We have a new addition to the team on Freeworlds, HazardFN. He's in the process of developing a new server operator for Freelancer! I'm sure server owners will be interested in this work. Be sure to check out his blog for his development progress: http://www.freeworlds-mod.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=44
QuoteDisplay More-Decode FL Files on the fly everytime a change is made - because it can be put on a background worker it never slows down your Server as it runs on a different thread
-Every decode saves the file as an XML document which is then used to view player information INSTEAD of decoding the file everytime to view key information
-A whole new GUI which is less boring than the original, something fresh and somewhat easier to navigate
-Everything has been recoded into .NET (FLCodec, FLHash etc.) except FLAdmin due to some errors I can't work around but hopefully for the future!
-Advanced player searching with filter options and other layout devices with the ability to save a search and load it at a later date
-Tabbed MDI child form as a player editor meaning you can have more than one players FL file and open and edit it at the same time just by clicking through tabs
-When you hover over a players name on the player list it shows a popup telling you the players Money, Ship and faction they are most aligned with
- Player summary option which shows everything about a player then their equipment in a tree list structure which is neatly organised into nodes again without decoding a single FL File
-ALL GAMEDATA files are converted to XML easily using the built in converter meaning if you make a new mod with added ships it's as easy as a click of a button to generate the XML gamedata for it, also because of the nature of your mod having so many new GAMEDATA entries it has a batch convert option which converts every gamedata file to XML in a folder in seconds!
-An all new easy way to modify your servers new character .fl file simply by clicking buttons you can have your players start char configured in seconds - click one button drag all the loadout info you want into a box then another and just type in the money amount and everything else that is editable!
-My personal favourite is the Mass Character Editor say you've just hired a few new admins and want to mod their char with tags in their name, lights etc. It takes their existing names ("Hazard", "John" "Sushi") for example then does this (or something of your choosing placed in a template - [SP]-Hazard-[SP],[SP]-John-[SP], [SP]-Sushi-[SP]) then reads the rest of the template applying the same standard Admin equipment to them and "police" lights etc. as well as the admin ship. Could also be fun to have a template to apply to a player when kicked so he is incredibly disadvantaged for 48 hours then re-apply after his sentence
-Performance Monitoring works out an average of your CPU Usage and lag generated if that average works out higher than a safe point you are warned and options are provided to you such as Restarting the FLServer or doing the same with Biocross as sometimes the 'garbage collector' of .NET programs can get a little full
-Admin notes is a new idea of mine where you can give your admins upload rights to a certain folder on a server, and they can upload tasks, thoughts and ideas using the Admin Notes client then you as the server admin can download them from within Biocross (which houses the Admin notes Server) view them add to them and re-upload them, it will have urgency, a subject list (which you can define) for example say if your only allowing three types of notes, notes of banned players, notes of maintenance or server trouble and forum problems then the client will download the subject list and your other admins using the client can only choose from those subjects.
-Banning station is a slightly more advanced and easy to use version of the IFSO banning section, everything is easier to follow and to read as well as some new little touches which make it all a little easier.
-Most of all I hope to share all source code but only after I have finished and feel I can no longer add to the program, I don't want to give it away yet but I will when my time is up I dont want to leave you in the position you are in now, a server operator which you can't add to!
