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redwall_hp

Tech Admins
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Everything posted by redwall_hp

  1. When we ask for donations, we say it's to keep the lights on. If we used that money for prizes, we would have effectively lied about our intended purpose, which is...well, shady as fuck. The exact opposite of the financial transparency, with published budgetary costs and everything, that we've been going for lately. It would be a disservice and a deception to our amazing donors. (Never mind it's yet another thing to eat into our budget, when putting it towards keeping the servers paid for is paramount.) It would also open up a huge legal can of worms. We'd be required to follow a ton of laws that fall under the general category of "contests and gambling." (Which vary by state, and figuring out jurisdiction is fun for an internet organization...) For example, nobody who is a staff member would be allowed to participate in contests with a monetary prize (which includes gift credit), nor would family of said staff members. If the event legally qualifies as a "game of chance," rather than a "game of skill" it could be illegal in some jurisdictions or have a set of gambling laws that apply. It would be a huge mess to figure out, and we'd have to, otherwise all it takes is one disgruntled player who lost to contact authorities and raise hell if everything isn't on the up and up. Then there's the issue of sportsmanship. Throw a real-world prize into the mix, and civility goes out the window. There would absolutely be more foul play, disputes over minutia, and all around nasty behavior because there's something of value on the line. All it takes is one person to cross the line, and then you have drama start. Definitely not a good idea, especially for the first reason. We play the "help us out, we need you to keep this fine organization running" card. Turning around and using that money for a prize fund would be really low, and ruin all trust that we'll put donated money for good use.
  2. I'm voting for Cards, because I'd like to see how it plays with a huge amount of players. Xyzzy supports 20 in a game...let's do this.
  3. Time for another progress update... SourceBans Since the stock Source server ban management tools are...lackluster, we're now running on SourceBans. This system saves the information we need to efficiently process appeals, and makes it far easier to ban and unban players. It includes a web panel that displays ban information, as well as letting you manage bans in the system, and in-game commands as well. Additionally, Sourcebans works with multiple Source game servers (which will be useful if we end up adding, say, a TF2 server down the line) and even synchronizes in-game permissions between the servers. Banning a player can be done with the /ban <player> <duration> <reason> command, an option in the in-game moderation menu, or via a page in the web panel. When a player is banned, they'll be able to appeal normally at nerd.nu/appeal. A staff member will then look up the ban info on Sourcebans, as we currently do with MCBouncer for Minecraft bans, and post them in a detail post as usual. In-Game Permissions I've been working out the permission groups for staff members, and the commands that are available to them. I think I mostly have it nailed down for now, though some things might still be shuffled around a little before or after launch. We have three in-game groups: techadmins, admins and moderators. The last group gets basic access to bans, kicks, mutes and various special chat options to aid in moderation. (e.g. chat to all players—regardless of team or dead/alive status, send a private message directly to a player, or broadcast a message in an alert box to all players.) Admins will have some additional commands available to be used when appropriate, such as the ability to force a map change or trigger the "Zeus Round" mentioned in my previous post. (Also, the ability to poll players with arbitrary vote dialogues via /vote <question> <answer> <answer> <answer>...) The techadmin group, as you'd expect, allows deeper access for convenience of administration and debugging. Features for slaying/harming/etc players have been intentionally disabled, as they directly disrupt gameplay. (CS:GO's gameplay is mostly self-policing, and anything that merits moderator action merits a warning or ban.) In order to be added to in-game permissions, a staff member will have to have a Sourcebans account created by a tech, and they will have to supply their SteamID so the system can identify them in-game. My plan is to have admins (who wish to be added) added by launch time, and after we've had time to see how things go, and iron out any issues, we can start adding moderators as needed. Screenshot Time The moderation shortcut menu accessed by /admin: Banned! A ban record on SourceBans: Banning a player via the web panel:
  4. No. It absolutely would divide the community and trample on our egalitarian philosophy, just like paid ranks. Even the term "trusted" leaves a bad taste. Additionally, I'm definitely not comfortable giving anything even slightly resembling moderation tools to somebody who hasn't passed the staff vetting process. We have just process in place for a reason. Poor moderation or abuse of power reflects poorly on the staff as a whole, and handing that power to someone who is arbitrarily labeled as "trusted" but apparently not trusted enough to make it through a mod nomination is...well...asinine.
