EDIT: And Perr, yes Lawlz pic is correct at the time he posted, but there are some other servers that also have players in it during different times. He doesn't show a majority of the servers which is why he can't see all the players. Example, he's not showing Community LT. Which tells me he's using another Master server as the listing.
Really doesn't matter if I show the other half of the servers because they literally aren't populated. And the same crowd that goes to PU is the same crowd that hangs around in Community.
I look at the servers throughout the day and pretty much gave you a "populated" time section of when people are on. I like that you say I don't know when people play when I play this game still myself.. apparently more than you now.
Anyways, ignoring obvious troll-bait fest.
Perin, what's to stop people from still technically using other people's names with just different registered IP's?
Ghost is mostly correct, except his method could be overloaded by smurfs, since he stores all of those variables in one file, and tribes can only remember a limited quantity of variables at a time.
Also, I don't like the idea of registering similar names simultaneously, that would get messy, and I've been very frustrated before, when someone instituted a name ban for rino, and the server found rino in my name and banned me, too. It's not fair and I don't want to risk anything like that... (However, we should ban names that end with white space characters.)
What I'm proposing is one file per player name...
When you connect to the server, it will convert your name to hexadecimal, append ".cs", and check if a file exists by that codename in the temp folder. (This way, even the special characters are preserved)
If not, no one has ever registered that name before, so the server will ask you to type a passphrase. The file will be created by logging your first message as your passphrase and your current IP address.
If the file does exist, the server will compare your IP address to the list of previously known addresses in your file. If you have used that connection before, you'll auto login, else, the server will ask for your passphrase.
If the passphrase matches, you'll be considered logged in, else you'll be given a couple more chances to login in case you have fat clumsy fingers.
If you get administration privileges, your rank will also be stored in your file, so your admin rank will be restored each time you login.
When you disconnect, your player stats will also be logged into that file, so each time you login, your stats will be loaded into memory.
So if you attempt to smurf someone else, from anywhere they haven't logged in from, themselves, you'll be asked for their passphrase, and if you don't know it, and can't guess it in a few tries, you won't be able to chat or spawn, and you'll get temporally banned.
So, fish, morgoth, and tomato can still change their names every 5 seconds, and register a new account, and bk, tk, talk shit, all they want, but it will be easier to track them, because after a week or so, all of the honest players will have stats accumulating, while the imposters will be the only ones with clean slates.
And if they stop changing their names, their stats work accumulate, indicating what dickholes, they are.
Edit: A few more amendments to this idea:
There should be a tab menu option for omitting your current IP from the auto login list, in case you are playing from a friend's house, our public place... Or maybe that option should be default, and the tab menu button should add your current IP to your auto login list... That's probably a better idea.
Either way, the ip will still be logged after successful login, so admins can see it.
Failed login attempts should also be logged, so admins can see it.
Also, a file should be created for each IP address, which lists your aliases, but not in a single line, as is currently done, because that is limited to something like 256 characters... Instead, we'll use a variable array, which can be scrolled like a marquee, in game.
This way, you'll be limited to something like 1 megabyte instead of like 256 bytes...
Admins should be able to lookup what ip addresses you've connected from in the past, and what names those ip addresses have successfully and unsuccessfully logged in as, before, too.
Last edited by perrinoia on Tue Oct 20, 2015 11:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
Waiting for new gaming keyboard and mouse to arrive in the mail...
My old peripherals bit the dust, and programming ain't easy on a touch screen.
I ordered this gadget, too... http://www.ebay.com/itm/261181869648
It arrived first, and is quite nifty... Although, construction quality is shit... Touch surface is uneven, like it's got a bubble in it, and it makes input near the k key difficult...
Sounds like those plastic covers that you apply yourself for phones where no matter how hard you try to place them perfectly there are always bubbles. By the way what do you use instead of notepad to code in?
