The people who i've made admin cant ban people with special characters in there name, is there any way around this?

Not sure. Which is why I suggest that everyone in the server has an 'ID' tag or number so it would be much easier to ban. So all you would do is /ban [playerID] [time] and you're done!

But as for banning people with funky names. You could always do it the hard way:

Bring up the connections list by pressing 'N'... click on their name as if you were going to ask them something... it will bring up the chat box. Delete the dash and the space after their name and then press CTRL+C. That will copy their name. Then you can do /ban (PRESS CTRL+V to paste) and so on. On demo it is a lot harder, because nobody has a registered username like in licensed playing.

You can still paste /ban in front of a name in demo, but for me it works very infrequently on people with colours or whitespaces in the name. Must be something to do with the fact that banning requires the 2nd parameter of duration as well because /kick works on any name. Weird :S

I just learned this, but haven't had to try it yet. Instead of left clicking the name in the connection list, right click it. That puts the name in the chat box rather than addressing someone for chat (eliminates the copy/paste). Then hit home key to go to in front of the name and type /ban. At the end (this is the new part I haven't tried yet), the number for ban (the second parameter) must be the same color as the last character of their name.

Hope that helps.

If the user has COLOURS in their name, you have to make the ban length the same colour as the END of their name. See the attached image. Because the user's name is red, you have to make the number of days red. Assuming you're using the latest patched version of LFS S2, press Ctrl to get easy access to the colours.

Edit: Sorry mrodgers, bit of overlap there. Note to self: Must read properly before posting.

This all seems too difficult though. I still don't understand why LFS doesn't have an easier and more simplified way of banning/kicking people. Admins could either use some kind of 'playerID' like I mentioned above, or have the option on the connections list or something. Let alone, even the dedicated server window would be hard... which is why an ID system would work out to be easier. Everyone would have their own ID. Practically all online games (mostly FPS) use this system... where you bring down a console and get the status of the server and player list, and you can see everyone's IDs. So easy. Now with all this color stuff in the patch, it makes things difficult, especially for Demo servers.

Admin menus!

Quote from Tweaker :

This all seems too difficult though. I still don't understand why LFS doesn't have an easier and more simplified way of banning/kicking people. Admins could either use some kind of 'playerID' like I mentioned above, or have the option on the connections list or something. Let alone, even the dedicated server window would be hard... which is why an ID system would work out to be easier. Everyone would have their own ID. Practically all online games (mostly FPS) use this system... where you bring down a console and get the status of the server and player list, and you can see everyone's IDs. So easy. Now with all this color stuff in the patch, it makes things difficult, especially for Demo servers.

I can't disagree with you at all. It's less of a problem on our S2 servers. Nobody on S2 servers [SHOULD] take banning lightly, and we can always ban a username after the fact if we find the replay shows justification.

At the moment, the system is complicated and difficult to use.. a major problem since it's a drawn-out and time-consuming process to achieve something that I invariably find on our demo servers is an URGENT task.

The issue has been raised with Scawen in another thread, but I don't know whether he considers it a high priority to address or not. I, for one, consider it a huge issue.

There are problems with giving demo users unique usernames/IDs. At the moment, their IP is as close to a unique ID as we've got.. better than the player name it used to attach to, but obviously still not absolutely ideal because it changes. I'd like to see something more of a machine hook. A value, buried deep in a machine's registry, which would be more difficult to retrieve, have some checksum value, and be loosely linked to the user's IP (i.e. the machine would have to ditch the registry value AND change IP before shaking itself from any ban).

As well as that, I do think a player logged in as Admin should have more effective Kick/Ban buttons, where (for example) right-clicking on Kick/Ban actually ACTIONS it rather than initiating a Kick/Ban vote. Adding a Spectate button (which is actioned by LFS much quicker than kicking or banning, for some technical reason I don't know but can guess at) should definitely be present. Priority 1 is to get a wrecker off the track. As soon as you spectate them, they should be gone. Or, when you kick/ban them, LFS first spectates them and THEN completes whatever IP logging etc that it does.

I understand that there are differences in priorities for different people, who find different aspects of LFS their focus. Knee-jerk reaction for some is probably "screw Demo servers, dev time should go to those who pay", but most of the people who are seriously considering purchasing a licence seem to be MOST concerned about the prevalence of wrecking idiots.

Wreckers are a big issue, IMO.. they don't just wreck races, they wreck perceptions of LFS.. but the inability to get rid of them quickly and effectively is bigger.

I haven't read all of the other suggestions, but what I find annoying is that when you press 'N' you only see the driver name and not the account name. It would be usefull for admin purposes if the Names list came up with account names as default, so that you dont have to search for 'Ctrl-Shift' or whatever it is to show account names. This way, when you wish to ban, all you to is click the persons name and add a '/ban' before it and number of hours/days after it. This would obviously be a quick work around.

However, as someone suggested above, a full Admin panel with bells and whistles would be the best option, i.e. instead of pressing 'N' to see names, you press 'A' to see account names and carry out any other admin task.

As always, I think this is probably one of the features the devs might have planned anyway as they list of commands atm is pretty high already. With all the extra features that will be added in time, a menu system is surely the best option.

Go to Connections menu, right-click on name, write ban onto the beginning and hours to end (am i right?)

Quote from SamH :

If the user has COLOURS in their name, you have to make the ban length the same colour as the END of their name.

Thank you!

Quote from Lible :

Go to Connections menu, right-click on name, write ban onto the beginning and hours to end (am i right?)

This gives the user name perfectly, and works for banning IIRC. I'm sure I have used it before. I guess I was mistaken earlier in thinking that you need the user account in order to ban.

Quote from mrbogeyman :

I guess I was mistaken earlier in thinking that you need the user account in order to ban.

Of course, on demo servers there is no username. Usernames are for S2. You need that, in order to ban on an S2 server. The mechanism is there, but it's nastysuckyuglyslow.

S2: Ctrl+Shift+Right-click, add /ban at the beginning and ban length at the end.

Demo: Right-click, add /ban at the beginning and ban length in the name's last colour used, at the end.

Complicated. Slow. Error-prone. Needs replacing.

i would prefer a new system... for demo and license.
the server haves 11 / 23 slots.
why dont make it just that way that u need to type /ban (slot)12 5(hours)
like now ctrl + shift shows the lfs world name(with a license) and with the new system it would show the slot number to make it way easier to ban for admins.

Quote from SamH :

Of course, on demo servers there is no username. Usernames are for S2. You need that, in order to ban on an S2 server. The mechanism is there, but it's nastysuckyuglyslow.

S2: Ctrl+Shift+Right-click, add /ban at the beginning and ban length at the end.

Demo: Right-click, add /ban at the beginning and ban length in the name's last colour used, at the end.

Complicated. Slow. Error-prone. Needs replacing.

yep, pretty much what i think i was getting at. it is far too cumbersome and ineffective when an admin wishes to take action quickly without having to refer to a printed instruction set.