Easy server setup questions

[Pileyrei]

Hi all

Just rented a server from gameservers.com.
Set up looks straight forward but will take me a while to learn it all properly.

Please can someone remind me how to set the default game type and map?
For example, Deathmatch and Deck 16 when the server reboots.

All any settings to change/update on the default config from game servers are welcome!

Thank you
Piley

[ShaiHulud]

With Game Servers, if you click on the Config tab, and then "Choose File" -> Server Command line and click "Load Config" you get something like:



Here I've set the default/start-up map to CTF-Control. Beyond that you'd want something like:

Code: Select all

?game=Botpack.DeathMatchPlus?Mutator=MapVoteLA13.BDBMapVote,<other_mutators_here>?MaxPlayers=12 ini=UnrealTournament.ini multihome=@SERVERIP port=@SERVERPORT -nohomedir

...just as an example

[Pileyrei]

Thanks very much, that sorted the default map

I need to learn the game servers control panel setup, how to upload mods,etc.
Looks fairly straight forward.

Piley

[ShaiHulud]

Glad to help.

It's usually relatively painless. The first step, of course, is common to map files, textures, music and so on too - simply uploading the files to the type-appropriate server directories. Hopefully the mods that you want to install will make it clear what should go where; although in the absence of these instructions, it's really just a matter of .umx to /music/, .utx to /textures/, .uax to /sounds/, .u to /system/, and .unr to /maps/

Game Servers doesn't appear to offer Windows hosting for UT servers. One happy consequence of this is that in the root directory of your UT server sits a Linux generated file called "screenlog.0" - this shows *all* server console activity. It's very helpful for diagnosing errors or crash conditions with a thoroughness that the regular UT .log files sometimes lack. This is actually the file (or a portion of it) that you access when you click on "Console Log" under the server "Info" tab - where you'll see the most recent additions to the screenlog in your web browser (for the last map or two). But for a complete history, it's handy to download this file to your local machine too.

The second stage is really the trickier part. And that's figuring out what to enter under the "Server Command line" (aka start-up line) and "Main Server Configuration" (the UnealTournament.ini file) to get your mutators starting when the server boots or switches map. A lot of people delegate this to something like MapVoteLA, which has a special section for configuring mutators (and other server variables that I always have a hard time trying to figure out how to add in the "Server Command line") - Medor is an expert at this!

[Pileyrei]

Well I really appreciate you taking the time to respond and provide a nice screenshot.

I've uploaded a MOD via FTP, configured the necessary line you showed me and added the mutator as a serverpackage to the ini.
Set a default map of Deck 16 4 bots to start.
Noticed it wasn't showing up in Master Browser so added the necessary config to the ini.

All worked first time - mutator loaded fine, server showed up in browser, .....just worked!
I've got so many grey hairs from configuring servers at another place where things just didn't work right. Think you know who I mean (news coming soon).

Really nice to have a control panel that seems straight forward and actually works!

Thank you again, no doubt I will be messaging Medor.

[ShaiHulud]

Good to hear things are going well. I gathered from historical forum messages that things are - uh - convoluted in the way that the host you reference requires files to be uploaded and configured.

There are some additional set-up options you might be interested in exploring, if they're not things you've added already. One is AnthraX's Server Crash Fix (SFC), to guard against a particular exploit.

Then there's Secure Validate to protect against another.
With this second one, you replace a couple of lines in the UnrealTournament.ini file (as opposed to adding an additional actor entry with SFC above) - it's all detailed in the instructions, but I'll replicate part of that here for reasons that I'll elaborate on momentarily:

Code: Select all

[Engine.GameEngine]
...
ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerQuery
ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=unreal.epicgames.com MasterServerPort=27900

Becomes

Code: Select all

ServerActors=SecureValidate.SVUdpServerQuery
ServerActors=SecureValidate.SVUdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=unreal.epicgames.com MasterServerPort=27900

But if you choose to do that - or even if you don't! - you might consider adding an additional MaterServer to the list (and removing the GameSpy and MPlayer entries since these servers are no longer online):

Code: Select all

ServerActors=SecureValidate.SVUdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=master.333networks.com MasterServerPort=27900

...the 333networks Master Server (see: http://333networks.com/)

As a third step, you might also want to check out Higor's XC_Engine. One of the very major - and often overlooked - benefits of which is that, with XC_Engine over the standard UT engine, you no longer require a redirect server for fast file downloads.

[Pileyrei]

Hi again

I'm somewhat familiar with the SCF and Secure update stuff. Thank you for mentioning, will looking in it for sure.

I'm really glad you mentioned the XC Engine. I don't know much about it and am looking for a reliable redirect server and so if these gets around it I'm definitely interested!

Regarding the other host, we don't have root access. We have to upload all files by a ticket and wait! Often its not done right and can take weeks to add a simple map or mod.

But that is all coming to an end soon, hence the reason I have a new server now with full access. What a pleasure - it just works!

Piley

[rjmno1]

Well I really appreciate you taking the time to respond and provide a nice screenshot.

I've uploaded a MOD via FTP, configured the necessary line you showed me and added the mutator as a serverpackage to the ini.
Set a default map of Deck 16 4 bots to start.
Noticed it wasn't showing up in Master Browser so added the necessary config to the ini.

All worked first time - mutator loaded fine, server showed up in browser, .....just worked!
I've got so many grey hairs from configuring servers at another place where things just didn't work right. Think you know who I mean (news coming soon).

Really nice to have a control panel that seems straight forward and actually works!

Thank you again, no doubt I will be messaging Medor.

I have allready gray hair without configuring a server.
Question is this server already running? whats the ip addres, so we can play on that one.

[Pileyrei]

The server is working well!

Pls join 173.199.74.175:7777

IP will be publically advertised soon

Piley

[Pileyrei]

Server crashed last night and did not come back until I removed the second master server line in the ut.ini.

UDP error 11 from 0.0.0.0 or something error.
Only have utmaster now:

ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=utmaster.epicgames.com MasterServerPort=27900

Is this a Linux issue?
I know some people have 3 or more master servers in the list.

[lol]

LINUX users please note: The maximum numbers for uplinks is actually 3 (in some cases it is 4). Do NOT exceed the limit or your server will immediately crash.

Stop your server and open the server's configuration file, usually gamename.ini (unrealtournament.ini) This is for servers not for players!

Go to

[Engine.GameEngine]

and delete these lines:


ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=master0.gamespy.com MasterServerPort=27900
ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=master.mplayer.com MasterServerPort=27900


replace them with

ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=utmaster.epicgames.com MasterServerPort=27900
ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=master.noccer.de MasterServerPort=27900
ServerActors=IpServer.UdpServerUplink MasterServerAddress=master.333networks.com MasterServerPort=27900

[Pileyrei]

Thanks.

The only thing I didn't do was stop the server. Just added and restarted.
Also those old entries (master0 etc) were not there and I know they are old.

I'll try again tonight and test.

Thanks