Game Refresh - New Ideas - Combine Servers - Hacking

Game Refresh:
The overall Game needs more content. I think we all agree on that. The developers or two guys working on this clearly need more people. Have a great idea but can't keep up, to say the least. Stop hackers, finish adding content, and optimize for 100 player server. Boom the game would take off again.

I would like to discuss some things with the community. I will link this on reddit to try and get some others into this discussion as well.

• Combining Servers: I say let's get together and stop hosting 250 servers when steam charts tell us on average we only see 300 players in the last thirty days as of 3/22/2018. This means tons of very low populated servers. Why can't we combine those great ideas into one main server? I realize there are servers that want PVP and some who want Roleplay. I bet there is a way to balance both of those worlds so that we can have one populated server.
• Issue - Power, if fewer servers means more chiefs, several people who want the power / control, that's the real issue right? So! That is why we have FTP hosting, virtual servers, and permissions.cfg in server files for right? Spread the power to admins, moderators, and devs who need it. I mean if we aren't abusing admin power then no reason to have our own server right? Lets compromise on this to have more populated servers.
• Why - So we can finally experience the game it was made to be experienced. Who wants to solo a trebuchet while fighting off two other people in a war of a grand total of three people? Why not have wars with 20-30 people in them?

• New Ideas: Collaboration! We have several talented Developer and modders here who love to do what they do best. Let's combine efforts to solve some of these most wanted requests and some new ones. Several severs have great ideas. Some are found on these forums. Magical abilities, flaming arrows, weapons with poison, adding more content to the game, fixing broken things like not enough differences between iron and steel weapons, the iron halberd prime example, iron armor vs steel armor attributes no enough differences, etc. If we dive into the code there is already flame trails that can be easily manipulated from the assembly.dll files and modified to fit another area. If we collaborate in some forum and work together we can get more done in less time and have some really cool mods. For example, people have been asking about explosive kegs, weapons that have magical properties such as flaming arrows, staffs with magical powers, and more. D-Kay has a video where he has found the explosive event but needs the placed piece of the code and he can finish a mod to add kegs back in the game. Sure he needs to be certain items back in the loot table and make the keg craftable and populated on the station but still so close to success. Video can be seen here below at vimeo.

• Hacking: I have no idea how to stop this or even how its caused but can we not mod something to catch these guys and thus stop the hackers from duping, flying, spawning in things for themselves, etc?

I hope to hear from server owners, developers, modders, and players on this thread.

Vimeo Video
Wizards - Reign of Kings from D-Kay666 on Vimeo

Obviously, we wouldn't want a magical staff that can blow up the world in a few clicks but the concept of a magical staff with limited use harder to craft and limited effects such as freeze ability or harm like a bow does but with the use of projectile code using particle effects instead of an actual arrow.

Anyways Just trying to bring a great game back up.

I'll be the first one, I'm willing to shut down my server and help populate another if it means a more populated server. I could even host one for another owner and save them some money. Lets do this! I have a dedicated box that can host servers for free. 32 gigs, AMD9590 CPU, and Fiber internet. We could even setup a virtual server to give access to others.

 

I agree on the excessive amount of low populated servers. I think most of the servers are players that like the power to do what ever they want. Most don't know how to manage that power and abuse it. So combining all these server would be a hard thing to convince these people to do. I know i couldn't trust but a very select few with ftp access to my server. So easy to mess things up. Dragon's Den server has a lot of custom plugins being used. In a way gives the game some new content. Animal husbandry, wizard staff like the one in the video but not as op so it's usable by players, no offline raiding, redone bounty hunter plugin and a working warp system. Kegs that are working too but not being used unless it's the last few days before a wipe so players can blow the crap out of everything. They are just too op as they are now. We have a good NA population. There is no other game out there like ROK. It's really too bad they didn't optimize it better as the lag when 3o players are online is unplayable.

 

While I agree so much can be messed up with giving access to FTP however that is why you limit it to a virtual server or there is another way but can't remember at the moment. And make an automatic bat file to backup the entire server every 30 minutes and once a day. This way if the 30 minute one is bad the 24 hours one is still good and you only have a minor rollback after someone corrupts your operation if they do. It would require a relationship of trust to be built that people are capable of doing that I believe. I am willing to trust with certain parameters in place.

What is animal husbandry? Why would bounty need to be redone? I didn't know warp wasn't working.

