A few questions about serverhosting

[Deathi]

As I am sick of having to play with highpingers killing the server, giving you framedrops or packetloss, or sick of others, warping around, which you aren’t able to hit, I am really thinking of getting a server for me at some time.
So while thinking about it, and the pricing, and doing some research, there is really no further information availible about the customization other than your empty(concerning this topic) promotion-video.
So, could you probably enlighten us, what options are availible, will be availible, are planned, are not currently on the table, or will never be on the table? (Pls don’t use the expressions “soon” or “when it’s done”).

Seeing the premium pricing (compared to some well-performing root-servers) and not the best hosting and/or peering (at least from my point of view), and some probably never-needed setup-scripts (still from my pov), I hope we are able to expect something? Or is it just another EA-drop?

So here a few question I have.

• Will you add a server-admin/help/stuff support-section in the forum?

• Will the serverbrowser be able to filter the servers any more? By name, ping, ff on/off, maxplayers? Gamemmode, password, empty slots and slots availible obviously are availible already.

• Naming of the servers?

• Which maps are/will be availible?

• How’s the maprotation set-up? How’s the mappool set-up? Maps voted able to be taken out for x votes?

• Do you plan to give us some sdk or do you dislike community-maps?

• Do you plan to allow serveradmins to host community-maps downloaded by the clients or will they have to be kinda registered and officially rolled-out by you with the game?

• Do you plan to allow serveradmins to chose which classes are availible?

• Do you plan to allow serveradmins to chose a maximum number of classes/server?

• Do you plan to allow serveradmins to chose a maximum number of chars/server?

• Will there be a possibility for a vote for changing maps while a map is running?

• Will there be / is there a possibility to change the ammount/percentages of votes needed for some successfull kickvote?

• Will there be a possibility for a ban-vote?

• Will there be / is there a possibility to change the ammount/percentages of votes needed for some successfull banvote?

• Rightsmanagement by playername&password, password alone or steamid?

• Some superadmin availible for executing presaved scripts for servermanagement (switching to warmode or publicmode, switching ff on or off, whatever else there is)?

• Some minor admins availible for daily stuff (chosing maps, kicking/banning people, unbanning people)?

• Reserved slots for clanmembers (steamid, password) and/or specs availible?

• Autokicking people when prioritized people (steamid, password) want to join availible (with some custom message)?

• Forced mininmal up-/downloadrates for the client so no abuse of low rates/bandwith?

• Tickrates higher than the standard sd-servers availible?

• Pingfilter by absolute ping availible?

• Pingfilter for people averaging a higher ping for more than x secs (lagging) availible?

• Country-/Regionfilter availible?

• Ip-Blocklist availible?

• Banlist by SteamID availible?

• Kick for recently set-up steamaccounts (days, weeks) availible?

• Kick for names containing whatever availible?

Thank in advance, Deathi.

[DarkangelUK]

We’re not getting an sdk, this has been answered a billion times now.

[Deathi]

Can’t remember to have seen this in the forums, sorry.
Sad, won’t really help growing the community.
But thank you, nontheless.

[_charon]

Detailed answers to these questions would be very much appreciated!

But hey, adjusting conditions for minlvl-servers to the new system has lasted for 2 weeks now…(probably less effort than answering your questions).

[Mc1412013]

I just want to know if we can have moderators. I dont plan on being a dick and share my server with masses if i rent as it will primarily be execution most of the time. But if im not there and i want to leave some one in charge i trust to kick hackers or controll the salt level will i be able.

Also i hope admin of server has ban hammer power. I know lot of times the winning team wont kick a hacker because there winning
And the admin would be the only one to bounce him

Finaly just for fun csn i play around with friendly fire in execution just for a match or two??

[Mc1412013]

Oh btw can we have fun modes big head mode or big hand mode or tiny head mode just for fun expecialy on april fools day.

[stayfreshshoe]

Hey there!

Thanks for putting your questions down in a comprehensive list. I’ve dropped in replies for you on them all below:

• Will you add a server-admin/help/stuff support-section in the forum?
  If you feel like this would be beneficial we can certainly get one up. There will be guides up on the Multiplay website for everything to do with servers and if there’s any issues with the servers it would be Multiplay who would need to resolve that for you.

