[Acedy]

VERSION 2 HAS BEEN RELEASED!!

Important announcement: v2 is the last version of this mod that will be developed by myself. However, this does not mean that it is going to die. I know that alot of servers are using it, so I have been looking for successors who would like to continue the work. Fortunately Panzertard and =RvE=Yoda have volunteered to do so, which I appreciate very much. Thanks fellas! As you all know they are very active members of the DCS/LO community, and I am sure the mod will be in good hands. From now on they are the new developers of this tool, so please direct any suggestions for new features to them!

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Hey everybody!

As you know, Black Shark currently offers only basic server administration tools (manual kicking and mission loading). Some of you are looking forward to a full-fledged dedicated server option, and have already suggested certain features they would like to see. Eagle actually provided a quite powerful Lua based API, which you can use to implement more advanced administration features by yourself, given that you have some basic procedural programming skills in Lua. I have written a small mod which uses this API and allows you to run Black Shark as what I call a "pseudo-dedicated server". It is a purely serverside mod that enables a chat based interface and gives server hosts and players additional options to control the server. So far the mod offers the following main functions (most of which can be customized by the host):

Features included in v2
Server host functions
- automatic kicking for teamkills (human and AI)
- automatic kicking for too low score
- automatic kicking for team-damaging other players
- automatic kicking for high average ping
- automatic banning after too many kicks
- penalty time after kick
- reporting/logging of team collisions
- banning single IPs and whole IP ranges
- automatic mission restarting or rotating
- remote masterbanlist that can be downloaded from a webserver via http
- extended event logging including a chatlog
- message of the day and server rules
- support for other languages (English and German included)

Subadmin functions
- appointing trusted players as subadmins (accounts are password-protected)
- subadmins can manually kick or ban players
- subadmins can manually load missions
- subadmins can (un-)lock the server

Player functions
- players can start votekicks
- players can start missionvotes to load a specific mission
- players can start missionpolls to let everybody vote for their favorite mission

You can find the mod files attached to this post. It is only compatible with Black Shark v1.0.1, do not install it if you still use v1.0. Please refer to the readme for instructions on how to install, configure and run the mod. There are two versions available: 1. a standalone .zip file that you simply copy to the ./Ka-50/ root folder and unzip, and 2. a ModMan compatible version.

This is not an official Eagle Dynamics release, the mod is a 3rd party add-on.

The tool IS NOT compatible with Lock On/Flaming Cliffs.

For those who have been running v2 alpha 6, this release does not add any new functionality, it just fixed two bugs that were present in the alpha.

Please use this thread to provide feedback, suggest additional features and report problems/bugs (read the "Support and Bug Reports" section in the readme before doing so). However, if you found a way how players could possibly exploit certain features of the mod, please do not report this publicly, instead send a PM to Panzertard, =RvE=Yoda or me.

Finally I would like to thank everybody who helped me beta test the mod and/or who suggested additional features or reported bugs, your help is greatly appreciated!

My hope is that this mod encourages more people to host public Black Shark servers.

Acedy

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P.S.: As a client player, you can find out if a server runs the mod simply by entering /help into the chat console. If the mod is enabled this command will show you a list of all commands that you can use (like starting a missionvote etc.). You can also read section 11 (SERVER COMMANDS FOR REGULAR PLAYERS) in the readme below, it explains which commands are available for players (if the server host enabled them) and how to use them. Basically these are:

/players
Displays a list of all players on the server and their corresponding IDs

/votekick:ID (example: /votekick:3)
Starts a votekick against the player with the specified ID

/missions
Displays a list of all missions available on the server and their corresponding IDs

/votemiz:ID (example: /votemiz:5)
Starts a missionvote for the mission with the specified ID

/mizpoll
Starts a missionpoll that lets all players vote for their favorite next mission.

/info
Shows a list of ServMan functionalities that are enabled on this server.

/help
Shows a list of all player commands that are enabled on this server.

/rules
Shows the list of server rules.

/resume
Lets players resume the current mission if it is paused.

/timeleft
Displays the remaining time until the current mission will be restarted automatically or the next mission will be loaded (if enabled).

/report:msg
Sends a private message 'msg' to the server admin (if the chatlog is enabled)

To use a command you simply enter it into the chat console.

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CHANGELOG

Changes in v2:
- added compatibility with BS v1.0.1
- added automatic kicking for team-damaging human players
- added reporting/logging of team collisions
- added manual name banning
- added selective message sending to single players (no more message flooding)
- added support for other languages (German localization included)
- added kicking for high average ping
- added /report command
- added a new option that forces players to wait x minutes before they can start another votekick or missionvote/-poll
- added additional checks to make sure that the logic which checks teamkills distinguishes human and AI players correctly
- changed event triggering to use new on_process() API-callback, no more use of player ping and chat
- fixed a bug where the kick counter would be increased too much when more than one kick rule applied to the same event
- reactivated screenshot message to get rid of the "Unknown command: /mybad" message
- fixed a logic bug where a human player with name "" could be mistaken as AI. Empty names are now banned by default
- fixed the problem that the mod had to be uninstalled before playing as client

[Yoti980]

SWEET!!!! Thanks man!

[Distiler]

oh man, that's going to kick some serious asses. It might well be a very handy mod to build up online community too. Hahaha the logo is so cool XD

Thanks!

[Yoti980]

Got it up and running can anyone confirm I am showing up correctly... RWCS server -w- Ventrillo (74.***.***.**:1030 I'm hoping this somehow fixes that port error some of us have encountered

[Acedy]

Originally Posted by Yoti980

I'm hoping this somehow fixes that port error some of us have encountered

No, it won't fix that problem, this is a 3rd party add-on and not an official patch for Black Shark.

[Yoti980]

Dang

[Quirk!]

Very nice release, thanks so much. I have it running on my small coop server. Its so great to have maps rotated and mission automatically unpaused, BS needed this so bad. Greatest mod for it so far. I really appreciated it! You made being an admin/runnin a server 100x easier!

[yeepeekai]

BIG THANK YOU ACEDY !!!!

[korrea]

Fantastic joob!!!

I have installed in Escuadron69 BS Server and run well . Only dont work one thing:

I add one subadmin, fo example:

["korrea"]="hola",

My name in DCS is korrea and when I connect to server and execute this command:

/login:hola

the server say Login failed! What happen?? Can anyone help me??

Thanks for all!!!

[Distiler]

You may need to refresh configuration data using ./reinit as host/admin (at least for the first created subadmin).