New patch 222 , all server broke

oldassgamers

I've created server.txt file adding the following command:
-port 27020 -map ns2_summit -limit 20 -name "OldAssGamers.com Classic" -config_path "E:\Service\NS2_Servers\Server_1\config"

The server starts up and connect to steam, but it won't show on the steam browser now. But the server is online on my computer and it says on console that it's connected to steam.

if I add
-ip 62.65.105.53 -port 27020 -map ns2_summit -limit 20 -name "OldAssGamers.com Classic" -config_path "E:\Service\NS2_Servers\Server_1\config"

Then the server doesn't start up anymore.


Point is, no mather which command i use. Nothing works right now :/

Camron

<!--quoteo(post=1990040:date=Oct 11 2012, 10:44 PM:name=oldassgamers)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (oldassgamers @ Oct 11 2012, 10:44 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990040"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I've created server.txt file adding the following command:
-port 27020 -map ns2_summit -limit 20 -name "OldAssGamers.com Classic" -config_path "E:\Service\NS2_Servers\Server_1\config"

The server starts up and connect to steam, but it won't show on the steam browser now.

if I add
-ip 62.65.105.53 -port 27020 -map ns2_summit -limit 20 -name "OldAssGamers.com Classic" -config_path "E:\Service\NS2_Servers\Server_1\config"

Then the server doesn't start up anymore.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Check the server output. Does it mention an error about "62.65.105.53" saying that it can't bind to it?

Max

Sorry for the confusion everyone. Some of the command line arguments changed in subtle ways, so I can understand why the changes are not obvious. webdomain not working is a bug. We'll get that fixed and put out a new patch as soon as possible.

Here's a summary of the other changes.
<ul><li>-file now uses a different format for the settings file</li><li>use -webadmin instead of -webadmin true</li><li>reworked the web authentication (see below)</li><li>removed -webdir, the game now loads the web admin from ns2/web</li><li>accidentally broke -webdomain</li></ul>

There are two reasons I made all of these changes. The command line handling code was a real mess due to the slightly different format of the xml settings file, so I wanted to clean all of that up and unify the code. Also, there were a lot of issues with people configuring their servers with the last patch, so I wanted to use the web admin interface to allow people to set this up. To make easy, I wanted to make it really easy to get the web admin up and running. I thought the previous web authentication system was a real pain in the butt to use and a barrier to having the web admin interface being used. So I changed the authentication as follows:
<ul><li>if you just put -webadmin on the command line, the web server will only accept connections from localhost.</li><li>you can setup a simple single user authentication system by using the -webuser and -webpassword command line options.</li><li>you can setup multiple users wirth encrypted passwords by using the -webusers command line option. I added some information to the documentation on how to generate this file</li></ul>

Finally, I wanted to ship a web admin interface with the game as well as make it moddable, which is why the server now loads it from ns2/web instead of a user specified directory. devicenull created a nice web admin, so we integrated that, and then also put in a map cycle config page and a mod config page. Right now the mod config page is not functional because our Workshop is not publicly visible. Once Valve flips a few bits to make that visible to people that don't own the game, you should be able to install mods directly from that "Mods" page.

It seems that we didn't get very comprehensive testing of all of these changes before the patch went out, so please let us know any additional problems and we'll fix them right away.

oldassgamers

Murphy was so kind and come to my teamspeak server. But there wasn't any solution found.

Tempest found a solution, but I have the exact command as him and with the same software, both ugcc and vanilla ns2 server and for me it it's working.

Sorry camron i dont understand what you mean by that :/

oldassgamers

I found the problem, I FOUND IT....

If I remove community game from the server browser ns2. Then I can see all my servers. How to fix this?

eLbot

<!--quoteo(post=1990050:date=Oct 11 2012, 07:01 PM:name=Max)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Max @ Oct 11 2012, 07:01 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990050"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>SNIP</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Can I just say that this is a fantastic step forward! I'm really happy we're heading in this direction, it will be interesting to see web admin interfaces as workshop mods!

Obviously you can see in my above posts the scramble to understand the changes. I would like to re-state that some warning, any at all, for the admins to be ready for these sort of overhauls would have been useful, but I understand that you guys have been without internet and had bigger fish to fry!

Congrats to devicenull for again improving our options and information gathering on the server side. I'd like to see really detailed graphs and perhaps even a log output in the web-interface at some point! (Also, my logs are still ending up in the %APPDATA% folder - the only legacy of that old location, is this a misconfiguration on my part or are we still in the position of having to use that folder for now?).

Thanks for your hard work guys - this is starting to get really exciting!

Camron

<!--quoteo(post=1990056:date=Oct 11 2012, 11:07 PM:name=oldassgamers)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (oldassgamers @ Oct 11 2012, 11:07 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990056"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I found the problem, I FOUND IT....

