is such that we can bend and manipulate every aspect of the game to ensure a seamless and fun experience for all our players.

    TFGM has four underlying principles that cohesively glue my server philosophies together. They are as follows:

    1) TFGM will not be co-dependent on the Minecraft server for players
    I fully expect and am prepared to receive new players from GMod, who do not know about TotalFreedom and its various assets. My plan is to gain new players from GMod, and then draw them into the larger TotalFreedom universe.

    2) TFGM will be an inherently sandbox Garry’s Mod experience.
    The sandbox game mode is the second largest by player count, surpassed only by DarkRP servers; the demand for such a freedom sandbox is evident, as through my research, I have found no other server that functions like we will.

    3) TFGM’s sandbox game mode will have a huge variety of addons
    The addon feature on GMod is particularly revering, it grants us the ability to tailor a server to suit our specific needs. We will ensure that an individual on the TFGM server will have a whole host of items to use, games to play, and NPCs to kill.

    4) The TFGM server abides by the standard TF conduct policy.
    In order to successfully melt into the TF enterprise, we deem it necessary for our players to follow our essential Player Conduct Policy, as seen on the forums. I will be making a separate thread detailing the nature of how some rules may change due to a different game.

    Panel

    We have purchased the WiSP Panel solutions, WiSP Game Panel

    [url=https://ibb.co/fYssx67][/url]

    [url=https://ibb.co/XW6cbbd][/url]

    Key features about this panel are that it looks and feels insanely good, it has advanced features such as a health monitor, backdoor scanner, smart file search, intelligent fastdl, and a mod installer.

    Staff

    As it stands, I have four members in my TFGM team (myself included). I oversee, manage (and micromanage) every detail of the operation. TheBlazingFlames is our developer and our technical specialist. CrazyNick is our server configurator, he will ensure the user experience is immaculate. Shdwo acts as our staff support, aiding us in day-to-day tasks.

    We are open to more staff members; here is a list of the current vacancies in our staffing system.
    1) Technical Developer
    2) GMod server configurator
    3) Server Tester x3
    4) Staff Support

    DM me if you are available for any of these roles at redeastwood#8559

    Resources

    Initially, we will be using my own VPS for testing purposes. After the server is deemed to be ready, we will switch over to Superior Network Infrastructure, provided for by Ryan.
    We run on 8GB RAM, 400% CPU, and 240GB SSD.
    GMod requires significantly less resources than a Minecraft server, however due to the extreme addition of plugins and addons, we would require a sizeable amount of RAM. 8GB is reasonable here.

    Addons

    https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi…/?id=2401531618
    Proposed server collection to start with - let me know what you think. Things can easily be added at any time.

    Quote

    @Miwojedk#9815 I think this server will have trouble garnering a playerbase much larger than the SMP (not to mention player retention), but I wish you good luck.

    I have no issue in paying for advertising and players. As for player retention, I believe our addons and server ethos should be enough. Do you have any suggestions on how I can improve both the player base and player retention?

    @StevenNL2000#9818 It's to be setup in much the same way as SMP, Red will look after the day-to-day stuff, but myself or someone I delegate from ATLAS will ultimately have final say on matters with it being a part of the TF Brand / Name.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

    @StevenNL2000#9820 I think I just lazily copied what we had used for SMP, but yes, that's probably a more accurate title. I'll also make sure the same is updated for SMP, as I think we used the same titles there.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

    @redeastwood#9816 I genuinely don't believe that expanding to other game avenues will help increase the playercount on all TF platforms. I think that the vast majority of your playerbase will come from already existing players on Total Freedom. I am of the opinion that your server will go the exact same way the SMP has done after every-single launch attempt: small spike in players, then back to none.

    @Miwojedk#9825 It's less so important that other game modes increase in their player counts, as long as overall we're seeing an increase in players. I've always been of the view that I'd rather have players playing on the TF Network somewhere than on someone else's servers. If that means we end up with two fairly isolated player bases in game with the overlap being the forums and discord, I don't think that's too bad of a thing, as let's be honest, the forums and discord (In more recent history discord at least) have been what makes the majority of the community anyway.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

    @wild1145#9827 You didn't address my concern. My main point was that I doubt the GMOD server would actually increase the playercount for Total Freedom - it would instead be another outlet for current TF players to attend for 2 weeks, then leave like the SMP. Actually, an argument could be made that this will have a negative impact on the OG server, because it will further dillude the playerbase across multiple platforms.

    Of course I could be proven wrong, and if the GMOD team is able to foster a sizeable and sustainable playerbase, then more power to them. But I have my doubts when I look empirically at previous attempts of the same caliber.

    @Miwojedk#9924 Our main goal regarding the playerbase is to encourage players to not only be present on the GMOD server, but migrate over to the Minecraft server too. There are multiple references to TotalFreedom's existence (as expected) in game, ranging from the loading screens to the join messages. We've also updated our discord, advertising and explaining the move to TF.

    GMOD has a built in server list that displays the most popular and most liked server's first. We aim for the top of this list, as long as we have players on.. other players will join, then more players off of those players e.t.c. Each player will have a direct advertisement that not only leads to TF's MC server IP, but also the discord & forum aswell. Compared to other games/gamemodes, GMOD is fairly easy to gain an active playerbase on.. however this could be proven wrong. Time will only tell.

    Quote

    @Shdwo#9928 other players will join, then more players off of those players e.t.c

    Again, I have no issue in channeling money into this to attain such a status; paying for players initially will bring more players.

    Quote

    @Shdwo#9928 GMOD is fairly easy to gain an active playerbase on.. however this could be proven wrong.


    a potential player need to specifically look for a sandbox server which is usually down in the gamemode types


    and the majority of the servers are low-player bases and foreign

    again, the reason that most of the sandbox servers which are popular at the moment are foreign is because there is basically no demand for sandbox in more popular regions as players will go on once, get bored of simply just making shit and then leave - it is VERY hard to get long term players and so a stable playerbase on sandbox servers as shown by the fact that the top servers on these kinds of gamemodes never stay the same. as a previous gmod admin and server owner, there are better gamemode options such as some of the rp options which will keep people rejoining since it's more interesting and has more incentive to rejoin than making box forts. also a plus: being a popular darkrp server makes you very popular.
    sure, it's "easy to get a GMOD playerbase" but it really depends on the gamemode and what you're adding, it doesn't matter if you add many plugins to play around if the public fundementally think that the gamemode is boring - a person looks for a gamemode before a server and won't see the efforts you're putting in.
    having a special darkrp or militaryrp or whatever server will score more players.