This is the Site Related category

Articles related to the site itself. New features, updated old ones, plans ideas etc.

Many may have related videos as well, which can be viewed on the RTSL YouTube channel.

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50 Sourcey Days of Summer

It is with some trepidation that I announce the 50 Sourcey Days of Summer!

For the next 50 consecutive days, I will be adding new maps or updating older maps. All will be Source based, mostly Half-Life 2.

I have created a special page for the event, prosaically and rather obviously called 50 Sourcey Days of Summer and it is similar to the 100 Summer Days of Nostalgia event, which believe it or not I ran 7, yes, SEVEN!!! years ago.

It’s linked to on the second menu, under the header images.

I hope to post screenshots etc and even my review, for each map or mod I post or update. I plan to update quite old maps, so don’t get too excited. There will be new releases added too though.

I should tress that I will do my utmost to not miss a day but I seem to be much busier than 7 years ago, so I won’t make any promises.

I have already posted NostalgiaVille for today’s release.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the event.


15th July 2018 9 Comments

RTSL game coming to Steam!

Right, so I suspect you are A: pretty excited and B: a little confused by the title. Hopefully, after you have finished reading this post you will still be excited but not confused.

I will explain as much as I can, but please bear in mind, that some things will remain secret for various reasons.

Essentially, near the end of this year or the beginning of next year, we will be releasing a compilation of the best maps entered for the mapping challenges over the last few years.

Let me address the use of the word “Game”, it seems that currently the release will be a game in the sense that it will not require the purchase or installation of ANY other Half-Life game.


26th May 2018 14 Comments

Multi-hour Fund Raising Stream This Saturday

This Saturday, the 19th May, I will be doing a multi-hour livestream to raise money for the 2-018 Prize Fund.

Hunt Down the Freeman will be started and maybe even finished, Mapping will also feature as well as a couple of Half-Life 1 mods.

Start time is 12pm Central European Time and it will be on the RTSL YouTube channel: https://gaming.youtube.com/c/Planetphillipcom/live

I’ll be regularly asking for your hard-earned money, but know that it doesn’t go to me but to the entrants of the mapping challenges.

There will be game giveaways at least every hour, including some HDtF Steam keys.

Let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see you there.


17th May 2018 2 Comments

Site Feature: Collections

I am pleased to announce a new feature on the site.

It is called Collections and are user-created lists of releases.

I have created a video explaining how they work, which you can see below.

Collections can be viewed via the EXPLORE menu item and full details can be found on the ABOUT Page.

In summary, only registered and logged in users can create Collections but every visitor can see them.

As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

My thanks go to Jan for coding the feature and Koneko for testing it.


13th May 2018 5 Comments

The Hammer Cup 2017 Fund Raising Livestream – November 2017

Hello everybody. Starting at 12pm Central European Time on Saturday 12th November, I will be livestreaming to raise money for The Hammer Cup 2017 Prize Fund.

ALL money raised will be added to the fund.

However, it’s not going to be simply me playing and you watching, with the occasional donation – OH NO!

If you want me to keep playing you will have to pay.

I will decide exactly how we run the event nearer the time – so feel free to suggest ideas.

I will attempt to stay online for as long as the money keeps coming in, yes, for as long as the hourly target is reached!!!

I am sure there are some devious people who will pay to see me suffer – in fact, I am counting on it.

Remember, All the money goes to The Hammer Cup 2017 Prize Fund, so it’s for a good cause.

At this point, I plan to play Prospekt and some other longer mods (probably past Villes) – but I am open to suggestions for other things.

Anyway, I hope you can join me and as always, if you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please don’t hesitate to post them.

Don’t forget that all RTSL streams are now on the YouTube channel: https://gaming.youtube.com/c/Planetphillipcom/live.

Hope to see you on Saturday!


27th October 2017 4 Comments

New Game Giveaway Page

I have just created a new page about the game giveaways I will be doing.

All “events” that RTSL users can win games are designed to increase participation on the site.

This post is just to let you know about the new page.

I will add an overview to the ABOUT this weekend.

Full details of the events are on the page, so go check it out!

GAME GIVEAWAYS


6th October 2017 No Comments

Now Running on a Dedicated Server

I am very pleased to announce that RTSL is now running on a dedicated server. That means, for those that don’t know, I pay to rent a whole computer in a server farm and that whole machine is mine. This should mean the site is very fast.

I have only really done 5% of the work and would like to thank Mazur for the other 95%!

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be improving the site, fixing, 404s, reinstalling the Contact and Submit pages, along with lots of small changes to layout and pages.

Registration emails should arrive much sooner as well.

If you see any issues with the site, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
It’s more expensive to run the site this way but I believe it’s worth it.

I’ll be starting a donation drive to cover the hosting costs from November.

So, that’s it. Enjoy the site and remember: FINISHING HALF-LIFE IS JUST THE BEGINNING!


24th September 2017 6 Comments

The RTSL Twitter Series

Some readers may have noticed that I have started to tweet a lot more than I used to. It doesn’t take that long and I feel it always helped to promote the site via social media. Different platforms work well for different projects. For example, I spend more time posting on Facebook for my squash persona than Twitter. In the case of RTSL, Twitter seems the best choice.

Now, I know not all of you use Twitter but it is possible to view the tweets (the name of each message posted) even if you don’t have an account – so I don’t feel as though I am limiting access.

The more follows a project can get across various platforms, the more potential visitors to the site and therefore potential usage, including downloads and reviews of maps and mods.

For those interested, there is a screenshot of my analytics page at the bottom of this post, showing the increase in statistics. You will see that at the time of posting the account has achieved 380.3K impressions over this 28 day period and on average earned 13.6K impressions per day (An impression is counted as each time a tweet was viewed).

Of course that trend might not continue but I have certainly picked up quite a few new followers.

In addition to the normal posting of updates, message and general items, I have started 6 daily (although, if I get really busy that may change) tweet series. Each has its own hashtag, meaning it’s easy to find all the tweets related to that series. There is also a weekly series and an occasional one.

Here are the details of each series.


15th September 2017 1 Comment

Third 50-Hour Mapping Challenge Starts This Friday

Firstly, allow me to apologise for the late reminder. The dates were published weeks ago but I know that people don’t always pay attention and mark them in their diary or tell their secretary.

So, anyway, this Friday at 10pm Central European Summer Time, the third 50-Hour Mapping Challenge starts.

Full details will be announced in a post which will have all the details.

The judges and I are really excited about this theme and I would have loved to have a tease countdown but couldn’t think of a good way to do it.

Yes, the image is a clue and either it’s really obvious, in which case I apologise or it’s so obscure to be worthless and again, I apologise.

Here is the countdown timer for the start of the challenge.


6th September 2017 16 Comments