Changes to the Rental Server

[Nelsona]

Things are not very cute at random.
Someone was veeery busy at doing server setup in the past. Company went to do an automated backup using that configuration.
What is the deal ?
The deal is that we have TRASH files in this server manufactured by some specific sudden retarded addiction doing files like Engine.utx UnrealShare.uax BotPack.uax which are ignored anyway taking space but not others non-stock files - if any of you has them, just DELETE all shit because they are useless. While I removed them and server being off, the automated script has restored them presuming that was a problem causing server's outage, more exactly was restoring TRASH back - including some Mylevel.utx sh!te which should NEVER be used. While you are uploading blindly such stuff you should remove junks because NO ONE uses them and neither UZ files in server's location. I operated some moves around folders and paths and finally I think I got rid of stupid hacked place-holder files which are good only for headaches. Server should have now compatibility with S3TC textured player (if player wants to mess up with them). The rest of creatures calling stock UAX files probably will no longer crash game due to GetSoundDuration() function called for TRASH content with invalid data - so called files produced for saving space.
File Credits.utx should no longer do a mismatch file version error.

Keep testing...

[SC]-[WARTZ_{HoF}]

Plain and simple nfoservers will never change the way they host managed rentals. Soon as I get the non-managed vds you'll not need to worry about this default server automated replacement trash files.

[Nelsona]

Plain and simple nfoservers will never change the way they host managed rentals. Soon as I get the non-managed vds you'll not need to worry about this default server automated replacement trash files.

Um..., let's see how do this works next days as long as I was dodging a bit with setup leaving "intelligent script" from there to hunt ghosts. When admin does its job properly everything is fine, when some "robot" type stuff is engaged everything is down-hill and... I mitigated this action.
Let me sample a scenario. Some map might do damage at random due to some "MyLevel". Me, or other powered admin wants to get rid of it and replacing it. IN SUCH cases I really don't need any "restore of lost files" so I let them to restore folders until next Christmas and 10 years from now on because I'll use OTHER folders - that simple.

Advice for Medor: Walk through "archives" and happily remove whatever Engine.utx UnrealShare.uax, etc. and all those fantasies because no one needs them - you should never share such things and neither any MyLevel.* file or such "amazing" stuff. Dumb people are taking them as good to use and they are not.

In such a "managed" server will be hard to mitigate their actions when admin is loading/unloading a mountain of sh!t in server without to take in account Needs vs Not Needed things. If they have saved certain server state, in case of a random "event" they will restore the state with files holding the same unwanted names causing mismatches. Map MH-Antalius did not worked because of a screwed sound file, that's why I moved UAX stuff away from default routes - good night, crap, rest in toilette. And now we do have map working properly and server in a good state so far.
Quoting now sample of some of those utterly USELESS files done by noobs and mindlessly uploaded. Breath and hang on

• --
  Q3 Texture SFX.utx
  Q3 Texture base floor.utx
  ----

Excuse me but I did not see the deal for client in case of SPACES used. Simply there is no deal just keeping server empty... Now I think you can understand what I mean with the Server-Management task. I'm not an expert at this point but... seriously... this do looks like a plonker action. Too much Quake affinity it's only damaging our UT'99. And right now server uses another Quake3.UTX file simply allowing to run ALL maps done with various types of this "amazing texture" which couldn't ever run into the same server so far because these textures were not only mismatching but they had a very different structure crashing server when a null texture block was called. I will upload Maps as evidences later - Re-Pathed of course.

Server State:
Added custom CTF game and NsMonsters - part of game - to do -> checking which maps are not needed or irrelevant for this game-type.

Need: Setting up a sort of Self-Explanatory Name for this server - I don't have too much inspiration here...
E.G. HOF-Multi_Monster_Gaming / HOF-Classic_Animality / HOF-Reborning_Of_The_Monstrosity / etc. Hint me here...

Tech:
If server will encounter some Navigation Crash/Damage I will upload another "weapon" mutator and them I might think to rewrite main Engine file. So far I did not see borks messing up. In case of problems with known stock maps, we can use replacements, especially known CTF ones. If automated scripts will be mooing at me I'll switch paths again leaving "stock treasures" untouched and... Un-Used.

Edit: Question(s) ?
Do we need by chance to test their CPU power ? I can write a small toy as ServerActor addressing some MH map able to engage 500 monsters with DevPath. It would be nice to find if those 8 Cores can sustain C++ routines from UT in such a situation - or this is not needed because maps sorted there have a decent load and server doesn't need any stress-test.

