I know there are a few different consoles that I can use to moderate the server, and do other admin things. What programs do you guys recommend I use to do that? Can I run it on the same computer I'm playing on? I'm basically clueless.
Posted Jul 14, 2010, 6:37 PM UTC
I don't have any experience with remote administration, but you can't run the server on your computer because the server files are "private"
Expect that the files are not private. I tried the server on my own computer with the leaked files, but there were some problems with the connections because of the Plasma backend on EA side... They dont like these "leaked" servers.
So you can get the leaked files from the internet, try to run your own. But the easiest way is just to rent server and use some remote admin program to manage it.
Instead of writing you a book I'm just going to share which programs I prefer and why. All of the main programs will work fine for admin purposes but each one has unique features that make them more appealing to others. All of these programs can be used on the pc your playing on, some offer backdoor access so you can use them from another pc as well.
I'll start with guardian. I like guardian because of the Server Status tab. It concentrates the most useful information in on tab. Map, round number, players, ability to change map, player names, score, krd, kit, squad, weapons and gadgets being used by each player. The events tab also has nice color coding which highlights suspicious activity like a 100 meter headshot with a 870 for example, I know its very possible to do with a 870. But it will code them red so if you are monitoring that type of activity it makes it easier to track.
This is my main reason for using guardian.
Here Is a screenshot of said feature.
Then you have BC2CC. BC2CC offers a number of nice features including multiple server monitoring which is one of my favorites. They also supply a number of features aimed at the players themselves to make it a more appealing server to the end user. I would go more into details but I don't have a client loaded at work :(. Sorry Generic I couldn't go more into detail about your tool.
Another one of my favorite tools is wolfcon. This tools lacks in the playerlist options but makes up for it with daemon configuration and other features that work well for allowing your admins to monitor the server via your client. This is good for bigger server with multiple admins. It also has a server started feature which allows you to set a number of people before the server is "started" at which point those who were there before that number get a reserved slot. It also has a VIP feature which allows you to add clan tags and users to lists that make them immune to things like kit restrictions, team balance, and reserved slot kicks.
Lastly there is Procon. Procon allows for 3rd party plugin support so the community over there is pretty active in that process. The plugin feature is to me the most appealing aspect of the tool. Everything else is fairly standard to the other tools.
Is it possible to use multiple tools at once? I took a look at Wolfcon and like the myriad of different options, but prefer the straightforwardness and ease of use of BF2CC.
Yes you can use multiple, Just be aware of what features are enabled on each so you don't get conflicting messages like kill streaks ect.
Would you care to share the combination that is working best for you?
Right now I'm using Wolfcon as my primary due to its "server starter" feature and Guardian as my secondary for my team management and event monitoring.
A fucking iron fist.
You go in there, you see snipers sat at their base on a Rush map, on the assaulting team, and you hit them in the face, at full force, with the Banhammer of Justice.
Except for the part where that is against the EA Rules of Engagement, and will result in the loss of your ranked server.
I would get an unranked server just because of this.
Unranked means that players do not gain any experience or unlocks, iirc. A no-go for the majority of players.
I know, but I have to hope that there are a few of us who play the game for fun.
Serious business.
Unfortunately, otherwise I myself would indulge in banning such players.
Actually it will be a no rules server. We used to have one back in the day, the only law of the land being no whining.
I was on a server where some tool was sitting in our own base in the bradley just firing at the OpFor. After a couple of "please move out and engage" a server admin kicked the guy.
That server was added to my favorites.
You can run admin tools on your own PC, or you can run it on a laptop or something. Doesn't matter. Right now there are some daemons/services emerging that allow you to have a tool always-on. I am not sure of the other admin tools, but I think they either require you to host it or maybe have some sort of external hosting. The daemon I'm making is externally hosted (for free) by i3D.net who hosts all official console servers as well as many PC servers, so uptime should be second to none.
Honestly you should try them all out and decide which you prefer. For some people, it's about the ease of use, while for some it's features. Each seem to have gone off into their own direction which I'm glad of, nobody likes having identical tools or what's the point in wasting development efforts.
Of course if you have any specific questions related to BC2CC, feel free to ask since I'm the developer of it. I won't nag you to use it, it's completely preferential and people should use what they find suits the needs of their community best.
have you thought about opensourcing the project? I'm sure there would be a lot of people in this community happy to submit bugfixes and such.
It's really not up to me unfortunately. It's intellectual property of i3D, but just about anybody who wants to join the team [who has a legitimate skill to offer] is allowed to join us. We are only two-strong right now so of course we would love more help considering both of us already have pretty busy careers in the field.
Last time open sourcing was discussed, it was "headed that way" but not yet. I think it might happen eventually. We are also doing MOHCC, because Frostbite is used it's going to be very easy to port.
Excellent reply. I plan to share admin power with a couple of different people, so there will be many different admins around different times of the day.
Do you have a link where I can check out the tools that you mentioned?
littleredrex had the links I think. Here they are anyway.
BC2 Command Center
PRoCon
Wolfcon
BC2 Guardian
Sweet. You're awesome. Hope to be able to invite you guys to my server soon.