It's here! au.serveme.tf has arrived, with a capacity of 12 servers. Please remember that we are still very much in the testing phase, and it will take some time to ensure everything is up to snuff. With the upcoming Summer Cups and seasons, we will be monitoring server performance very closely to ensure there are no glaring issues. Before we jump into how to use it, there are some things you need to know.

Using au.serveme.tf!

au.serveme.tf make use of Valve's SDR permanently, meaning there are some differences from how you used to use bookable servers. Valve SDR acts like a VPN of sorts for the server, preventing certain protocols like RCON from working typically. Because of this, servers using Valve's SDR need to come up with solutions, and in the case of bookable servers - a way to grant RCON control of some variety to the person booking the server.

Controlling your server

serveme.tf accomplishes this in two ways, kind of. When using an au.serveme.tf server, you can opt to either send commands in the game chat via !rcon command-goes-here, or use the Web RCON button found on your booking's reservation page. You'll notice earlier we said "kind of", but the two options we listed are full RCON control of the server, so what gives? When booking the server, you get the opportunity to set the map, config and whitelist. But these controls aren't limited to the booking period - they are also available whenever via the "Edit" button on your reservation page. You can change all of the aforementioned server options here as well!

Booking/reserving your server

"Ok, you've told us how to control our server, but not how to book one" is probably what you are wondering, or not, it is pretty simple. Navigate to au.serveme.tf home page, and you'll find two options. You can choose either "Get server" or "1-click server", but for now we recommend "Get server". Upon clicking the button, you'll be redirected to a page where you can configure the server as you like, with the same server options we discussed earlier, and some new ones. It's all easy enough, just follow through with the prompts!

Other booking features

There are a few more things you should be aware of. For instance, instances! As a free user, your bookings last two hours and can be extended if needed, but as a premium user, they last five hours! Premium users also get the benefit of reserving servers more than three hours ahead of when they intend to use it, unlike free users. Free users are limited to only one server at a time, with premium users being able to use more. Why are we telling you this? Well it leads into our next topic.

Patreon, increased costs, premium and more

Yeah, the bit no one likes to talk about. How much? Well, not a whole lot more than what we were already paying per month, but an increase. We'll detail this further at a later date, and we'll be sure to update our Patreon members. What it means for now, and for you, is there is an opportunity. Any new or existing Patreon members on every tier except our Soldier tier will receive au.serveme.tf premium membership. For a full list of benefits, see our Patreon.

Got questions or feedback? Need help?

Feel free to reach out to us via our Discord's #ticket-support channel, you'll notice a Server Ticket. For anything else, please feel free to reach out to core directly. As with many things this year, there will be more to come, and this is no exception. We're excited to be working with au.serveme.tf, and will work to bring more to our servers!