If I remove community game from the server browser ns2. Then I can see all my servers. How to fix this?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Set the game as "ns2" in your server settings. I see a bunch of blank ones on the server list.

oldassgamers

<!--quoteo(post=1990059:date=Oct 12 2012, 03:10 AM:name=Camron)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Camron @ Oct 12 2012, 03:10 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990059"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Set the game as "ns2" in your server settings. I see a bunch of blank ones on the server list.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

when i remove "ns2" on the game option on the server list. I see all my servers. When adding "ns2" all my servers dissappears on the server list

Security

Alright, works for me with:

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->"...\server.exe" -file "C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Natural Selection 2\server.txt"<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

server.txt beeing my replacement for server.xml.

server.txt:
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->-map ns2_veil -port 27015 -name "Ende der Nahrungskette @ Evolution is Magic - 4GHz - NaturalSelection.de" -limit 17 -webadmin -webusers "C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Natural Selection 2\.htpasswd" -modstorage "C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Natural Selection 2\Workshop"<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I can confirm that -webdomain and -webport are broken. The default port has been changed from 8080 to 80 as well.

Also, when starting up:
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Webserver running <b>running</b> on port 80<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

;]

oldassgamers

<!--quoteo(post=1990061:date=Oct 12 2012, 03:18 AM:name=Security)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Security @ Oct 12 2012, 03:18 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990061"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

You have the same problem as me security, your server isn't showing on the server browser until you remove the "ns2" text in the game option on the filter browser.

Security

<!--quoteo(post=1990059:date=Oct 12 2012, 05:10 AM:name=Camron)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Camron @ Oct 12 2012, 05:10 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990059"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Set the game as "ns2" in your server settings. I see a bunch of blank ones on the server list.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Where can I set that? My server is blank too.


<b>Edit:</b>
Alright, I got it. One of the new examples for ServerConfig.json in Dedicated_Server_Usage.txt is wrong.

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->"tags": [ ]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tags can <b>not</b> be empty as suggested there.

It has to be either:
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->"tags": [ "ns2" ]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
or
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->"tags": [ "rookie" ]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
for the server to be displayed as ns2.

Also, here is an example of all ServerConfig.json options correctly (<i>I hope</i>) combined:

<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->{
    "settings":
    {
        "end_round_on_team_unbalance": 0.4,
        "rookie_friendly": false,
        "auto_team_balance":
        {
            "enabled_on_unbalance_amount": 2,
            "enabled_after_seconds": 10
        }
    },
    "tags": [ "ns2" ]
}<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

oldassgamers

<!--quoteo(post=1990063:date=Oct 12 2012, 03:28 AM:name=Security)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Security @ Oct 12 2012, 03:28 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990063"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I added the ns2 on the "tags": [ "ns2" ] . Thx so much !!!!!

This is how i putted up the serverconfig.json , please tell me if i do right or wrong:

{
"settings":
{
"auto_team_balance":
{
"end_round_on_team_unbalance": 0.4
"enabled_on_unbalance_amount": 2,
"enabled_after_seconds": 20
}
},
"tags": [ "ns2" ]
}

Security

<!--quoteo(post=1990076:date=Oct 12 2012, 06:00 AM:name=oldassgamers)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (oldassgamers @ Oct 12 2012, 06:00 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990076"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I added the ns2 on the "tags": [ "ns2" ] . Thx so much !!!!!

This is how i putted up the serverconfig.json , please tell me if i do right or wrong:

{
"settings":
{
"auto_team_balance":
{
"end_round_on_team_unbalance": 0.4,
"enabled_on_unbalance_amount": 2,
"enabled_after_seconds": 20
}
},
"tags": [ "ns2" ]
}<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I <b>think</b> that <i>"end_round_on_team_unbalance": 0.4</i> has to be one level higher, so:

<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->{
    "settings":
    {
        "end_round_on_team_unbalance": 0.4,
        "auto_team_balance":
        {
            "enabled_on_unbalance_amount": 2,
            "enabled_after_seconds": 20
        }
    },
    "tags": [ "ns2" ]
}<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

But I'm absolutely not sure. That happens when there are changes that are not well documented. ;P

Max

In addition to the changes I to the dedicated server, we also made some changes to the "game mode" that is in the server browser. In the past all games were broadcast as being "naturalselection2", but now the game mode is determined by the mod that you are running, so normal Natural Selection 2 will be "ns2" and the Combat mod will be "combat", etc.

I've just fixed a bug where the game wouldn't properly update the Steam master server with this information. This fix will be in the patch we release tomorrow. Including "ns2" in the tags is a work around for this problem because the tags mechanism is how the underlying system communicates this information through Steam. Once 223 is release this won't be necessary.

