Billing Server Feature List

[MikeTheNose]

I'm interested in your suggestions for features above and beyond what the current biller server already does.

 

The billing server handles user accounts, squads, scores, bans and chatting between zones. It also has some ability to send commands to the server however any such new feature would require ASSS and a feature implemented for it as well. Some features won't work with subgame.

 

Anyone have a suggestion?

[Hakaku]

Try taking a look at all the feature suggestions provided in the Accede sub forum. Some of them included the ability to have more than 10 chats, to be able to send and receive more messages, be able to send more than one message to the same user, be notified when a friend logs on, be able to own chat channels (and kick people off), integration with a web interface to be able to access messages/change email/etc...

[Samapico]

Get rid of the dumb limitations on chats 8 and 10

 

I like the friends idea...

 

How about being able to have the ?messages redirected to your email?

[CRe]

How about being able to have the ?messages redirected to your email?

 

I second this idea.

[MikeTheNose]

Is that limitation not a server or client restriction? A new billing server would not have that limitation.

[Kilo]

Get rid of the dumb limitations on chats 8 and 10

that's a limitation of subgame. been using all 10 chats read and write for years now, the rest of you are suckers!

[MikeTheNose]

Get rid of the dumb limitations on chats 8 and 10

that's a limitation of subgame. been using all 10 chats read and write for years now, the rest of you are suckers!

 

 

Thought so.

[Hakaku]

Nah, subgame can send over chat 10, you just have to type ";10;;message", or was that ";;10;message", I forgot now. But, there's also client limitations: you can't send ";a;message" with Continuum.

 

Edit: or was that a biller limitation. gah, it's been too long since I tested all of these.

[L.C.]

Features suggestions for SSC biller? Who is doing the coding?

[Confess]

From an administrators point of view, a universal alias system, the ability to add our own zones without having to get approval/slots (although, on the other hand, this can be a bad thing too), better bang - should be able to add/remove characteristics via flags like the old SSN Biller (ssc currently has something like this, yes, i know).

[MikeTheNose]

How about being able to have the ?messages redirected to your email?

 

 

This leads to an interesting problem. Current implementation is that if you message someone you can only create one message and if you create another it overwrites it until the user types ?messages. This is to prevent one user from flooding multiple ?message's to the user and allows one to conveniently edit a message previously made (I've used that feature often).

[Kilo]

Well, since ?messages have never been meant as a direct way of contacting someone, you could put a time delay before an e-mail is sent to edit your message, and then limit total number of e-mails you can send per day like you can limit total number of ?messages.

[Trained]

A "XXXX has entered Y chat" would be nice.

[divine.216]

A bit pie-in-the-sky ...

 

Billing should be federated, perhaps using DNS.

 

Player names become user@domain. Chat channels become channel@domain. A zone would then refer to for login/messaging.

 

Zones concerned about connecting to tons of billing servers might use a whitelist of trusted domains.

 

BanG becomes a separate anti-cheat service that a zone can use.

 

Perhaps the zone could do some name-mangling to make things prettier in-game. They might designate a home domain whose user names would show without the domain. A zone might setup a whitelist of biller domains and associate each with an abbreviation so instead of "@subspaceonline.com" they become "@ssc". Or the abbreviation might be shown as a prefix e.g. " user".

[MikeTheNose]

Sounds like IRC to me.

[»Maverick]

Nah, subgame can send over chat 10, you just have to type ";10;;message", or was that ";;10;message", I forgot now.

Use ;;8; to talk on the 8th chat

Use ;;10; to talk on the 10th chat (not sure if it even works for the 11th)

 

 

Biller suggestions:

- Be able to kick someone from the chat (chat owning system) although I can imagine the tons of problems people may cause with that.

- Allow the ?setemail command for names having over 1000 hours of usage (or a different sensible amount of hours).

- Allow bots to use the ?commands more then normal clients (EDIT: nvm this one, not important)

- Have players be able to make messages-groups to send ?messages to.

Edited February 1, 2010 by Maverick

[BDwinsAlt]

I think with all these features, there should be a toggle command. On by default, but if you have it showing everytime someone enters chat, that could be annoying. Also I second the alias system. Maybe even an alias op account would be nice. If you could break down bang into different levels, that would be nice to. Like let the owner decide what all a player can access. E.X.: Alias, Ban, Add other Operators....

 

I'll think of more later.

[Samapico]

How about a 'X entered chat' and 'X left chat' PACKET, and then we add something that can be toggled and manipulated easier on the client-side? If you want it to be on Continuum, however, might have to send a message directly from the biller and toggling it might be more trouble... and what if some person is in 5 of your chats? It would get pretty annoying.

[Hakaku]

Yeah, as Mav pointed out, sending a message to more than one person would be a good idea, squads could definitely benefit from this.

[BDwinsAlt]

An interface to check your score for each zone could be added along with that online system to check messages and such.

