I've been running on the CCUK South City server for the past few days and I've had tons of fun. It's sprint races on Classic, so no one should be surprised at this point when there's some scrambling for T1 or some n00bs who maybe don't quite know how to take the chicane.
For the most part though I've been surprised at the level of maturity we're getting out of full fields, especially given that we're using open-wheeled cars.
Yep, sorry about that. I'm busily begging other admins to spend time on there. Quite frankly, we've been throwing most of our spare time at our Demo servers, mistakenly under the illusion that THOSE were where we'd have to mop up after idiot wreckers. My bad!
We'll figure out a roster or something to make sure that we give as much coverage as possible. We're all pretty pushed at the moment, time-wise, and suffering partially from a minor addiction to Battlefield2. That's a helluva thing, considering I'm technically a conscientious objector.
Well for now, we're leaving the kick/ban option OFF South City. Adrenaline being what it is, it's obvious that the ban button is just too tempting for some. Heat of the moment and all that stuff.
Now that the ban option is gone, the server is at risk of wreckers (I just found out they exist in S2!!) If you're a regular on any of the TeamCCUK servers, please put www.teamccuk.com/wreck in your favorites.
If you experience wrecking on one of our servers, please save the MPR and use the above form to send it to us. We'll take firm and long-lasting action on our servers against any wreckers, and in worst-cases, we'll also be posting MPRs on our main site for other team servers to review and act as they see fit. We're very much in favour of ensuring clean racing across our servers, and I know other server admins feel the same way.
I agree to a certain point. I see plenty of faster drivers who manage to not to read other players way of driving and therefor cause (not on purpose) accidents instead of taking it slighty easy through a corner or especially the chicane. So slower drivers are not always to blame
Thanks, mate I'm currently very addicted to the FOX and SO Classic due to all the good races - hope to see you and the rest of the Core team soon
Hello samH. Myself , r4ptor and Interceptor where in your server last night and had 2 bell ends smashing the whole field of racers in T1. Then after they had done that they went on to park on the chicane and whoever was in P1 they aimed for. Very sad and seeing as the server was full at one point 20 mins later there r 2 cocks and 6 proper racers left. I have replays and player names will not post them here as i will leave u to watch the replays [i aint checked them yet to see if they worked but i am sure they did]. I am at work till 4pm gmt when i get home i will try and get in contact with you and send the 3 or 4 replays i have and let u make your mind up. Anyway i will talk later about it not going to name and shame here as it will probably cause alot of flamming . Speak to you soon SamH and R4ptor i will get in contact tonight for some soclassic bashing.
Ours isn't laboured at all, I don't think. The most I've ever seen CPU at is 18%. Average seems to be around 7%. I've attached a screenshot of the apps running. Added to those shown are FTP, 8 Shoutcast servers, mailserver, webserver etc.
I must say, though, that we're agreed that the LFS server is one of, if not THE, best-written and most efficient multiplayer servers we've ever seen. And I think we've tried just about all of them.
Counterstrike is the worst as far as loose netcode is concerned. SWAT4 is worst as far as CPU is concerned.
I'm not very Linux-aware, though a couple of our guys also run Linux servers with similar connectivity to this. I don't think they do any Windows emulation though, and so probably can't give any useful heads-up.
Those two guys were back on the server today at about 13:20. Unfortunately they didnt notice that the ban function had been switched back on before they started haveing fun.
Yeah, we restarted the server in the middle of the night, and I had forgotten to change the config file. When it came back online, it defaulted back to kick/ban=enabled.
The problem is that those two will be back tomorrow, when the vote ban expires. If they deserve a ban, I prefer to make it a very effective one. If you, or anyone who was present, can let me have an MPR from today I'll make sure that the ban you voted today will last a very long time. www.teamccuk.com/wreck for all your uploading needs.
Sorry Sam Didnt save a replay, but both Bileh and R4ptor have replays of last nights display. I would leave the ban function on until these two are sorted out though.
Sam, that is a great option to put on your site. It gives someone a chance to report wreckers to admins with accompyaning evidence. Would you mind if I copied your idea on the CoRe website?
Also, please include the CoRe website (www.core-racing.com) site when posting about wreckers so we can do our part at keeping these idiots out of good servers.
As i have said in post above SamH i have three or four replays but i aint sure if they work i need to go home as i am at work at the min i will check them as soon as i get in. Do u have msn if you do add me and i will have a chat with you and let u know who the 2 children where . msn - [email protected] if you aint got msn its fine i will just check the replays then if they have what u need i will upload them on the website u have put down
Those two seem to be long term, persistent wreckers, I found a thread from back in december about them doing the same thing, with replays posted.
Imo they should have their licences revoked, or at least be banned from online racing to save the server owners the hassle of banning them over and over again.
How about the server owner just bans them for one year and the problem is solved? Really I don't see a problem with licensed racers. Retards on demo servers can get annoying, but a ban is a ban on licensed servers.
But when they get banned from one server they'll just move to another server (as they have been doing for months).
They're not just noobs messing around, they're both capable of driving quickly, looking at their stats they've both done sub 43s laps at S01 but instead of racing they chose to wreck other people's races for fun, they have no place within the LFS community and should be kicked out imo.
I sent my replays from the Team CCUK website - the replays weren't long (couldn't be as they trashed the race from early on), but should still show how they behaved.
