Ideas For Upgrades To 1.2 Dedicated Hosting Tools

[Phobos]

Ideas For Upgrades To 1.2 Dedicated Hosting Tools

Since it is probably impossible that us modders and active players will ever acquire the source code for the dedicated hosting software, I have started creation of a list of new features that would be useful for admins using another method.

Objective: Develop a stand-alone utility running some form of automated script which is capable of implementing the following functions for SWBF Dedicated Hosting Tools v1.2 without the server admin having to be present:

• Close and restart server after 5 minutes of one team being stuck at 0 reinforcements (end-game hang).
  
• Log IP of all clients who join to an output text file.
• Auto-Paste all banned IPs from a text file into the banned IPs table.
• Increase max "AI Units Per Team" from 32 to 50, 64, or 100.
• Increase max server sessions from 2 to 4.
• Allow more than 1 mission.lvl to be called on (so that hosted servers can be more customizable).
• I will post your ideas here.

Some of these might not be possible but I'd like to see at least a partial degree of success with this idea.

I think this should be done.  Now that we are adding to the mission.lvl file, we need a GUI to write the command to start the game server with adjustable tickets, etc for the new map.


We need something similar to the original dedi server interface, but it should have check boxes for invincible, sideselect, a slider bar for TPS, checkbox for noaim, and should also read an .ini file like the original.

I would suggest that it be able to handle a tabbed window for 5 server instances, with the possibility of having the support for 5 different game directories (folders) so that mods can be served that way if desired.

If someone is good a making popup windows, it would be a great help.

[Led]

• Auto-Paste all banned IPs from a text file into the banned IPs table.


• Increase max server sessions from 2 to 4.
• Allow more than 1 mission.lvl to be called on (so that hosted servers can be more customizable).
• I will post your ideas here.

Some of these might not be possible but I'd like to see at least a partial degree of success with this idea.

PLA uses Auto-IT to load a ban table.  I am not exactly sure how this was implemented.  Bandit set it up for us.

You can have as many server sessions as you want, you just need to run multiple instances of the GUI--from another server folder/directory.

Not exactly sure what you mean about the more than one mission.lvl file.  If you use the GUI, you can edit the ini file so that each instance has its own working directory.  Each working directory can have its own modified mission.lvl file. 

What I do for PLA, is to just copy the server software into a new folder, and mod the mission file there, and start a new instance of the GUI and/or use batch files to start the server.



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[Phobos]

PLA uses Auto-IT to load a ban table.  I am not exactly sure how this was implemented.  Bandit set it up for us.

You can have as many server sessions as you want, you just need to run multiple instances of the GUI--from another server folder/directory.

Not exactly sure what you mean about the more than one mission.lvl file.  If you use the GUI, you can edit the ini file so that each instance has its own working directory.  Each working directory can have its own modified mission.lvl file. 

What I do for PLA, is to just copy the server software into a new folder, and mod the mission file there, and start a new instance of the GUI and/or use batch files to start the server.

That is pretty cool, do you mind sharing the script file for the auto-ban? I know you can have unlimited server sessions but it requires one GUI per two servers. 1 GUI per 4 servers would be more efficient on the CPU and Ram. What I mean by more than 1 mission file is letting each session within the GUI call upon a selectable mission.lvl instead of having to create new directories for each mission modded server session. All of these are ideas to simplify hosting abilities.

[[FC]Target]

so your idea is to make a new dedicated server software

hmmm. it could be done

[Led]

so your idea is to make a new dedicated server software

hmmm. it could be done

A new GUI could be made.  The current GUI just calls the server executable with a bunch of command line switches.

However, a new server executable can't dont without source code.

[[FC]Target]

true it would have to be made from scratch 

[Phobos]

or maybe just a seperate exectuabale (like a trainer) but mroe like an extension for the hosting tools

[[FC]Target]

Hmmmm keep the server exe and just add features on to it.. could work better question how hard would it be?

[Led]

I think this should be done.  Now that we are adding to the mission.lvl file, we need a GUI to write the command to start the game server with adjustable tickets, etc for the new map.


We need something similar to the original dedi server interface, but it should have check boxes for invincible, sideselect, a slider bar for TPS, checkbox for noaim, and should also read an .ini file like the original.

I would suggest that it be able to handle a tabbed window for 5 server instances, with the possibility of having the support for 5 different game directories (folders) so that mods can be served that way if desired.

If someone is good a making popup windows, it would be a great help.

[Phobos]

I think the max IP bans should be increased from 33 to 200. I noticed from testing today that you can only ban 33 IPs/Subnets before it stops letting you add more.

[Led]

I think the max IP bans should be increased from 33 to 200. I noticed from testing today that you can only ban 33 IPs/Subnets before it stops letting you add more.

Maybe that can be done with cheat engine, as it would be an exe issue.

[Phobos]

Actually the limit is 32.