As for the messaging system, maybe make it 3 messages that can be stored by a single user to another at a time. A ?squadmessage would be helpful to squad members to message each other for event, I think you might have said that above.

 

A BanG interface via web site would be nice too. What I did in Halo a while back was have a bot in halo that had power to silence/ban w/e. Then I made a system in php to access the same database the bot used, then I could add things to the database and the bot accepted it as if it were done in game. Something like that could be usefully to zone owners. They could get a txt: So and so is doing this, then even if they are away from their computer, they can do something.

 

Also, ?lastlogin would be nice. Display information about the last time you logged on, and with what ip/macid. This could be helpful if you think someone has been using your account or what not. (probably not priority to implement)

 

These are pretty simple things that don't really do too much for the over all biller, but it's something I've heard people talk about in the past.

 

Oh yeah! Make it so you don't have to rejoin the zone to be kicked from a squad. When someone kicks you, you should maybe transfer to a void and transfer back to the zone with a message saying you were kicked from w/e squad. Void being a fake zone or something.

 

I think groups should be put in place for sure. A level 1 should be able to add/remove zones. This cuts ghost ship out from having to logon each time.

Freakmonger, for example; should be able to add/remove a zone to/from SSCC. As long as the IP is the same. He should also have powers in all theses zones and should be able to ban someone in SSCC The Complex, while he is in SSCC Metal Gear CTF, and so on. Also be able to remove/add operators that way.

 

?addop -z SSCC The Complex -n BDwinsAlt....

 

Just some suggestions. Might not be the best, but it's something I would like.

[L.C.]

I don't know if this is already in there, but proper use of GroupID's or group-level powers. Group-levels apply to individual networks, not the entire SSC. Though I bet this is already in there. :X

[»Xog]

BDwinsAlt has some good ideas.

 

Something I want to add if this idea of yours is implemented

As for the messaging system, maybe make it 3 messages that can be stored by a single user to another at a time. A ?squadmessage would be helpful to squad members to message each other for event, I think you might have said that above.

 

I think if this was added, i would want a way to delete a message in case I sent it to the wrong person or if it had the wrong information.

 

also, what would happen if all 3 msgs we sent were filled up? Which one would be replaced? I think a way to list the msgs we've sent to a person from a specific username would be appropriate, if it's given an ID number.

 

Like for instance,

Xog> ?message BDwinsAlt:Hey there adsghsgha

Message stored with Mail ID# 3515

Xog> ?message BDwinsAlt: Omg vheck this ouhggdsa

Message stored with Mail ID# 3516

Xog> ?message BDwinsAlt: gahgsghsgagfhahaha

Message stored with Mail ID# 3517

Xog> ?message BDwinsAlt: zomfg LOLAOALOLOLfsdghmmsexyggggf

Sorry, recipient user has the maximum stored amount of messages from your username Xog. Please delete an older message using ?messages:Recipient Name and ?messagedelete Number

Xog> ?messages:BDwinsAlt

[iD 3515] [time/date] Xog: Hey there adsghsgha

[iD 3516] [time/date] Xog: Omg vheck this ouhggdsa

[iD 3517] [time/date] Xog: gahgsghsgagfhahaha

Xog> ?messagedelete 3515

Xog> ?message BDwinsAlt: zomfgLOLAOALOLOLfsdghmmsexyggggf

Message stored with Mail ID# 3518

 

BDwinsAlt> ?listmessages

[iD 3514] [time/date] someone else

[iD 3516] [time/date] Xog

[iD 3517] [time/date] Xog

[iD 3518] [time/date] Xog

[iD 3588] [time/date] someone else

 

BDwinsAlt> ?messages

[iD 3514] [time/date] someone else: zomg im nto xog !sff

[iD 3516] [time/date] Xog: Omg vheck this ouhggdsa

[iD 3517] [time/date] Xog: gahgsghsgagfhahaha

[iD 3518] [time/date] Xog: zomfgLOLAOALOLOLfsdghmmsexyggggf

[iD 3588] [time/date] someone else: no lek srsly heh im not xogger

 

BDwinsAlt> ?message 3516

[iD 3516] [time/date] Xog: Omg vheck this ouhggdsa

 

sorry for making things complicated

Edited February 2, 2010 by Xog

[»Lynx]

The billing server, or part of the billing server at least be open source; to allow for continuous development. Other than that, I think that all of the other indie billing servers cover quite well exactly what would be good/not so good in terms of new features to implement.

[Samapico]

sorry for making things complicated

It actually makes sense

 

The annoying thing about ?messages is that the length is sooo limited. If you want to send a longer message you have to log on another alias and continue the message... It's stupid.

However, being able to edit your messages is also a great feature.

So the 1 message limit is both good and bad. So yeah, something like Xog described could work.

 

(I thought I hit the Post button an hour ago... just found this in my tabs... posting now lol)

[MikeTheNose]

?listmessage - Displays you last 3 message (unread) from user and their ID's (for your modification)

?editmessage ID:Message

 

Sound good?