What's New in version 2.50.60?
Date: 06 8, 2001 3:37:23 PM

# What's New in Admin Mod 2.50.60?

For a complete list of changes, refer to the NEWS or NEWS.txt file in the Adminmod directory or the changelogs in the reference section of this documentation.

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50.60

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50.58

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50.56

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50.52

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50.50

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50.26

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50.09

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50e

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50d

Whats New in Admin Mod 2.50

New in version 2.50.60 release (August 22, 2004):

AMD64 Support

Admin Mod 2.50.60 can now be used in 64 bit mode on amd64 architectured computers. For details see the amd64 package.

Lots of bug fixes and small additions. Installers and documentation updates, For details see the changelog but in general nothing really new has been added. Stability and usability are improved.

New in version 2.50.58 release (October 5, 2003):

Steam Support

This release bring full support for Steam Ids. Admin Mod now has full support throughout for STEAM enabled mods, Wonid support is still present but depreciated. Support for reserved names and reserved slots with Steam Ids is now complete as well.

Include Directives in

Ini files can now use #include directives (covered in detail later in this document) to allow the loading of several files in differnt locations as parts of the same file.

PostgreSQL Version

Thanks to user contribution there is now a PostgreSQL enabled version of Admin Mod.

Plugins loaded from a directory

Specify a directory as the target of the admin_plugin_file and admin will load all plugins found in that directory (in alphabetical order).

Far far too many bug fixes...

Including (but not limited to)

- Map change permissions loss with counterstrike is fixed
- no plugins is no longer an error condition, admin will load and be minimally functional
- Counter-strike timeleft shoudl now be correct in windows
- plugins update to remove various errors and bugs and to include new functionality for counter-strike
- uselist format updated
- Console password information messages have been changed to show only when the debug cvar is enabled

New in version 2.50.56 release (July 13, 2003):

Steam and Valve Ids

This release bring support for Steam and Valve Ids. With Day of Defeat 1.0 Retail new unique authentication Ids were introduced by VALVe. They resemble the Ids used in Steam versions. The format of the Ids were changed between two server updates. Admin Mod does now support new and old versions of these Steam and Valve Ids.

MD5 encryption

Admin Mod passwords can now be stored in the users.ini file encrypted with MD5 hashes. The Unix crypt() encryption method that was available only in the Linux version before is available in the Windows version now, too. Users of the MySQL version of Admin Mod can also use the MySQL PASSWORD() encryption method, offering seamless integration with existing user databases.

Mixed script binary support

Before script binaries of the correct format had to be used since the Windows and Linux script binary format differs. Admin Mod can now load either format, converting it on the fly while loading it. This prevents crashes that happened before when loading Windows scripts on a Linux server or vice versa. Since the conversion has still to be carried out, it is still recommended to convert the script baniries offline before installing them on a server.

New in version 2.50.52 release (March 21, 2003):

Security

An remotely exploitable format string error was found in Admin Mod which could be used to execute arbitrary code on a server running Admin Mod. This has been fixed. Another such error exists in all HL clients thus it can only be fixed by VLAVe, but Admin Mod includes a mechanism to prevent commands sent through Admin Mod to exploit that error on the client.

Banning both Id and IP

A new option was added to the ban() function so that one can choose to ban by Id and IP at the same time, providing only a name

Bug Fixes

Various bugs were fixed in this version. Among those:

- Fixes preventing timers getting killed by other scripts and timers crashing the server
- File handling functions were fixed.
- An error loading the AMX engine from a network drive was corrected.

New in version 2.50.50 release (September 2, 2002):

Menus

Thanks to Olo, author of Clanmod, single user menu's are now available in Admin mod. At the moment these are in beta form while their use and advantages are evaluated. They can be enabled using a new beta features CVAR.

Password Security

Due to the prevalence of the OGC hook cheat and other programs able to read the setinfo buffer admin passwords were for a time insecure. This problem is resolved by prexifing the password_field CVAR value with an underscore character ( _ ). This is now the default and all upgrading users are urged to update their password_field CVAR to increase password security.

IP reservation

The users.ini file can now take IP addresses in the name/wonid field. This allows LAN servers to allocate access based on IP addresses.

Other fixes...

- The default plugins have been updated so as to be compatible with the new include files.
- More work has been done to try and prevent loss of admin rights during map changes with Counter-Strike
- This manual has finally been updated.
- New Win32 installer and updated Linux installer.

New in version 2.50.26 release (December 13, 2001):

Bot protection update

Due to a mistake the bot protection in 2.50.09 was broken and would only activate if reserved slots were enabled; this has been fixed and more bot protection has been added to try and ensure fewer Admin Mod related crashes when running with bots.

