A question about multiplayer for steam

[NoPantsMcDance]

I was wondering if there were any plans for anyway to deal with griefers when the steam release happens. I love having a public server where anyone can just pop in and learn by other peoples designs and see what they've done and have a enjoyable time. Currently this community is amazing and I haven't had to deal with greifing all that often. Once the toxic sludge that is steam though floods in I'm not sure that i'll be able to manage it. Is there currently a plan to deploy some type of admin management system before the steam release? Ban system or whitelist would work.

[roy7]

I think you may need to just rely on password protection and track who you give the password to.

I did play on a public server once, thankfully with console turned off, where someone joined and pasted a console command to try and run a loop to destroy every item on the map.

[TheDude1972]

Sad Sad People(losers is a better word) who do that, sadly a sign of the times.

I just hope that MP works as good on steam as it does now (don't know about anyone else, but for us it's working with no probs).

[Zeblote]

I was wondering if there were any plans for anyway to deal with griefers when the steam release happens. I love having a public server where anyone can just pop in and learn by other peoples designs and see what they've done and have a enjoyable time. Currently this community is amazing and I haven't had to deal with greifing all that often. Once the toxic sludge that is steam though floods in I'm not sure that i'll be able to manage it. Is there currently a plan to deploy some type of admin management system before the steam release? Ban system or whitelist would work.

How do you expect bans or whitelist to work in a DRM free game with no authentication?

Probably the best that can be done at this point (only 2 weeks left to steam release) is password protection.

[Melfish]

Weren't the devs going for a multiplayer simmilar to something like Don't Starve Toghether?
Authentication can be done in the same way DS does it.

[Kalanndok]

Rust has an interesting concept actually (however I'm not talking from personal experience, just reiterating something a collegue told me).

You could have Area-Claim-Chests which disallow all manipulation in an area except for players that personally authenticated to the physical chest. Meaning you can build the chest, surround it with walls and anyone wanting to manipulate staff in your base needs to reach the chest first. Either by someone opening the path to it or by military force.

[NoPantsMcDance]

I'm not looking for a crazy system but a ip based whitelist would be better than me essentially doing the same thing using iptables and scripts. Ideally I would like to see some type of command management system so some players can use commands and the rest can't. Or allowing commands to be sent from the server console while logging chat giving me the ability to create a console management system. Aka you type "!kick player xxx" and it writes that chat to log the script parses the log looks for the "!" says ok this is a command proceeds to look if the user that typed this has access to use this command then if he does executes this command by sending that command to the console.

[ssilk]

Sounds like a "chat-bot-mod" that is able to hang itself via event into the console. But AFAIK there is currently no such modable event... (?)

And cause I wrinkled my eyebrows some short explanation: there is nothing like a "server" in Factorio - it's just the name of this special client, that is "server".
In other words: The commands needs to be executed on all clients. Not that this matters much for this case...

PS: I give you some commas: ,,,,,,,, use it for more readability

[NoPantsMcDance]

It's not really a mod as that would defeat the point. Also by console I'm referring to the screen factorio runs in on a server. As in if I run factorio on my linux server it then creates a screen that factorio just writes it's logs to. I would like to be able to interact with that screen and for example use it to send chat using the "server" player. Or be able to send commands like /c "do command here" and the command will trigger regardless if the flag --disallow-commands is used. I'm fairly certain it's impossible to do this though as the server is just considered a player. At the very least logging chat gives me the ability to do some very useful things.

Ps. If it's so unreadable how about you use those commas instead of being a smartass.

[Zeblote]

The commands needs to be executed on all clients.

Actually, it doesn't. These are server commands, not game commands. The server can disconnect or ban clients at will and this does not require sending it to anyone else.

[daniel34]

And cause I wrinkled my eyebrows some short explanation: there is nothing like a "server" in Factorio - it's just the name of this special client, that is "server".
In other words: The commands needs to be executed on all clients. Not that this matters much for this case...

