Mon Mar 31, 2003 11:58 pm by Nog
Ok, Server Admin here. (Sandy's)
I agree with both points here.
I've run servers for just about every game on Game Spy's support list over the years. (Yes it's an exaggeration but you get the idea)
Yes, running a server is a thankless job. You would be suprised how many players think that admins are obliged to run servers, modify it to please a single person, buy more bandwidth, and all sorts of other crazy crap that we are, quite frankly, not obliged to do at all.
Players can be cranky, rude, demanding, and out right obnoxious.
Let the server go offline or crash and an admin will get 2 polite Emails asking for the admin to see if there was a problem and 200 more flaming him for shutting it off.
Player killing is off!!!
Player killing is on!!!
Why is the number of players capped at only 16?
Such and such killed me in New Berlin! I want him Banned! (Player in a Sabre got killed by some fellow in a Hawk. Turned out it was the Sabre who attacked. Yes, he sucked.)
This is only a small portion of the crap that Admins deal with.
On the other side. I found that admins (including me) can get real jumpy and testy when it comes to hunting down cheaters and rule breakers. I've often found admins banning players for the barest of reasons. As a Player, I've allready been banned from one server for spree-killing Xeno's. The admin claimed it would ruin the game for everyone if I went on a Xeno war. (someone explain this too me)
Another Server admin is forbidding players to enter Rhineland space because Germany is against the war in Iraq. (Maybe someone knows this guy? Maybe they could give him some Prozac? At least the server didn't stay up long.)
But the most common offence admins make is knee-**** banning of players accused of cheating, without so much as checking the logs to see if there was any truth to the matter. Not all do it, but it happens a lot.
We all know that cheaters cause server instability. But most cheaters will not stay on the same server for a very long time either. It's usually not long before the players discover him and he is either forced off a server, banned, or simply leaves because no one will have anything to do with him.
Fairplayers will stay and maintain their accounts, cheaters most often will not.
Knowing this, I have a suggestion that may ultimately improve server stability.
Once a week the admins do a date search of their client files and remove any players that haven't logged on in say... a month. You'll know by looking at the modification dates of the client files. This way you clear your hard drives of needless client files AND possibly remove the files of a cheater who may have slipped past your eyes. Using this regiment has the potential to vastly increase server stability as bad clients are removed from the system over time.
I say a month because many players have games running on several servers and I figure a month is plenty of time to get back to a game you have previously left.
Acceptable?
Only then would you comprehend the time involved.