It would be nice to have that staff mod and working keg public. Only if tweakable to not be op like you said. Currently, the keg and fuse isn't craftable even after you turn it to True. It's not listed on any of the stations. You can add the tears of the gods back to the server drop tables but I can't figure out how to configure it back into the station yet.

I agree the game needs more content. I'm working on adding more content by adding RPG/Classes/Abilities/Quests. Some of it is through modding and some through permissions file. Most of it will work on its own but only after an admin adds a player to the right permission group class. There is a progression through each class using a combination of quests and levels through the levels mod.

Would you consider talking about combining servers and or ideas? I've taken in-game items and changed them to be magical. I'm just learning to mod and scratching the surface.

I've done so many changes to the server files and others mods that it would take awhile to explain and rationalize as to why. If I could mod another map and call it a DLC that's how much modding and changing I've done. Would love to chat send me a discord link or I can send mine.

Noone else willing to just give this a chance? I'm down I have a few followers and several friends who place rok still.

 

im sure we could figure out something but would be very tricky. Come chat with me here. Discord

 

This would be a great idea, however the server must be run by NON ABUSIVE ADMINS.
The most popular server right now is Serenity RP and it is full of abuse by the owner Allan.
This kid uses pwn to one shot people with arrows, uses godmode in PvP (there's actually of video of this on youtube) and uses his power to get rid of enemy guild.

Me and my friends went on that stormwall server, got my 11 PvPer friends in our guild. Next day we come on our base is gone even thought there's no offline sieging. No way to get in by not sieging, called for admin to come help, Allan shows up and admits he helped them get into our base and banned me because I was shouting abuse at him for abusing his powers.
Since then their player base has dropped since our guild was half their players :')

Also theres no hacking, only a duping glitch which I know, and can tell whoever the admins are what to look for in the logs to catch them (they're very easy to catch) and also I'd be willing to shut down my PvP Duel server if there's a way to get PvP active in this new server. Got 50+ active PvPers who play my server regulary who would join if theres some kind of arena or some shit.

It'd have to be a warp to a arena and some way to get gear to practice dueling, If you can somehow combine this with a regular RP server I'd get me and all my boys on

Also the Levels plugin that increases player damage is just dumb. IF that's on the new server you can bet no pvpers would ever join.

 

Just noticed my discord link didn't work. Maybe its not allowed to be posted here? Add me on steam . Look for Londor with the same avatar as the one here. Id like to chat it up with you guys and see what we can do.

 

Billingn06, I agree non abusive. I'm throwing benefit of the doubt of here because I wasn't there but keep in mind admins have to deal with a lot and they sometimes forget to turn things off like /godmode or /hulk or in this case /pwn. I'm not saying he did or didn't because I don't know the guy or the server. I've joined it twice and both times seems like they have rules but no admins on to enforce them so it's filled with trolls.

Lego, Yes I will try that tonight. Also, I joined Dragons Den a few times now and a few nights ago when it was filled with people and the lag was just unplayable, unfortunately. This may be due to high pop or very large buildings. I have fiber internet and over 200+ fps normally. So it's not a computer or internet issue.

Back on topic, nothing can prevent admins from abusing, unfortunately. As far as preventing duping and hacking, this is done by reviewing statistics, blocks placed, using mods like loggers, and player information, which makes logs and tracks when people use commands that insertion files create (or so I believe). I don't have an insertion .exe file to test the theory though.

Billingn06, As far as the levels mod being dumb. I would ask what makes it dumb? Because people can add damage to pvp. But you can counter that by adding more defense and level yourself. I've taken it a step further by modding the armor stats and speed penalties. Making steel more defensible but slower and stronger against certain attack damage bash but weaker against projectiles (which I should probably switch around to be more realistic but ya). Making iron more of the average defense but reasonably armored than leather and 2nd slowest moving speed but not slow like steel. Leather has no penalty and slightly more armor.
If you mean you like to use the iron halberd instead of the steel because it's cheaper to make, has broken swing speed / block speed as well, and can two taps, well then that playstyle is the very reason I changed the armor stats, speed penalty, and added levels. So that people who want to RP and PVP can coexist. I've seen players who can't two tap heashots kill those who can land the two tap headshots simply because of the more armor it takes more time, stamina, and swings to kill players. This forces the two tappers to learn how to fight all over again. However, I've noticed the elite fighters who know how to block, dodge, headshot and regain stamina while fighting still have no problems. It's just the two tappers who have problems learning to adapt.

