In Manual Introduction you learned what a game server is, and in Manual Getting Started you were given a guided tour of getting a game server up and running in GameCreate. In this chapter, we will explore exactly what servers are and how they can be manipulated within GameCreate.
As you may have read, along with your regular game servers (which we usually called permanent servers) GameCreate has a unique feature called temporary servers. While permanent and temporary servers have much in common, the interfaces used to create and manipulate temporary servers is vastly different. This chapter deals only with permanent servers - Manual Temporary Servers explains what temporary servers are and how to utilise them.
What Are Servers
A general definition for a game server would be an instance of a program running on a computer (called a process) to which players on the internet may connect to in order to play with or against other players around the world. Starting programs, configuring the program and data files used by the program, and making this as easy as possible is what GameCreate is all about.
In GameCreate, a server consists of:
Some basic information such as the host, game, and server name.
Some game-specific configuration values - for example, the map the server starts on.
A selection of game-specific configuration files.
A selection of server-specific configuration files.
Create A Server
Before creating a server, you must first add the host to GameCreate and then install the desired game onto the host. Manual Getting Started will lead you through the process of adding a host and installing a game. Alternatively, you may refer to Manual Host and Manual Game for more in-depth information.
Having added your host and installed the game, it is time to add the server. To do so, log into the Game Create Admin interface and click on the Servers tab.
From the Servers page, click on Create a New Server. You will be presented with a list of games that have been installed (if you have not installed any games yet, you will instead be instructed to install a game first). Choose one of the games from the list and click Next.
On the next screen you will be presented with a configuration panel divided into two sections: Server Properties and [Game Name] Properties. The Server Properties are:
Game: The game you selected for this server.
Host: Select a host from the list of hosts that have the game installed.
Host Port: Every server on a host has a unique Host Port. In general you can leave this setting alone: GameCreate will choose an appropriate default value for you.
Public Listing: If enabled (and the game supports it) the game server will appear in server browsers. This also affects if the server will appear in GameCreate's XML server status (see Manual Xml Status)
Restart Schedule: Game developers are often not particularly adept at writing programs intended to run indefinately, which can result in servers that either slow down, become eratic, or outright crash. GameCreate can restart your server at a convenient time each day to guarantee good performance during normal usage hours.
Name: This is the name used to identify the server in GameCreate. It is also used as the server's name in-game and in server browsers.
Maximum Players: The maximum number of players who can connect to the server at one time. GameCreate will limit your input based on what the selected game supports. It is also worth noting that a larger Maximum Players setting will require a faster computer to host the server on.
Command Line: This is the command line arguments passed to the game program. Unless you have very specific requirements, you can almost certainly use the default supplied by GameCreate.
Following the Server Properties are the game-specific properties. Game-specific properties are a feature of GameCreate that allow you to alter many settings without ever modifying a configuration file. You can learn more about properties in Manual Game .
There are a few idioms to note when using the configuration panel:
Default values are displayed in grey; modified values are displayed in white. This allows you to see at a glance which settings are default and which are not. In the example screenshot, Rcon Password has been modified to a value of 'rcon'.
When text boxes are modified they will display a a link called 'Default'. If clicked, it will reset the property to its default value.
Properties have a blue help icon next to them, which when hovered over displays a yellow window with information about that property. The same information appears when you give focus to an input control (such as when typing 'rcon' in the screenshot)
Default values are more than just a convenience in GameCreate. Default values are inherited from the game - this means that if you modify the default property within the game, all servers that are currently on default value for that property will automatically start using the new default value. This is a powerful mechanism that allows you to quickly configuration settings across all your game's servers. You can learn more about default property values in Manual Game; later in this chapter we will also learn about GameTemplates which are a way of sharing property values between a set of servers.
Finding Servers
There are a number of way to reach a server's Overview page:
Click on the Servers tab. Click on the name of a server to move to that server's Overview page.
Click on the Games tab and then click on a particular game. On the game's Overview page is a list of servers for that game. Click on the name of a server to move to that server's Overview page.
Click on the Hosts tab and then click on a particular game. On the game's Overview page is a list of servers for that game. Click on the name of a server to move to that server's Overview page.
