All ACE2 Server admins please read....

[l mandrake 9]

Could we please agree a naming standard for any server running the ACE2 mod. It is too confusing always joining a server which is running a different version of ACE2 to you - version mismatch resualts in a lot of wasted time!

My suggestion:

If you are always updating your server with the latest ACE2 beta, include 'ACE2++' into your server name.

If you only use the most recent stable release, include 'ACE2-S'

I think we really need some kind of standard here so players dont have to continually join, load mission, quit, repeat over and over till they find a server they can play on...

What do you guys think?

[sickboy 13]

Whatever you guys decide on, please let us know so we can update the docu :)

http://ace.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Running_an_ACE_server

Signatures could also make it obvious, e.g: http://updater.dev-heaven.net/queryservers/show/6049

And as seen, these can be looked up at the portal site, updater suite, or any other gamespy-enabled tool, on top of being kicked on-join instead of sometime in the mission.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Sickboy

[Evil_Echo 11]

Good idea Mandrake5!

Something short and sweet is needed, especially since GameSpy will clip long titles. Which sometimes leads the naive and the frustrated to just jump in to random servers and hope.

[jw custom 56]

Personally i haven't had much problems with updated ace / stable ace servers. Mostly when i get the mismatch error it's on a server that runs the updated version but haven't updated server yet due to time zone differences, lack of time or something else.

So now i often wait updating my ACE until i have been checking out the usual servers i play on to see what their status is.

[PogMoThoin 10]

+1 good idea,

I usually change the name of the server to show the version number, but as has already been stated it gets clipped

[terox 316]

Zeus will comply, ++ no problems although "S" for stable and "b+" or simply "b" for beta is more self intuitive

God knows how you are going to get the "average player" to bother either reading or deciphering the standard though

Edited June 12, 2010 by Terox

[galzohar 31]

Well, it will at least let people who know what the standard is what server they're joining, which is better than what we have now. Currently, unless BIS does something about it, there is no real way to inform players about the existence of different versions or even the existence of addons through the game anyway.

Instead of "S" might as well just type down the actual version number.

[Lonestar 11]

Here is what we can read on http://ace.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Running_an_ACE_server in the Recommendations section.

Add version information to your Servername

Add the ACE version to your servername, example:

MyServername @ACE Stable or MyServername @ACE Dev

This is the standard naming we use, as recommended by the official documentation.

If you shorten the names (b and s) the "average player" is never going to understand. I think it's already hard enough, no need to add another hurdle.

Instead of "S" might as well just type down the actual version number.

I think it's not a good idea because it might be confused with ongoing development version (e.g. 1.2 stable and 1.2 RC before stable version was released)

Edited June 13, 2010 by Lonestar

[l mandrake 9]

'ACE Stable' and 'ACE Dev' are fine, except they are quite long and risk clipping with longer server names.

Zeus will comply, ++ no problems although "S" for stable and "b+" or simply "b" for beta is more self intuitive

God knows how you are going to get the "average player" to bother either reading or deciphering the standard though

Agree these are more intuitive. How about ACE2-S for stable and ACE2-b for beta?

[Defunkt 431]

ACEb366

ACEv1.2

A larger number of people are going to know what b/v represent before a number than are going to guess what "S" might mean and why wouldn't you include the version?

[l mandrake 9]

no reason, except I cant be bothered to keep changing the server name ;)

but if others agree this is best, I am behind it. :)

---------- Post added at 10:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:02 AM ----------

also, ACEv1.2S would be better, so its clearly stable not beta

[CarlGustaffa 4]

S and B for me.

[Defunkt 431]

Very easy to do with a batch file (I have batch files for everything)...

copy /y "C:\Games\Armed Assault 2\@ACE\.version.txt" "D:\Document\ArmA2\Server\cfg_version.txt"
start /b /wait "Replacement" "D:\Document\ArmA2\Updates\sfk.exe" replace -yes "D:\Document\ArmA2\Server\cfg_version.txt" -binary /0D0A//
copy /y /b "D:\Document\ArmA2\Server\cfg_header.txt" + "D:\Document\ArmA2\Server\cfg_version.txt" + "D:\Document\ArmA2\Server\cfg_private.txt" "D:\Document\ArmA2\Server\private.cfg"

...(sfk.exe is Swiss File Knife) but otherwise suggest ACEb3xx for those servers that don't want to.