Individual Csay messages

Those of you who like to write your own scripts will be pleased to hear that it is now possible to send individual csay messages. These are limited to the default green colour and are accessed using the messageex() function with the final parameter as print_csay.

Private server mode

With the addiion of two new CVAR's you can now use Admin Mod to make your server private.

- amv_private_server <#>
- amv_prvt_kick_message "<string>"

If the amv_private_server CVAR is set anyone who is not authorised by an entry in either the users.ini or the ips.ini file will not be allowed to join the game and the amv_prtv_kick_message will be printed to their console. This allows you to use the full power of Admin Mod to restrict and allow groups of people as you desire.

Ban by IP or ID

For use on a LAN server the ability to ban by wonid simply wasn't working. The ban function has now been changed to enable you to ban by IP or by ID allowing you to keep those you don't like on your local LAN from playing on your server.

Other fixes...

A great number of small fixes have been added and tweaked to give better stability and some extra functionality. The list is long and few of you would be interested in most of it but suffice it to say a lot of work has been put into this new version.

New in version 2.50.09 release (October 24, 2001):

- Better Security

  A security bug has been fixed where admin passwords have been exposed to non-admin clients. It is recommended to update your Admin Mod installation with this version.

- Improved file access functions

  The line buffer size for the Small readfile() and writefile() functions has been raised to 250 characters.

- The amv_autoban CVAR has been removed.

  See below for more detail.

- Fixed Maxplayers bug

  A bug with the maxplayers slots reported when using reserve_type 1 has been fixed. It will now always report only one reserved slot.

Fewer CS mapchange drops

With CS 1.3 some people have problems with getting dropped from the server at mapchange and not getting back in because they lose their authentification as administrator. To address this problem we have added a CVAR which you can set to create a time slot during which administrators can rejoin the server into a different slot than before without losing authentification. Please be aware that this does open a certain security hole, although the risk should be minimal most of the time. The administrator is still identified by his name, IP and WONID.

The CVAR is called amv_reconnect_time. It is set in seconds. Setting it to 0 (default) turns off this feature. If you experience aforementioned problems you can set this CVAR but keep it as low as possible. 30 seconds should be enough in most cases. The maximum value is 90 seconds.

Anti Cheat options

Another new CVAR is being introduced with this release: amv_anti_cheat_options. You can set it to enable certain cheat countermeasures in Admin Mod. There are currently two such options available.

The first one is the known Name Crash Cheat. Players could crash your players clients when using special characters in their names. Admin Mod did already protect against this in earlier versions. Since VALVe fixed this exploit in HL1108 the protection via Admin Mod is now by default disabled. But since you may be running a LAN server with an older server version you can reenable it. The option identifier for this anti cheat option is "nc". See further below for an explanation on how to enable it.

The second option is still experimental and thus also disabled by default. (Thanks to BillDoor for his suggestion). It tries to prevent players from using the spectator cheat in the current TFC version. The option identifier for this option is "sp".

How do you set these options? Here is the magic: Each option is described by an identifier, as mentioned above, and an option setting. The option setting is a number that gets appended to the identifier. The above options have the following settings:

Name Crash Cheat:

1. off, take no action.

2. kick, kick the offending player from the server.

3. ban, kick the offending player and ban his WONID for 24 hours.

Spectator Cheat:

1. off, take no action.

2. on, prevent the player from cheating.

To set options you put their identifier and setting together in a string. Multiple options are seperated by a colon. The resulting string has no spaces. Lets look at some examples:

To disable all options (the default) the string would be: "nc0:sp0"
To kick name cheaters and leave the spectator anti cheat off: "nc1:sp0"
To ban name cheaters and enable the spectator anti cheat: "nc2:sp1"
This string is the value assigned to the CVAR amv_anti_cheat_options:
amv_anti_cheat_options "nc1:sp0"
or
amv_anti_cheat_options "nc2:sp1"

The order of the options in the string does not matter. To enable the spectator anti cheat but disable the name crash anti cheat you could thus also set:

amv_anti_cheat_options "sp1:nc0"

In fact (those already confused should not read this paragraph :)) if you want to keep the default setting for an option you don't have to set it at all. The last example is the same as:

amv_anti_cheat_options "sp1"

New in version 2.50e release (June 15, 2001):

- Version 2.50e contains several bug-fixes and performance enhancements. See the change logs in the Admin Mod Reference section for details.

- The procedure for using Bots with Admin Mod has been changed, and is now simpler. Please see How to Use Bots with Admin Mod for more information.

- Updated the credits for the A-Team in the readme and docs.