SteamyTaco

<!--quoteo(post=1990115:date=Oct 12 2012, 07:04 AM:name=Max)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Max @ Oct 12 2012, 07:04 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990115"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In addition to the changes I to the dedicated server, we also made some changes to the "game mode" that is in the server browser. In the past all games were broadcast as being "naturalselection2", but now the game mode is determined by the mod that you are running, so normal Natural Selection 2 will be "ns2" and the Combat mod will be "combat", etc.

I've just fixed a bug where the game wouldn't properly update the Steam master server with this information. This fix will be in the patch we release tomorrow. Including "ns2" in the tags is a work around for this problem because the tags mechanism is how the underlying system communicates this information through Steam. Once 223 is release this won't be necessary.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Hi Max,
Please fix -webport asap. If you're running your NS2 servers on Gameservers.com you can't configure your servers as port 80 is blocked.

Whosat

<!--quoteo(post=1990097:date=Oct 12 2012, 12:35 PM:name=Security)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Security @ Oct 12 2012, 12:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990097"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I <b>think</b> that <i>"end_round_on_team_unbalance": 0.4</i> has to be one level higher<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->It should not matter - the file is parsed in its entirety

On another note, may I suggest that the devs put up the information about server configuration changes, especially when it involves such a big change, a few days before the release of a patch?
This allows the community servers to have minimal downtime as they take into account changes prior to updating instead of fumbling and performing trial-and-error configurations after realising their servers don't run as they should because there was absolutely no word about any upcoming changes.

endar

At the very least, a warning would be nice. Something along the lines of: We are changing something, theres a very good chance your servers will not be running without manual intervention.

Gives me a chance to prepare for the release and make time available.

Sint

So mods still get disabled on map change?

At least they did even when adding "mods" : [ "57f5f9a" ] in MapCycle and ServerConfig files.

Also webadmin mod listing is not working (also tried with fresh config_path setting):
<img src="http://exertus.q-q.name/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/webadmin_mods.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Mods tab is also empty in webadmin.

xDragon

Did you change the map using the sv_changemap command? Or by letting the mapcycle do it automatically?

From what i saw in the LUA sv_changemap still would unload all mods.

Max

<!--quoteo(post=1990363:date=Oct 12 2012, 09:02 AM:name=xDragon)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xDragon @ Oct 12 2012, 09:02 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990363"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Did you change the map using the sv_changemap command? Or by letting the mapcycle do it automatically?

From what i saw in the LUA sv_changemap still would unload all mods.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, it looks like it will. I fixed the changemap console command, but I didn't even know about the sv_changemap command. This game is getting too complex! We'll have this fixed for today's patch.

Scrajm

Great, I cant even get my servers up and running anymore. This is lovely.

Max

<!--quoteo(post=1990296:date=Oct 12 2012, 07:09 AM:name=Sint)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sint @ Oct 12 2012, 07:09 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990296"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Mods tab is also empty in webadmin.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This won't work until Valve makes the NS2 workshop public.

MurphyIdiot

I am going to get a mailing list setup soon (before 1.0) to help us better communicate these types of changes to you all in the future and to post implementation details for feedback.

Regarding the "end_round_on_team_unbalance" feature. The file needs to look like this for it to work:

<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->{
  "settings": {
    "end_round_on_team_unbalance": 0.4,
    "auto_team_balance": {
      "enabled_after_seconds": 10,
      "enabled_on_unbalance_amount": 2
    }
  },
  "tags": [ "ns2" ]
}<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

So "end_round_on_team_unbalance" is on the same level as "auto_team_balance". I thought using a hierarchy would make configuration easier but I am starting to think this may not be the case. Would it be easier/less confusing to just have all these settings be flat in the "settings" table?

Whosat

<!--quoteo(post=1990383:date=Oct 13 2012, 12:35 AM:name=Max)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Max @ Oct 13 2012, 12:35 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990383"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->This won't work until Valve makes the NS2 workshop public.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Does this apply to servers downloading mods as well?

<!--quoteo(post=1990388:date=Oct 13 2012, 12:47 AM:name=MurphyIdiot)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MurphyIdiot @ Oct 13 2012, 12:47 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990388"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So "end_round_on_team_unbalance" is on the same level as "auto_team_balance". I thought using a hierarchy would make configuration easier but I am starting to think this may not be the case. Would it be easier/less confusing to just have all these settings be flat in the "settings" table?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think it is the best and least confusing in its current nested form, as long as the server operator has some common programming sense.

While on this note, can I confirm the following changes:
1. -lan is no longer used
2. -save is no longer used
3. The default server configuration file is no longer created on first Server run, only the JSON files are. (following #2)
4. -webdir is no longer used
5. If defined on both the command line and in the -file server configuration file, the commands on the command line take precedence.

xDragon

Server downloading of mods seems to work fine, tested it earlier with pre-prod DAK version. Does check every map change, not sure exactly how the check works but it seemed sorta slow considering DAK is about ~200k, but I havent tested it with a larger mod.

