Ahh fun mission and an after action report - tomcat shredded the air defenses before I got involved - the rest was easy -

After Action Rampant Bear


WC

I hate air defenses!! Hehe it's a mutual understanding we have. They try and shoot me, and I stuff Mavericks and 30mm rounds down their throats

Fun times!

Operation Rampant Bear is up!

WC

I see that TK thread has been taken down. Regardless- I'm pursuing it... at the very least in an effort to warn the guy implicated that his name is being used.

Unfortunately, they aren't sending me my email activation so I can't log into the forums and do further research. And of course there is no other way (on the website) to send anyone an email regarding the issue.

I'm also highly annoyed that you can save 20-40 meg track files for every mission ever flown on your PC but you can't keep a record of the log files. Shaking my head... SERIOUSLY?

Frick this makes me mad.

/rant.

Okay... well we've been talking about this for awhile and I think I've about had it with the thought of these idiots coming in and spoiling the fun that can be had with this game. Time to do it now before all levels of 'tards can come in at so many levels of the game and ruin it for everyone.

I've been looking over servman and it gives us the control we need to be able to generate logs with info detailed enough to ban access at the cd key level. Currently logs are re-written each time a new game is started- which isn't really the way we want it. Servman will record logs to configured levels. At the end of certain missions, we between WC and I we will be able to keep the ban list reasonably up to date.

We also don't want groups of randoms to be able to come in vote kick out at the leisure. I'm proposing that only SimHQ members be given the levels required to actually vote- and possibly members grandfathered in by request of SimHQ members. What can I say- not everyone wants to be a member but they still fly with the dedication and good airmanship that we want to encourage at Eno's Firehouse.

I'm home Wednesday afternoon but coming off nights- It takes me a bit to get reacquainted with life... so I make no promises on Wednesday- but if things go according to plan, I hope to have servman installed by Thursday evening. At that point we can begin inputting the user access levels so that the "right" people have voting priviledges.

We will also start logging as necessary to substantiate the "wall of shame" concept.


It all sounds really formal- but the client experience shouldn't change much except to keep the server open for the wide variety of pilots we're seeing from all over the world, without having to lock it up. I think this is the best way to preserve the gaming experience.

Thoughts?



Some links for your perusal:

Link to Servman topics

Alright boys... it couldn't wait until Thursday.

I've got servman up and running on the server. Many of the frequent flyers in there will have subadmin access as opposed to squad level access. The squad level access was reserved for a single entry- but you need it in order to log in as a subadmin.

Basically, the rules are as of now- a team kill either human or AI will result in a 45 minute kick to sit down and think about what you've done. 2 such kicks result in a perma ban.

This kind of thing will happen automatically. If we come across individuals who are otherwise troublesome... fir reasons they're not automatically kicked or banned- please just get the name so that we can refer to the recorded logs for their specific user key and enter them into the ban list manually. I'll have to look a little closer but I'm pretty sure subadmins can kick without a vote.

It WILL take some time to get the features sorted out but quite frankly the program itself will automatically kick and ban without intervention. You guys shouldn't have to log into the servman program.


Questions, comments or tips for successful implementation are welcome.

If this is the default setup, it's too strict. Friendly fire does happen, and it's pretty easy to wipe out multiple friendlies by dropping a CBU in the wrong place. Final judgement for perma-bans should be up to the admin IMHO.

You're probably thinking im coming on too heavy because I'm still mad and I suppose I am. I could look into more tolerance of friendly ai kills- for reasons you mentioned.

Frequent fliers also get a bit of lattitude because the autokick / ban feature is one level down from them. Favourtism? Sure a little- because these guys with sub admin access have all proved themselves and their morality in the past months. If you don't log in, you'll get kicked if you screw up because the program doesn't know any better.

So we will see how it goes. We will also need to include some info in the briefing so people know what's up and where to go to report tkers. Obviously an honest mistake can be made and we can decide to bring people back if the situation warrants it. In fact- sub admins can do that while still in play.

Yes it's strict but there are allowances to preserve the good nature and intentions of most of the pilots in the server at any time.

I'm coming more from the direction of 'people get ban-happy when they run into a griefer'. A 10 min ban can be adequate in making the bored griefer go away, for example.

In the end an admin will show up to perma-ban a trouble-maker.

Basically think about your security vs. playability trade-off. People make mistakes and learn from them, but getting banned/kicked for a long time is pretty unpleasant. I'd go with setting the thing up to wait for several TK's in a relatively short time before kicking (like 2-3), thus avoiding silliness for self-fragging or a buddy flying through your bomb shrapnel because he wanted to see the magic first-hand.

Trouble-makers are relatively rare, and though they will ruin everyone's fun for an hour or something, they're not worth implementing draconian measures which will send your audience scrambling to do something else entirely and not come back (who's going to sit there waiting to reconnect in 45 min?)

--- And girls

It's too strict - 45 minutes is an eternity. 15 minutes is like infinity! Can this be done:
team kill #1 - immediate kick (I think a notice can be sent to the offender in the kick ?)
team kill #2 - 5 minute kick
team kill #3 - 15 minute
team kill #4 - ban list

? - is an AI tk the same as a Client tk?
?2 - is a ground AI team kill (friendly vehicle) the same as a Client tk?


Two guys joined up today in Operation Rampant Bear and one got a tk for killing a SU-25 AI plane (I don't know any details) and he got kicked, I presume with a 45 minute time out. The other Client who joined at the same time left right away.

hehe, this Servman could be like a shock collar - keep it up and it will get worse.

^^^ If somebody makes a mistake and gets kicked then they should be able to come back in and ask why. That's why I am in favor of a kick but immediate let back in for the first offense.

WC