Add sysop-style features in multiplayer

[Dwachs]

Please test with rev 4402. The 'force-sync' command lets the server send a save&reload command. Then all clients perform save & reload in the same way as it happens when a new client joins. The savegame on the server is the usual 'serverxxx-network.sve'. Could be used to make daily snapshots too.

[jamespetts]

Interesting idea. Could the "force-sync" be set, I wonder, to work whenever a client desyncs?

[Ashley]

Sounds good Dwachs, I'm going to write some more shell scripts to take advantage of this new tool and I'll publish them too when they're done.


Edit:

Sorry, another feature to ask for.

Could we have a way to change player names and set passwords remotely? Specifically for the Public Player/Human player in games. I usually change "Human" to "Spectator" and set a password on this player. This is so that new people joining the game (which get dumped into the first player spot by default) don't start playing as that player. I also set a password for the Public Service player to stop people from doing abusive things to other players networks.

Both these steps require logging into the server and setting them up manually at present. Would it be possible to add this function to the network tool?

[prissi]

Why don't you do this when creating the map? THe first thing I do before uploading map is to set those.

[Ashley]

Hm, when I tried to do this before the setting didn't seem to get saved. I'll try it again though.


EDIT: I just tried this with a new map, I created a map using my local client and set a password for the human and public service players. I also changed the name of the human player to spectator. I saved the game and uploaded it to the server, then started up the server using the saved map.

The name change and passwords were lost completely.

Maybe this is a bug?

[prissi]

It should work. You must for set the password. Then the name. Setting both simultaniuosly does not work sometimes. These should be even locked when loading the map locally after quitting simutrans before. MAybe your games are created with the wrong version number. In the extended settings make sure the game is created for 102.5 or up.

[Ashley]

It looks like if you create the game in offline mode and then load it as a network game it disregards any passwords or player name changes. I've created maps in online mode (starting the game with -server switch) and then the player names/passwords are saved.

When's the next stable due btw?

[prissi]

Not to soon, sicne there have been lots of dramatic (i.e. balancing requiring) changes. This needs time. Maybe in June?

[Ashley]

Right, I'll set up another server to track the nightly builds and do some testing of the network tool. It'd be great to get a well-tested + stable version of that before the next stable since it'll let me do some cool stuff with my server.


Edit: Why is a password not required for the announce command? Is there a benefit to allowing anyone to instruct your server to do an announce? Also from the looks of it while there is some kind of rate limiting built into nettool on the Simutrans side to limit commands to one per minute this is non-functional. Or does this only apply to the announce command?