SRB2 Server Cluster at TSPG

[Kitoko]

Well, because of my link with The Sentinel's Playground, a server cluster that currently hosts ZDoom servers on Zandronum's master server, I've considered the fact of actually expanding TSPG's reach onto SRB2 to let them be able to host servers without using their home internet (and have the server persist)

Now, I've already had a talk with Prime about this a while ago, and this seemed like a neat idea in practice. But, we've come to hit a few walls.

1. The Master Server only supports one server per IP. And that's an issue considering a server cluster, as we will need to host servers on a single IP. However, we can perform a test run of SRB2 in our server cluster despite this limitation.
2. Rules are vastly different. The rules in the Zandronum community and its Master Server are far, far different than SRB2's community and its master server. Our server cluster upholds its own rules too, to allow for fair play and fair management of servers, which also has yet to be discussed.
3. We have yet to get a working distribution of SRB2. We work on Ubuntu 16.04 64-Bit, and would probably need to build SRB2 ourselves. In addition, we have certain proxy-protection services already included in our server-side executables (which we do not know how to implement in SRB2 at all) which block a very large proprtion of problem users from using our service.

Though, I'm also unsure how this community would react to having an always-available mass array of servers populating the list perpetually. Regardless, our team is considering reaching a hand out to SRB2, and the above factors prevent us from doing so.

 

[sluggard]

Pretty cool, I enjoy playing hosting Zandronum servers on TSPG lol, really makes it alot easier to find and/or setup servers, Hope this works, see what mods and admins think.

 

[Rob]

I'm presuming you're asking about doing this in some official, recognized capacity, and I'll address that in a bit. It is worth noting that anyone is free to make and host their own master servers as they please, so long as the responsible parties don't affiliate us with it. I'm not necessarily against this proposal happening, I am just pointing this out as a general statement. You don't need our permission to host a master server.

Now, for the meat of the topic. Issues #1 and #3 you would probably need to talk to Alam and/or Logan and/or 犬夜叉 about, those 3 guys are the ones that understand that portion of the game. Those problems are entirely technical and something you would need them to help you with.

Issue #2 is what I am mostly concerned about. I read TSPG's rules and see nothing I personally find to be a problem or an issue, and pretty much the same with Zandronum. It is worth noting though that there IS content in 2.2 that, when released, may justify a server turning cheats on in a server. Those things we have not settled on handling for netplay in development yet.

Beyond that, I can see where some of the incompatibility issues pop up between our rules and yours, particularly the following:

We at Sonic Team Junior define harassment as:

Excessive flaming towards one particular user or group
Spamming the in-game chat buffer
Unsolicited sexual conversations

...and not by:

Hosts who behave irresponsibly, or arbitrarily kick users from their game
Clients who have a distasteful and/or self-praising attitude
The imitation of any well known community figure



Similarly, we define hacking as:

The exploitation/manipulation of SRB2's engine using a non-official EXE
Netbombing (forcing a server to crash using external addons)

...and not by:

A remote administrator playing with network variables

The basic logic behind this (and really still is the logic) is that we just are not equipped to run a community on the master server. We enforced a set of bare-bones rules largely because the same people who would moderate the MS would largely have been the same people who administer the forums, who operate the chat, and develop the game. This was not really out of carelessness so much as inability. A dedicated set of servers that wants to extend the rules from bare-bones to reasonable for a community standards would not be something I object to. I'm more curious as to what such an integration would entail, and what responsibilities and say we would have if this was to happen.

It's worth noting that I am speaking purely on my own initiative and not had a serious talk about this with other staff members about this. But I also recognize that any further discussion without some administrative voice or input would be largely speculative and pointless. This seems like a serious enough topic to at least consider.

 

[fickleheart]

Linux 64-bit builds are gonna be tricky to use for dedicated servers, since last I checked they didn't work well with 32-bit/Windows builds. Compiling a 32-bit build would work a lot better, assuming installing the libraries for it doesn't cause any conflicts with what you're already running.

What kind of proxy protection are you talking, by the way?

 

[FuriousFox]

I don't see the rules as being a big deal. If people violate TSPG's rules, they get banned from TSPG. If they violate our Master Server's rules, they get banned from our Master Server. Different rules for different services.

The only thing I personally have a problem with in TSPG's rules is that sv_cheats has to be off, because SRB2 requires it to be on in order to enable some useful options, like being able to change skins.

 

[sluggard]

unless i'm mistaken, sv_cheats is different than SRB2 cheats, sv_cheats allows you to get noclip, god, give yourself weapons, fly and that kind of stuff, whereas cheats in SRB2 doesn't.

 

[Monster Iestyn]

We do have "ringslinger" for coop/race though. Otherwise yes, most of our multiplayer "cheats" aren't really cheats but just different options to play MP gametypes with and a bunch of monitor randomness settings.

Besides which our "cheats" console thing is a command now not a variable, and can only turn off all the cheats optionally. Editing the cheat variables themselves marks the netgame as using cheats.


Furthermore changing skins isn't even a cheat in SRB2's multiplayer anyway, it's just restricted in Match/CTF/Tag. In Coop/Race there are very few skin-changing restrictions if at all IIRC.

 

[frozenLake]

Honestly, I would see about getting into contact with the TSPG Admins about keeping in line with the intent of the ruling, for potentially having an exception be made for SRB2, considering its highly different cheat system.