SteamID integration? Please!

(Bettik) #1

[If you are reading this post for the first time, and you agree with the needs presented, please consider posting if only just to +1. Lets try and keep this post alive and keep it on the minds of the SD devs. Thanks!]

  1. Can reserved slots be automatically linked to SteamID rather than the current universal password? I feel this is essential for any community that is trying to promote this game to its members and potential members.

  2. Are bans linked to SteamID? If not, where would you find/edit the listing of IP Addresses that are banned from your server?

  3. What about rcon admin rights? Can that be linked to SteamID?

To sum up, does the game not detect SteamID of players in any way? If not, please implement this. The game has wonderful Steamworks integration, and it is only available via Steam for PC, so why not go all the way?

(humbug) #2

agree with OP

+1

(jaxer) #3

You should have a look at a couple of DrFunkensteins post. He has it to where you can put in member guid numbers and have them automatically be logged into admin when they enter the server. Thus, making it so you don’t have to type “net_clientRemotePassword” every time.

I have already banned, and unbanned a person on our server. Commands: rcon admin unban “whoever”
rcon admin ban “whoever”.

(scub) #4

would be nice if the game made me pancakes too… anything else you’d like to see?

(SpawnTDK) #5

hell no!
no more steam crap, something like that drm sh’t should be optional, not forced.

(DrFunkenstein) #6

[QUOTE=jaxer;311418]You should have a look at a couple of DrFunkensteins post. He has it to where you can put in member guid numbers and have them automatically be logged into admin when they enter the server. Thus, making it so you don’t have to type “net_clientRemotePassword” every time.

I have already banned, and unbanned a person on our server. Commands: rcon admin unban “whoever”
rcon admin ban “whoever”.[/QUOTE]

My apologies if I was unclear in my post in the other thread, I’ll try to explain it better here. Yes, I figured out a way to get logged in as an admin automatically, but it’s completely useless. You can’t do doodley squat since there’s no admin tab in this game. You can’t kick, ban or move people from within the game, you can’t change the map, you can’t restart it, you can’t do anything unless you know the rcon password.

I really wish it worked different since I think it’s a bad idea to hand out that password to lots of players.

Dr. Funkenstein

(Bettik) #7

[QUOTE=DrFunkenstein;312277]
I really wish it worked different since I think it’s a bad idea to hand out that password to lots of players.[/QUOTE]

Exactly this. And look, the game uses Steam (like it or not). I’m just asking for a more intuitive means of administrating a server. Reserved slots based on SteamID are a tried and true method for communities to easily make sure their members are able to play on the server they pay to host whether it’s currently at capacity with non-members or not.

People come and go from a community - sometimes on a very regular basis. Having a single password for use among them all means having to change that password whenever anyone leaves the community for any reason. Not to mention having to place your trust in every member not to give it to non-members.

If the game performed a simple check against SteamIDs when they attempt to join instead, you eliminate that problem. Automation. It’s a wonderful thing. Not to mention that tying it to SteamID rather than IP Address means you’re always able to join regardless of your location as long as you’re logged in to your own Steam account.

And the same is true for people that have been banned. You can ban someone by IP address, but they can easily spoof their IP address and come right back. Not true when banned by SteamID.

It just makes sense.

(jaxer) #8

Totally agree!

If we had the means to limit power by user groups, then wouldn’t it be useless with an rcon tool? I haven’t seen one yet that limits admins to only a few admin commands. Or are we straight talking about having usergroups?

(Bettik) #9

[QUOTE=jaxer;312489]Totally agree!

If we had the means to limit power by user groups, then wouldn’t it be useless with an rcon tool? I haven’t seen one yet that limits admins to only a few admin commands. Or are we straight talking about having usergroups?[/QUOTE]

Usergroups would be great, too. Honestly, SteamID doesn’t have to be the solution, it just seemed like the most obvious route. All we really need is server recognition of some kind of unique identifier that is hopefully readily accessible to the “layman” player of the game. IP address, as we all know, is simply not unique enough.

