UFO2000 Needs Players

[7Saturn]

Well, I seriously tried. I tried contacting him via ufo2000 forums and via some emailadresses, I found on the web. No response at all. I'd love to do so, but atm I believe, he simply doesn't want to talk to me, or something like that.

[7Saturn]

Looks like, in deed, the server is up again.

ufo2000.net:2000

In that case, I believe, my work here, is done - for the moment. ;-)

But! Last time, somebody played at the original server, apparently was at 2014-01-10 11:17:59. Thats a looong time ago.

See you all on the server! =)

Edit: ...or not. Does anybody else have that problem, not being able to connect? Every time, I try, it says, it would be a wrong password. I even tried random names, just to make sure, noone else used the name first. I just can't get in.

[serge]

Edit: ...or not. Does anybody else have that problem, not being able to connect? Every time, I try, it says, it would be a wrong password. I even tried random names, just to make sure, noone else used the name first. I just can't get in.

Thanks for reporting the problem, this should be fixed now. Apparently the 'daemonize' mode in the ufo2000 server does not work correctly and the database link is just lost after forking. I'm sorry for the troubles.

Currently, you should find an ufo2000 matchmaking server running at the address mobile-infanterie.gamersunitonline.net:2000
[...]
This server is running at my home, consuming energy on my bill, so in consequence costing my money. That's ok, for the time beeing. But I intend to not have it running longer, as for the next 4 weeks.

VPS hosting has become relatively cheap nowadays (5$ per month at https://www.digitalocean.com), so I had restarted ufo2000.net after Hobbes tried to contact me in the IRC (even though I was away from my computer at that moment). Then he also mentioned this forum in the https://www.ufopaedia.org wiki, so here I am.

Regarding setting up ufo2000 backup servers, feel free to do this and please add the links to the ufo2000 server info page at the ufopaedia wiki. I will also try to provide the necessary server setup instructions there. Right now it looks like the ufopaedia is the best way to accumulate all the necessary ufo2000 information and does not need any special permissions to start contributing, hence things can keep rolling regardless of my availability.

[serge]

Right now it looks like the ufopaedia is the best way to accumulate all the necessary ufo2000 information and does not need any special permissions to start contributing, hence things can keep rolling regardless of my availability.

Moreover, I'm seriously considering to change the https://ufo2000.sourceforge.net and https://ufo2000.net web sites to just redirect to https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=UFO2000

The volunteers are encouraged to start moving the useful and/or still relevant content to the wiki, so that this transition can happen smoothly. Since I obviously don't have time to properly take care of the ufo2000 project myself, I'm in favour of the decentralized "self service" approach. The game code can be also forked to various github repositories (or other free hosting services) and people can work on adding features or fixing bugs (if they wish to do so) with or without my approval. Not that my approval was in fact ever needed

[7Saturn]

Sorry for the long posting, but I just feel I have to...

Thanks for reporting the problem,

Any time!

this should be fixed now.

Yep! Works out just fine, now. Freakin' awesome! (imagine a praying smilie >>here<<).

Apparently the 'daemonize' mode in the ufo2000 server does not work correctly

Good to know, so I'll continue not using that option. 

and the database link is just lost after forking.

I don't exactly follow... The games-list at ufo2000.net:2000 seems to be working quite well.

I'm sorry for the troubles.

Don't worry! I'm just really happy, to see, that there is still life in the project. I thought it was lost to »don't care any more«, but I'm glad to be proven wrong.

VPS hosting has become relatively cheap nowadays (5$ per month at https://www.digitalocean.com), so I had restarted ufo2000.net

So you are paying the bill? If you ever need some support, you know, where to find me. (Yes, I'm serious!)

after Hobbes tried to contact me in the IRC (even though I was away from my computer at that moment).

I had a hard time contacting you. Are you still looking into ufo2000-forums? It still says »Last Active Dec 31 2012 02:11 AM« about you there... I guess, you were not informed about the arrival of PMs from me by the forum.

so here I am.

Just great! I wasn't sure, if you were still interested in the project, judging from your absence in the relevant forums.

Regarding setting up ufo2000 backup servers, feel free to do this and please add the links to the ufo2000 server info page at the ufopaedia wiki.

As you probably are the most experienced ufo2000 server operator, did you have any incidents of hacking, yet? It is one thing to put up a server, but it's a different matter, to keep it running without any troubles. From my perspective, that's still a little vague prospect, to be responsible for a server running over a longer period of time out there, myself.

