Server Browser reform suggestion

[foq]

Many Quake server hosts have multiple servers attatched to the same IP/DNS. 4 examples are Shmack, FvF, Flanders, and my own server (The HUB). These additional servers are connected to by specifying the port to connect to. Traditionally, the default port is 26000, and any other servers running on the IP are run on the next port. For example on my server, The HUB runs on port 26000, Slide runs on 26001, meTchQuake runs on 26002, Capture the Llama on 26003, and Rquake on 26004.

What I'm getting at here is it would be great if we could reform the server browser to detect if there are multiple ports running Quake servers on the same IP, and somehow providing a drop-down menu of sorts that shows activity on the other ports. Perhaps add an asterisk to the server name, like "QuakeOne Hub*" and make the server names clickable, where clicking the server name would show a dropdown list for any additional ports, like this:

QuakeOne Hub port 26001 00/08
QuakeOne Hub port 26002 00/08

and so on and so on, up until the last port. Keep the thing where when you mouse over to the "00/08" part it shows the players, but make the server names clickable to provide the drop-down menu.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

@quake
@ca

[foq]

IRC is gay

[spooker]

foker, baker has a sensible rule, which is that a server must be up and stable for 2 weeks before he'll consider adding it to the server browser. (correct me if wrong) so, it's a moderated server list which seems to work well. your server is great but since you're so interested in hardware, you can't resist fiddling with things, which means your servers, so far, have changed a lot. i think you wouldn't face this issue if you kept your servers stable for a while, then the bakester might consider adding some of the other ports. also, energy seems to be lacking for robust quakeone.com "reforms" these days, with sole only popping in from time to time and baker's time taken up mostly by banning kimp's accounts, helping newbies, and releasing pq 4

[foq]

My server is already in the server list. And I already said that my server isn't going anywhere, unless something fails on a hardware level or I happen to lose internet, and both of those events are highly unlikely.

The only serious change I made to my server was setting up that dedicated computer for it rather than hosting it on my primary computer. Also, I finally got a network switch, so now my network is restored, which means all computers are on the internet at the same time, which means no more sharing a single connection to the modem. That computer doesn't even support overclocking. Trust me, that server is as stable as a blast door. The worst feasable problem I could have with it is running out of upload bandwidth...

[spooker]

you say things are stable yet even yesterday you were telling me about new hardware configurations. as i see it, the potential limitation to your servers is not your equipment, it's you being unable to resist tinkering with it. no one would hold that against you, it is your interest, and interests are a powerful and important thing to guide your life. but compare this with shmack, which has been up and running for over 10 years and i think you'll see my point (though it's not in your nature to concede any argument, nor in mine). maybe bakesdor will add some alternate ports for your server, like he did for shmack, but i don't think he's likely to overhaul the server browser to accommodate your situation

[foq]

Yeah, I made a change to the hardware config. I swapped out the ancient ISA 10mbit network card for a more modern PCI 100mbit card. The server was down for all of about 15 minutes while I reconfigured things on the software end to cope for it. As a result, my latency improved by about ~15ms at Euroquake, just as I thought it would (thus Euro players should have slightly better latency as well).

...It wasn't a big deal in terms of server downtime. It's not like I totally redid the system requiring ~1 hour hardware build time, plus the full day or so it would take to reinstall windows and get everything reconfigured. Besides, changing the network card was actually beneficial for some players. There's literally nothing more I can do that would actually improve the server, thus there is no reason to spend the effort, time, or money on doing so.

[spooker]

There's literally nothing more I can do that would actually improve the server

ahem custom maps!

[foq]

Ahem it wouldn't work without an overhaul to the mod. A new intro map would have to be made supporting the new maps, and the progs would have to be edited to support it. I don't have the skill or even the tools to do so.

Yeah yeah... warping. In order to warp to a map, you have to know the .bsp file of the map you want, and you have to be able to match funky names like "a3" with a mental image that tells you "oh yeah that's the map where you have to jump on this wind tunnel thing to get to the gold key". This becomes very, very hard past ~15 maps or so, and near impossible when you're swimming through the 48? Rquake maps. The progs would have to be edited to support voting functions for the new maps, which again, I have niether the skill or tools to do so. Yeah yeah... the admin can warp it. Sure, but as stated above, the admin would have to register some funky name like "a3" with, most of the time, poor player descriptions. That, and admins aren't on 24/7 to babysit players.

[foq]

So... any input from site admins??

[Baker]

So... any input from site admins??

I know I'm far too busy in real life to dedicate much time to Quake for a while.

The kind of changes you are talking about are not easy or ideal. qstat.org is what is used for the server browser and it just isn't that flexible.

What NetQuake really needs is the same master server hearbeat capability that DarkPlaces has built into it and then add that to the ProQuake server capability.

Then auto-detection of servers and far more is possible.

Eventually I suspect this will happen, but I doubt it will happen this year.

[Solecord]

What Baker said. The server browser is using qstat which really is basic. I had to do a bunch of php programming to get it to function the way it is now. What you've proposed is pretty complex for the simplicity of qstat. I can look into it but as Baker said, real life is currently taking up my time right now.