MOHxx Admins your chance to be Heard by EA!

[Brandon Davids]

I have been in discussion with the Producer of MOHPA, and they are interested in providing an server manager utility for the upcoming MOHPA. They would like to get their finger on the pulse of the MOHxx community to learn what you need/want in a suite of utilities.

If you would like to be heard on this subject, please answer the following 3 questions:

1. What positive things do you like about the current state of running/admining a MOHxx multiplayer server?

2. What, if any, drawbacks or negatives are associated with your current ability to admin your MOHxx Server?

3. You just found an old lamp, you rubbed it and now you have 3 wishes for ANY feature you can possibly think of to improve your ability to admin a MOHxx server, what would they be? (OK, you can have more than 3 wishes if they are good and hopefully plausible ideas.)

[rudedog]

Sounds great Brandon, Let me know if you wish to have me post something on the front page as well.

Here is my wish list, not that I have had one for quit some time ;)


-Strong anti- cheat protection PB type of program
-Ability to broadcast messages upon joining AND during the game (autokick)
-Ability to temp ban a client (admin set's time
-Ability to permanently ban a client (autokick)
-Ability to filter inappropriate chat messages (bazookajoe's chat filter for MOH works well)
-Several different levels of administration for a game server with different rcon passwords and logging of these admins
-Ability to display more server info( custom game types, maps, mods, running skins via the game browser to inform the people joining your server before then join)
-Auto download with a twist. Let the admin have the ability to redirect the download of maps and or mods from another server. This way the client will not effect the server. Also let them decide what needs to be downloaded, a server side only mod does not need to. Or have the ability to display a message to the client where to get the needed files. A click able link the admin can edit would be great
-Complete rcon command documentation (RudeDog's complete rcon guide) -sorry cheap plug
-A dedicated rcon program to use when not running MOH. Gives the server admin the ability to access rcon when he/she is away from their main box
-An ingame GUI wrapper for rcon (HLC mod). This would help novice admins access important parts of rcon to improve their server or experienced admins to react much quicker
-Player/Server stats
-Ability for the admin to freeze game play. So he/she can relay important info to all clients via chat message
-Strong TK monitoring. Ban TKers after # kills
-Ability to ban inappropriate client names or force name change
-Ability to move players to another team
-Autoballance teams
-Private slots and team private slots. Clan matches
-Spectator mode for tournaments (non players or referees to watch or monitor the game)
-Ban by GUID
-Ability to turn server sided mods on and off without restarting the server
-Ability to restart server from Rcon and not have to rely on 3rd party server apps that are $$$

[GaSplat]

That is a great list. Only things I would add off the top of my head are:

ability to "turn off" a weapon via cvar (can be made effective next map start)

ability to mix and match maps and game modes in the same rotation easily (like vstr nextmap rotations work or like Halo does it where you add maps by gametype to the list, though vstr is more flexible since you can change other stuff as well).

[THX]

1) What I currently like

- rcon pretty easy to use
- not really buggy and very fast

2) Improvements

- Mixed-mode map rotation should be standard
- More Customization, such as places to display/announce your clan name, site URL, and Teamspeak Information by pressing TAB, special bind sayings, Announcements during game, etc...
- Ability for users to automatically download new custom maps during game. This has worked for Raven Shield among many other games with no hit on performance, and they have MUCH bigger map sizes. Rudedog's redirect idea is a great one!
- Ability for the admin(s) to pick & choose what weapons can and can't be used. A big plus if they can get this to function as a custom weapon list per map.
- Better menu for rcon, ie- rcon 1 brings you to player control such as kciking/banning. rcon 2 brings you to map & weapon menus. rcon 3 for time limits, realism setings, etc...

PS- Not related here but since you seem to have contact with EA please ask them to keep leaning while running as in MOHAA. AA is still the most popular because of this reason. It adds an extra skill element to the game, believe it or not. And if not, just admit it makes it more fun ;)

[=3VIL=Kampfer]

It would be nice if there was a way to set the max players for a side similar to sv_maxclients, maybe sv_maxaxis or sv_maxallies. This way if all of your clan members are on one side in your public server, all other public players would be forced to join the other side.

[Hazzie]

I personaly think Rudedogs list is both comprehensive and exhaustive.

Some are not exactly rcon related such as including Punkbuster except that it should be turned on/offable by rcon but are needed to be considered from the start.

I really would like to see all of rudedogs suggestions in. But my top ones would be

1) Complete Rcon documentation :o
2) In/Out game rcon tool. In game GUI similar to EZRcon for moh:aa
3) Pause game option
4) Switch from one MOD to another (or to standard) without having to down the server.
5) Banning (temp/perm) logging players guid and noting who banned.
6) Any comamnds needing a player ID to work with either on clientconnect number or ignoring colour control codes in a players name.
7) If were having to type commands in (and i hope not) then please have some form of command auto complete, so we can type the first few letters and it will autocomplete the rest.

oh yeah and what ever external tool you provide please make sure there is an one for both Win and Linux.