• Will the serverbrowser be able to filter the servers any more? By name, ping, ff on/off, maxplayers? Gamemmode, password, empty slots and slots availible obviously are availible already.
  You can already do this. Just put in what you want in the search bar and it’ll list all the servers.

• Naming of the servers?
  You can do this (may or may not need to be prefixed with ‘Multiplay’ though)

• Which maps are/will be availible?
  All currently active maps

• How’s the maprotation set-up? How’s the mappool set-up? Maps voted able to be taken out for x votes?
  You pick which maps are on rotation. The rotation will work the same way as they do in the live game at the moment. You should also be able to set one map to always be in rotation.

• Do you plan to give us some sdk or do you dislike community-maps?
  No SDK is planned and more than likely will not be made. Sorry

• Do you plan to allow serveradmins to host community-maps downloaded by the clients or will they have to be kinda registered and officially rolled-out by you with the game?
  Sadly there will not be any community maps so this isn’t possible

• Do you plan to allow serveradmins to chose which classes are availible?
  Not on the initial implementation, but perhaps down the line

• Do you plan to allow serveradmins to chose a maximum number of classes/server?
  Not on the initial implementation, but perhaps down the line

• Do you plan to allow serveradmins to chose a maximum number of chars/server?
  Not on the initial implementation, but perhaps down the line

• Will there be a possibility for a vote for changing maps while a map is running?
  Not on the initial implementation, but perhaps down the line

• Will there be / is there a possibility to change the ammount/percentages of votes needed for some successfull kickvote?
  I believe you can do this

• Will there be a possibility for a ban-vote?
  Not on the initial implementation, but perhaps down the line

• Will there be / is there a possibility to change the ammount/percentages of votes needed for some successfull banvote?
  If we add this feature then this will probably also be in there

• Rightsmanagement by playername&password, password alone or steamid?
  No idea what you mean here

• Some superadmin availible for executing presaved scripts for servermanagement (switching to warmode or publicmode, switching ff on or off, whatever else there is)?
  You can assign multiple admins and there will be an admin panel you’ll all be able to access to do this kind of thing (I think. Some features need to be changed in the server profile though and can’t be done through the admin panel)

• Some minor admins availible for daily stuff (chosing maps, kicking/banning people, unbanning people)?
  There is different levels of admin so this will be possible

• Reserved slots for clanmembers (steamid, password) and/or specs availible?
  Yup

• Autokicking people when prioritized people (steamid, password) want to join availible (with some custom message)?
  I believe so yes

• Forced mininmal up-/downloadrates for the client so no abuse of low rates/bandwith?
  I don’t believe so, no

• Tickrates higher than the standard sd-servers availible?
  All servers will be the same as our live servers

• Pingfilter by absolute ping availible?
  Can you explain this one for me?

• Pingfilter for people averaging a higher ping for more than x secs (lagging) availible?
  I don’t think so

• Country-/Regionfilter availible?
  What do you mean?

• Ip-Blocklist availible?
  Not on the initial implementation, but perhaps down the line

• Banlist by SteamID availible?
  I believe this is in on release

• Kick for recently set-up steamaccounts (days, weeks) availible?
  Not sure what you mean

• Kick for names containing whatever availible?
  Not on the initial implementation, but perhaps down the line

[Ptiloui]

Do you plan to allow serveradmins to chose which classes are availible?
Not on the initial implementation, but perhaps down the line

Wanted to add another complementary question on this one : Will there be an option to block certain specific chars like it was done in the ranked mode ?

[Deathi]

First of all, thx for your time. . I wouldn’t have expected an answer to such a wall of text before the weekend.
i know, it was quite a list I put together, what I thought was either necessary, or at least highly useful, while brainstorming through the et- and cs-admin-features.

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Will the serverbrowser be able to filter the servers any more? By name, ping, ff on/off, maxplayers? Gamemmode, password, empty slots and slots availible obviously are availible already.
You can already do this. Just put in what you want in the search bar and it’ll list all the servers.

