(Closed Beta) A New, Modern Hosting Service

isair

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Follow the development process here

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A small screenshot of how the logs look on Discord with our service

Hi, everyone!

We all know there haven't been too many improvements in terms of server-side tools for Jedi Academy / MovieBattles II in a long time. This has negatively affected the community as enforcing order on servers, keeping players happy, and just general server maintenance is a huge task requiring the time of many volunteers for even a single server.

When I set up my servers (SF, aka }{) , I was the only admin. I realised how bad the user experience was when you are one, and set off to solve this. What started as a hobby project of mine has now grown into a product of its own, and I am happy to announce that it is now in a closed beta state.

Previously, when it was in closed alpha, I had the privilege of working with TIN and EW to host servers for them. Their feedback and different use cases further sped up the improvement of my hosting service, and I'd like to personally thank Frenzy and PuNk for their help and being my continued customers.

Without wasting more of your time, I'll list the features:
- Set up your server in almost any location in the world. US, EU, AU, Singapore, Japan, you name it.
- Single FTP account and address for all your servers.
- Your files live on a different machine than your game servers.
- Reasonable DDoS protection that will keep your servers safe while not causing connection issues for your players.
- OpenJK powered secure and fast servers. And if you want, you can provide a custom server executable.
- RTVRTM support.
- Custom PK3 and SO file support.
- Automatic daily backups.
- A very user-friendly VPN blocker that warns users when they are in-game before cutting their connection. You can choose to mute or rename these users to prevent malicious activity while they are being warned.
- Advanced spamming detection. Spamming nonsense symbols and tell spams are history without preventing your users from sending messages often.
- Impostor detection. People can't change their name to look exactly like someone else's by abusing how the game's font displays names.
- You can also rename players manually using an rcon rename command that is unique to our service.
- Automatic renaming of empty named players.
- Ban not just with IP, but utilise unique identifiers and player attributes to identify players and keep unwanted ones away.
- An intelligent in-game reporting system that collects and attaches proof based on what's reported.
- Know when a banned player tries to enter your server. See their IP and name for every attempt made.
- From server logs, reports, automated actions, configuration file errors to banned player entry attempts, everything is forwarded to Discord where you can easily find what you're looking for, take action, and mark what action you've taken using reactions. Every channel has public/private counterparts, and you can keep your players on the loop while not giving out sensitive information.
- Automatic lamer detection and punishment system that helps with maintaining order. (Not at a level where it can replace an actual admin)
- An automated server messages system that is not based on a `send these messages every x minutes` logic like scripts that can be found out there but is based on when a new game round starts. So you won't suddenly spam your players with messages right in the middle of a round where communication is of utmost importance.
- Delete a delete-this-to-restart file to restart a specific server.
- Automatically rotating server logs in your FTP home.
- A detailed README for all these features in your FTP root, along with a list of built-in maps and other goodies. These files get automatically updated when new maps come out or when there are updates to the hosting service.
- All features can be configured. You can turn them on/off, adjust their parameters, and tailor your server to your needs.
- Open development process where you can follow what new features are coming and when: Trello

The price for the service is 7.99 GBP per month per server. Payments are handled via Stripe. If you're interested in being part of this closed beta, send an email to [email protected]. Let me know of the location and the mode of the server(s) you want in the email. The day of the setup is free and your invoicing will start the day after.
 
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I would just like to say that although this system of yours is a potentially phenomenal achievement for this community and a great component to keep the servers troll-free/tk-free, it's a f*cking nightmare to be the victim of nearby rangeban's or trying to get help from a server administrator. Every time a Norwegian (?) player is being (range?)banned from your server I'm unable to connect to one of your hosted servers. Last time we sorted it out, but now it seems to have happened again. One month away from MBII, come back - and unable to connect. I don't even get to know why, as I'm just loading forever. And when I contact admins they either don't know their management passwords or can't bother at all.

I don't know if many beginner players are victims of this as well, but if they are there is no way to get help within a decent timeframe. Either ban exact IP strings (even dynamic ones have limits) and keep the VPN-block, or stop adding range-ban's that affect/may affect other players. As it stands, I'm literally unable to play Moviebattles II as your system is controlling the most common, populated ones; TIN and X/SF.
 
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isair

Donator
Posts
54
Likes
103
I would just like to say that although this system of yours is a potentially phenomenal achievement for this community and a great component to keep the servers troll-free/tk-free, it's a f*cking nightmare to be the victim of nearby rangeban's or trying to get help from a server administrator. Every time a Norwegian (?) player is being (range?)banned from your server I'm unable to connect to one of your hosted servers. Last time we sorted it out, but now it seems to have happened again. One month away from MBII, come back - and unable to connect. I don't even get to know why, as I'm just loading forever. And when I contact admins they either don't know their management passwords or can't bother at all.

I don't know if many beginner players are victims of this as well, but if they are there is no way to get help within a decent timeframe. Either ban exact IP strings (even dynamic ones have limits) and keep the VPN-block, or stop adding range-ban's that affect/may affect other players. As it stands, I'm literally unable to play Moviebattles II as your system is controlling the most common, populated ones; TIN and X/SF.

The range-bans are imposed by admins and are separate for each server. One of the extra functionalities I have implemented lets server admins know on Discord the names of the players who are unable to connect due to a range-ban. This allows them to remove a range-ban if they see an innocent player caught in one. However, this is reliant on admins being active, so this is an administration issue. I'm sorry you got caught up in this. I'll check SF discord to see if your name still comes up in the channel for players blocked due to a range ban and remove it. However, I have no control over TIN and would recommend reaching out to them separately.

Edit: I've checked and the last IP range ban you've been caught up in (on 06/11/2019 if I'm not mistaken) is not there in the bans file anymore, so it seems to have been resolved before.
 
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