[CaptCanada]

:eek:

EA is actually going to be proactive!!! Who wudda thot it. ;)
Seriously tho I'm glad cuz trying to find the all the right features in prgram that do exists out there is time consuming and sometimes very tedious.
To their credit they did put a server config utility into Breakthrough, but to little. Barely scratches the surface.
Hope u guys are successfu in getting a good server tool out of EA.
Thanks for all your hard work.

[kango]

:cool: :eek: i dont have ne thing, but ur guyses ideas r cool :cool: :eek: :D

[Rabid_Wombat]

That first list covers most of it. Just a couple more.

I'd just like to be able to have weapon control (like using CI with MAM). So I could choose to give players on my server a rifle AND a shotty, or a rifle AND SMG (you get the point).

Have the ability to have auto messaging on through the game itself, not a secondary program, so server information could run 24/7 and also have it customizable based on priority (white=normal, yellow=attention, red=high priority). Have the text show up under the compass, not in console.

Thanks,
R_W :cool:

[RealismHurts]

The game is great and I don't think it needs much improvement but these small things.

Give everyone a reason to switch to PA so its not like BT, cause everyone still plays SH.

Please delevop a linux client for this expansion and support the ones already being made, if you can't do that at least make the dedicated server linux compatible.

Thanks,
RealismHurts

[pcmad]

1 mixmap easer to config
2 anti cheat
3 names of cheats sent out to all servers
4 more commands
5sort out laggers
6 tker kick 3 time get banned for a day
7 music while load map
8 map fixes
9 stop land sharkers
10 more wepons
11 drive cars
12 more tows maps
13 STOP CAMPERS

[RealismHurts]

Quote from pcmad 1 mixmap easer to config
2 anti cheat
3 names of cheats sent out to all servers
4 more commands
5sort out laggers
6 tker kick 3 time get banned for a day
7 music while load map
8 map fixes
9 stop land sharkers
10 more wepons
11 drive cars
12 more tows maps
13 STOP CAMPERS

I think 1,5,11,13 are all horrible ideas no offense. 1 and 5 wouldn't be hard if you know what your doing and if you know about bandwidth laggers don't slow down the game.

11 and 13 would change the gameplay and make it more like BF 1942 and we like the MOHAA style. Stopping Camping is a desecent strategy and if you don't like it then don't play this game.

[pcmad]

Quote from pcmad

I think 1,5,11,13 are all horrible ideas no offense. 1 and 5 wouldn't be hard if you know what your doing and if you know about bandwidth laggers don't slow down the game.

11 and 13 would change the gameplay and make it more like BF 1942 and we like the MOHAA style. Stopping Camping is a desecent strategy and if you don't like it then don't play this game.
some of them are mine ideras and some are my m8s just to say 5, 10,11,13 are not mine but i pass the info to him

[GaSplat]

I think its fine as an option, except for the vehicles. They screw it all up because movies aside, five normal grunts against a tank or plane is just not pretty.

But while I agree a sniper usually camps (at first at least) it should be an option for an admin to stop it. Personally I wouldn't, but to each their own.

[CaptCanada]

I think we're getting a little off base here. We need a good server configuration and Anti-Cheat/Auto-Kick program. How people configure their servers is up to them. Campers are a part of the game but if you don't want campers turn the time down so they get kicked to spectator sooner but so-called campers are a part of war, just as nades and rockets are and a lot of people disable them. Right now in Breakthrough you can diabale a lot of stuff with the Server Setup Utility that comes with the game.
EA told me ( well at least one support person :o ) that the majority of people who buy the game use it in single player mode only. Well I doubt that but the only thing that will convince them of what is needed is LOTS of emails, so get to it soldiers :cool: !

[pcmad]

I hope every who reads this will sign the anti cheat petition which is going to EA games demanding that they bring out a proper Anti cheat for the mohaa series!
http://www.tlpclan.co.uk it is a the top of the page you cant miss it!

[Rabid_Wombat]

The idea is to provide EA with "functional" ideas which in turn will provide players with useful tools to administer the game better. In my opinion, this should have nothing to do with dictating game-play strategies.

There is no such thing as camping or spawn killing. Fight your way out or kill the entrenched attacker. Those two strategies always seem to work. Protected spawn areas and any server that puts such ridiculous constraints on the game are absolute BS. You should be able to attack any area at any time for as long as you can manage to stay alive. The concept of camping is for newbies.

Every time I hear someone complaining about campers, I cringe.