If I am not mistaken you, for example, can only sort by the actual number of players beeing on the server, and not the real maxplayers, could be helpful for people not wanting to play on 8vs8 or 5vs5.
And “FF ON” or “FF-ON” seems to be a mandatory part of the servername, and, at best, has to be spelled always the same, if you want to filter it. You spell it “FF ON”, AIE spells it “FF-ON”, so you need to search only for “FF”. If a few people now put some “FF-OFF” into their server’s name, tadaa.

How’s the maprotation set-up? How’s the mappool set-up? Maps voted able to be taken out for x votes?
You pick which maps are on rotation. The rotation will work the same way as they do in the live game at the moment. You should also be able to set one map to always be in rotation.

Ok, so it’s “only” a bug that some maps (terminal redux and dome redux I think) are able to be voted on, after they’ve been played (and sadly get voted a 2nd time, sometimes), while not beeing in the list constantly. That’s what got my eye.

Rightsmanagement by playername&password, password alone or steamid?
No idea what you mean here

Wanted to know how the admins are “logging themselves into the server”. As you answered later on, there are multiple levels of admins. Do they get logged-in automatically by their steam-account/id, do all get the same password for every different level of admin, or does everyone has a sole playername/password-combination.

Pingfilter by absolute ping availible?
Can you explain this one for me?

Will you be able to autokick people with a ping higher than you have set-up (e.g. ping higher than 75 or sth) on join?

Kick for recently set-up steamaccounts (days, weeks) availible?
Not sure what you mean

This was something we had in ET, to autokick the newly made accounts to get rid of cheaters creating new accounts over and over. But after thinking about it again, I was wrong, it weren’t steam-accounts but “ET-accounts” these days, sorry.
Dunno if a dev is even able to get the age of a steam-account or at least some flag if it’s newer than x.

Country-/Regionfilter availible?
What do you mean?

Some predefinied country-and/or regionfilter or some possibility to edit some ip-ranges which will be autokicked. At least on the western-european servers you always get people with lower pings from the same region warping around like… ehm, which you can’t cleanly hit (dunno if it’s their isp’s, their routing, whatever, shouldn’t be my business), so it would be nice to get the ranges/countries autokicked once the admin got them identified.

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Unfortunately a pingfilter (as a few 80-90+ players, or even a sole 350+ player have the ability to get your live-servers on their knees. For example hitdetection becomes bad, reloads are not working, people are warping and weaponswitches are taking seconds while you are defensless) and some kind of classmanagement (even if it is as simple as a single player/class) are mandatory features imo.
So sadly a nogo for preordering, but I hope, you are working on it, and adding features, right?

Again, thx for your patience.

[teflonlove]

Country-/Regionfilter availible?

[…] At least on the western-european servers you always get people with lower pings from the same region warping around like… ehm, which you can’t cleanly hit (dunno if it’s their isp’s, their routing, whatever, shouldn’t be my business), so it would be nice to get the ranges/countries autokicked once the admin got them identified.

The countries can be identified during connection, so it would be more efficient to not let such players connect with an appropriate message (“This server refuses connections from your region”). Letting them connect and kick them afterwards wastes the player’s time and also temporarily prevents another player from connecting.

[stayfreshshoe]

Will the serverbrowser be able to filter the servers any more? By name, ping, ff on/off, maxplayers? Gamemmode, password, empty slots and slots availible obviously are availible already.
You can already do this. Just put in what you want in the search bar and it’ll list all the servers.

If I am not mistaken you, for example, can only sort by the actual number of players beeing on the server, and not the real maxplayers, could be helpful for people not wanting to play on 8vs8 or 5vs5.
And “FF ON” or “FF-ON” seems to be a mandatory part of the servername, and, at best, has to be spelled always the same, if you want to filter it. You spell it “FF ON”, AIE spells it “FF-ON”, so you need to search only for “FF”. If a few people now put some “FF-OFF” into their server’s name, tadaa.

