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Can I run pb on my server without requiring players to have it?


FrenchTart

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It's an odd/crazy question, I know but I'll explain my reasons :)

 

I run a 50ish person lan party event and one of the less serious tourneys we host is FEAR:Combat.

 

Last event we had to disable pb on our server as it was causing some players (and organisers) problems. I know for a fact that those players weren't cheating/whatever but sadly pb didn't want to play ball.

 

Recently I've been thinking of building a web interface to make admining all our servers a bit easier and more centralized (we have about 10-15 running 24/7 at our events) and the punkbuster web control panel seems a very simple and easy way of doing this. However, I don't want to go through the hassle of having to deal with half our attendees coming to me with technical difficulties due to pb not liking them.

 

So...any ideas?

 

Sorry if this has already been asked before or if it's inherently stupid. I've admin'd a lot of servers but not really used pb that much on any of them...

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The simple answer to this is no....if PB is enabled on the server the clients must also have theirs enabled. Sounds to me more like configuration problems instead of client having problems with PB.

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sounds more like a Punbuster configuration error :)

 

However, as a fellow lanparty organisation (my lan)

 

- Make sure the server's are updated with the latest Punkbuster files

- download the server and client manual updates from: http://evenbalance.com/index.php?page=dl-fear.php

- Create a Punkbuster files section on your lanparty's intranet website where players can download the correct files :)

- Make sure the ppl are updating the CORRECT folder. fear has it's PB client files in the USER directory c:\docs n settings\all users\shared docs\fear\pb

- doublecheck serversettings, and functioning before the tourney launches.. just pick 2 clans and allow them to do some warming up on the servers so u can check if all goes well :)

 

GL with your LAN :)

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Thanks for the help and definitive responses :)

 

Yeah. No doubt it's a pb conf error on my part. I guess I should really extend my knowledge... bah :P

 

Thanks for the tips - I'll consider whether or not the hassle of getting pb running on all our servers weighs well enough against the hassle of not having web cpanels and see how it goes.

 

Cheers :)

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on a 50 ppl lanparty i think it's possible to drop PB and just walk around the opponents and look on their screens.. but if it aint broken. dont fix it.

setup rules for players to make sure the have a legit version of fear or combat, patched and working correctly, so u can just point them to the rules that state that they are responsible for making their game work correctly :)

 

i've done admin for alot of games in the bestofbenelux finals (BeNeLux as in Belgium, Netherlands,Luxembourg) and mostly did it that way :)

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Yeah - that's what we do right now. Pb is overkill in a small/med lan and it's far easier to just keep an eye on people.

 

The reason I wanted to be able to use it was to give me better/easier rcon control and simplify the creation of web interfaces for most of the games we run. Hence asking whether or not I can have pb on the server without requiring the clients to be running it ;)

 

In terms of telling people to get it sorted themselves....That might work for larger lans but we can't afford to annoy our attendees too much or we'll rapidly lose people.

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- make a serveroptions file with the leaguesettings specified for the tourney

- setup voting for new maps (not for bans/kicks)

 

let all players join, if all are ready have one of the clanleaders vote for the map again, after maprestart match is live

 

there's also a tournament mod for fear, but it has some changed weaponstrengths asswell

 

mod can be downloaded here:

http://194.109.69.20/files/Downloads/FEAR/...Tournament-mod/

 

author's website:

http://mysite.fh-coburg.de/~haeublem/ft/index.html

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Thanks for the link - I'll check out the mod now.

 

We don't really have any problems with admin or organisation at the moment. I'm just looking to streamline everything if I can. Having a web interface for all the game servers built into our intranet at the lan would be quite neat - if also a little ott ;)

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