Honestly, I think its more fun to change most of the mechanics of the game since it lacks content and create new area to learn things all over again.

As for the arena with gear provided, this can be done easily however if everyone who loves PVP is in the arena then who is going to be left to RP with? This is why most admins host arena events instead of having a free for all always available. If people want to just fight and pvp with the same style of combat system they can just go play Chivalry, unfortunately. Nothing is keeping them entertained.

I think RP can have a lot of fighting its just not many RPers know how to fight and don't want to lose their stuff. If there was a mod that would allow the average person to only drop something random instead of all their loot I think people would be more apt to learn how to PVP and thus more fighting would occur as well. Robbery at night would be more fun as well.

As for you having 50 people I don't see 50 people on most days where yall at then? Just saying. If you think a server with nothing but pvp would be so much more fun why haven't you created a server just for pvp with this idea?

Would love to hear more from other devs, modders, player, admins please on the topic. Thanks.


Lego talk to you tonight hopefully. I'm eastern by the way not sure what time zone your in. I normally get on around 8pm est.

 

sounds good. i'll be around.. billingn06 what do you look for in the logs for the dupers?

 

I’ve been running servers for the sole purpose of pvp for the past 1 and a half years from Rockwood to duels pvp, over that time I’ve met and played with hundreds of pvpers all of which are on my steam friends list. Only about 50 if them still actively play and they only play my server for half an hour to hour each day at different times, why?
1. admin abuse
2. There’s no challenge for them on rp servers because Rpers are terrible at Pvp.
3. Admins ban them for ‘hacking’ when they’re simply just good at pvp and 2 tapping people

And to answer why the levels system is stupid, because if you’re good at the game and join the server, get a stone sword and try to kill a steel guy, normally it’s 6 headshot kill. You get 6 headshots and wonder why the kid isn’t dead. You hit him some more times in the head.. still not dead. And then he 1 taps you because he’s level 1000. Also admins can just change of levels of their mates to make them better.

 

A few things, I'm sorry but I've never seen anyone level 1000 that wasn't an admin or given by admin. Admin abuse has nothing to do with Level mod. If your point is that someone can one tap you legitimately with levels mod then let's talk about that.

Head health is 15, If you are good enough too two taps I bet you're not letting someone overhand you in the head which could one tap but let's assume that's not the case here. So they attack using a swing, since its the next best damage dealer. Depending on the weapons used, that's around 12 damage lets say from a greatsword. So in order to get a one tap a person would need at the very least a +3 to go from 12 to 15 damage but there is a helm to account for too. The armor of the helm, steel helmet, another 4 armor. So in order to one tap with a greatsword a person would need +7 on the level mod pvp damage added by levels. If you dive into the levels mod and look at the fine details it's 0.1 per level that you can add to player damage. This means for every 10 levels they get +1 damage. Unless they are level 70 then they are not going to one tap you. So let's talk about how long it takes to level.

You earn between 10-25 exp per kill. You need for Level 70 a total experience of ... get this.... 148,000 roughly. So lets be generous and say you get 20 exp per kill, then you need to kill 7400 things....

Like most RPG's its a balance and risk modifying your stats all one way and not balancing them out. If you go all damage you are weak against attacks and must rely on first strikes and offensive tactics to win otherwise you are a sitting duck. If you go all defense then you can tank the hell out of some damage but you can do anything return.

But again this can be countered if you put some points yourself in defense and they would need an even higher level to one tap.

All of that is the default levels mod. So its by far not OP or broken at all. Its simply abused you are complaining about abuse not the mod. The modder should turn off the give xp command and reinstate the mod thus eliminating the ability to abuse so easily.

On your comment about RPers can't fight, but don't you think they could with proper training and practice? I say yes but most people don't want to train but I say they should and why not? Doesn't the trainer seem like the person in power if they train everyone else? Again I say if not 100% of a persons loot was dropped then RPers would fight more and thus become better as a by-product.

Finally, I have to say what is a two tapper complaining about one tapper for LOL .

 

Have a few fixes on my server for the to tap and a better way of using the level system to keep it from being to OP.

 

I mean if it takes a long time to level and you can counter player damage by player defense then what is OP? Only thing I can think of is new players versus established players. Lv 1 vs Lv 35 or something.

