MNC Stand Alone Dedicated Server Features and Wishlist

SO....great start, guys. The server client appears to be stable, AND seems to be very lightweight. Our servers have been full 24/7 since (literally) 5 minutes after they went up, and memory/CPU usage is pretty minimal. What I would like to see next is:

1. Server instance number glitch(s) fixed, so all of them can be used (some cause conflicts with others and/or simply do not work for some reason).
2. Assignable IP address via command line
3. More than 15 servers per box (our box could conceivable handle at least 35-40 of these without breaking a sweat).
4. Reserved slots by steam ID (with auto-kick to make room, etc.)
5. Admin privileges by Steam ID (having a single password for admin access is a monumentally BAD idea....should that password leak somehow, every griefer with the game installed would come out of the woodwork).

**Pie in the sky wishes**

In-game admin menu (so that kicking/banning can be done without needing to open console, search for name, type in properly formatted commands, etc)

Back-end API (for server queries/control via web application(s), as well as custom stats)

Quote for ******* emphasis.

I don't care if anything else like map change or hosting more servers isn't implemented, being able to remotely admin would be a very suitable next bundle of godsend.

Oh, and don't forget some easy way to add maps and have them distribute automatically to clients that join at a later point.

My #1 request would be to let servers have alltalk if they want to, like in TF2. I know a lot of people share my love of chatting with your victim/assailant The "dream" version of that request would be to allow a key for team and a key for the whole server, but I would be delighted even with just a setting for it

All very good suggestions, imho, being able to tweak everything is a HUGE plus, and I would very much like to up the price of the Annihilator something fierce (as it is, it makes the whole bot pushing combat pretty much pointless)

In the interest of competitive play:

Dedicated spectator slots
Ability to auto-record demos/auto-capture screenshots
Ability to "ready up" before a match starts
Ability to call "timeout"

Allow Blitz maps in rotation so dedicated Blitz servers can run or servers can have Crossfire and Blitz in the same rotation.

After the update tonight, there were a about 75% fewer servers on the master list. Why? Tons of people who are buying servers from a hosting company can't update their server because they have no direct access.

Uber may have just killed the PC community with one update.

Please PLEASE let the servers be easily updated from within the game, AND/OR allow newer versioned clients to connect to older versioned servers.

^There is no reason for that to be happening. I do have direct access to my server (remote desktop)

However one of my staff members noticed the update and went and updated via our control panel (which is the Ultimate game control center). All it does is run a batch files remotely, that triggers the HLDS update tool.

For just about every other game that uses the HLDS update tool it is very easy for customers to login to their panel and click "steam update" which triggers an HLDS update tool update.

If a hosting company does NOT have that setup in their panel, SHAME ON THEM. It's not impossible to do, and odds are they have it setup that way for their other hosted services.

As for the low number of servers, I have noticed runtime error in server 2008, and it's pretty late xD

For the love of god, please don't release updates on weekends!

It's a brand new game, not all hosting companies have the capacity to instantly adopt to a wonky system! And making things worse by deploying updates in a window when service providers are normally understaffed.

I live in Europe, the past 2 updates arrived here late in the evening, when I would usually be playing. I rent a server from GameServers, it's been just floating empty for the past ~12 hours cos nobody can join a server with a different version. The people who would be able to do something about it are most likely still sleeping cos they live on a different continent. And it's my money out the window.

If the game goes competitive in the future and arranged matches get screwed over because of a bad update cycle then it will also be unpleasant for everyone.

I love the game, but please plan a better update procedure.

Shame on Gameservers.com then. I had to put in a support ticket for an update.

GameServer.com servers are fine. You guys just don't understand how to update the server. It's to be updated automatically, but won't update without a re-install as restarting the server doesn't cause the updater to activate of which is should. This is something uber need to look into, no GameServers.

I have a server up and running fine with the latest version. They do a fantastic job at GS

Nice try GameServers support guy.

How's about a nice big "Steam Update" button in the server management tool? XFactorServers has one.

If that's all you have to do to update the server, how come it took GameServers FOUR HOURS to respond to my ticket? :evil:

It's not my job to understand how to update my server, that's what I pay the service provider to do.

About what a good job GS is doing.
Today after waking up at 8am I saw that my server was still outdated (since last night). At 1pm I got tired of waiting for something to happen and opened a ticket, to which I got a reply at 4pm telling me the issue was dispatched to some game support guy who will get back to me when the issue is resolved.
It's now 9pm and my server is deader than last year's cat.

Game servers don't update automatically on the hlds update tool UNLESS They are running on linux. The hlds update tool will run every time the server restarts. However that's LINUX only, and this game doesn't run on linux.

There should be a steam update, that will run it. Shame on Gameservers.com

one reason I hate gameservers.com (besides just being greedy). Sad to see the big guys are getting in to this game.

Its a easy thing to do all they need is a update button on thier game panel. Should not have to reinstall the server or take forever for a tech to do it.

I set my servers up to auto update via hlsd and it works fine.

I did not know there was a patch untill I noticed all my servers where empty.

I'd like to have a better way of communicating to server hosts when we do an update. We need to do updates during PST time when Uber and Steam employees are still working but that does suck for people in other parts of the world.

Why not use the hlds mailing list, like the Killing Floor guys do?

We (gameservers.com) don't have staff members register on forums and talk about how good our servers are. That's just silly.

Due to an oversight during the setup of the game with our systems, this button was not initially made available. This was corrected on Sunday, and you can now update your server via your control panel (Log in, click 'Mods' next to your server, then 'Steam Update').

That first part was mostly tongue in cheek.

As for the Steam Update, thanks! I'd like to be able to play on the server I pay for. :mrgreen:

The steam update feature is a limitation of both the windows version of hldsupdatetool.exe and TCAdmin.

Neither are setup to automatically update games on their own. Punkbuster updates also have to be manually run.

This is why most Game Control Panels have the button options to run the Steam Update and Punkbuster update.

Also, with the number of games and updates that get released it's hard to keep track of when updates are released and what needs to be updated.

TCAdmin has a batch file update mechanism that allows for patching all servers of a specific type with a zipped file containing the updates. This feature doesn't work for update functions like Steam and PB which are ran through their own applications.

Also, since MNC itself doesn't actually execute as a GUI, it doesn't self update like it does for the client side.

However, with that being said, scripts and batch files can be setup to run automatic updates on a periodic basis, but that's also difficult in that game installations are automatic and assigned to boxes by the TCAdmin Game Control Panel, so setting specific locations for updates can be hard, if not require manual editing of the batch file for each new game installed on the box.

Of course, with install scripts, you can have TCAdmin add the location of the new installation to an existing batch file. We have our TCAdmin setup to automatically run HLDSUpdatetool.exe on new installations, but even that sometimes mis-fires and doesn't update.

It's not the fault of the GSP, or the developer. It's just the way things are. Generally, GSP's provide the box space and bandwidth, and initial file installations, and support when needed. It's up to the client to configure the server, keep it updated, make changes or add mods. Most GSP's help or even setup some of these things for clients, but its because we want to as part of the customer service ethic.