By using SteamID, for example, a community that already supports Steam games like TF2 may already have a database of SteamIDs that represent VIPs or bans on their servers. Admins could then easily export those IDs in to the server batch/config files for Brink for the same purposes.

(OleGeezer) #10

[QUOTE=Bettik;310630]1) Can reserved slots be automatically linked to SteamID rather than the current universal password? I feel this is essential for any community that is trying to promote this game to its members and potential members.

  1. Are bans linked to SteamID? If not, where would you find/edit the listing of IP Addresses that are banned from your server?

  2. What about rcon admin rights? Can that be linked to SteamID?

To sum up, does the game not detect SteamID of players in any way? If not, please implement this. The game has wonderful Steamworks integration, and it is only available via Steam for PC, so why not go all the way?[/QUOTE]

Back when I was running a BFBC2 server (if I remember correctly) when the game first launched it had reserved slots similar to what is being used in BRINK, a slot would be reserved/filled, thus reducing the number of available slots, in a later patch they changed to to VIPslot1, VIPslot2, etc., the syntax was:

VIPslotx “PlayerName”

When the PlayerName in VIPslot1 tried to join the game, if the server is full, it would kick a player with the lowest score. No slot would be reserved, thus allowing all slots to be available.

It’s seems to me that BRINK already grabs the Steam Name. Imho, it should be fairly simple to check the Steam Name of the player logging into the Full server against the VIPSlotx list and allow or disallow that player to join the Full Server based on the result of that check.

shrug I’m no expert, but it seems to me to be a very simple solution. Heh, but what do I know…:smiley:

/0

-OG

(KDL) #11

Yes the game does check for STEAMID. We need a programmer, for an admin mod.

(Bettik) #12

That’s the kind of functionality I’m hoping for. When I say reserved slots, I don’t mean actually reserving a slot that is unusable by anyone who isn’t authorized to use it. I mean what you said about kicking someone who isn’t authorized to make room for someone who is. A guarantee that a group of players be able to join the server even when it is full unless it is full of players from that same group.

However, just grabbing Steam Name isn’t good enough. Anyone can change their steam name. It’s not unique. We need SteamID for that.

What you say about needing a plugin of sorts may be the case, though I would hope that SD could take care of it for us as we would likely have to wait for an SDK to do that. Also, how do you know it is reading the SteamID of players on the server? Is there some command I don’t know about that will reveal a player’s SteamID to me from the dedicated server console?

(Decayed) #13

I just hope it’s going to be part of the dedicated server package so we won’t have to resort to running rcon layers 24/7 like in bc2.

(KDL) #14

I am not sure of the command in the server console to check STEAMID’s or if there actually is one.
When typing serverinfo it doesn’t show anything about a clients STEAMID.

example:

client  0: z, ping = 48, rate = 16000

But, if you look in your logs folder in your dedicated server, there is a connection_log<Port#>txt file.
Here is an entry from mine:

[2011-05-17 13:32:18][0,0] : Log session started
[2011-05-17 13:32:18][0,0] : SetSteamID( [A:1:0:0] )
[2011-05-17 13:32:18][1,2] : Connect() starting connection (eNetQOSLevelLow, 81.171.115.5:27017, UDP)
[2011-05-17 13:32:18][1,2] : ConnectionCompleted() (72.165.61.174:27017, UDP)
[2011-05-17 13:32:19][1,2] : RecvMsgClientLogOnResponse() : [A:1:3346977809:2637] 'OK' 
[2011-05-17 13:47:06][3,2] : LogOff()
[2011-05-17 13:47:06][2,2] : AsyncDisconnect()
[2011-05-17 13:47:06][2,0] : Log session ended

[2011-05-17 13:47:07][0,0] : Log session started
[2011-05-17 13:47:07][0,0] : SetSteamID( [A:1:0:0] )
[2011-05-17 13:47:07][1,2] : Connect() starting connection (eNetQOSLevelLow, 72.165.61.188:27017, UDP)
[2011-05-17 13:47:08][1,2] : ConnectionCompleted() (68.142.83.181:27017, UDP)
[2011-05-17 13:47:08][1,2] : RecvMsgClientLogOnResponse() : [A:1:3501988883:2637] 'OK' 
[2011-05-17 14:09:43][3,2] : LogOff()
[2011-05-17 14:09:43][2,2] : AsyncDisconnect()
[2011-05-17 14:09:43][2,0] : Log session ended

