UT admins: what packages and settings do you use on your server, and why?
 

There are a ton of server packages available for UT admins now, and it can be very confusing for new admins to decide which ones to include on their server.

Server settings are also subject to much debate: "What tickrate should I use?" etc.

So I'd like to ask server admins what packages and settings they use, and why they use them.

I run several UT BunnyTrack servers and we use the following:

Packages

1. Nexgen Server Controller mostly for the improved chat box but also for easy server management. I find it causes problems sometimes; players who use lower netspeeds can't always connect.

2. BTPlusPlus (a custom version) to provide BunnyTrack gameplay and a timer

3. BTCheckpoints (a custom version) to provide checkpoint functionality

4. CustomCrossHairScale to allow resizing/scaling of crosshairs (ACE can also do this)

5. UniversalUnreal to show a list of related servers in-game

6. ServerScroll to broadcast timed messages to players

7. BTAntiCheat for self-explanatory reasons

8. BDBMapvote (a custom version) as a mapvote

9. AntiNetHack to prevent netspeed-related hacks

10. LinuxCharsetFix to allow special characters in player names on Linux

11. AntiShockHo for basic anti-cheat protection

We don't use ACE or NewNet yet but I'm interested in trying them.

Settings

NetServerMaxTickRate=45

Through experimentation we found that this is a reliable number and that any higher did not have a beneficial effect.

MaxClientRate=30000

As above. I play with a netspeed of 25000 personally.

you ave not scoreboard error sometime ?

No, but we use the BT++ scoreboard so maybe that's why?

Maybe yes

BunnyTrack server, Linux host, version 451.

Packages as you described, with the exceptions of:
- CustomCrossHairScale (haven't used this)
- UniversalUnreal (not installed)
- ServerScroll (not installed)
- BTAntiCheat (not installed)
- LinuxCharsetFix (not installed)
- AntiShockHo (not installed)

We're running the stock versions of BTPlusPlus0094 and Nexgen112 (with NexgenClientsideExtensions112b, NexgenPlus100, NexgenPlayerLookup202, NexgenABM102). Plus:

- A minor variation of MapVoteCE104
- i4Games_InstaGib_200810 (because there's some issue with the standard BT++ shock rifle and boosting, which I've never had the motivation to investigate. This shock rifle does not have the same problem)
- ACE8h

Other settings.

NetServerMaxTickRate=40
We've played around with this, mainly to try to overcome that horror-of-horrors, the dodgeblock, but upping the tickrate seems to have relatively little effect

MaxClientRate=20000
We've never modified this from the default

We've also experimented with XC_Engine, which works well. Though I think any BT admin would want to set:

bCollisionHashHook=false

...because XC_Engine's brush handling seems to work more correctly than the standard engine, in that some brush-exploitable maps (e.g., the slide-out ramp at the end of BT-Rapture) can no longer be taken advantage of in the same way.