  5. Isn't it easier to make a WorldEdit selection and //set mobspawner|creeper than that?
  6. So...are players allowed to edit flags on their region, or are moderators doing this? Because I'd say there should just be a policy against moderators setting the block command flag on players' regions at all (barring special outlined circumstances, if there are any that are legitimate).
  7. The server now has an announcement rotation, much like on the Minecraft servers. Every two minutes (configurable, though two minutes works out to roughly one message per round) a message is picked out of a cycling list and displayed to the user in the chat pane. The first message in the list is given special treatment, though. Since it's self-promotional in nature, ensuring new players know which server they're playing on and encouraging them to visit our forums, it's rendered in a little callout box. So far, there are only three messages. The two pictured, and "don't forget to blink." As always, feedback and suggestions for the announcements are welcome. I also dropped in a silly "Zeus Round" plugin that can be invoked by a command (only accessible with sufficient permission level), which saves everyone's weapons and money, then makes the next round a quick team death match with only tasers and knives. (Weapons and money are reverted to their prior state after the round ends.) Just a silly bonus feature to be used with discretion, obviously. Now, back to more serious stuff.
  8. de_bank has been dropped from the map list, on account of it being a GunGame/Arms Race mode map, which doesn't allow you to purchase weapons at the start of round. (Oops :P)
  9. de_bank has been dropped from the map list, on account of it being a GunGame/Arms Race mode map, which doesn't allow you to purchase weapons at the start of round. (Oops :P)
  10. Progress update: Various minor tweaks and enhancements 95% finished with my automatic update system (which will prevent the need for manual server updates every two days when Valve adds more cash grabs weapon skins) Thorough logging is in place (connections, chat, kicks, bans, etc) Edit: Automatic update script is fully functional
  11. Ah, you're in the UK. That complicates if more, lol. Wednesday or Thursday my time might work all right, providing there's a bit of advance notice (keeping in mind international date line :p). I can be a bit flexible with the time, depending on what works.
  12. This coming Sunday, or next? Because that would be short notice if it's this Sunday. Best time overlap would probably be around 7-8PM EST for you, since that's not-too-disgustingly-early-morning here and evening for you. (AEST is +14 hours)
  13. Um, sure, I guess. Do they have a time in mind? It's obviously better with more people, so maybe we should schedule some sort of internal testing time and get a bunch of admins and mods familiar with the game together. Whoever wants to give it a go. (You get a better feel for gameplay with people instead of bots, and it'll give a better picture of resource utilization under a higher player load.) It would also probably be best if I could be around to monitor the server and pick up feedback (and fix any showstopping issues), though not 100% necessary if scheduling doesn't work out. Thoughts? I play a bit of CS (GO, Source and 1.6), jchance has done a bit, SwitchViewz plays, and I think Deaygo might play as well. But yeah, I'm fine with letting mods in at this point, so long as it stays staff-only and it's made clear that server details are to be kept confidential.
  14. Nice, Barlimore. Seems to be working as expected so far. Nice catch on the bots. It took me way too long to figure out you could take over bots in CS:GO, since this wasn't a feature in CS:Source. :P It has "clinch" mode on, which means you don't have to play the full 15 rounds on a map if one team has won enough rounds to make it unwinnable to the other. (e.g. if your team wins 8 rounds and the other wins 0, it will end, since the other team mathematically couldn't catch up.) The gift dialogues are some sort of Valve game-wide alert. I do have SourceMod installed now and have been doing some configuration and testing related to that.