There is a server model in Factorio:

Until now pretty much the only solution has been to use a virtual network like Hamachi or Evolve. There are some workarounds we could do (not passing the IP address as is, but instead trying to translate it), but somehow the simplest solution is to use the server S as a central point of communication here. That would mean that B will mark the message to be for A, however it will send it to S.

Clients only have one connection, which is to the server. They are not connected among themselves.
Also, for practical purposes the server acts as an authority. If the server is dropped from the game (restart or crash) the other clients in theory could continue playing, but they usually quit the game and try to reconnect to the server. In this regard the server is the only player/client that can ban other players. As all connections run through the server, if he IP-bans a client that client can't join the game anymore.

What NoPantsMcDance was proposing was this:
(1) a client enters a command like "!ban usertoban" into chat
(2) the server logs all chat messages to a file on disk (log or new file), this functionality can be limited to the headless server
(3) a script written by the user parses this text file and watches for !ban commands
(4) is such a command found (and the user who wrote it is in a whitelist/his ip is whitelisted) the usertoban is IP-blocked on OS level (firewall).
(5) Factorio will drop that client from the game

I think this solution would be just a workaround, I'd like the devs to implement such a feature directly into the game, as admin console or something like that.

[Zeblote]

What NoPantsMcDance was proposing was this:
(1) a client enters a command like "!ban usertoban" into chat
(2) the server logs all chat messages to a file on disk (log or new file), this functionality can be limited to the headless server
(3) a script written by the user parses this text file and watches for !ban commands
(4) is such a command found (and the user who wrote it is in a whitelist/his ip is whitelisted) the usertoban is IP-blocked on OS level (firewall).
(5) Factorio will drop that client from the game

No, he clearly asked for this:

(1) the host enters "!ban usertoban" in the server console
(2) the user is banned

[daniel34]

What NoPantsMcDance was proposing was this:
(1) a client enters a command like "!ban usertoban" into chat
(2) the server logs all chat messages to a file on disk (log or new file), this functionality can be limited to the headless server
(3) a script written by the user parses this text file and watches for !ban commands
(4) is such a command found (and the user who wrote it is in a whitelist/his ip is whitelisted) the usertoban is IP-blocked on OS level (firewall).
(5) Factorio will drop that client from the game

No, he clearly asked for this:

(1) the host enters "!ban usertoban" in the server console
(2) the user is banned

True, I somehow didn't read the first sentence correctly :

Ideally I would like to see some type of command management system so some players can use commands and the rest can't. Or allowing commands to be sent from the server console while logging chat giving me the ability to create a console management system. Aka you type "!kick player xxx" and it writes that chat to log the script parses the log looks for the "!" says ok this is a command proceeds to look if the user that typed this has access to use this command then if he does executes this command by sending that command to the console.

Which kinda makes more sense, as i've said in my last sentence.

[NoPantsMcDance]

And cause I wrinkled my eyebrows some short explanation: there is nothing like a "server" in Factorio - it's just the name of this special client, that is "server".
In other words: The commands needs to be executed on all clients. Not that this matters much for this case...

There is a server model in Factorio:

Until now pretty much the only solution has been to use a virtual network like Hamachi or Evolve. There are some workarounds we could do (not passing the IP address as is, but instead trying to translate it), but somehow the simplest solution is to use the server S as a central point of communication here. That would mean that B will mark the message to be for A, however it will send it to S.

Clients only have one connection, which is to the server. They are not connected among themselves.
Also, for practical purposes the server acts as an authority. If the server is dropped from the game (restart or crash) the other clients in theory could continue playing, but they usually quit the game and try to reconnect to the server. In this regard the server is the only player/client that can ban other players. As all connections run through the server, if he IP-bans a client that client can't join the game anymore.

What NoPantsMcDance was proposing was this:
(1) a client enters a command like "!ban usertoban" into chat
(2) the server logs all chat messages to a file on disk (log or new file), this functionality can be limited to the headless server
(3) a script written by the user parses this text file and watches for !ban commands
(4) is such a command found (and the user who wrote it is in a whitelist/his ip is whitelisted) the usertoban is IP-blocked on OS level (firewall).
(5) Factorio will drop that client from the game

I think this solution would be just a workaround, I'd like the devs to implement such a feature directly into the game, as admin console or something like that.