[2011-05-17 14:09:44][0,0] : Log session started
[2011-05-17 14:09:44][0,0] : SetSteamID( [A:1:0:0] )
[2011-05-17 14:09:44][1,2] : Connect() starting connection (eNetQOSLevelLow, 81.171.115.7:27017, UDP)
[2011-05-17 14:09:45][1,2] : ConnectionCompleted() (208.111.133.84:27017, UDP)
[2011-05-17 14:09:45][1,2] : RecvMsgClientLogOnResponse() : [A:1:3504196627:2637] 'OK' 
[2011-05-17 15:01:08][3,2] : LogOff()
[2011-05-17 15:01:08][2,2] : AsyncDisconnect()
[2011-05-17 15:01:08][2,0] : Log session ended

As you can see the game sets :SetSteamID( [A:1:0:0] ) to every client that connects.
This is where it gets a little tricky. So I did some poking around. The STEAMID entry is on the last line.
[2011-05-17 14:09:45][1,2] : RecvMsgClientLogOnResponse() : [A:1:3504196627:2637] ‘OK’
The BOLD numbers are PART of the STEAMID. STEAMID’s are parsed like this:

STEAM_0:1:xxxxxxxx
So, with the SteamID Converter
The last entry [2011-05-17 14:09:45][1,2] : RecvMsgClientLogOnResponse() : [A:1:3504196627:2637] ‘OK’
I parsed the Bold id Steam_0:1:3504196622 and found this:
User Profile

SteamID Converter tool snippet originally created BY Voogru of Alliedmodders

I will create a post/request over there to see if any of the programmers will consider making a tool for Brink.
As far as I know, they mostly stick to Source based games.

So, SteamID’s are being checked, we just need someone to make an admin mod/tool.
I hope this clarifies your question. :slight_smile:

(Deadwalking) #15

Nice find KDL, hopefully someone over there could work on something.

Or even better seeing something along those lines implemented by SD.

(humbug) #16

the reason that sourcemod / metamod source works for source based games is because valve encourage a their community to create mods etc and so allow the engine to be linked into in certain ways.

I’m not sure this is the case for SD but i hope this also can be done as well

(Bettik) #17

Thanks KDL! Great stuff. I agree that anything is better than nothing. My only hope is that since Splash Damage attempted a form of reserved slots, for example, already, that they will take notice of the need for using SteamID as the means of user identification for things just like those reserved slots, but also other things like bans and admin rights.

In other words, we need a database of users for tasks like this. A single password is just asking for trouble and makes administrating a server in real-time a nightmare.

(Bettik) #18

Oh hellll no this didn’t fall off the front page! BUMP!

Concise list of needed admin capabilities that SteamID recognition could provide:

-A bans database by Steam account rather than IP addresses which are potentially dynamic.

-Automatic admin login upon entering the server.

-Reserved slots, again, based on Steam account rather than IP addresses which are potentially dynamic or using a single password which would have to change frequently.

-Potential to create groups with varying levels of admin rights.

I realize there are more important fish to fry right now like the driver crashes some are seeing on PC and of course problems on the console versions not to mention the previously announced FREE DLC (thank you so much!), but again, just trying to keep this fresh in the devs minds. Of course, any acknowledgement would be greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work!

P.S. If features such as these are in fact implemented, it would also benefit communities greatly to give players a “favorites” option for the server browser.

(R4ziel) #19

Ive had a few servers in the past for steam games and have thought of this a few times but never really made anything from it. I would also like to have a ban/reserved slot be linked to a steam ID as it is quite cumbersome to log into the server everytime i log on. I don’t mind doing it, but all the other less technical people doing admin don’t always understand how to do the login part.

(OleGeezer) #20

Anyone heard anything?

/0

-OG