I will also try to provide the necessary server setup instructions there.

I'm especially interested in the way, how you create that server-stats-page. As you possibly have seen, I did a rather crude one of my own. But yours show far more extensive information. I'd love to see, who you do that. I assume, you create it with some kind of cron-job, not via live queries of the ufo2000.db-file?

Right now it looks like the ufopaedia is the best way to accumulate all the necessary ufo2000 information

Agreed!

and does not need any special permissions to start contributing,

I never took it that way. That's why I had this impulse, to get things kicking again, by getting the people a place to play, again. But for the moment, I feel this to be unnecessary. Things rock again! Thanks for the work.

hence things can keep rolling regardless of my availability.

I hope, you won't take this the wrong way: That's good news. As for my believes of you being gone from the ufo2000 project, I feared, the sourceforge website couldn't be accessed again, for possible changes. And that would be disastrous.

Moreover, I'm seriously considering to change the https://ufo2000.sourceforge.net and https://ufo2000.net web sites to just redirect to https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=UFO2000

A good way to prevent that.

Since I obviously don't have time to properly take care of the ufo2000 project myself,

Sorry to hear that, but I know how that feels. Live is taking its toll usually in such fields...

fixing bugs

Speaking of which: Can you tell me, why I get the following error message on ubuntu 14.04 x64?

Code: [Select]

./init-scripts/main.lua:53: attempt to index local `fh' (a nil value)
stack traceback:
./init-scripts/main.lua:53: in main chunk

[Hobbes]

Moreover, I'm seriously considering to change the https://ufo2000.sourceforge.net and https://ufo2000.net web sites to just redirect to https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=UFO2000

The volunteers are encouraged to start moving the useful and/or still relevant content to the wiki, so that this transition can happen smoothly. Since I obviously don't have time to properly take care of the ufo2000 project myself, I'm in favour of the decentralized "self service" approach. The game code can be also forked to various github repositories (or other free hosting services) and people can work on adding features or fixing bugs (if they wish to do so) with or without my approval. Not that my approval was in fact ever needed

I can also post a news article on the UFOPaedia's main page announcing the news and the new servers.

But I'd also make a suggestion: keep the new weapons, units and maps that were designed for UFO2000 (great stuff - I've actually reused a lot of that material for OpenXCom) but set the defaults on the distributable back to the originals. I know the argument was to prevent copyright issues but I think it has become clear with Long War (for the new Enemy Unknown) and OpenXcom that Firaxis endorses such modding, since it even announces streams through their Twitter feed of Long Way playthroughs. And being an XCom multiplayer was to me the main reason for the success of the UFO2000 project.

[7Saturn]

But I'd also make a suggestion: keep the new weapons, units and maps that were designed for UFO2000 (great stuff - I've actually reused a lot of that material for OpenXCom) but set the defaults on the distributable back to the originals. [...] And being an XCom multiplayer was to me the main reason for the success of the UFO2000 project.

I agree with that. UFO2000 and Openxcom are pretty much the prefect symbiosis (at least in my opinion). If you got tired of knowing the AI inside out, you can go on to ufo2000, getting your **** kicked by human players. That works best, if you get a similiar look and feel in both games. One still can have a fallback-design, in case he has no original X-COM files. But that also applies to the behaviour of the game. Throwing a grenade inside a room, having it falling before your own feet without any warning or the inability of the engine, to plot a path through doors isn't very helpful for feeling home. It's not the biggest issue. After all, if one knows about that short comings, he can play accordingly. But for new ufo2000 players, coming from openxcom or the original, that's quite a cultural shock. Possibly the algorithms of openxcom could help out with that. After all, the game mechanic is exactly the same.

[serge]

So you are paying the bill? If you ever need some support, you know, where to find me. (Yes, I'm serious!)

Yes, but it it not very expensive.

As you probably are the most experienced ufo2000 server operator, did you have any incidents of hacking, yet? It is one thing to put up a server, but it's a different matter, to keep it running without any troubles. From my perspective, that's still a little vague prospect, to be responsible for a server running over a longer period of time out there, myself.

I'm not aware of any incidents involving hacking. And ufo2000 is probably not a very attractive target for anyone to bother There was a security audit of the server code earlier, which revealed some problems - https://securitytracker.com/id?1016503 These problems are now fixed, and I don't think that there were any significant changes introduced to the ufo2000 server code after that.