Billeh had been there for about an hour before I joined, and told me they had been laming during that time - I think both of them left 10-15 minutes after I joined.
Too bad, they left just within few minutes after you left, Billeh
As one person even mentioned: the sad thing was that atleast one of them could drive, but chose to behave like this - I've seen him before - actually, you'll recognize him from my previous replay regarding the banning thing, SamH
Now I wonder if he took advantage of his own misfortune and tried to lame ban... hmmm.
Many thanks guys! I've seen several replays of several races today, asserted some bans for really offensive and obvious wrecking, unbanned one or two (owing to hot-headedness and my mistake in not turning off banning in the config file), and in one instance of gross repeat-offense wrecking, I've taken the matter up with the Devs.
Please keep using the form on our site whenever needed. It's proving a very useful tool
I've been asked today if I'll share the information I have about serial offenders to some of the other server operators, and I have agreed.
I must stress, though, that none of us are interested in a witch hunt. That's not what it's about. We're interested in preserving the integrity of the LFS online environment. There ARE people who don't care about that, and for FUN will wreck races. They are a tiny minority. Miniscule, in fact, but they exist and as we've found since opening this whole discussion, they have a massive impact on the rest of us who are trying to enjoy LFS. THOSE are the ones we don't want on our servers and I'll provide, AND WELCOME, any and all information needed to make sure they can't spoil our days.
Yep, I totally agree. The information is already being shared with one other server. If any other server admins would like to identify themselves by PM, all I need is an email address to partake in our "wrecker alert scheme".
We are entirely agreed on this too. Wrecking in S2 is a highly unexpected thing. It's something I suspect even the devs have not anticipated, judging by the text when you enter the Demo multiplayer environment: "..we would like to emphasise that this kind of behaviour does NOT reflect in any way the racing that you would find on S1 and S2 hosts, where all are registered and have a reputation to maintain!"
Because of the genuine risk of entering into a witch hunt, I'm specifically (at this time) only really keen to share names and MPRs with others who actively maintain a 24/7 LFS server/suite of servers. It's become apparent from conversations with wreckers that they're not bothered about getting banned from just one server. With 350-400 S2 servers at any given moment to choose from, you can imagine why. We have to enter into a form of co-operative defence league, to make a ban mean something. It really does only take one wrecker to dessimate an entire 20-car grid, as we've been seeing all too often recently.
We've been having problems with bans being ineffective on our server (see "Server bans not withstanding" in the Bugs section), so this is very much at the forefront of my spare time right now.
[EDIT] to add that we DID get the wrecker tonight. He's now banned.
You saved lots of racers day - including mine. Thanks!
How does LFS keep track of bans? Is it a text file or something like that?
Would it be possible to have a predefined ban list in one file, and put new (on-the-go) bans into another?
Server admins could create some form of an banning organization - It's difficult to keep up if you are alone, but with several other admins, it's more effecient and faster to get updated.
The lists gets merged once in a while and added to the global banning list - witch in turn is not only distributed to all the members of this organization, but also put online for other admins to get .. sort of like having a codec pack: it's all there
This way of keeping yourself, and others updated was gaining popularity in Counter-Strike - but then came the VAC system and made it all much easier (I think - I'm no server admin)
VAC is pretty cool - get caught cheating on a VAC enabled server, and you'll get banned from every single server in the entire world .. for life! .. neat
I'm not really very up on the bans.ban file, though I've learned quite a bit in the last couple of days. One of our team is looking into it at the moment, with (I think) the intention of building an online database of wreckers, with supporting MPRs.
A local client application, for a server's admin to use, will connect with the database and collect current bans from there. Using insim/outsim, it will then integrate those bans with a locally managed list of servers. The duration of the ban per offender will be determined by the server admin, rather than the database.
It's a concept rather than a plan of action at the moment. For the moment, we're collecting MPRs and taking action manually on a case-by-case basis, and offering those MPRs to any other server admins who might be interested in participating.
I was in and out of the server quite a bit this evening, but it looked like a great evening of racing. Some really excellent driving, leaving me very much in awe!
By the way, congratulations again on your acceptance into the [TS] team! Well done!
Sounds like a good concept - The MPR will carry all this to either succes or faliure, next to how easy/fast it will be to request such an action, IMO. It should be a promoted rule that no ban's will take place without propper MPR(s). I also dont think you will ever get rid of MPRs - MPRs are the only solid proof and no auto system could do the same as an admin objectively watching an MPR to see whom to blame or if it just was a unlucky racing accident.
Currently people are too used to seeing the kick/ban option, and apparently when they see they are not there, some people think they are in heaven and start wrecking. This way of thinking has to be changed, and I believe it can be done. IMO it would actually help if the kick/ban option was limited to admins as well as privileged players (someone the admins trust).
It would also be a great thing if there was a way to show the URL of the server website within the game, so people could see it easy and if neccesary, shift+f4 and take action. Currently you can't see any info about the server or track (wich is why I'm so poor at remembering what track I'm driving ), but if there were, and it also allowed the admin to put some info in... that would be really neat.
Thanks, Sam - will be a fun time, without any doubt - real online gaming - let it be racing or anything else - can only be archived through a unity in my experience - so I'm looking forward to this
