Nanomachines, son.

10 years of Red Sun: The doctor's concerned about how long this DOOMP's taking

Forum thread here: https://forum.redsun.tf/threads/10-years-of-red-sun-the-doctors-concerned-about-how-long-this-doomps-taking.4738/ (GO LOOK AT IT, IT HAS IMAGES AND STUFF I CAN'T ADD HERE)

I've had to draft, redraft, re-redraft and it's still not enough. I don't think there's any fitting way to address 10 years of this community, but I'll try my hardest. I was abruptly woken up by the janitors who wanted me to write something. I agreed for the price of another ice cold bottle of vodka, so here I am.

This could have all gone completely differently, had I touched grass in the spring of 2015, but I guess you're all lucky that God decided I continue to be a creature of the virtual deep. My suffering continues to be your blessing and it's still not enough, apparently.

I learned a lot of lessons in the past 10 years, running this place. The first is that I make only abhorrent or amazing decisions while under the influence. The second is that touching any Toby Fox-related IP is a bad decision when it comes to your own mental well-being.

I'll blab on a bit later because YOU (yes, you) don't care about that. You care about CONTENT, NEW, FRESH, PLAYABLE CONTENT. We have that too. We're not even charging for it like most developers would nowadays, and it's sad that we even have to mention that.

But anyway, here's the real info you're here for:

We've restyled the Loadout[redsun.tf] back to the (clearly superior) styling from 2015, complete with a few extra things you may or may not notice.
To go along with this, we're also releasing a specially themed profile item[redsun.tf] to tie in as well. Oh, and the confetti's back too[redsun.tf] if you missed it last time around.

Shoutout to Octatonic Sunrise[redsun.tf] for the badge artwork (and the header) this time around: As usual you can claim this badge by logging in to the Loadout during the 14th of March, 00:00 to 23:59 UTC. Get this badge while it's available. Or don't and miss out on having a cool icon on your profle.

Along with the Loadout, our in-game text formatting has also gone all the way back to 2015. I hope you enjoy green.

42 and co have also been working hard to revive older versions of no less than 21 of our gamemodes, some of which have been dead to the world for years. Some for good reason, others lost to the sands of time and arbitrary valve updates.

Abandoned gamemodes readded to rotation:

• FortWars
  
• Hero Fortress
  
• Huntsman Hell
  
• Red Sun Kart
  
• TF2Ware

Gamemodes using a completely different, older version (usually a different plugin)

• Deathrun
  
• GunGame
  
• PropHunt
  
• Randomizer
  
• Versus Saxton Hale

Gamemodes rolled back to older versions on the same code:

• BomberMod
  
• Dodgeball
  
• Glass Attack
  
• Mann in the Machine
  
• Mann vs. Mann
  
• Player Versus Map
  
• SCP: Secret Fortress
  
• Smash Fortress
  
• Stop That Tank!
  
• Super Zombie Fortress
  
• TF:GO

...and now for something pulled from the depths of FIFTEEN ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DRAFTS OF THIS ♥♥♥♥ I AM GOING TO SLICE MY ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WRISTS OPEN:

I started this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in 2015 after Jonas left Slag to crumble away. I'll admit I hold reservations towards him despite the success he earned from his game, because a piece of history for a lot of us crumbled away.
Hindsight's 20/20, but perhaps I wasn't the best pick (then or now) to lead a band of online shooter addicts towards their own community (with blackjack but no hookers, the fees are extortionate.). Granted I did have the technical skills (somewhat) going into this, starting off with ♥♥♥♥♥♥'s first shared hosting and slowly moving up from there, with my own sanity being the price. I've lost many a sleepless college night back in the day finalizing and preparing events for a group of idiots, but I did learn various skills from it, one being how to maintain the Ballmer Peak for over a week.

The early days were chaotic. I was chaotic as a person, still finding my own way, and the company I kept reflected that.
We were intentionally rude, offensive and downright off-putting (I mean I still am today, with plenty of evidence to back it up), but that meant those that survived our ♥♥♥♥-testing became real close allies and dare I say friends, and I'd like to believe some of those bonds still hold close today.

I have had the privilege of meeting more than a few of you in real life at conventions, as far as PAX West and DreamHack as of last year. Some of you are exactly as I envisioned, others a complete 180 from your digital persona. All of you were interesting enough to stick around and annoy me at bum♥♥♥♥ o'clock in the morning.

There's also been times when it's been hard. Long droughts of no donations mean that I've gone many months having to cover out my own pockets for costs, and I'd still rather do that than stick ads or product placement anywhere within this community. That's been a core belief of mine since day one compared to most other communites, even down to the point we designed the donation system to, in stark contrast to most other communites (again) not promote repeat subsciptions. You keep what you get, forever.
We're not an extension of a popular online personality, nor am I using your clicks to fuel advertiser databanks. No ads. For as long as I have been here, and as long as I draw breath as the beleaguered Janitor Supreme, there shall be no advertisements. In fact I've actually given money back to contributors, both on our team and to those who've contributed to our community, notably as of recent a pentester who I went out of the way to reward for responsibly disclosing a vulnerability to me.
I don't care who you are, I have always cared about what you do and what you produce, and as long as your character speaks to that I'm happy to give back to those that deserve it.

Valve's continued neglect has shown that there is a demand for content, and we've been happy to provide that. Feedback to Eggolocation, and as of recent the Metrolands shows that I think we're on the right track (pun not intended) for going forward. I want to do events, yes. But it is hard balancing a full time job and making time to wrangle several monkeys into making things on a budget.

As for me personally, I plug away at the stuff that no one cares about in the background now. I have a long worked-on personal blog where I post my thoughts on random minutae, that no one will yet read because I'm too lazy to actually set it live, along with a basic ♥♥♥♥♥ IRC server (because simple is better, and I don't need complex stuff). No, you can't have the links. They're for me because they aren't live to everyone, only a select few I trust not to spew everywhere, because you don't need to hear a random schmuck's opinions on the differences between on-prem and cloud.

I'll be around at the usual places. Direct messages, emails, smoke signals, maybe in the online leaderboards of an unspecified arcade title somewhere. I'm off to drink because with my luck, my skeleton will still be here whining at you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to shut up.


peace