[KroniK]

Hello,

I have been running game servers for a while. I have run UrT servers for many years as well as more recently running servers for some other games including source based games like TF2 and Insurgency. Having to deal with some of the ins and outs of working with those servers and the rcon commands that are available, and the server administration tools that are available, I would like to start some kind of discussion around what types of server admin tools I personally would like to see ship with UrT HD.

Now first off, I am going to assume that HD is going to be run with dedicated servers which anyone can run if they choose. Secondly, I am going to use generic terms from the current commands that are available, and not try to be super accurate with the exact syntax of how server commands are run on the Unreal platform, I'm just looking to convey the basic ideas.

So with that out of the way, I'd like to do a broken down list of things I would like to see available as a server admin.

1) Administrators File
This one is pretty basic. As an alternative to having a single rcon password for a server, I would like to see the ability for the owner of a server to add specific users as admins for a server, with varying levels of privileges. Currently the only way to have multiple people have admin to a UrT server is to just hand out the password. This means that whenever someone who has the password goes AWOL or has a falling out with the server owner, the password has to be changed and everyone else has to get the new password. It also means that you cant limit what some people can do. I would love to have some people as basic moderators who can kick/mute players, some admins who can also temp-ban and some high level admins who can permaban etc. It could also limit the server functions for the moderators so they aren't changing gravity or some other crap like that. Essentially I would like a basic rcon permissions system. Having groups would make this nice, where you can set the specific commands allowed to be run by each group and then assign players to those groups in an admin config file.

1A) Passwordless Rcon
In order for the above to work nicely, it would be great to tie the admin privileges to specific user ID's. Those people have to be logged in (or authed) for the server to verify their identity. Once the server verifies them, they can run any rcon command they are allowed to, or their group is allowed to.

2) Player Database
In order to keep track of players as well as to effectively ban players, it would be helpful if the server held all of this information in a local database that could be accessed by 3rd party systems. One thing that is great about source games is that there is a plugin that creates a full web interface where users can submit demos and information regarding players they believe are cheating. Then an administrator can go in and check these reports, and just click the ban button, and then that player is banned, and there is a ban reason which is shown to the player when they attempt to connect to the server.

It also would be great for anyone who develops a stats engine for the game. If someone wants to modify HLSX Stats or B3 bot to work with this game, they can tie the database right in with the existing player database for the server.

3) Remote Logging
Speaking of HLSX or B3, one of the major things that server owners like to do is set up stats engines for their servers. The thing that these stats engines all require is continuous information about what is going on in the game so that it can parse and record all of that data. Currently, B3 has to be set up to read a log file that UrT writes to continuously. However, it would be much more convenient if the server was able to also log all of this information to a remote address/port that the B3 or HLSX engine can be listening on.

4) Easy Remote Rcon
Another thing about running a B3 bot or a stats engine is having the engine run automated commands on the server. Currently the way to do it on UrT is through an obscenely complex telnet command if I remember correctly. I would love to have something built in that is much more user friendly. An easy way to simply issue a command to the server without having to be in the server. I would also like to have the ability to set specific IP addresses that can run these remote commands in the admin config file, this way I don't have rando's trying to run remote commands on my server.

5) Gamemode Config Files
Often times, there are things that an admin would like to change about the server depending on the gamemode. Let's take TDM vs CTF. Rather than having two CVARs to control the respawn time for each gamemode, I would like to see a separate config file for each game mode, where the admin can set all of the variables that would carry over between the two gamemodes, as well as any specific variables like hot potato time. Then when the game loads a map and checks what gamemode is set, it loads all the settings from the appropriate config file. This will help make it simple for an admin to tweak specific settings for a specific gamemode and do it in a single location. I would like the server to load these gamemode settings AFTER the server.cfg file so that anything in the server.cfg file can be overwritten by the gamemode config.

