Community server for Half-life mod Natural Selection . 187 Combat a close group of friends who work, play and hang-out together. It is a group of dedicated individuals who would like to see Natural Selection become more popular. Players can join the public server through Steam, Half-Life's mod engine. A unique feature to 187, players can attain different level icons on the TAB menu based on time played on the server. This feature attracts many players and shows who the regulars (regs) on the server are. Admins (who run the server) and Peacekeepers (who enforce the rules) get their own special icons.

Backgroud Story

Orignaly posted by 'scrow on the 187combat forums:

From the day we first got our IP address assignment from our ISP, we knew the .187 IP was destined for a game server, we just didn't know what it was going to be...

I heard from a friend about a game called Natural Selection. A word-of-mouth description of the gameplay intrigued me. At the time, most of my online gaming was spent in Counter Strike which I was bored with it and was ready for something new and different. Coming from Counter Strike, Natural Selection in it's intended ns_ style gameplay has an incredibly steep learning curve. I tried to get Mike and Shag to play it, but it didn't appeal to them.

Later I finally discovered co_ maps. Finally, I got to play the alien lifeforms I was "too scared to buy". Gestating into these larger, more expensive life forms without worrying about "wasting resources"! Picking up a grenade launcher without worrying about my team flaming me for dying in 30 seconds! With combat play I was starting to improve my skills.

Mike and Shag soon caught on to combat and in no time our online gaming was devoted to Natural Selection. Months later our favorite server made changes to it's plugin configuration which ruined my fun and I eventually stopped playing Natural Selection altogether. Mike and Shag continued on that server for months afterwards, but I had plans to finally use that .187 IP.

I wanted to create a server where newcomers to Natural Selection like myself, could come and learn the game. A place where people could use co_ gameplay to learn the more expensive life forms and work on their jet pack skills. A primer to the ns_ style gameplay that Natural Selection was intended to be. At first we started with a simple straight forward server configuration. Since our primary focus was for newcomers to Natural Selection, we chose plugins specifically for that task. Plugins like latejoinxp to keep low scoring players in the game, spawninvul to give you a few seconds to escape certain death and infinite levels to allow you to purchase all the upgrades. Then the buildmenu plugin was released. It made sense at the time that the plugin was an excellent tool for learning the basics of building structures. The addition of buildmenu made the server immensely popular. So much in fact that reserve slots were finally added so that Mike, Shag and I could log in.

After a few consecutive weeks of the server being full I realized that a website with game stats would be needed. Still in the mindset that the server was for newcomers to Natural Selection I began working on a website for people to come and ask questions about the game, suggest features and changes to the server and collaborate with other players. I quickly threw together phpBB with a few additional plugins, got Psychostats working and 187.scrow.com was born. After learning how to use Psychostats I came up with the idea of the "icons rewards system" and that further increased the server popularity and soon the website was alive with activity. Many players had lots of good ideas. Over the next few months several more plugins were added; extra_levels2, lerk spike, gorge grapple, redemption kill, the game started to become more and more complex.

About the Server

187combat is one of the most popular Natural Selection severs on the internet. With thousands of players playing each day 187combat stays right at the top of all the server ranking sites. Most people attribute the servers popularity to the plug-ins that are running on it. The most popular plug-ins being "Combat Buildings" and "Extralevels 3". The server is moderated by the server administrators and a group of "Peace Keepers". They keep hackers out of the server and keep troublesome players in line.

Staff

Many people help keep 187combat in working order, fun to play and safe from cheating hackers.

Administrators

scrow

Shagwell

Mike Steal

Peace Keepers

Master Havoc

V3xtra

RazorZero

Reese

Freebirdpat

Anathema

Pronubcake

InFlames

Swatius

Current Plug-ins

AMX mod X'

* Extralevels 3 - Adds extra upgrades and increases the maximum level to 50.

* Combat Buildings - Allows players to spend points to create buildings in combat maps.

* Leark Spikes - Brings back the old leark spike weapon.

* Combolimbiter - Prevents players from getting weapons, upgrades or change their life form based on configurable settings. (i.e. 1 grenade launcher for every 3 aliens on a team)

* Redemption Kill - Give experience when someone redeems.

* PsycoStats - Keeps trak of player stats and shows them on the web site

MetaMod

* Awards Display - Gives "fun" awards to players at the end of a match.

The Future

There are many plans for the future of 187combat.

187combat Pro

This will be an additional server to help out players that are new to Natural Selection. The 187combat "Profesional" server is still in the works and there hasn't been any recient information said about it.

Website v3

The next "version" of the 187combat website is on it's way. It's currently being developed at http://187.scrow.com. The main reason for the new website is to allow for an automated reserved slot purchasing system. scrow has stated that the new site is ready to go, he's only waiting for the reserved slot system to be finished.

Reserved Slots

This is in developement.