[demon cleaner 1]

I'm with CarlGustaffa (S / B)

The version information could be added as an option in case someone decides running specific file versions for some reason.

[terox 316]

I dont think those who run beta dev servers are going to keep editing their configs to update the new beta version. Anything that reduces backend work is always welcome

so from what we have already and a few options I thought might be better

we could have

It seems we can all agree on

ACE2-s : Stable

any other tag could then define an ongoing beta deverlopment from the latest stable release

we could have any of the following ideas

1) ACE2-b

2) ACE2-d

3) ACE2-dev

Having thought about this, I dont think a "+" would be an ideal tag

for example ACE2 + OurAddonPack I am sure would be used somewhere by someone

So the entire tag system could then be appended with "+@" meaning plus additional addons not within the scope of ACE2

Edited June 13, 2010 by Terox

[l mandrake 9]

sounds good to me Terox :)

changing my server name now....

[galzohar 31]

ACEb366

ACEv1.2

A larger number of people are going to know what b/v represent before a number than are going to guess what "S" might mean and why wouldn't you include the version?

This sounds good for me from the user sides of things, but then again makes it slightly harder for admins.

[terox 316]

sounds good to me Terox :)

changing my server name now....

Lol ok which one then 1,2,3?

and should we adopt the +@

As you took the lead on this initiative, i would follow your decision.

It also needs a lot more admins to get in on this for it to be of any use

Edited June 13, 2010 by Terox

[nobrainer 0]

I think I would prefer ACEv1.2 and ACE-beta.

Since somebody might still use Stable, but the old stable. But if it says beta or b or dev, it might always be the latest one. I don't use beta or dev on my servers, only stable. But when new or old people join, then they might get a hint of what version that is on the server.

If the server are using some kind of dev og beta and always are updating, the server admins might not want to change the versions all the time?

Thats just my thoughts.

[l mandrake 9]

Consensus seems to be ACE-S and ACE-B, but I guess those are just the minimum, if admins want to add extra build info thats of course fine!

They key thing is that all Ace2 servers display some info about what version they're running in the server name.

[whisper 0]

I'd vote ACEv1.2 & ACE-beta, though the current ACE Stable and ACE beta works for us currently

ACE-S is non-intuitive

[killswitch 19]

I'd vote ACEv1.2 & ACE-beta, though the current ACE Stable and ACE beta works for us currently

ACE-S is non-intuitive

What whisper said. (I do understand the rationale for the shorter -s and -b variants though, seeing as how there's not too much space in the in-game game browser for the server name field)

[CarlGustaffa 4]

We go with ACEb368 for the time being. If it turns out to be too hard for us to remember to change every time ACE is updated, we will change to ACEb instead. Also, especially now in the summer, there might be occasions where drinking beer is more important than updating ACE :p

Will comply to whatever becomes voted standard eventually.

Edited June 14, 2010 by CarlGustaffa

[Evil_Echo 11]

DRTB runs a private dedi, but will likely go with the -S proposal.

[demon cleaner 1]

I really like the S/B/D idea.

The version information could be an optional part after the trailing slash in case the server admin wishes to specify the exact version for some reason (like not always running the latest beta/dev version).

ACE2-S/1.2 or ACE2-B/352 seems quite reasonable to me.

Another question would be where to put the ACE information ? Personal preference for me would be BEFORE the server name as in "[ACE2-S/1.2] MySuperCoolServer". This way it's easy to see which ACE version the server is requiring. I know there's probably quite some people unhappy with putting the name of a mod before their server name, however this isn't about getting the word out about a particular server. This is about ease of use.

Unfortunately this doesn't solve the issue of servers running additional mods.

Ideas anyone ? ...

Edited June 14, 2010 by Demon Cleaner