CUIC To Be Optional

[MatrixCPA]

Chances are most admins haven't noticed, but when you're coding an admin helper, like I am, you do--with v1.03 ClientUserInfoChanged (CUIC) events are no longer logged or reflected in the server console. What this means is that there's no log of when people change names, skins, etc. This log data was being used by my admin helper so it could detect when people name spam (to crash a server) as well as to keep track of which player is which when they change names (which is also reported using CUIC).

 

After some more correspondence with Raven, they have informed me that they are going to add a cvar (g_logClientInfo) to the next server patch that can be used to turn CUIC logging on/off as needed. I couldn't be happier.

[KnightHawk420]

Your writing a program? An admin front-end? need help?

[MatrixCPA]

Actually, I'm converting an admin bot perl script. Basically, it's a perl script that runs on the server box and connects to the server via the console--but doesn't show up as a player. As far as the players playing, they don't even see it. It uses rcon and tails the log files to figure out what is going on. It is set to recongize admins by a combination of name/ip. Once recognized, admins can kick by using say or teamsay and don't need to use complete names. The bot will recognize partial names.

 

The bot monitors teamkills and can be configured as to how agressively it kicks tk'ers. Players can be banned by name as well as ip. The bot maintains its own log which includes ip addresses so that you can track down troublemakers and ban them more easily. I had it just about worked out when they removed the CUIC logging and truncated the status command results which jacked up my parsing all to heck. Anyway, it looks like they're going to change those things back or make them options. Woo!

[Animal Planet]

Is this program your working on for Linux or windows? Or both?

[MatrixCPA]

It's written in Perl. So, it'll run on linux and windows as long as you have Perl installed. Personally, I prefer ActivePerl for windows. Although I haven't tested it, I expect it will require Perl 5.5.x or later.

[Animal Planet]

GREAT! I have Mandrake 8.2, since I am new to linux and still getting used to I thought I would go with one of the user friendly linux's first. I will have to see if it came with perl.

[Falryx]

Matrix,

 

Thanks for the heads up on this. I've nearly completed a detailed stats parser which will help track things like objectives, etc. It, literally, is the only reliable mechanism to associate a player name with a client slot. I can't believe they'd remove that! In a word, "Argh!" (I had less polite things to stay privately).

 

It's my sincere hope that Raven chooses not to ELIMINATE data from logfiles but prefers to ADD them to logfiles. Data is good, data enables parsers to do better things.

 

Sigh.