All three methods are equivalent: which you use is up to you.
Server Overview
A server's overview page summarises its status and configuration. From the Overview page you can reach various configuration and information areas for the server.
At the top is a row of tabs: Overview, Configuration, Files, Statistics, and Permissions. The screen is divided up into four sections:
General Information
Game: The game type of this server, linked to the game's Overview page.
Host: The host for this server, linked to the host's Overview page.
Physical Address: The IP and port the server is running on; can be given to players to connect to the game server.
Server Status
Status: Shows what GameCreate is doing in regards to this server. One of:
Running - the server has been succesfully started
Starting - GameCreate is attempting to start the server
Restarting - GameCreate is restarting the server
Stopping - GameCreate is attempting to stop the server
Stopped - GameCreate has stopped the server
When the status is not Running or Stopped (that is, when the server status is transitioning) GameCreate will update the page every few seconds to inform you of changes to the server's status.
Start: (when server is stopped) Click to start the server.
Restart: Click to restart the server - this is equivalent to clicking Stop, waiting for the Status to change to Stopped and then clicking Start.
Stop: (when server is running) Click to stop the server.
Failure Reports: Shows entries from the system log for this server and allows you to request email alerts for failures.
Last Started: Shows the last time GameCreate successfully started this server.
Last Failed: Shows the last time GameCreate detected a failure for this server.
Restart Schedule: Shows how often this server is automatically restarted.
Players: A list of players currently connected to the server.
Server Properties
Command Line: Shows the command line that will be used when starting the server
Non-default property values: For each property of this server that is set to a non-default value, the property's name and selected value are listed.
Modify Server configuration: Takes you to the server Configuration page.
Server Management
Create a copy of this server: Opens the Create a New Server page, with the configuration of this server entered as the defaults for the new server.
Remove this server: Displays a confirmation prompt that if accepted will remove this server. The server must be stopped before you can remove it.
Near the top right you can see the Notes interface which is covered in Manual Notes. Notes allow you to leave messages about the server for other server administrators.
Server Configuration
To modify a server's configuration, click on Configuration on the server's Overview page. Earlier in this chapter we discussed creating a new server: much of the process for editing an existing server is the same so refer to Server Configuration if you need a refresher.
When modifying a server's configuration, you are only modifying the configuration as stored within GameCreate. This means that a running server will not automatically receive any changes you make. If you wish to update a running server, make the configuration changes and then click Restart on the server's Overview page.
There are two settings you can not change while a server is running: the Host and Host Port settings. To change the host or host port, first click Stop on the server's Overview page. Next, modify and save the server's host and/or host port. Finally, click Start on the server's Overview page to start the server on its new host.
Server Templates
As we saw earlier, a game server inherits its default property values from the game. However, this isnt the whole story: GameCreate supports a second layer of default properties called Templates. You will learn how to create templates later in Manual Game: for now, we will discuss briefly what a template is and how to use them on the Server Configuration page.
Once one or more templates are created for a game, servers for that game will have the Server Templates panel appear at the top of the Configuration page. In the sample screenshot we have added a template called 'My Rcon Password' to the server. You can see its effect reflected in the Rcon Password property further down the page where the text 'Inherited from template: My Rcon Password ' is displayed. RCON Password has the value 'rcon' but notice that the text input area is grey: as stated earlier, a grey text box indicates a default value.
So, this server now has a new default value for Rcon Password which it inherited from the 'My Rcon Password' template. Why use templates instead of setting the RCON Password directly on the Server Configuration screen? Multiple game servers. GameCreate is built to make running large numbers of servers easy: and part of that means making it easy to change property values on many servers at once. If we were to modify 'My Rcon Password' to supply a different default value, all servers using that template will receive the change.
Note that template values can still be overridden: we could modify 'RCON Password' property to be set to 'myrcon' at which point the text box would appear white to indicate a non-default value. While using a non-default value the server will not be able to use changes made to the 'My Rcon Password' template.
The Server Templates panel allows adding and removing any templates defined for the game. While not displayed in the screenshot, templates also have a conflict resolution order. (In the screenshot, 'My Rcon Password' is #1). This is only of relevance when a server contains two or more templates that supply a default value for the same property. When conflicts do occur, templates with a higher number (that is, towards the bottom of the page) override templates with a smaller number (towards the top of the page). The template order can be altered by using the Up and Down controls provided.