  15. So, status update time: the CS:GO server is coming along pretty well so far. I've been working on configuration, and writing some scripts, etc.. Presently, the player limit should be 24-ish and the game type is Classic Casual (as this is the most popular mode, it made sense to go with that). Admin Alpha Testing If anyone would like to give it a try and see how it's coming so far, maybe offer suggestions and feedback, the server is up and password protected. (Unless I'm working on stuff, then don't be surprised if it's down or derpy ) Hostname: csgo.nerd.nu Password: goaway Of course, divulging this information to anyone outside of the admin team will result in global thermonuclear warfare. So keep it on the down low. Try it out if you want, solo or with some others. Bots are dynamically added when it's emptyish. Maps Currently, I've set up a map set (visible in the "call vote" interface) that includes Valve's "active duty" maps as well as some old favorites that aren't in the present Valve rotation (but still ship with the game). The present list: de_aztec de_bank de_cache de_cbble de_dust de_dust2 de_favela de_inferno de_mirage de_nuke de_overpass de_seaside de_season de_train de_vertigo cs_italy cs_militia cs_motel cs_office If you have any suggestions for maps to add, they're more than welcome. (Maps with the de_ or cs_ prefix are recommended for the Classic gamemode.) SourceMod and Admin Access The stock game server does not allow anyone without access to the server console to issue kicks, bans, or otherwise moderate the server. While I don't foresee a great need for this sort of attention, since much of the game is self policing, there will be times when it will be better if someone other than a tech admin can come on and ban somebody. For this reason, I'm looking into the possibility of installing SourceMod, which will add some more management facilities (as well as a plugin architecture) and a rudimentary permissions system. This will mean certain SteamIDs could be given permission to access limited commands (through chat triggers like !kick user and the in-game console accessed with the tilde key), enabling kicking and banning. Unless there are objections, I'd like to limit this to admins (server/head/event/tech) who wish to be added, for two reasons. 1. The technical hassle of keeping the list up to date and synchronized with our large and constantly in-flux moderator list (on a different physical server, no less) 2. Sadly, quite a few of our moderators like their "joke kicks" too much. Doing that in a competitive FPS match would be abusive, and a recipe for very nasty conflicts. Given that FPS games tend to bring out the worst in people, not spreading that power around seems prudent. (Related note: it's shocking how easily people in Mumble can lapse into homophobic speech prohibited by our rules when you throw an FPS into the mix. I've had to remind players of that more than once in the past.) Besides, admins are usually available on IRC and the timezones are well covered if an issue arises. Of course, this definitely merits discussion, and I'd love feedback from the heads on this topic. Personally, I think in-game bans won't be something we'll have to worry about too frequently (though I could be horribly wrong), but Mumble moderation will likely require more vigilance.
  16. A lot of the ones I used to listen to ended or I got bored with them. Current ones are The Changelog and It's a Thing.
  17. Ban Information Since Denevien is no longer on staff, and I was witness to the conversation at the time of the ban, I'm going to take over your appeal. You're now unbanned, seeing as you've changed your name and it's been such a long time. Have fun, and be sure to have a look at the rules, as they've probably changed a little since you were here last.
  18. Hello. Seeing as your ban is so old, I've went ahead and unbanned you. For posterity, here are the diamond edits:
  19. As I was saying when crock disconnected from Mumble: have you changed your name in-game recently? If you did, that's why shit's messed up for you. Perms are still somewhat tied to name, and certain things will break if you change it and they're not updated promptly. Namely, BungeeCord (which handles bans and kicks) and if we run our patch script to add or remove a player from perms without first updating your name there, it will completely remove you from perms. So, PSA: don't change your name without notifying the techs. It will break your perms.
  20. Stormcloaks are racist and have an entitlement complex, Imperials are assholes and literally try to kill you in the beginning. The only real solution is to take neither side and kill them all to rid Skyrim of its war problem.
  21. It's being looked into. (See slide's previous post about WorldGuard 6 breaking shit.) It's more complicated than flags, though, and may take awhile.
  22. So...just an ordinary TF2 session? :P
  23. I like that idea. It would be an interesting change from lobbies past. Just put the portals on the south side so you face that way on spawn. Maybe an interior lobby, too, instead of an outdoor design.
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