[bf1942] Console

David Harrison trogspam at games.telstra.com
Thu Apr 10 21:07:50 EDT 2003


> I'm not attached to any particular protocol. It should be simple to
implement
> and able to control the same things one can through config files or the
> in-game console.

I agree

> I threw out the web server suggestion only because it may already be
available
> in a form that one just "plugs in" to one's application, eliminating some
> development overhead.

Yep, web server stuff for game administration sure is nice, if done
properly - the best example of it I've seen is in UT2003, though the
PunkBuster one for Q3/RTCW/SOF2 is almost catching up. My big concerns with
it as an exclusive administration system are a) lack of ability to control
remotely from a console (which I do allllll the time with all our other
servers) and b) security

> I'm not familiar with rcon. Can it be driven from a telnet session? That
has
> the virtue of making it easy to debug.

Most current common server software that uses an rcon system (eg, Half-Life,
Quake/Quake 2/Quake 3, SOF2, MOH, RTCW, etc) just has a very simple
interface - you just send a UDP packet to the query port along with a
password string and then you get a response (Half-Life's is a bit more
complicated but still relatively simple). It is very handy to quickly and
easily retrieve/set server settings, message players on the server, kick/ban
players, etc. We have a fairly complicated infrastructure built up around
our Half-Life servers to manage them more efficiently, built almost solely
out of the ability to easily remotely admin the servers.

IMO, the key thing is making it simple but having a stack of functions
available - this works well for Half-Life (easily the most feature-packed
dedicated server software available) and allows server managers to maintain
their servers either by downloading any number of user-created server
manangement packages, or creating their own from scratch. Valve's only sign
of competance (again, imho :) has been their willingless to listen to server
administrators and add in the functionality that they've requested -
ultimately, we're the people running the servers, and without them, noone
can play their games, after all!

-- trog






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