6) LOTS of rcon control
Way back when, rambetters server binary for 4.1 had a bunch of additional rcon commands which are no longer in 4.2. These commands allowed an admin to change a players name, or to force them on to another team, or to change their armband color, etc. I would love to see a lot of this type of stuff come back. Below are a list of specific things I would love to be able to do as an admin that would allow me to create interesting game modes and allow me to set up a server bot like B3 that can do some really great stuff like ballance teams, force people to use specific weapons, etc.

a) force player to specific team
b) force player to spec
c) read what weapons/equipment a player has
d) remove specific weapons from players
e) give specific weapons to players
f) slap player
g) kill player

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That's about all I can think of at the moment. Maybe some other server admins can add to the list above, or wish to refine some of my ideas. I would love to see some discussion on this topic and know what you guys think.

I mostly just want a lot of control as an admin of my own server. I would like to be able to define exactly what I want my server to be about. I would like to be able to make my server different from the 100s of other TDM servers by providing things like stats, and the ability to force fairly equal teams using those stats, and the ability to let players easily report other players, and to make it easy for me to check up on those players and ban them if necessary.

There are a lot of amazing tools already built that do some of this stuff, and I would like UrT to have the best chance of being able to more easily plug into these existing tools, and provide a server admin with the tools to help provide the best server they can for the players.

Thanks,

KroniK

This post has been edited by KroniK: 12 June 2016 - 12:42 AM

[Novak89]

Great post:)

[fr.Biddle]

Are you aware that most of your suggestions are already there in Urban Terror ? Especially for the specific rcon commands you would like to have. Nevertheless, with 4.3, we pushed RCON system even further. Appart from readin/giving weapons, the few points that were not yet possible in 4.2 should be working in 4.3.

[FS HappyDay]

In addition to what Biddle said, you can read a player's gear selection with the dumpuser command. Iirc you can even change the name of a player via rcon dumpuser. Not sure if that was a bug or intentionally, and not sure if it's still possible, it's been a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if you could change a player's gear by the same method.

[Fenix]

HappyDay, on 16 September 2016 - 11:17 AM, said:

In addition to what Biddle said, you can read a player's gear selection with the dumpuser command. Iirc you can even change the name of a player via rcon dumpuser. Not sure if that was a bug or intentionally, and not sure if it's still possible, it's been a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if you could change a player's gear by the same method.

No you can't change a player name like that. To do so you need to be able to push a new userinfo string to the server (with the new name) for the game module to parse it and change the name => you need a different (new) RCON command to do that. The Dumpuser command is just to dump the userinfo string of a player, nothing more.

This post has been edited by Fenix: 16 September 2016 - 11:28 AM

[Mod Iye]

Biddle, on 16 September 2016 - 10:47 AM, said:

Are you aware that most of your suggestions are already there in Urban Terror ?

Are you aware that Kronik was talking about features he wanted to see in UrT HD?
Or is 4.3 secretly going to be a HD prerelease? :P


... just sayin ;)

[FS Barbatos]

Iye, on 16 September 2016 - 07:43 PM, said:

Are you aware that Kronik was talking about features he wanted to see in UrT HD?
Or is 4.3 secretly going to be a HD prerelease? :P


... just sayin ;)

Nope, 4.3 is real and will be released on the idtech3 engine shortly. :)

[FS Frankie V]

To put it on the table.

Unreal 4, unlike working with idtech3, offers many opportunities for members of the community to become more directly involve with the on going development of the game "Urban Terror" with out the requirement of joining the team due to current restrictive licensing requirements.

A good example as to fair use is both MIT and CC0 are both compatible with UE4 licensing where under EULA or GPL the use of either is at least questionable.

What this means is members of the community wishing to take part in a 3rd party project are more than welcome to do so, say for example advanced admin tools, and submit the project to the FS team for consideration under MIT for code and CC0 for content.

As it stands UE4 and Epic are in the process of adding plugin solutions to the marketplace so I'll add this need to the wish list.