Server suggestions
devicenull
Join Date: 2003-04-30 Member: 15967Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
Join Date: 2003-04-30 Member: 15967Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
There's a few things I'd love to be changed on the server, but I'm unsure of how to properly suggest them. Getsatisfaction is.. less then satisfying for suggesting things.
So, I'll post them here in hopes someone reads them :)
1) Make the server logging path configurable. %appdata%/Natural Selection 2/ is actually pretty terrible if you want to host multiple servers per machine. A command line or normal config variable for this would be perfect.
2) Provide some way of getting a client's steamid. All sorts of fun features are possible once this is available, such as reserved slots, banning, etc. IP addresses really aren't a great way of identifying players.
3) Print out player chat to console. I released a patch for this at <a href="http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111358" target="_blank">http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index....howtopic=111358</a> , it's two lines of code ;)
So, I'll post them here in hopes someone reads them :)
1) Make the server logging path configurable. %appdata%/Natural Selection 2/ is actually pretty terrible if you want to host multiple servers per machine. A command line or normal config variable for this would be perfect.
2) Provide some way of getting a client's steamid. All sorts of fun features are possible once this is available, such as reserved slots, banning, etc. IP addresses really aren't a great way of identifying players.
3) Print out player chat to console. I released a patch for this at <a href="http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111358" target="_blank">http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index....howtopic=111358</a> , it's two lines of code ;)
Comments
That took me like 2 minutes, yeah UWE should totally make this a priority... not.
The server no longer requires Steam to be running, so you don't need a 'server account' for it.
So yeah, checking the build ID against the latest release and running an update cycle would actually be pretty damn helpful.
So in short the picture is a little bit bigger then the inconvenience of having to update NS on a remote box (speaking of which it's bloody horrible using the main steam interface over RDP :/ )
So yeah, checking the build ID against the latest release and running an update cycle would actually be pretty damn helpful.
So in short the picture is a little bit bigger then the inconvenience of having to update NS on a remote box (speaking of which it's bloody horrible using the main steam interface over RDP :/ )<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I store all my NS2 files in a git repository. When updates come, I just tell it to add all the changed files. Once that's done, I have a nice list of changed files, which I feed to tar, and upload that to the server. It's not ideal in any way, but it works quite well. I have been told they are working on getting the server available via hldsupdatetoool, which should make things significantly easier.
<!--quoteo(post=1804584:date=Nov 5 2010, 06:43 AM:name=Martin)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Martin @ Nov 5 2010, 06:43 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1804584"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Well since steam isn't required maybe a unique hash for a user could be created and sent only once to a server, that way we can track who is really who. Like steam id but not from steam? Totally possible and would be useful for sure.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You don't need steam running on the server to be able to get someone's steamid. There's essentially a tiny steam client embedded in the server, so it can retrieve steamid's and such. Steam is definitely required, just not the client you usually use.
Yep the last game I helped the devs test servers against just had a build ID, then called home to see what the latest was and had it's own little rsync client that updated if needed, having a proper dedicated server tool in the list would be really helpful but then it's 2 sets up updates for them to submit to valve. :/
I'd rather stick with hldsupdatetool. It's not perfect, but it's well-debugged, and well-known. The developers writing their own update client for servers (it's a lot harder to do due to the variance in server setups) would really just be a waste of time.
-edit: Also worth noting that things like l4d2 / tf2 have version checks / updates within the srcds executable not the update tool.
Actually, they are in the master servers. The game sends it's version when it tries to register for the master server list. If it's too old, the master replies with a message saying it's out of date.
The distinction is semantical, the point is a check is made against the servers running version and the latest one available and if an update is available it is downloaded.... :/
Sigh.
The game already has rcon support.
more info on how to connect rcon please (and you better not say via the website - who the hell would ever run a webserver on their gaming vps?)
scorpydude check your inbox ;)