[Nelsona]

Bump: Conclusions summary
Server has power, it's not under-resourced, games are running properly... all right, Xan's team defeated my team at TDM, is not a critical event for planet Earth after all.
Other things might have some love. I was playing a map where some pupae are intended to spawn and teleport in battle area. The problem of this NOOB type setup (or multiple problems) are as follows:
- Pupae - fresh spawned doesn't include physics falling so they hang blocking spot for next ones until some player can be seen around - won't happen because they do spawn in other rooms - fascinating mapping...;
- SpawnPoint has BAD deal by default with zero help toward this Pupae problem.
Solutions might be:
- rewriting patch files with new stuff (Pupaes falling or attached SpawnPoints) - not the best options because they do aim ONE map;
- rewriting poorly coded SpawnPoint from UnrealShare VIA XC or a conformed package because... will help ALL maps with similar situation.

I'm going to prepare updates.

[Nelsona]

Notes toward service...
Candidates about to do some DDoS probing here or "attacking" like that might be good to be informed that service has an automated script for denial of such stunts coming from whatever IP address. I though that "Great Firewall" used somewhere is good but... or some IP spoofing task is being initialized. By any matter filter is available for a few days, it shows up automatically for each stunt performed against service if happens during a time interval.

Notes toward Engine V451.
At this moment I have some patch files for some map (no need to describe the name). While in 2 servers 436 and 440 things are working like a charm, in this v451 is not the best ever stuff. If UTPG did some fixes toward movement physics for pawns, path seeking for A.I. might go more or less borked - yeah, dudes, fascinating "fixes" drives people mad.
DevPath responds based on pawn physics and locomotion at time, and if these are happily "fixed" doing "improvements" then will be needed some new work around on purpose to attempt a REVERSAL of those stupid "fixes" which I've never asked for - hard to screw C++ from UScript. So to speak in v451 we cannot say Good Bye only to Editor, we have other various "entertaining" ideas as well. I'm curious if UTPG will ever take in account UT'99 for a real major game update rather than mooing with "return;" and other useless "fixes".

[Nelsona]

After playing some map having a sort of Super Flak (messed up, of course) in MyLevel and which I replaced, I'm wondering if in this server in some column won't be welcomed a sort of FlakArena with a great FlakCannon (a la Insta) in company of Mr. Flakson and the rest of "dudes"... Eh ?

[Nelsona]

Bump.
So we do not need any Flak, I'm concluding. Moved then to the next task - an examination in CTF maps if have strings "PathNode" or "AlternatePath". Found some Without and checked for alternate links between flags.
if (bNoneFound) StupidMap.Destroy(); - understand what you want from these...
I'm not feeling comfortable looking at Bots acting like morons.
Maps having two flags in a stupid cube and even crashing for display problems are not entertaining at all.

[Nelsona]

July 21 2018 Change.
Setting up updated patch files for map MH-LandsOfNapali - description of patch files is not a subject for this topic but...
Because patching this map was a hard task (way too many paths for no purpose), I went to delay LessTele3 mutator in order to wait new stuff, else some funky events will occur. Entering should be good after 4 seconds, if this is not enough, a network delay will be loaded in order to have time for patching task. There is a small time when LessTele3 will inject new PlayerStarts which have all chances to get into the New Network with Tag "None" and Permanent Active making player to spawn back in Primary Location any time - not a happy goal in such a map. Now map do seems to run correctly as figured so far.

[Nelsona]

Bump - Another mod
I don't know if would be nice to see some InstaGib mutator used here. What is first issue ?
In InstaGib matches game is very "lazy". Bot is not moving that much because all items (usually) are removed by said mutator. If Bot has no goal, won't roam in map, camping and being a very easy target - I could see this in some server with 16 Bots acting like 16 morons - low skilled and no roaming at all.
What is doable here ?
I think I have a clue about writing a mutator dedicated to these Insta games able to distract Bot to roam in an empty map. Of course, it is doable in multiple formats, implementing multiple options and having a bunch of things configurable might not be handy by low skilled admins, but a default configuration making Bot to roam even in maps with items removed can be way better than looking at campers sitting around and waiting to die. This is doable as Server-Side without sending new files to the poor player sleeping during downloads.
If you want to test such an InstaGib match where Bot is crawling like the floor is warming up, I'll try to write such a tool, if not, enjoy the mess which original InstaGib does... in other location, because I'm not intended to add any trash gaming here.

[Nelsona]

Bump - Server Update August 03 2018
Column 7 has now a custom InstaGiB mutator as long as default one is good to remove weapons leaving monsters unarmed, not a big deal but monsters don't have any purpose in such case. Rewritten InstaGib allows monster to hold SuperShockRifle as well. IRoamer mutator do helps Bots to crawl Levels properly for a nice battle ground. Xan is a bad-ass there when do joins the game, but... I don't have issues at this point.