Hyper.nl Unreal Services

srbassalot · Joined: 16 Sep 2004 Posts: 229 Location: Earth

This is becoming a BIG problem on the server.
You can't possibly ban people fast enough to keep up with the amount
of lamers showing up lately and running to the ends of the map and ending without asking. It happens day after day.

I'm aware there are posts that address this issue but I didn't see
anyone talk about the possibility of adding a voting option before a map could be ended. Now I have NO idea if it could be done or how it
would be done I just never saw it discussed and would like to contribute
as much as I can to see if this problem could be resolved.
I'm sure we would all love to find a good answer.

But a voting system that required 75% of the players to vote "YES"
to enable the end would be great.

What do you think....

Zombie · Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 295

It definitly can be done and has been before. The only issue is that it is much more efficient to write the support into the gametype uscript itself rather than doing it externaly. I certainly know MCoop2 is very modular and flexible. Somebody who wants to try this can make a new server-side mutator package and add in new vote end player commands to go with it. It would be a great learning experience for a person if they aren't that good with UScript yet. I know Hyper.nl is very devoted to MCoop2, so I think he would be perfect for the job. :)

-Zombie

Hyper · Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 4:08 am Post subject:

Ending keeps being a problem indeed. Because there is a translator message at start explaining some basic rules all players know to ask. But like 50% ignores it, at least, if there is no guard playing. I also had some trouble with guard (=admin helper) players who were cheating, ignoring the rules or only played for theirselves. I might have a new guard soon.

About the MCoop mutator: I'm quite familiar with the Unreal and MCoop2 commands, but I completely lack any coding skills, so that's not an option. (Also read this message at the TCP forum where I explain this a little.) However with the help of Zombie who made a basic mutator I was able to make a small command executer for the Unreal Gold server browser. I'll might be able to modify this to make a minimal playing time which eases the problem a little. (Using a timer to trigger the blockend commands) But don't count on it. From earlier experiences I know things get complicated quite soon.

By the way:

I saw an ending protection in dots' coop game which gives players some time to say 'no' to block ending, but as far as I know, it's part of the Cooopg gametype and therefore not usable for servers running other gametypes.
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srbassalot · Joined: 16 Sep 2004 Posts: 229 Location: Earth

Wow some people should do their homework before they
critisize other people (i.e. Xavious)
Nice comeback Hyper...

I can understand your woes with programming and scripting, never
been a great thrill for me either.
Gave me headaches but I was pretty good at it.

I have done quite a bit in the past, I just didn't have anymore time for it and I have no experience with uscript in particular, but there are tutorials and help for it everywhere on the net and if the code can be written then it can be altered and I'm sooooo over this problem I'm willing to try myself if need be.

Hyper · Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:00 pm Post subject:

I'm working on the timedend mutator now. It almost failed because the 'blockend' command did not want to be accessed from the mutator, but I found a '_blockend' command that does work. I'm making a local MCoop2 test server to try it.
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Hyper · Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 8:45 pm Post subject:

I'm making a list with different minimum play times per level. Any comments on this list?

Zombie · Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 295

Is the end timer counting on a 1 second timer call? If so you can just divide the total by 60 to convert the seconds into total minutes. It would be easier to configure that way perhaps. Even if you are using Level.TimeSeconds to keep time you can still divide that by 60 for conversion.

As for the times, of course that will need some test-N-tweaking since it will all be on minimum. A few of them could be longer, such as ones that naturally have more monsters in them at the start even though the map is small. Even if a map is short I don't think it hurts to have a 3-5 minute timer at least since there is an active monster spawner on.

-Zombie

srbassalot · Joined: 16 Sep 2004 Posts: 229 Location: Earth

I think noork and extremegen might warrant a little more time.
We usually have some great monster spawning and fragfests there.
Other than those the rest look pretty good.

Only time will tell, it can always be tweaked later once the code is perfected. If there is such a thing :P

One thing I feel should be noted is, there is
an excellent balance on this server for players to earn frags / weapons through kills and gemdagger so there are no reasons to short-time
a map when the real incentive is built-in with the mods you use.
In other words, the "Noobs" are usually the only ones that don't understand there is little to be gained by rushing to end.
Because it is not a static environment thanks to the mods you use.

Does that make sense?

WOOHOO you got it running

Awesome job Hyper.

Hyper · Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 4:30 pm Post subject:

Ok, the time is in minutes now. I experienced some annoying bugs with the level names (Get the level names to give each level a minimun play time) but this is fixed now.

I revised the timers and increased many of them. It's indeed not a big problem if players have to wait a short time before they can end. many levels have lots of (secret and non-secret) places to explore, and the monster spawner should keep the frag hunters busy :p

The times will be tweaked further, but this are the new settings as they run on the server now:

srbassalot · Joined: 16 Sep 2004 Posts: 229 Location: Earth

Excellent...It's like Christmas coming early

This solves a big issue that was frustrating so many "regular good" players I havn't seen some of them play in quite a while.
It was also making some people sooo mad they would do things they normally would not, i.e. cratering offending players.

Very nice indeed...

Skaarj Slayer · Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 38 Location: Canada

well about those "regular good players"

the reason why I can't play is because my UnrealGold disappeared from my hard drive

so I'll need to reinstall UnrealGold...wich in fact I'll do it right now

damn....Unreal is fricking addictive

TheEmperorStalwartUK · Joined: 11 Feb 2004 Posts: 261

I just hope that the changes will make players like me come back

Damn I hate people that end without asking :p
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srbassalot · Joined: 16 Sep 2004 Posts: 229 Location: Earth

Well I can tell you the new timer mod is working excellent.
I chuckle to myself everytime the usual offenders run thru the door
at skycaves to end and then realize they can't get back out.
That door only opens one way...lol

A great man once said "fools rush in where angels fear to
tread"

It still does not address the issue of people not asking to end
but at least now there is a minimum preset time for each map.
A voting system would be idea but that is going to take more time.
In the meantime this does help ALOT, trust me I have seen it in action.
It rocks. The people that use to "Run the maps" leave after realizing
they can no longer do this.

Skaarj Slayer · Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 38 Location: Canada

Zombie has a system that when enough monsters are killed, the end is enabled..

and, theres also the saying, srbassalot

"Where angels fear to tread.....we go there guns a blazing."

Hyper · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 8:53 pm Post subject: