Author Topic: Serverside player statistics  (Read 4481 times)

Offline Machine Medic on: February 21, 2015, 04:34:55 PM

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I would really like to have some good server-side player data in Murnatan.

For instance, being able to track a person's total play time, average kill/death ratio, previous warnings and bans, log-in dates, individual player notes, known IP range, etc.

Tools like this would be a huge help with daily operation of a clan server when it comes to investigating evaders, tracking member activity, admission eligibility, scrim team potential, known aliases, and so forth.

Especially if we could have a tool to link alternate accounts together, so an action towards any of a person's accounts will be applied to all of their known aliases.

Server-to-server ban sharing/tracking would also be a nice bonus as well.

 :)

« Last Edit: February 21, 2015, 11:18:57 PM by Machine Medic »
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Offline Loki #1 on: February 22, 2015, 09:52:24 AM

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It's also fun to explore your stats, I have always fun when it comes to a complex and structural statistics of players, it's quite interesting for players.

But again, tons of programming.

Offline Rotacak #2 on: February 24, 2015, 04:26:19 PM

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Machine Medic: Exactly that is planned. I can note more of that like "log all votes with results, weapons time/usage, number of de/constructed buildings, team kills etc.

IP will not be displayed there because you do not need to know it. Player will be bound to account, not IP. So also no linking accounts together.

Sharing bans between servers: yes, if server owner will turn on that option.

Loki: exploring stats of different players will be there too. And yes, it is tons of programming and not everything will be there from begining but we want to have it.

Offline Machine Medic #3 on: February 25, 2015, 10:13:51 AM

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Good to hear!

IPs would still be useful for catching evaders though.  Even though people will need to pay for a copy of the game on every account they want to play on, that's not always a sure-fire deterrent from causing trouble.  More problematic trolls and hackers have been known to spend tons on money on multiple copies of a game just so they can continue to terrorize a community.  This problem only escalates if the game drops in price, until you get close to free-to-plays like 1.1 where people could do whatever they wanted with impunity so long as they had a proxy server or dynamic IP address.

Being able to compare IP addresses and globally ban specific IP ranges might prove helpful in being able to trace multiple separate accounts to the same cheater/troll and put up a stronger fight against them.

The battle against trolls and hackers is historically a perpetual and aggressive one, and any tools we can get our hands on to use against them will be helpful in at least slowing them down.


« Last Edit: February 25, 2015, 10:26:27 AM by Machine Medic »
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Offline Nightshades #4 on: March 04, 2015, 02:01:26 PM

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Hello devs team, as for the server structure packet handler, be sure to put a "sanity" check like if a malformed packet is sent to the server this doesn't return an error like c0000005 =) (access_violation).

Some server on certain game instant crash by sending a malformed packet with the good packet lenght (must be bruteforced to find the corrent packet lenght).

I don't know how your server structure is coded about the handle of the packet Client -> Server but if you forgot a condition or something related to "safe packet check" this can be potentialy a hole to fuzz.

Regards & keep up the good work.

Ps: ddos & botnet aren't the only way to crash a game server.
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Offline Loki #5 on: March 04, 2015, 05:54:21 PM

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Good to hear!

IPs would still be useful for catching evaders though.  Even though people will need to pay for a copy of the game on every account they want to play on, that's not always a sure-fire deterrent from causing trouble.  More problematic trolls and hackers have been known to spend tons on money on multiple copies of a game just so they can continue to terrorize a community.  This problem only escalates if the game drops in price, until you get close to free-to-plays like 1.1 where people could do whatever they wanted with impunity so long as they had a proxy server or dynamic IP address.

Well dynamic IP is for one unnamed thing if it's going to be on Steam.

Offline Machine Medic #6 on: April 02, 2015, 02:19:37 AM

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Old topic, but I VERY MUCH want to see a Whitelist mode available for server admins to use in the event of a DDoS attack or similar, as well as the ability to ban entire IP subnet ranges.

Being able to deny/ignore all requests from all unapproved IPs is an effective way of stopping attacks without interrupting service.

Subnet bans are effective at eliminating individual trouble spots where conventional methods and deterrents fail.  I.E. Hackers/cheaters with plenty of cash available to them, and many Steam accounts under alias. 

Steam and paid access isn't going to fix *every* loophole.





« Last Edit: April 02, 2015, 02:33:33 AM by Machine Medic »
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Offline Rotacak #7 on: April 02, 2015, 02:33:12 PM

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Machine Medic: but subnet bans will not guard you from DDoS attack. That need to be solved by rules directly on host server (not game server) or even on provider side.

Subnet ban will just deny users to join your game server from (steam)logged players.

Offline Machine Medic #8 on: April 02, 2015, 04:08:11 PM

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I'm aware of that.  I'm interested in subnet banning more for denying people who try to evade a single ban.  Subnet bans have proven effective for us in the past for users who try to evade by exploiting dynamic IP addresses.

For instance, we ban someone who was cheating using an aimbot or wallhack, etc.  They are not happy with that, and decide to try to evade the ban by buying another copy of the game on an alternate account, and restarting their internet modem to generate a slightly different IP address.  They could do this as many times as their bank account would allow if we don't have a way to block their typical IP range.

Of course they could always rent a proxy server after that, but if they have to rent a new proxy server every time we ban that proxy's IP/subnet, eventually they'll probably either loose interest or try to DDoS in anger.



Of course there is always the possibility of an innocent IP getting caught in the IP range, but probationary procedures can solve that for single IPs.

For instance, allowing a single application for exemption to be filed from any IP in the range once per week, then supervising those IPs regularly.  This would effectively wage a battle of attrition against evaders in a given subnet range, while still allowing the occasional innocent player through.




« Last Edit: April 02, 2015, 04:31:44 PM by Machine Medic »
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Offline newwaysys #9 on: April 03, 2015, 06:23:37 PM

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Tools like this would be a huge help with daily operation of a clan server when it comes to investigating evaders, tracking member activity, admission eligibility, scrim team potential, known aliases, and so forth.

Especially if we could have a tool to link alternate accounts together, so an action towards any of a person's accounts will be applied to all of their known aliases.

Offline Rotacak #10 on: April 05, 2015, 03:49:19 PM

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I think that this would be problem only in free game.
How many griefers will create new email account, new steam account and spend another money for another copy of the same game just to do bad things (and be again immediatelly banned) on some server?

Offline grmg.pl #11 on: April 05, 2015, 07:26:11 PM

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decide to try to evade the ban by buying another copy of the game on an alternate account,
I can already see how everyone will do it en masse. Get real.

Offline Machine Medic #12 on: April 06, 2015, 02:14:52 AM

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I can already see how everyone will do it en masse. Get real.

We've had instances of people doing *exactly* that purely out of spite in the past, minus the purchase price.

These people are usually here to cause as many problems across as many servers as they possibly can with their accounts.  They are not stupid about how they do it, either.  They can be very discreet until you learn the behavioral tells of that individual.

I've seen a number of them that do this on a professional level by generating ad revenue from filming their trolling and cheating.

https://www.youtube.com/user/BestCodComedy/videos

I'm not saying that every single person out there is going to do this, but at least 1 in every 1000 players is invariably going to be a major pain in the ass one way or another if they can find a vulnerability to exploit.


I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.




« Last Edit: April 06, 2015, 03:38:33 AM by Machine Medic »
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Offline grmg.pl #13 on: April 06, 2015, 02:05:04 PM

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minus the purchase price
IOW they didn't buy it again.

Besides, what is the problem, say some douche decons, you ban him, he evades by buying another copy just to decon again, so he gets banned again. How sustainable is that for an average gamer?

@picture you posted:

1. With that attitude Trem2, oh 'scuse me Timbo, Murnatan will never get released.
2. Perfection is by definition not achievable, otherwise it wouldn't be perfection.
3. You release the best you can do, then you build from there.
4. "BestCod" This sounds like oxymoron.

Offline Machine Medic #14 on: April 07, 2015, 09:03:44 PM

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Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

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