OpenRanked near completion but ...

(GMC'Holle) #1

Hi everyone,

maybe you heard that OpenRanked was revived - at least for some month. I just want to tell you that OpenRanked is near completion as I only know of two nasty bugs preventing ETQW server and OpenRanked server to communicate without interruption. I’m going to fix these two bugs in the next days but I still cannot release it nor I’m able to finish the project by myself.

What are the problem I’m still facing?
I’ve managed to get an ETQW server running under Linux to communicate with the OpenRanked server and to store or retrieve the values (stats). I also managed to raise the number of points displayed in the world map (the number of pins displaying where the action happens). I also managed (if the openranked mod is loaded on client side) to change the server list to seperate servers running real ranked servers and servers running OpenRanked by displaying different icons. But as soon as a Linux client downloads the addon-pak-file it crashes. The server part running under Linux is working well and does not crash (so far). I tried to build the server part for servers running at Windows. But they crash immediately. Also does the client. As I have no access to MacOS computers I cannot build neither server nor client mod of OpenRanked.

What do I hope for?
I hope some of you might be interested in OpenRanked and will look at the project. I really need help in getting the Linux client not to crash when downloading the addon-pak-file. The next step is to create a Windows client (and maybe a Windows server) of this mod. I know that a game???.pk4 will contain one file for server and client but look at the source files how it differs. The last step is to create the files for MacOS X.

As I do not play ETQW actively anymore I won’t be disappointed if someone takes over the project. It is hosted at SourceForge - URL: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/etqw-openranked . You might notice that OpenRanked server isn’t tied to ETQW but more generic so it can even used for any mod and any game. A temporary and ugly website displaying the stats (like the old website at stats.enemyterritory.com but uglier) can be found at http://www.openranked.org/ . I’m not a web designer :wink:

I will try to answer any question you might have at this project. Just me an email.

In hope you can help
Regards,
GMC’Holle

(light_sh4v0r) #2

I’ve never heard of this project, what’s the idea behind openranked? Providing global stats between servers running the mod?

(Scrupus) #3

Yeah this is something new, I’ve never seen anything about this project before :slight_smile:

Not that I really care about ranks, but as the official www stat site doesn’t work anyway, perhaps it could be useful.

But why do you need client pak, why not let the server report all stats and let clients use the web interface rather than a custom pak?

Client custom paks for etqw can be a pain, working server mods might be all you need.

Please give more info on your work, plans, and motivations :wink:

btw I loved the GMC ET server park - Fliegerhorst was one of my favs in the good old days :smiley:

(GMC'Holle) #4

Yes, it’s right. This mod allows global stats among all servers running this mod. It’s like a ranked server but without their restrictions and the server is in your hand. :wink:

I also do not care about ranks but in the good old days I played ETQW most people played ranked server. I think because of the ranks and the stats. But ranked servers were limited to the standard maps and (if I remember right) limited the settings you can change. So their were no special servers anymore like I used to see in the wide ET server world :frowning: In addition ranked server were really expensive.

That’s why I have started building an OpenRanked mod as soon as the SDK for version 1.4 came out. But the interest in helping testing was not high so I stopped the development. Last year I was contacted and asked to revive the project. And here it is again.

OpenRanked consists of three modules. The first one is the global OpenRanked server and usually there is only one. It waits for connections, handles authentication and stores/sends out the stats of the player requested. This module is ready (except for the two known bugs) and stable.

The next modules are the game server and game client parts which share the same PK4 file as it this way how the game engine was designed so I call them just “game mod”. The “game mod” running at ETQW server takes care to ask the OpenRanked server for player stats/ranks as soon as they enter the game and the store them when they leave. The “game mod” for client does not talk to any server (except for the game server you connect to). It only changes some displays as the server list to show unranked servers, ranked server and (now) openranked servers. It also raises the pins in the world map showing where the action takes place in campaign mode. Normally it is limited to 3 pins but it changed it to 12 pins. But to see this display changes an additional addon-pak file is needed.

The game mod for linux servers and client is also running well and stable. But the client will disconnect with errors when it downloaded the addon-pak file. There is something broken in this addon-pak file. If I use an older version (with some bugs) and store it manually in the etqw folder it works. That’s strange.

The game mod for windows clients is crashing as soon as the limbo menu should be shown which is displayed after server is connected and the map loaded. As I don’t have Windows I cannot debug it nor do have any clues why it crashes. You might guess as I don’t have Windows I cannot tell you anything about the game mod running on Windows ETQW servers.

The game mod for MacOS is missing at all. I do not have any access to any MacOS system so I cannot provide the game mod.

@Scrupus: Fliegerhorst was also my favourite :smiley:

Greetz
GMC’Holle

(Dthy) #5

Sounds like a good idea to me. If it works, it would make ranked serves pointless and then hopefully people would switch to unranked servers. This means that customs maps could in a way, become used in a ranked way. Good luck!!

(AnthonyDa) #6

Reminder : ETQWpro used to have its own stat system. Yet it failed badly.

(GMC'Holle) #7

@Dthwsh.: Jepp, this was intension to do OpenRanked :wink: My opinion is still the same that ranked server wasn’t good for ETQW.

@AnthonyDa: etqwPro used a very limited and stripped down version of OpenRanked. The author was rewritten a lot of stuff as far as he told me.