In terms of config layout im kinda partial to something like the below:

<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->"VoteSurrender": {
      "kVoteSurrenderVotingTime": 120,
      "kVoteSurrenderAlertDelay": 20,
      "kVoteSurrenderMinimumPercentage": 60,
      "kEnabled": true
    },<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

Which is part of a larger 'settings' file

Whosat

<!--quoteo(post=1990050:date=Oct 12 2012, 11:01 AM:name=Max)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Max @ Oct 12 2012, 11:01 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990050"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->There are two reasons I made all of these changes. The command line handling code was a real mess due to the slightly different format of the xml settings file, so I wanted to clean all of that up and unify the code. Also, there were a lot of issues with people configuring their servers with the last patch, so I wanted to use the web admin interface to allow people to set this up. To make easy, I wanted to make it really easy to get the web admin up and running. I thought the previous web authentication system was a real pain in the butt to use and a barrier to having the web admin interface being used. So I changed the authentication as follows:
<ul><li>if you just put -webadmin on the command line, the web server will only accept connections from localhost.</li><li>you can setup a simple single user authentication system by using the -webuser and -webpassword command line options.</li><li>you can setup multiple users wirth encrypted passwords by using the -webusers command line option. I added some information to the documentation on how to generate this file</li></ul><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Is it possible to elaborate more on this? The only documentation I could find in the server files were:
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->    -webuser [username]     Specifies the user name for logging into the web server
    -webpass [password]     Specifies the password for logging into the web server
    -webusers [file name]   Loads username/password data from the specified .htpasswd file
    -webdomain [domain]        Specifies the web server's domain name, primarily used in authentication phase<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
and
<div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain' style='height:200px;white-space:pre;overflow:auto'>Notes on Web Administration Interface:
--------------------------------------

The dedicated server has an optional web administration interface which returns
JSON encoded data about the server, connected players, banlist, and performance.
It also exposes an interface to execute console commands on the server. The web
server also has the ability to serve up arbitrary static content. By default,
the web interface will not be usable directly (there is no UI). However, you
can easily install a user interface to make manging the server easier.</div>

Can I assume that using -webuser "admin" and -webpass "password" will allow a single user admin:password to authenticate?
How does one add users to -webusers then?

<!--sizeo:1--><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->P.S. There's a small typo: "-modstorage [<b>direcotry</b>]"<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->

Security

<!--quoteo(post=1990388:date=Oct 12 2012, 06:47 PM:name=MurphyIdiot)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MurphyIdiot @ Oct 12 2012, 06:47 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990388"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I am going to get a mailing list setup soon (before 1.0) to help us better communicate these types of changes to you all in the future and to post implementation details for feedback.

Regarding the "end_round_on_team_unbalance" feature. The file needs to look like this for it to work:

<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->{
  "settings": {
    "end_round_on_team_unbalance": 0.4,
    "auto_team_balance": {
      "enabled_after_seconds": 10,
      "enabled_on_unbalance_amount": 2
    }
  },
  "tags": [ "ns2" ]
}<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

So "end_round_on_team_unbalance" is on the same level as "auto_team_balance". I thought using a hierarchy would make configuration easier but I am starting to think this may not be the case. Would it be easier/less confusing to just have all these settings be flat in the "settings" table?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Alright.
The configuration layout is fine, as long as an example of all available options combined is provided.

Also, is <i>"rookie_friendly": true/false</i> still in use at all?

Furthermore, I'd gladly volunteer for properly documenting changes and new features, as well as testing new server builds.
Seeing how this could have prevented a lot of confusion and problems here.

Whosat

I'd volunteer too. It'll really help to have these real-world scenarios tested before publicly releasing them.
Documentation wise, I think the wiki has been a great resource for documentation, but it's not always updated on time. Perhaps letting some of the community members help with this as previously mentioned will help reduce confusion.

Security

<!--quoteo(post=1990434:date=Oct 12 2012, 08:15 PM:name=Whosat)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Whosat @ Oct 12 2012, 08:15 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990434"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'd volunteer too. It'll really help to have these real-world scenarios tested before publicly releasing them.
Documentation wise, I think the wiki has been a great resource for documentation, but it's not always updated on time. Perhaps letting some of the community members help with this as previously mentioned will help reduce confusion.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Indeed.

Max

<!--quoteo(post=1990393:date=Oct 12 2012, 10:07 AM:name=Whosat)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Whosat @ Oct 12 2012, 10:07 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1990393"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Does this apply to servers downloading mods as well?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No, if the server has the mod id it should be able to download it. Until the workshop is public the browsing functionality for finding the ids won't work though.