[BoSBrian]

1. What positive things do you like about the current state of running/admining a MOHxx multiplayer server?
Ease of Use

2. What, if any, drawbacks or negatives are associated with your current ability to admin your MOHxx Server?
No built in anti cheat
No GUID system
Communication of rcon commands to server sometimes need to be entered several times because of network issues

3. You just found an old lamp, you rubbed it and now you have 3 wishes for ANY feature you can possibly think of to improve your ability to admin a MOHxx server, what would they be? (OK, you can have more than 3 wishes if they are good and hopefully plausible ideas.)
Punkbuster
Better network communication (see above complaint)
Ability to download custom maps, mods, etc from server or server redirect

[rudedog]

Punkbuster
Better network communication (see above complaint)
Ability to download custom maps, mods, etc from server or server redirect
Punkbuster will be in the shipping box or so I'm told (i've already opened the PB forums here at mohadmin.com and added punkbusted links from the front page
Better network communications - need to follow up on this one.
redirect with a twist will be working out of the box. There will be some very cool features with this one.

[rudedog]

This was just posted on the official site.
http://www.eagames.com/official/moh/pacificassault/us/diary.jsp

We've come up with some notable features that I think all players will be excited about. First off, there's Instant Play, which gives you one-click access either to a fast, open server that the game finds for you, or a preset IP address of your choice. Then there's the Server Wizard, takes an alternate approach to the process of hosting games. Inspired by the "gypsy wagon" method of character creation in the old Ultima RPG's, I designed the Server Wizard to guide you step-by-step through the most important and pertinent server options, making sure everything is thoroughly explained (kind of like how you install a program in Windows). Power-user features like Restrictions allow administrators to set limits on weapon and class usage, and filter out potential clients based on experience and skill stats, making sure that your server caters to newbies, experts, or anyone in between. Finally, incorporating a dedicated MOD Browser in our UI (that supports both auto-downloading from the server directly as well as redirected downloads to a web address) and removing a lot of the guesswork from mod authoring represents one of the key cornerstones of our Community Growth plans.

It sure took us long enough but by the time we figured out our plan for the multiplayer interface, the combined Multiplayer GDD and Interface Specification totaled more than 200 pages! Still think multiplayer is an afterthought now? Our goal from the beginning has been to expand the appeal and accessibility of multiplayer to get more people to see the joys of online play, and I believe that interfaces have a great deal to do with that. However, we didn't want to accomplish this by sacrificing the goal of preserving and streamlining the advanced functions that more experienced players, mod authors, and administrators need to help make the Pacific Assault community grow and thrive. Whatever your level of familiarity is with online gaming, I think users of all experiences will find a lot to like in our Multiplayer Interface.

-- Ed

I can say this from the beginning, the MOHTeam has pushed EA to make EVERYTHING a cvar. so you the server ADMIN can have your server your way.

I'm proud of what I have pushed for. I can not comment on what will make it and what will not but you the game server admin's will be in for a very nice surprise.

[BoSBrian]

Yep, heard the same thing....PB will be included.

What do you mean "Need to follow up on this one" ? I'm sure you know what I'm refering to there...

[rudedog]

Sorry there has been a lot of emails going back and forth between the MOHTeam and EA the past couple of hours.

Seems the demo will be delayed about 2 weeks. yes 2 weeks.

It is with regret that I must announce that the MOHPA SP Demo release is postponed and is planned for release in a couple weeks. Unfortunately, I can't go into more details than this at this time. I apologize for the start & stop as I was really looking forward to releasing the demo, but can say with confidence that I know you'll be impressed when you get a chance to play it for yourselves.

Please define "Better network communications". Do you mean net code, or admin communications to clients on his server.

[BoSBrian]

Net code

How many times do you sometimes have to enter the 'status' command? 2 or 3 maybe?

[rudedog]

ahh, sorry about that.

We have not had any information regarding netcode. I have a list pending on what features we asked for and what has made it into the game so far.

These are the smaller features that we do not discuss regularly in the forums. I will bring up the netcode and things like "status" to them in the AM.

[BoSBrian]

Thought of one more thing.....I'm sure it is too late for them to incorporate this now, but it would be great if they had a seperate application that was the dedicated server. Such as the dedicated server that Battlefield, or UT, or AAO uses.

Nothing is more of a pain that having to upload a full gig of stuff to setup a server.....

[pcmad]

it would be nice to lie down then multiplayer will be more real and moh team ewant moh to be as real as possivble

[rudedog]

I was talking to TKO about this (ded app for dedicated servers). They say you will need to upload the whole dir to your server.

As for prone, It was in SP and should be in MP.

[General_Death]

I was talking to TKO about this (ded app for dedicated servers). They say you will need to upload the whole dir to your server.

As for prone, It was in SP and should be in MP.
It was in the MP build we played at EALA...no reason I can see it would make the final cut.

[pcmad]

can we have a we to link mohpa from a web site to connect to the server with out a extural programm

[=3VIL=Kampfer]

This may be too late, but it would be nice to have the ability to run any console commands against a specified client. For example running the path command, or set name, set playermodel, etc. against a client ID.

With all the other features coming in PA it may not matter as much, but I sure wish I could do those now! ;)