This is exactly what I meant thanks for more clearly saying it. I'm only looking for this system if the devs have proper user management as a very low priority. Otherwise I would much rather have any kick/ban system at a game level other than a system level.

At the very least what I'd like to see is chat logging so we can create a kick/ban system using ingame chat at the system level. This would be better than not having any administration abilities at all.

[Klonan]

It's not really a mod as that would defeat the point. Also by console I'm referring to the screen factorio runs in on a server. As in if I run factorio on my linux server it then creates a screen that factorio just writes it's logs to. I would like to be able to interact with that screen and for example use it to send chat using the "server" player. Or be able to send commands like /c "do command here" and the command will trigger regardless if the flag --disallow-commands is used. I'm fairly certain it's impossible to do this though as the server is just considered a player. At the very least logging chat gives me the ability to do some very useful things.

Ps. If it's so unreadable how about you use those commas instead of being a smartass.

It would be possible to write a mod (or script) that will show a window where commands can be entered in game, such that using the normal console won't allow commands, but any privileged user can enter a command into the scripted 'command text box' and the script will execute that command, irregardless of whether console commands are enabled.

[NoPantsMcDance]

It's not really a mod as that would defeat the point. Also by console I'm referring to the screen factorio runs in on a server. As in if I run factorio on my linux server it then creates a screen that factorio just writes it's logs to. I would like to be able to interact with that screen and for example use it to send chat using the "server" player. Or be able to send commands like /c "do command here" and the command will trigger regardless if the flag --disallow-commands is used. I'm fairly certain it's impossible to do this though as the server is just considered a player. At the very least logging chat gives me the ability to do some very useful things.

Ps. If it's so unreadable how about you use those commas instead of being a smartass.

It would be possible to write a mod (or script) that will show a window where commands can be entered in game, such that using the normal console won't allow commands, but any privileged user can enter a command into the scripted 'command text box' and the script will execute that command, irregardless of whether console commands are enabled.

I'm trying to avoid any game mods as then the players would also have to have that mod to play on the server. Is there a way to do that without having to have the player also have that mod to play on the server? Also any privileged user system would have to be ip based and not name based as any user would be able to just login using that name.

[Klonan]

It's not really a mod as that would defeat the point. Also by console I'm referring to the screen factorio runs in on a server. As in if I run factorio on my linux server it then creates a screen that factorio just writes it's logs to. I would like to be able to interact with that screen and for example use it to send chat using the "server" player. Or be able to send commands like /c "do command here" and the command will trigger regardless if the flag --disallow-commands is used. I'm fairly certain it's impossible to do this though as the server is just considered a player. At the very least logging chat gives me the ability to do some very useful things.

Ps. If it's so unreadable how about you use those commas instead of being a smartass.

It would be possible to write a mod (or script) that will show a window where commands can be entered in game, such that using the normal console won't allow commands, but any privileged user can enter a command into the scripted 'command text box' and the script will execute that command, irregardless of whether console commands are enabled.

I'm trying to avoid any game mods as then the players would also have to have that mod to play on the server. Is there a way to do that without having to have the player also have that mod to play on the server? Also any privileged user system would have to be ip based and not name based as any user would be able to just login using that name.

Yea there is no reason it would have to be implemented as a mod, it could be written as a scenario, which when saves will save the control script in the save game. Then it could be loaded in a vanilla game with no problem.

For verification, it would be possibe to require users to register to the server with a password when they join, (Like terraria) and to then log in with that password for that associated username.

[Zeblote]

For verification, it would be possibe to require users to register to the server with a password when they join, (Like terraria) and to then log in with that password for that associated username.

Will you have this done before the steam release?

[ssilk]

That was promised with 0.13.

[Zeblote]

That was promised with 0.13.

Right, but steam is before 0.13 and password protection seems like a really small (yet important) feature.