HEH ;) Hi DarkMind, thx for the kind words
Get this... already have a friend of mine (reg from Hardfought, name is Burzum) working on a reservation system for the Hardfought CS: Source match server that is much like what we had for original CS (PUPPY was the one who did the backend for our original system). He's got the frontend template almost done and will start in on the backend soon. I'll finish up the frontend once the fundamentals are done. The past reservation system was an .asp frontend that tied in with a VB backend, with all data stored in a *gag* msaccess dbase. The new one we're working on is still .asp, but will use MySQL for the dbase and C# as the backend. Would prefer .php for the frontend but Burzum is the man and it's what he knows best. Hey, if it works, it works, I aint too picky ;)
Bear in mind folks, I am not a coder by any means... I can tinker with existing scripts and such, and seem to have a knack for ideas, but that's the extent of my ability in this area.
This is how it worked and will work currently - players would access a calendar on my website. They'd pick a date, and the fields they had to fill out to reserve the match server were date/time, duration of reservation, username/password, valid email address, reason for reservation and desired join password. Once a reservation was made, that data was stored in the dbase and showed on the calendar frontend - it was impossible for reservations to accidentally overlap, plus we had a limit on how long you could reserve (3 hrs) and you couldnt make a reservation for a date/time already passed. At the time of a teams reservation, the VB backend would send a cmd to the server changing the join password to whatever was selected by the person making that reservation. Towards the end of the reservation, that same backend would send a warning (via adminmod) stating the reservation was almost up, and then at the very end would change the join password back to default until the next reservation came around. Only admins knew the default join password.
This system worked pretty well for the most part, with admins rarely having to spend time making sure reservations were made successfully.
Some things we're adding this time around:
- email validation
- reminder via email that reservation is about to start
- system will remember users, so you'd actually register with the reservation system (would love to intergrate this with my phpBB msgboard)
- backend will kick all users from server if they exceed their reservation after X amount of minutes w/ warning of such (this was when admins had to get 'hands-on' the most in the past)
- menu for reservation maker to chose from for pre-defined settings that the backend can send to the match server at time of reservation (map, time/round/frag limits, FF on/off, etc)
- allow person making reservation to specify an rcon password for the duration of their reservation, which will reset to default after reservation expires (I'm sure a better solution will be available with sourcemod regarding admin levels)
Now... if something even more robust could be made from sourcemod, like a plugin of some type, that would be great, would love to see that happen. At the very least, the backend should already be able via rcon to send a sourcemod command to change things like ff on/off, round time, time limits, map changes, and turn on/off various plugins.
Anyways... that's the template we had and the plans for what we're working on now. Hope this helps everybody and am looking forward to any ideas/suggestions/feedback to this.
- K2
http://www.hardfought.org
). He created a web-site template that provided everything necessary to offer this in time-blocks. In fact, as the leader of Project X clan (-pX-), we used his server frequently for OGL (well before the bastardization of leagues like CAL).
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