Server Administration and Modding
FuhrerDarqueSyde
Join Date: 2004-10-04 Member: 32076Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2004-10-04 Member: 32076Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">A reengineering request for whitelisting</div>As I'm sure you're all aware, no mods are currently 'whitelisted' but you can sideload them via server.lua so your server isn't flagged as modded but if you load it the normal way, it is no matter what the mod does even if it doesn't affect gameplay.
My proposal is something along the lines of a manifest file with the mods that has tags but the way my proposal is different than the others is that the tags define what the mod has access to as well to ensure that the mod does not just slap a tag on there so it doesn't flag the server as modded and then do w/e it wants.
For example: roprop, rolog tags might give it real-only access to variables and logs, read-write access to its own config files. (stats?)
rwprop, rwlog might flag the server but have an additional entry in the manifest for the variables you want the mod to have access to. As long as it conforms to non-gameplay changing or critical variables, don't mark the server as modded. (admin commands / admin command use logging, vote map, afk kicker, etc.)
What do people think? I haven't looked at any of the lua files and the last time i did lua was for WoW addons so i'm not sure how crazy this sounds but it seems pretty feasible to me.
My proposal is something along the lines of a manifest file with the mods that has tags but the way my proposal is different than the others is that the tags define what the mod has access to as well to ensure that the mod does not just slap a tag on there so it doesn't flag the server as modded and then do w/e it wants.
For example: roprop, rolog tags might give it real-only access to variables and logs, read-write access to its own config files. (stats?)
rwprop, rwlog might flag the server but have an additional entry in the manifest for the variables you want the mod to have access to. As long as it conforms to non-gameplay changing or critical variables, don't mark the server as modded. (admin commands / admin command use logging, vote map, afk kicker, etc.)
What do people think? I haven't looked at any of the lua files and the last time i did lua was for WoW addons so i'm not sure how crazy this sounds but it seems pretty feasible to me.
Comments
A right click could open a detailed view with all the names of the mods which doubles as links to them on the Workshop for even more details. That doesn't solve modded servers hiding their mods though.
When TF2 tried to limit server modding there were hacks for servers on the very first day so that they could appear vanilla.
In the end there will always be hacks but i think either method would work really. Master browser might be the better method, say when the server attempts to register itself it has to report its build and hashes in an encoded packet. In the end, not sure the best method on that front.
The reason I like my method is because it doesn't require whitelisting of the mods but more the core files being hashed and consistency checked so you can take a mod such as DAK Admin Mod and modify it and not have to worry about the hash changing and that it now is no longer whitelisted.