View Dedicated Server Setup
So you want to set up your own server? Well it’s really very simple with Plain Sight. Plain sight has it’s own dedicated server, which uses very little CPU and memory.
Requirements
The Plain Sight dedicated server is currently Windows only and only supports single mode servers so you are unable to mix game types. In order to run PlainSightServer.exe you must have the .NET 3.5 Runtime Framework as well as XNA GS 3.1 installed.
In addition, you may need to forward ports if you are behind a router or otherwise require access through your firewall. The default port Plain Sight uses is 24816.
First Things First.
You can obtain the dedicated server files in one of two ways:
You can download the dedicated server software from the account section at http://www.plainsightgame.com/.
Or if you have Steam running on your server, the files are already up-to-date and included in your ...\Program Files (x86)... \Steam\steamapps\common\plain sight\DedicatedServer\ directory.
Example Configuration File
The “Dedicated Server Readme” text file lists all of the currently supported maps and other commands to assist you in building your own server configuration file. Below is an example dediconfig.txt used to create a Deathmatch server. Additional notes to assist you have been included as comments prefixed with // - do not include these in your final configuration files.
// Available maps for Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Ninja! Ninja! Botzilla!
map:Arena
map:Cube Root
map:De Loop
map:Don't Be Square
map:Get Over Yourself
map:Platform
map:Spire
map:That's No Moon
map:Time Peace
map:Unreeled Tournament
map:Upside Town
// How many player slots, server supports up to 20 players
maxplayers:20
// What game mode to run. Others modes are TDM, LU, CTF, NNB
ruleset:DM
// Number of mins per map DM times are good 10-15 mins.
// LU and CT are good at around 20 mins and NNB 15-20
// Maximum allowable game times can be 60 minutes.
roundlength:20
//Maximum amount of energy a bot can have at any time
maxenergy:15
// This flag should be on otherwise server will run in classic mode.
// Classic mode is a lot slower and lower scoring.
onehitkill:true
// How many stars active at any time.
maxpowerups:10
// What you are calling the server
servername:My first server!
// You can make the server private by adding a password
// If you don't want your server to have a password, don't add this line.
password:ThisIsThePassword
// Server port between 24816 and 24832.
// Inbound port has to be permitted on firewalls and forwarded through NAT-enabled routers.
hostport:24817
// Allows you to login in game and change some server settings (See Chat Commands)
adminpassword:password
Other Modes & Map Sets
The ruleset can be defined by acronym
// Deathmatch
ruleset:DM
// Lighten Up
ruleset:LU
// Capture The Flag
ruleset:CTF
// Ninja!Ninja!Botzilla!
ruleset:NNB
// Team Deathmatch
ruleset:TDM
Available maps for Deathmatch / Team Deathmatch / Ninja! Ninja! Botzilla!:
map:Arena
map:Cube Root
map:De Loop
map:Don't Be Square
map:Get Over Yourself
map:Platform
map:Spire
map:That's No Moon
map:Time Peace
map:Unreeled Tournament
map:Upside Town
Available maps for Lighten Up:
map:Arena
map:Don't Be Square
map:Little Bang
map:That's No Moon
map:Upside Town
Available Maps for Capture the Flag:
map:Escape
map:Facing Castles
map:Unreeled Tournament Team
Basic Settings
Server name. (Try and keep this short or it might look funny in the server browser.)
servername:My first server!
Passworded server. (Only add this if you want to password your server.)
password:ThisIsThePassword
Round length in minutes. (Max: 60)
roundlength:20
Maximum number of players. (Max: 20)
maxplayers:16
Minimum number of players: (these spots are filled with bots until a player joins.)
minplayers:10
Bot difficulty (easy / medium / hard)
botdifficulty:easy
Maximum number of active powerups. (Stars)
maxpowerups:10
The max energy players can collect before topping out. (Max: 100)
maxenergy:15
One hit kills. Setting this to false enables “classic mode” which means it requires more than one strike to kill an opponent. (true/false, Default: true)
onehitkill:true
Advanced Options
You can set the server to host on a specific IP.
hostIP:192.168.1.99
You can set the server to host on a specific port. Note This should be a port number between 24816 and 24832. The inbound port has to be permitted on firewalls and forwarded through NAT-enabled routers.
hostport:24816
An admin password for using server commands via chat. (See Chat Commands)
adminpassword:password
Chat Commands
There are a number of commands that can be entered via text chat.
Dedicated Server Admin Login
This makes your player an Admin for the server. (Games created from the normal game client are automatically their own Administrators.)
/login password
Controlling Bot Numbers
You can force bots to spawn or despawn by changing the maximum number of bots, Admin Required.
/maxbots
Manual Map Rotation
These commands allow you to insert the named map into the map rotation while in game on a server, Admin Required.
/nextmap mapname
/map mapname
Kick/Vote Kick a player
You can initiate a kick vote for a named player. Only one kick vote can be active at a time
/kick playername
These commands allow you to vote for or against kicking a player from a server.
/yes
/y
/no
/n
Changing Teams
If the teams are currently balanced you will be placed in a queue until an opponent also makes a request to change teams.
This sends a request to the server to switch which team you are playing on in team game modes.
/teamchange
/tc
Houston, We have UH-OH!
Attempting to run a dedicated server out of the proverbial box for the first time sometimes comes with the painful question which may look something like “Why is this not !#@%ing working?!” after an error occurs or if it crashes horribly. But not to worry! Here are a few known issues you can look for to ensure that you’re not going crazy and that your configuration is fine.
White space & Formatting
Make sure your dediconfig.txt file is well formatted and stripped free of comments (lines preceded by //, or anything that’s not a command), excess line feeds (returns) and white space (excess tabs or spaces) before and after each option. Sometimes there’s that stray space or carriage return that goofs things up on launch which results in the server application crashing.
Crashing is bad, mmkay?
Bizarro Undocumented Commands
Either they’re old legacy commands, or some super-secret settings left over by the developers for a stealthy future update. We don’t know! But if it’s not documented then it may be safe to exclude it from your configuration. Who knows, it might just work! Just don’t forget to make a backup!
Currently, you might find a few questionable settings in your default dedicated configuration file. Through rigorous testing and throwing our keyboard at the wall, our well trained ninja researchers have managed to deduce that these commands shipped with the server just cause it to crash on launch. It would be advisable that you make a backup copy of the default configuration and remove the following settings from your final file for now. At least until we get clarification on exactly what they’re meant to do.
teamplay:false
teams:0
Oh man! Double out-of-bounds error, what does it mean?! Oh man!
Troubleshooting Crashes
When the PlainSightServer.exe crashes, it usually doesn’t stick around long enough to let you know. So how can you know what happened when the screen closes immediately? Luckily the developers in their divine wisdom planned ahead for just such an event. In your dedicated server directory will find a document aptly titled ErrorLog.txt which describes in short why exactly it went bananas. Sometimes the information in this document is useful (it can for example, warn you when your Updater directory is missing), other times it contains a lot of gibberish which can still be useful to the great people in tech support.