Server Files
If the Server Configuration page does not allow you to create exactly the configuration you require, one option is to modify a server's configuration files directly (another option is to create new properties - see Manual Game for details). to view or modify a server's configuration files, open the server's Overview page and click the Files tab.
File Listing
The Server Files page lists the files currently in use for the server. Each row of the table represents one specific file that will be written to disk. Aside from providing the option to modify configuration files, GameCreate can also store a variety of definitions for a given file (see Manual Game for information on creating new definitions). For example, a configuration file server.cfg may have two definitions in GameCreate: one for normal gameplay and one for competitive gameplay. The Files page allows you to choose between definitions if more than one is available.
The columns on the Server Files page are (from left to right):
Filename: The file's on-disk name, relative to the installation folder for the server's game.
Name: A descriptive name describing the purpose of the file. The name can appear in two ways:
Normal text: This is the one (and only) definition for this filename.
Drop down list: There are multiple definitions for this filename; the currently selected definition is shown. To select a different definition, simply make a different selection using the drop down list.
Preview: Displays a complete printout of the file, as it will be written when the server starts.
Edit: Allows you to modify the configuration file.
Revert: This link appears if you modify a file. It allows you to switch back to using the original game file.
In GameCreate, files come in two flavours: Game files and Server files. Game files are shared by all servers of the same game type. Server files, on the other hand, are only used by the server for which they are created.
In the screenshot shown earlier, the first listed file is a Server file - GameCreate always uses the name "Server File" for server files. The remaining files are all Game files. Each game file has a link next to its name labelled Game File - following this link will take you to the Game Files section to modify the file (again, see Manual Game for more information). Which brings us to the Edit link, which for server files will allow you to edit the file, but will create a server file copy for game files. In particular, this means if you click the Edit link for a game file, you will actually create a new server file.
Of course, all of this may not matter to you - clicking Edit will always allow you to modify the file used for the server, without affecting any other servers. Use the Game File link if you want to make changes that will affect all servers for the game.
The Add Server File link can be used to create a new configuration file just for this server.
Add/Edit Server File
The Add and Edit Server File pages are identical in functionality, and so are discussed here together. After identifying the file you wish to modify on the Server Files page, click the Edit link.
The Edit Server File page has the following sections:
Filename: The on-disk filename of the configuration file, relative to the game's installation folder.
File Contents: The actual data that will be written to the file. The File Contents may contain property values and/or make use of the GameCreate file language (See Manual File Language for more information).
Update Frequency: This drop down list allows you to determine when this file is written to disk. Most games will ignore files after the server is started, so generally you can leave this setting at the default. However, some files (in particular banned user lists) can be read by the server while it is running. Using this setting, you can ask GameCreate to periodically update the on-disk file.
When server is started: The file is only written when the server starts.
Every ten minutes: The file is written at server start and then every 10 minutes.
Every sixty minutes: The file is written at server start and then every 60 minutes.
As we discovered earlier, GameCreate supports the use of properties as an easy way to enter configuration values. If you choose a property from the drop down list and click Insert Property, a word of the form %property% will be inserted. When the configuration file is written to disk, the %property% word will be replaced with the value chosen in the server's Configuration section.
GameCreate can integrate with external systems by allowing such systems to upload the file contents; Manual External File Definitions explains how to use this feature. If you do use remote file uploads you can leave the File Contents blank, as it will be replaced by the remote upload.
When you are satisfied with the changes you have made, click Save to save your changes.
Server Statistics
The Server Statistics lets you monitor player numbers and hardware resource consumption for the game server. To view a server statistics, visit the Overview page and click the Statistics tab.
To learn about the statistics feature in GameCreate, see the Manual Statistics chapter.
Server Permissions
The Server Permisisons page lets you control who can access the game server in GameCreate and what actions they can take. To view or modify a server's permissions, visit the Overview page and click the Permissions tab.
To learn about assigning permissions in GameCreate, see the Manual Permissions chapter.
Next: Manual Temporary Servers