Again you can keep the level mod and disable the ability to level player damage or defense while keeping the rest of the stat points for the other stats like cube damage, siege damage, beast damage, beast defense.

Side note, Levels mod could add particle colors to players held weapon or arrow shot if enough levels / points where put into a created stat in the table.
- add a required level to craft certain items like higher levels to craft iron and steel items.
- tie in the race system and do a class system but certain classes are able to use items better than other classes.
-a) Example - Like a knight can use steel efficiently with more armor but slower and a rogue can weld a dagger with accuracy but a knight swings to fast and is less accurate.

 

I change the defaults from whatever they were to .05 more damage. So it actually takes 20 levels before you get one more point of damage or defense depending on where you put it. It's also at a maximum of a hundred levels and it takes quite a while to level up . Also I changed the stats of armor and masks to give more head protection to prevent the two taps.

 

Ditto exactly. I did change the .05 at one point but then I changed the cap to 100 as well so i left the .1 for now but probably a better idea to adjust it to .05 for sure. Ya I modified steel to be way more defensive but slower.

Alright anyone else going to chime in?

 

Seems to work out setup like this to keep the levels system from being too op. i have reworked all my armour for next wipe to make more sense. Combination of speed and defence.

 

Ruby, D-Kay, Wulf, Mughisi, anyone else? Common people at least share your thoughts if you disagree.

 

optimization is the biggest issue. but the problem lies much deeper than you think. the servers that are provided from server host, have poor hardware and you're getting bottlenecked by the server provider because the computer your server is on, isnt the only server that computer is going to be running. there are ways around this, but theyre much more expensive. The game has a memory leak and after you server runs for a while it cant keep up with itself. but if you have a high quality server ran on tier speeds, from providers i dont wish to share here. you can run you server virutally endless without restarts, with 0 lag. Buildings will load instantly, unless you have really bad hardware. virtually every ROK server host is terrible. and thats why the game is laggy. it has a small portion to do with the games memory leak, but its really just poor servers.

 

I can't speak for paid server hosts because I've never used them yet because I have my own dedicated box, 32 gigs ram, 250 down and up fiber internet, AMD9590 CPU, No lag unless I let the buildings go out of control like 50 or more haha. I haven't let that happen in a long time though.

 

No the game is laggy because they kept adding shit and textures without optimising it. The old versions of Reign of Kings Alpha 1-12 used to hold 100 people servers because it was on a lower unity engine. Thats when there was a player base of around 10,000. As soon as they added higher unity engine thats when the lag started.

I'm currently playing alpha 10 with a few friends . I managed to host a server although I can only host it from my desktop PC and it's pretty shit. There is literally no lag, even when we've built huge buildings.

If you don't beleive me I can give you the download link for alpha 10 and you can see for yourself. If you're gonna get a lag free server going then your best doing it on a earlier alpha. I currently have alpha 8, alpha 10 and alpha 13 download links. But my personal favorite is alpha 10 before they upgraded engine and had it perfect.

 

Although I like the idea of combining the community servers, it's simply not possible with all the admins of all servers that have different opinions on how things should be and some even being abusive. The performance of the game also simply does not allow for 300 players or even half of that on one server, no matter the specs of it.
If you're interested, I'm working on a plugin that does allow for connecting servers to each other by means of inventory transfer. It's still in alpha but the basics are there.

No idea how you want to go about stopping hackers/dupers as we simply cannot change the game's code and the abilities of plugins are very limited. Maybe an idea is to list all people who are known dupers/hackers and give them a general ban by means of plugins. This could be a feature of the plugin I mentioned above (shared banlist).

The wand has gone through some finetuning and improvements so it's more balanced now. I'm planning on having the plugin as a general wizardry plugin with configuration on the effects of each different attack animation per wand.

The levelsystem is as op or as weak as you make it. Over the years I have added many features and configurable options to make sure every server owner can finetune it to the needs of their server. I simply provide a somewhat balanced default configuration so you can try it out.

Why creating reworks of plugins that already work? To make them run better and add the ability to expand on them more easily. Every programmer gets better at writing efficient and fast code the more they program. This also means plugins should be updated with new code though most of the time stuff only gets added without actually many improvements to the structure. Taking the time to once in a while do a rework can really help.

I could even make a server management application to make it easier for server owners that host servers themselves have better control over everything though this ofc will take a while for me to make.