• I’m not sure if you can search for Max Players, but you can search for servers by their details and not just their names. For example, if Amsterdam wasn’t in the server name, you could still get servers in Amsterdam return as it’s in the hidden server description.

stayfreshshoe:

How’s the maprotation set-up? How’s the mappool set-up? Maps voted able to be taken out for x votes?
You pick which maps are on rotation. The rotation will work the same way as they do in the live game at the moment. You should also be able to set one map to always be in rotation.

Ok, so it’s “only” a bug that some maps (terminal redux and dome redux I think) are able to be voted on, after they’ve been played (and sadly get voted a 2nd time, sometimes), while not beeing in the list constantly. That’s what got my eye.

• That’s correct. That would be a bug.

stayfreshshoe:

Rightsmanagement by playername&password, password alone or steamid?
No idea what you mean here

Wanted to know how the admins are “logging themselves into the server”. As you answered later on, there are multiple levels of admins. Do they get logged-in automatically by their steam-account/id, do all get the same password for every different level of admin, or does everyone has a sole playername/password-combination.

• Ah got you. No admins should need to log into the servers. It is done by steam ID and each admin can be given their own specific level. If a level of access wants to be updated the server owner (or someone else with access to the clanforge area) would need to update it there

stayfreshshoe:

Pingfilter by absolute ping availible?
Can you explain this one for me?

Will you be able to autokick people with a ping higher than you have set-up (e.g. ping higher than 75 or sth) on join?

• Ahhhhh. In that case yes

stayfreshshoe:

Kick for recently set-up steamaccounts (days, weeks) availible?
Not sure what you mean

This was something we had in ET, to autokick the newly made accounts to get rid of cheaters creating new accounts over and over. But after thinking about it again, I was wrong, it weren’t steam-accounts but “ET-accounts” these days, sorry.
Dunno if a dev is even able to get the age of a steam-account or at least some flag if it’s newer than x.

• This could be a useful feature. It wouldn’t be on launch but perhaps in future

stayfreshshoe:

Country-/Regionfilter availible?
What do you mean?

Some predefinied country-and/or regionfilter or some possibility to edit some ip-ranges which will be autokicked. At least on the western-european servers you always get people with lower pings from the same region warping around like… ehm, which you can’t cleanly hit (dunno if it’s their isp’s, their routing, whatever, shouldn’t be my business), so it would be nice to get the ranges/countries autokicked once the admin got them identified.

• Thanks for the extra info. Sadly not

Hope this helps further

[Deathi]

It surely does, thank you.

[stayfreshshoe]

You’re welcome

[B_Montiel]

Hey there,

About merc restrictions :
So far, as long as the in-game 3 mercs deck is still running on the game, I hardly see any viable solution for merc/class limits in this game. It closes the debate with issues such as people picking that Phantom/Rhino/Fragger pub trio that wont help the team in any possible situation AND will not be able to spawn as soon as there’s a 2 merc class restriction on combat and recon.

This is an issue SD has to solve pretty quickly because this currently ruins public experience -at the exception of sawbonez, put any merc in a 3 or more same team stack and it will be a proper plague- , and already shredded top end ranked back then -that goddamn unbeatable duo Fragger or duo Arty with an Aura-. For many people that would be the main reason -set FF-on and the opportunity to turn server private aside- to rent a server, and it cannot exist if you leave the game the way it currently is.
Possible solution : turn the 3 merc deck into a 5 one, forcing people to have at least 4 different classes in their deck. ==> Adds diversity the game currently lacks, allow the addition of class restriction WITHOUT people unable to spawn.

About servers : Ping limits are also a must have… As long as Multiplay does a proper job, which they don’t right now. French people reaching 100+ ms ping on a London server ? Do you consider this normal ? It’s not, and it always happened with multiplay, who are literal scammers with high prices and bad servers, and their ideas of what routing consist for gaming purposes. So yes, don’t except any improvements soon enough. And SD will deny any involvement in this now you know the server provider.

So, is it worth renting a server ? Not yet, definitely.

One last rant @stayfreshshoe : DB servers seems to account XP even when turned private. How will you make sure people are not farming on their rented servers ?