ModBox Servers
Hugh
CameramanSan Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
CameramanSan Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
in Modding
G'day chaps,
At the moment, UWE servers are divided between public servers and servers provided to the NSL/AusNS2 leagues. There will soon be a pool of servers available to modders as well, which will be called the 'ModBox' group.
I'm looking for a dedicated group of modders who wish to serve as the admins for this server group. These admins will be able to decide which mods are put on the servers. These people should be friendly, and interested in putting lots of different mods on the machines, while catering to the most popular mods as well.
If you are interested, post up this thread.
Cheers
Hugh
At the moment, UWE servers are divided between public servers and servers provided to the NSL/AusNS2 leagues. There will soon be a pool of servers available to modders as well, which will be called the 'ModBox' group.
I'm looking for a dedicated group of modders who wish to serve as the admins for this server group. These admins will be able to decide which mods are put on the servers. These people should be friendly, and interested in putting lots of different mods on the machines, while catering to the most popular mods as well.
If you are interested, post up this thread.
Cheers
Hugh
Comments
While I don't have loads of time to do on server admin duties I would like to think I have a good knowledge of custom maps and would be glad to help with the map selection process. I can create a list of suitable maps but it obviously depends on the standards you want to set. Almost all the custom maps worth playing are still in development in a variety of stages. You've got quite a large selection if the only requirement is for them to be (mostly) bug free and fun. But if its complete maps you're looking for you're pretty much limited to Jambi.
Just multiplay (clanforge) servers, so thats pretty decent config setup and access to commands/stats.
Also if more ppl are needed,i am willing to volunteer. Would love to test some mod combos.
The main issue I had at the time were the breakages .. 'when mods go bad!'
Are there any metrics
hmm I'd suggest doing something similar for the UWE Official servers tbh .. just moderators.. I was on last night with one of the most racist players I've yet to encounter on the big bad interweb .. there was nothing to be done... use something like googledrive or something to push out lists of admins etc.
Regarding game mods too .. I'm sure this group would need the ability to stop/start and edit the server.txt files .. for running loads of mods, I'd also suggest having seperate config files aswell as individual server.txt files that could be swapped in and out
UWE servers are Multiplay servers, so whoever is nominated to help out with these servers will probably have access through clanforge to all of that. (Start/stop/restart, all the configs, profile configuration(say you want to change over from 'vanilla ns2' configs to a factions config set, you can have them on seperate profiles, and switch between them), and data statistics.)
On a somewhat related note, will we ever see server side demo recording!? Like hltv demos for example. This is the big thing holding back hacker detection in this game. If we had automated 24/7 demo recording it is easy as shit for admins to grab the demos and check for evidence when players are saying that player XYZ was hacking on the last map.
I see this as a posibility for mods and admins to test new mod combinations on a non local server. E.g. i would really want to try a vanilla, combat, faction meets shine crossover server. Yet i get a setup running on my local server but as i dont have the money and dont want to crash my normal Server i had no real chance to try this.
About a demo system, how many times did we ask for it in this forum? UWE already answered that we won't see that in the near future as i would cost alot of effort.
See here for the most recent UWE comment on this: http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2166625/#Comment_2166625
Very valid question Woody. The access level is not 'full' - These are servers provided by Multiplay, and managed through the Clanforge interface. All necessary permissions are provided to allow in the installation of NS2 mods and custom maps. I cannot provide more technical details as I have not closely examined the system. The NSL use servers we provide through the same interface and have no issue running mods.
I am at a total loss. Please don't hurt our morale by arguing that somehow we are hurting the NS2 community with this.
Also, while this idea may be hated by some, I think we could really draw in more players if we had a UWE supported official combat gamemode. A strong followup to the ns1 classic combat with a bunch of quick throwback maps and we could easily have an increase in the overall playerbase who might not be into the depth required for the classic ns2 gameplay.
And please give SamusDroid the admin.
Red
I am merely voicing my concerns.
Hopefully though this will get the problems with the workshop to hit closer to home. Just today I restarted a server 3 times from it being taken down from workshop mod availability problems.
I can't say I'm a professional modder, but I certainly would like to help create some chocolate servers! (Vanilla is good, but variety is better!)
There have been (and are) plenty of modded servers that have rarely been filled, why would these be any different?
And so I don't damage your motivation, I want mods to be played more. It should of been one of the major advantages of using Spark. But modders constantly having to update their work as builds broke them made certain that it was impossible for any bar Combat to gain any traction.
Constant workshop problems and general NS2 integration woes doesn't help either. Error 28, Error 16, Error 2, Server mod out of date, the mods list not having any sorting functions. I could go on.
Anyone play Faded? Had so much potential. Combat, MvM (outdated), and NS2:C are really the only 3 big completed gameplay mods that at least have some development still occurring. There's also Proving Grounds but I haven't really looked into that one or seen if it's playable.
As for seeding yes because of the modern age people are to impatient to seed servers it only takes 4 to 5 people (you should have more than this on your friends list!) then the server is normally full in less than 10 mins (SCC server here). One requirement for the server admins might be that the admins gather to seed the servers?
It wont take long for people to become regulars (should the server be fun!)
What would be the playcount of these servers?
It might be an idea for those with admin / control of these servers (really cool idea btw that I am 100% behind) that you should talk to the people whos mods / maps you will be putting on these servers and set some ground rules for them.
1, only update your mods / maps on a set day of the week... OR only update your mod / maps once you have spoken to one of the server admins who can restart the server immediatly post update to said mod / map (unless there are active players on the map in which case it does not matter as once the server changes levels everything is fixed anyway)
2, only add mods / maps that do not require a lot of constant updates in a short space of time, once a week would be fine so long as they follow rule 1
3, Rule 1 is absolute and must not be broken
I would to help to help out @hugh with this but so long as you dont need people online 24 / 7
Or make sure server admins use this: https://github.com/Person8880/Shine/wiki/Workshop-Updater
Ofc more than one update daily should be avoided. But sometimes it just happens that you oversee a line (causing issues) before you publish your mod. In this case you have to push the hotfix out as fast as you can.
This mostly solves the update issue. However the larger issue was never the updates b/c worst case the map would change but then then workshop takes away your admin plugin there are no map changes and no recovery until you see it is down.
ah that , you mean workshop timeouts. Yeah but that is a issue you can't fix without changing the hole way how mods are stored. To avoid this issue i would suggest to leave a working vanilla setup at your server.
I don't agree its a harsh job. Speaking as a modder and a NS2 player; hanging out in a chat room dealing with requests or issues on a few servers is hardly a nine-to-five job. I think its a worthwhile time investment to help the community and the modding scene.
Ah thanks. I may have used the term "harsh" here wrong, and ask you for pardon as i'm not a native speaker. I just wanted to wish you all good luck and alot of fun and hopefully you may avoid most troubles.
I know it could be a harsh job on some communities but I doubt we'll have any problems running a niche server selection for this one.