MOHAA update requests

[[-SF-]Shockwave]

Hello Ryan,

As per your suggestion, I wanted to submit some requests for the next MOHAA update  You have already said you would do the first one of these, but I wanted to mention it again here for clarity.  I've listed the items in priority sequence from my perspective.

(1) Include messages in the game server log that indicate what team a player has successfully joined, including any applicable errors that may result.

The game server log currently only shows player team change commands but no information about the team they were assigned. Error messages generated when a player tries to switch to another team before the mandatory waiting period has expired are also not present in the log.  The reason for this request is to make it possible to successfully identify what team a player has joined for proper application of team kill handling logic.  Being able to know what team a player is on for certain will make it possible to punish the guilty without fear of harming the innocent.

(2) Grant the ability for console messages to print to the player message area of the screen in addition to the chat area.

Besides the chat area at the top of the screen where all player talk and death messages are displayed, there is a spot on the screen to the left and a bit lower where messages applicable to an individual player are printed like personal frags.  It would be nice to be able to send a message and have it appear in that area because it is more conspicuous and isn't flushed away by other messages as fast as a message printed in the chat display would be.  It would also be nice to have the ability to have the message either be global or specific to a given player.  The reasons for this request are to allow the console to generate messages that would be harder for players to either ignore or miss because of all the messages that spam the chat window as well as to provide the ability for private messaging.

(3) Provide a console command that provides the data presently available to players when they hit the <Tab> key and view the scoreboard.

I know that the current status display is already filled to capacity and wouldn't suggest modifying it at all.  It already supplies a bunch of pertinent data in a stable format.  Instead, perhaps a command like "scoreboard" could be added, or maybe just allow the "+scores" command that works for players to work for the console.  The reason for this request is because it would be nice to have access to that data without having to join the game.  

(4) Generate a new log entry line type for each death that occurs that contains killer and victim client ID's as well as the weapon used that would be identifiable as log data and formatted for easy parsing.

This would help in the identification of deaths that occur during the game without requiring extensive pattern matching to strip out player names, and cross-reference phrases to the weapons that produce them in order to determine if a death is a kill or a suicide.  I have already developed a means of doing this that has worked in every occasion except when a player who had a name that was truncated by the server issued a command to change his name and created two separate name references to himself in the status display and the death message output text respectively.  I only add this as a request if it is relatively easy to accomplish.  Otherwise, I would much rather your valuable development time be spent on the first two items I have listed because I already have a reasonable solution to this issue.


These are really the top items on my list.  I would be happy to help you in any way I can, including the creation of more detailed specs if you need them.  Even if you only fulfill the first request as you indicated earlier, I think that it would be particularly helpful and incredibly awesome.  The outstanding work you have done on this and other titles is definitely appreciated.  Thanks very much for all your efforts and for taking the time to entertain these suggestions!  


Shockwave
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://icculus.org/pipermail/mohaa/attachments/20021011/bb3e3362/attachment.htm>