Build 458

Build 458 is out and the main new feature being introduced is security levels, also known as seclevs.

The full details of what seclevs are and how you should use them are included on the wiki, here.

The gist of it is that server owners now have complete control over who can do what on their servers.
No more pesky logging into rcon is required, either. You can easily setup a seclev for your admins that will immediately give them access to their admin powers when they join your server, as well as a seclev with even more powers just for yourself. You can even setup a VIP seclev for your trusted non-admin users to give them slightly more access than other users (for example, not allowing users to mark players as griefers until you trust them).

You can find example files showing you how to configure seclevs in KAG/Base/Security. They all have the extension .example - if you make copies of these files and remove the .example part you will be left with a decent start point for configuring your own seclevs.

We are officially phasing out guards (i.e. we are no longer recruiting them), so it is strongly encouraged that server owners build up a list of trusted admins that they assign access to with seclevs.
However, guards still exist and you will be able to assign them exactly what admin powers you feel comfortable with them having, separately to your other admins (or, for example, take away a single guard's admin powers).

There have also been changes to the way in which blacklists/whitelists are stored.
securitysetup.cfg has now been moved to KAG/Base/Security/securitysetup.cfg and inside this file you define the file paths to your whitelist/blacklist. If you copy the contents of your old securitysetup.cfg (in KAG/Base/Scripts) to KAG/Base/Security/blacklist.cfg (or whatever file you define in securitysetup.cfg) then your bans will be preserved. If you were using a whitelist, copy to whitelist.cfg instead. In both cases, you shouldn't need to worry about adjusting the formatting, that should all be sorted out the next time you start the server.

Additionally, the way you login to rcon has changed - there is now a specific command for it. If you want to login, use /rcon /login [password]. You can also logout now using /rcon /logout.

There has also been a change to the way we check if you have accepted the terms or not, so don't be surprised if you are required to accept them again.

There are also a few other fixes included.
Changelog:

- Added security levels (see blog/wiki)
- Moved location of securitysetup.cfg to Base/Security
- Moved white/blacklists to their own files (paths defined in securitysetup.cfg)
- Changed logging into rcon to use /rcon /login [password]
- Added /rcon /logout to logout of rcon
- Modified /reloadsecurity to reload seclevs in addition to black/whitelists
- Added /printseclevs for printing seclevs
- fixed respawn timer behind chat window (#152)
- potentially fixed memory leak with water

 

great question

We have considered the idea of a crowdsourced player rating system. The details are fuzzy, but basically people will be given tokens to use to upvote or downvote other players (not based on how they play, but if someone is griefing/being abusive versus being a very friendly online player). downvotes to a certain level may flag an account for review or temporary suspension (or maybe just global muting)

Also say that someone has been upvoted a lot - they may be able to take some of their positive points and "spend" them to vote other people up/down more frequently than they receive tokens from the system.

Or something like everyone can upvote others at no cost (but no more than once every week or something), and you can downvote someone once per week but it costs you one of your upvotes (so that people don't just spam people they dislike with negative votes, there's a 'cost' associated with it).

I'm also considering something like a crowdsourced server rating system. Something like being able to sort the server browser list by "rating", where rating is determined by how many people have a certain server favorited. I'd love to know peoples' thoughts on these ideas, but please do not post here. Rather, go start a thread in the community dev forum (but check if someone else created one first). <--- //Now remember children: pay heed to the nice man or I will have to be particularly un-nice... ~fbb

These are very rough ideas, so community feedback and supplementary ideas are welcome

 

There is only one admin_color?
If I want to put two kinds of admins, they will have the same color otherwise one of them will be uncolored?

 

Its not meant as a way of distinguishing different seclevs, its meant as a way of saying 'this guy is an admin'.
So yes, one colour, for all kinds of admins.

If we added more colours then its usage would be inconsistent - I want people to be able to go on a server and still understand that red = admin.

 

Makes sense.
You still plan to add a star or something that shows that a player is a VIP?
swag_star

EDIT: Also, does admin_color overcome other colors?
If I set devs and guards with admin_color, they will all be red/orange O.o?

 

Yeah I still wanna add a star, gotta see if I (and Geti) can make it look nice first.
Also, admin_color overrides premium colour, but not guard or kag staff.

 

? Yes you do, /rcon /logout - assuming you dont fall into an admin seclev you wont be stuck in rcon anymore unless there's a bug in the code.

Unless the majority of players upvote assholes then the cost literally will stop assholes upvoting other assholes over a month. Limiting a user to voting on another user once per day means that someone ragequitting can only cause one token of harm to everyone they've decided they hate unless they sit around being vengeful - which would constitute voting abuse and more than likely result in a permban.

 

Excellent work, Shad!

Seclevs & crowdsourcing--*sniff*--my little KAG is growing up... I'm so proud!

Also, I foresee giving owners tools to easily manage their servers having the wonderful side effect of owners actually being aware that guards exist and hopefully nipping many a lengthy explanation in the bud.