New in version 2.50d maintenance/bug-fix release (June 2001):

Among the most notable of the changes made for 2.50d are:

Client Authentication instructions and procedures modified

For security reasons, the installer will no longer create an autoexec.cfg file. Instead, it creates a file called adminpass.cfg , which you can either exec from the console, or you can add it to a desktop shortcut just for connecting to your server. More information is available in the section Required Client Configuration Instructions.

New CVARs: admin_repeat_freq, admin_vote_echo, amv_autoban

You now have the ability to specify in your server.cfg file how often the center-say repeating message should appear. You also can control voting display a little better, and an auto-kick/ban option has been added for dealing with players that use non-printable characters in the game to crash people.

Access levels chaged for admin_exec functions

All admin_exec functions have now been changed to a higher access level. See that section of the documentation for more information.

You can now use * in a plugin script without it being recognized as a comment

This was causing some confusion and unnecessary tech support requests. It has been fixed in this version.

Improved bot protection

If you use bots with Admin Mod, you probably know about the admin_bot_protection cvar setting already (See How to Use Bots with Admin Mod for more info). Bot protection has been enhanced, so it's even safer now to run bots on your server.

Changes made to the sample wordlist.txt file

To assure people are happy and content, and because it seemed like a worn out joke, one word has been removed from the sample wordlist.txt file that is used for filtering "bad" words on the server.

A partial list of changes introduced in v2.50:

Plug-in Scripts!

You can now use multiple scripts. Yes, that is correct, you can use multiple scripts - we call them plugins now. Thanks to the plugin.ini file, simply list the path to the plugin script you wish to use. This feature can easily be disabled if you prefer to stick to the old way of doing everything in one big script, but we think if you give the plugin setup a try, you'll love it.

Metamod Integration

Metamod allows you to add features from multiple, separate DLLs. Under that framework, Admin Mod is a sort of plugin itself, and can be run alongside other applications, like bots. Check out the Metamod web site for more information.

"admin_command" allows commands to be entered in server console or RCON

You are now able to enter commands directly into the HLDS console window, or via rcon . Enter admin_command followed by the normal command you would enter if you were in game. For example, to do an admin_csay while you are working at the HLDS console, just enter:

admin_command admin_csay All your base are belong to us.

Partial name matching is now available.

Instead of having to enter the whole name of player to execute a command on him, you can enter only a portion of his name. However, that portion of his name must be unique to his name. For example, to slay a player called Superkalifragilisticespialidocous (i can't spell it, its atrocious) enter:

admin_slay kalifrag

and if no one else on the server has the string "kalifrag" in their name, the above-mentioned player will go dead. This works with all commands where you would specify a player name. As long as you specify a unique name or partial name match, the user will be found.

The vote option chosen by each user is echoed to all clients

This is optional and can be turned off via a cvar in the (listen)server.cfg file.

No more need for "old password_timeout" cvar

There is no longer a password_timeout problem, thanks to our next new friend:

admin_reconnect_timeout

The admin_reconnect_timeout cvar allows users to reconnect for a few minutes after dropping from the server, without having to re-enter a password. You just set how long you want people t be able to be gone for before they have to re-enter or re-exec their authentication info.

admin_connect_msg

Every client receives a customized text message 30 seconds after connecting, welcoming them to the server.

admin_highlander

There can only be one. One admin that is. When multiple administrators are connected to a server, only the one with the highest access level will have access to the admin commands.

admin_fun_mode

If you get bored, enable the fun mode to make things a little more spicy. This cvar gives you access to a multitude of other commands that will keep you laughing ... til the next release.

admin_reject_msg

All rejection messages are easily configurable by setting this cvar. If someone tries to use an un-authorized commands, he will be politely informed.

admin_repeat_msg

How do I change that green thing that appears every ten minutes and says, "This server uses Admin Mod?" Simple really: Change this cvar in the server.cfg or listenserver.cfg and it will be whatever you want it to be.

admin_quiet

A classic. The old verbosity setting has been changed to this handy little option, setting which admin commands are echoed to the clients, and which are not.

admin_vault_file

To keep your admin settings over map changes, enable admin_vault_file in your server configuration file. Can be used by plugins to store and retain information over map changes and server restarts.

admin_vote_maxextend

No need to go compile scripts to change the number of times a map can be extended by a vote.

admin_disco

This cannot be explained, and neither can its counterparts. Go see it for yourself, but enable fun mode first. : )

admin_restartround

Self explanatory.

admin_denymap and say denymap

If you are the admin and you are sick of playing a certain map that keeps on getting voted for, deny it and its votes will be disregarded.

admin_prematch

TFC only. To get warmed up and ready for clan matches.