i dunno what is with the latest generation of "degenerates" but its getting very hard to enjoy a good couple of rounds lately. 9/10 times lately it seems that the ppl who really want to play are outnumbered by either a noob who just installed the game, and is clue-less or some annoying punks! you've all had to see them, imposters, constant-polling etc etc.

i admit, i will tk/poll-kick in a HEARTBEAT if i catch such a person. i dont hesitate! they waste bandwidth (which most claim its too laggy anyways!) and these people are honestly just in the way! i know im not ct or admin or run the server or anything, but heck, I LOVE to compete there! just making a public call to clean those kidz out! ppppllleeeeaaaasssssseeee

i agree

I know the server can be a nightmare at times.
When there's a good crowd there it's a great server, a lot of fun.
But can quickly fill up with noobs and morons who spoil it for the rest of us.

I don't mind the noobs so much, if they're willing to listen, we all start somewhere, but the morons?
Not sure what the solution is there. If I'm (or another admin) there I can kick them, but they'll still come back.

With the open nature of the game, I'm not sure what we can do.

If you have any solution idea's, let me know.

the solution is :
one server : wild fortress for noobs and one with password access
it's an invasion !
noobs dont listen how to play.
and many players are really agressive.

That's a damn fine idea. Had the same one myself.

If we could set up a php/mysql frontend for people to register at this site.

Then the map_rotate bash script runs to query this database. If people are noobs/nobs they can be easily removed from this database.

A lot of work, but I can see it working.

On the Noob version there could be a text line saying "If you want to play advanced wild fortress first register at tron.pla...."

The advanced version could have more complicated maps (that I've left out due to noobs too easily spoiling them)

The PHP/MySQL Frontend is no problem, as I said, I can do this very easily. But I don't knwo how you want to check the users through an bash script....kick all who aren't in the database?

I can't remember the exact syntax, but you can query a mysql database from bash. It is a bit dirty though.
Would be far better off converting the current map_rotate script to a php script as it works so much better with mysql. Have far more freedom to do other things.

Could happily store map data in the database, make adding/amending maps so much easier. Such a hassle at the mo.

Sure, but atm I don't know what the map_rotate file really does and how it interacts with the game-config. If you give me short information about that, I can try to write a PHP Script.

The script is here:

http://tron.plantpeanuts.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=42

It basically reads the tron log file:

/usr/local/var/games/armagetronad-dedicated/log/armagetronad.log

as the server writes to it.

if it reads "[0] Go (round 10 of 10 )"

for instance it knows that round 10 is about to start therefore get the maps ready for round 1.

it then chooses a map at randon and writes:

MAP_FILE ed/fortress/pillar-0.0.6.aamap.xml
ROUND_CENTER_MESSAGE Round 1 - Pillar"

to /usr/local/var/games/armagetronad-dedicated/var/everytime.cfg

since tron server reads everytime.cfg file and applies any settings to the next round.

The script is abit longer now (you know where to find it) but the way it works is the same.

ok, theres a problem:
PHP is not a good tool to work with files as streams. In fact, you either open a file for reading or writing and then you close it. I don't know a fuction that is similar with the tail-command for the map-rotating-script. One suggestion from me: a bash script, thats reads the log-file line for line (like now) and everytime a new line appears, it executes the php-file with the line as variable. Is that possible, bash-scripting-guys? If it is, then, the PHP-Script can analyse the line and write something in the everytime.cfg, this won't be a problem.

edit: another question: when does armagetron read the everytime.cfg? Cause I have to know for kick-commands, etc. at which moment the script has to write the commands in the file and when to delete them.

I'm no master of PHP, but this solution seems viable.

Tron server reads everytime.cfg at the end of each round.

Ok....I've already converted and tested the mapcycle-script, so now I need the bash script which sends the every new log-line to the php-script.
Now it'll be very easy to play matches because we can chosse between different profiles - if we have the exact nicks of all players we can easily deny others to join or kick them.

Well done. Let us see what you have, the bash side should be pretty simple.
Have you got the map names stored in a mysql database?

All done, as I said, I only need the bash-backend
For now, I don't want to post the script code because of possible errors.
Let's test it first some time, add some features

ok, untested, but this would probably work.



where script.php is the name of the php script and $line would be the argument passed to it, in this case each line of the log file.