It's been a long, hard 7 (8?) years for Halo PC server admins. You've wanted features of newer games for years, but never been answered. You've always wanted to ban that bastard that mouthed off and ran, but you never saw again. You always wished you had a better way to control who did what with RCON after you gave it to them. And, basically, you wanted more features that newer games so tantalizingly offered. But yet, you were not answered.
Until now.
Introducing Roulette from Spartan Snipers- The comprehensive Halo PC: Combat Evolved Client+Server RCON utility.
This program is still in alpha, but will be released into a closed public beta within the coming week or so. So far, we've made impressive progress:
Rcon access system:
This allows you to control who can use RCON on your server. You can also specify what access they will have. There are three default access levels: kick only, kick and ban and complete access. However, you can also specify exactly which commands they can use (custom access levels). Rcon holders are identified by their hash code, only people that are recognized (by their hash) can use rcon.
Hash logger:
When people join your server, their hash code will be recorded and saved. This allows you to look back through your logs and find trouble making players. There is also an sv_banhash command so that you can punish said players without them being present in the server.
Chat logger:
All chat will be logged and saved to file.
Additional RCON commands:
sv_kill (Kills specified player)
sv_changeteam (force changes specified player)
sv_lockteam (locks specified player to his team
sv_say (makes a server announcement. The player sees it addressed to them)
sv_banhash (as mentioned above, bans a specified hash for however long you specify)
sv_banIP (May change- bans a specified IP address from joining the server)
sv_banIPrange (May change- bans an IP range)
Additional Features:
Enhances server security protocol by adding RCON access permissions, RCON bruteforce protection, and RCON Client bruteforce protection, as well as a few other security enhancements to the server code itself.
RCON Client- No longer a need to be in Halo or Console to administer a server. Has chat viewer, logger, RCON execution, and permission restrictions built in- so you can give someone the right to kick, but not ban, etc. This will develop as we get a few releases into Roulette.
And a special addition that is not finished yet...hold your breath...yes, a server-side bot detection and removal algorithm. This hasn't been coded yet, but we know how to do it.
In addition to this program, we have released a few handy client tools into open public beta. They've since been rolled into one package, called Halo Statistics v.12. This program gives you full in-game logging; everything that you see happen in game is recorded. Kills, Deaths, Chat, KDR, etc. And, we have the option of color-coding player names for easy posting on a board that uses generic BBCode. Check it out here:
http://spartansnipers.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=clandevsw &action=display&thread=5191
We've got a server-side player+hash logger that is the Roulette proof-of-concept.
Heck, we've got all sorts of crazy stuff that hasn't been let of the cage yet. Stuff like multi-server banlist synchronization apps, multi-mod switcher for changing the server type with the push of a button (rather than restructuring your whole server folder), and who knows what else?
[Edited on 02.20.2010 10:50 PM PST]