I was not very happy about the mantis bugtracker security history though. This is a more likely target for the hackers.

As for running the server in general, it is always a good idea not to use your home computer or any other system with important information. That's why I'm using a VPS server. The worst thing that can happen is that the hackers may get access to user passwords (and the passwords are unfortunately stored with only a rather rudimentary hashing) or turn the server into a spam sending machine. Other than this, they can't really do more damage.

I'm especially interested in the way, how you create that server-stats-page.  As you possibly have seen, I did a rather crude one of my own. But yours show far more extensive information. I'd love to see, who you do that.

There is a lua script to generate that page: https://github.com/ufo2000/ufo2000/blob/master/script/db2htmlreport.lua
It uses a customized lua interpreter, which is built as part of ufo2000 when you run "make tools".

I assume, you create it with some kind of cron-job, not via live queries of the ufo2000.db-file?

Yes, it used to be a once per hour cron job. But now it just does live queries because there are too few users

Can you tell me, why I get the following error message on ubuntu 14.04 x64?

Code: [Select]

./init-scripts/main.lua:53: attempt to index local `fh' (a nil value)
stack traceback:
./init-scripts/main.lua:53: in main chunk

Apparently it can't create the "init-scripts.log" file, maybe because it does not have permissions to do this. Can you provide more details about how you are compiling it and running?

[Jstank]

Ill fiddle around with it and If anyone wants and if i can get it working Id like to do a one match LP of it on my channel. That could do it some good! I have a TS we can use for commentary!

[7Saturn]

There was a security audit of the server code earlier, which revealed some problems - https://securitytracker.com/id?1016503 These problems are now fixed, and I don't think that there were any significant changes introduced to the ufo2000 server code after that.

OK, so no problem there.

As for running the server in general, it is always a good idea not to use your home computer or any other system with important information. That's why I'm using a VPS server.

Well, I'm running it on a dedicated machine, just for gameing-servers and such. Nothing important there, except for the time I put in there.

The worst thing that can happen is that the hackers may get access to user passwords (and the passwords are unfortunately stored with only a rather rudimentary hashing)

A MD5-hash, iIrc.

Can you provide more details about how you are compiling it and running?

See you PMs for that.

Id like to do a one match LP of it on my channel. That could do it some good! I have a TS we can use for commentary!

I also would like to suggest some kind of ufo2000-match-day. E. g. »Ever wanted a real opponent? Get it at the UFO2000-Server. Match-Day on $Date!«

[serge]

I can also post a news article on the UFOPaedia's main page announcing the news and the new servers.

Thanks.

But I'd also make a suggestion: keep the new weapons, units and maps that were designed for UFO2000 (great stuff - I've actually reused a lot of that material for OpenXCom) but set the defaults on the distributable back to the originals.

This sounds reasonable.

I know the argument was to prevent copyright issues but I think it has become clear with Long War (for the new Enemy Unknown) and OpenXcom that Firaxis endorses such modding, since it even announces streams through their Twitter feed of Long Way playthroughs. And being an XCom multiplayer was to me the main reason for the success of the UFO2000 project.

Interesting. Do they also announce/endorse mods for the old X-COM?

[Hobbes]

Interesting. Do they also announce/endorse mods for the old X-COM?

They have recently added a Modding subsection to the official XCOM forums, due to the success of Long War. I have asked there if we could also advertise OpenXCom mods and they haven't given any answer but I will post a thread there about my Terrain Pack for OXC soon. Although the XCom subreddit is a lot more popular than the official forums at the moment.

OpenXcom hasn't yet broken through the wider XCom community like the Long War mod (for EU2012) did. It was also an unlucky coincidence that OpenXCom 1.0 was released when Long War really started to get noticed by players. 

[Jstank]

Sweet I got it working. If anyone wants to play me I'm on the server!

I officially challenge Meridian to a duel!

[Hobbes]

Sweet I got it working. If anyone wants to play me I'm on the server!

Which server are you at? I'm currently at ufo2000.net:2000

[7Saturn]

Regarding that Question: I recommend not using mine, as long as the official one is working. Tomorrow, I think, I'll turn off my home server, as it isn't really needed atm. Deviding into various places only decreases chance to find other players. So that'd be counter productive. However, if the official may stop working, just pm me, and I'll see what I can do. (And then don't forget to tell serge, too, so that he has a chance of fixing the problem...)