Soldat Global Account System

[DorkeyDear]

by the SGAS Team


What exactly is SGAS?
SGAS provides an easy interface and a network infrastructure using the SGAS protocol for scripters to extend their scripts. The purpose of this extension is to only help scripters with additional functionlity, which would otherwise be intricate or too time consuming to accomplish from scratch. SGAS' very potential can be unleashed by you, the script developer. We only provide you with a solid foundation...

• Communication between servers, or more generally, nodes
• Global database for storing data accessible from anywhere
• Account system with online user profiles

Please note that SGAS Alpha 1 only offers communication between nodes. A few examples of what these features can help do:

• Chatting between servers
• Synchronizing maps and files
• Collecting player statistics
• Player tracking

How does SGAS work?
SGAS is based on a custom network protocol which is shared among all nodes connected to the network topology. Nodes transfer data to another node by means of SGAS packets which may consist of different SGAS message types. Each message type describes what data is being sent. There are message types to exchange protocol versions, to send a module message and simple message types to ping a peer node for example.

The network infrastructure comprises different node types. Soldat servers belong to the game server category. Proxy servers (formally known as Middle Man) can establish a connection to any of these servers to link it to the Lobby server. A Proxy server will simply forward the packets sent from the game server to the Lobby server, hence it performs as mediator between game and Lobby server. Immediate connections from a game server to the Lobby server may be available in the future. The Lobby server has unrestricted access to the global database in contrast to game servers which have to resort to game specific SGAS APIs, one being the SGAS Soldat Server API.

I don't make scripts, but I play Soldat. How does this concern me?
In the current state, SGAS will probably not concern you by much for a while. This alpha is designed just to provide early partial functionality and to receive some feedback from the scripting community. Don't be afraid to play on servers running the SGAS script and to provide useful feedback to the module authors, though.

I don't make scripts, however I host a server.
If a script is made to work in conjunction with SGAS, all that is needed is to have the SGAS script on the server. Once the global database access is finished, you will also need to register your server and edit the SGAS scripts config file to login with your server ID and password. More informationon on this topic will follow in upcoming releases.

I create scripts. How can I write a module?
With the SGAS script installed on the server, copy the SGAS interface file from the example modules provided with the standard package, and use the example modules as reference. The module will communicate with the SGAS script as needed. Please note that this project is still in alpha phase and anything may be subject to changes without notice. A complete guide to the SGAS Soldat Server API can be found here. If you have any questions with regard to the SGAS interface, query us in #soldat.sgas on QuakeNet or make a new post on our forum. There are special boards on our forum which can serve as platform to discuss your module ideas, works in progress and releases.

Roadmap
SGAS has been in development for more than 2 years now. On our wiki, you can find an elaborated time table which describes our plans for the future. We decided on making alpha 1 publicly available to involve the community in the development process to achieve a better result. If there is adequate interest in the project we may expand SGAS to other games, such as Link-Dead, as well.

How you can support us
You can contribute to the development process by providing constructive feedback or even by taking an active part as developer in our team. We urgently look for reliable long-term forum maintainer and website developers to support Falcon. If you want to apply for a different job feel free to contact us. Any donation would be greatly appreciated, irrespective of the amount. The money will be used to help us pay our server bills.

Known issues

• Soldat servers running the SGAS script may leak memory
• Proxy servers don't support domain resolving yet, connection details in the config file must consist of valid IP addresses
• Connecting with multiple Proxy servers to a single Soldat server will result in unknown behavior

Download now
Includes both the Soldat server script and Proxy server

[Falcon`]

Yey, grats for releasing it finally! Good job!

[FliesLikeABrick]

well gee, if only you had talked to us a bit we may have actually gotten you to be able to use the official soldat authentication database (LDAP), which is what the soldatforums, soldat site, and a few other things use.  Maybe in the future we can get you to integrate.

[Stuffy]

cool, sadly I havent got time to start scripting these days

[DorkeyDear]

@FLAB: Our database will be a bit... well... weird. We're going to keep it separate, although we would like to discuss possibility of linking (associating) SF accounts with SGAS accounts as a possible future option. An example use could be ability to check if there are any unread PMs in-game.


We plan to have modules on a Proxy server, but we need to know what language. Thoughts? What is most common/used/useful and featureful?
 Lua, Python, GameMonkey, LOLCODE, AngelScript, Pascal, D, Falcon

[CurryWurst]

Our current choice as scripting language for Proxy server module support is Lua, as it is easy to learn, integrates almost seamlessly into C++, it is powerful and can be extended easily to even support OOP paradigm. If you have any other suggestions feel free to post them here. I have already set up a basic Lua script core, though it is not yet fully functional.

[-Bendarr-]

Congrats Curt and CurryWurst!! (and others who worked on it )

[CurryWurst]

Yey, grats for releasing it finally! Good job!

Congrats Curt and CurryWurst!! (and others who worked on it )

Thank you and Happy Easter to all of you! Don't forget to look for some Easter eggs

Curt released a more sophisticated tutorial on how to write modules using the SGAS Soldat Server API. So if you are a scripter why not write a module?
If you lack any API functionality let us know and make a post on our forum.

Mr convinced me of the idea to create a C++ plugin system for the Proxy server, hence modules may be written in C++ and loaded as shared library.
Nevertheless, I still intent to provide a scripting API in Lua or any other language of your choice.

[Falcon`]

* FalconPL choose PHP

should be possible, i know some scriptcores based on PHP in other apps (f.e nordicbots will support PHP scriptcore soon).

[CurryWurst]

* FalconPL choose PHP

should be possible, i know some scriptcores based on PHP in other apps (f.e nordicbots will support PHP scriptcore soon).

Not sure about PHP since it is supposed to serve for the web and I'd rather prefer to embed a lightweight language such as Lua.

[jrgp]

@FLAB: Our database will be a bit... well... weird. We're going to keep it separate, although we would like to discuss possibility of linking (associating) SF accounts with SGAS accounts as a possible future option. An example use could be ability to check if there are any unread PMs in-game.


We plan to have modules on a Proxy server, but we need to know what language. Thoughts? What is most common/used/useful and featureful?
 Lua, Python, GameMonkey, LOLCODE, AngelScript, Pascal, D, Falcon

I don't know why you listed D, lolcode, and other worthless languages. This should *only* be in either python or lua.

* FalconPL choose PHP

should be possible, i know some scriptcores based on PHP in other apps (f.e nordicbots will support PHP scriptcore soon).

Not sure about PHP since it is supposed to serve for the web and I'd rather prefer to embed a lightweight language such as Lua.

I feel like mentioning that the interpreter for lolcode is written in php. Php is perfectly fine for non-web things like shell scripting, but it isn't too useful for much else since the gui toolkit bindings are unmaintained and it lacks support for threads, among other things. It's as if it's deliberately crippled.

[DorkeyDear]

I don't know why you listed D, lolcode, and other worthless languages. This should *only* be in either python or lua.

Kind of a joke. D I only put there because I wanted an excuse to try to use it, although as far as I know, it is not the most common thing to find, let alone scripting for it. GameMonkey and AngelScript are only listed because they were considered by MM for LD. I haven't actually done much research on any of those there, and just added some I was told.

I personally would like to see Python, but that's just because I've recently been playing around with it. I've always struggled with Lua. Even after using it for a little while, I still found myself working at a slower pace as compared to other languages (that was a while ago). But it could be just me.

[xmRipper]

Bump! SGAS is probably abandoned because of the "Portal" in 1.5.1 Betas.
I hope you guys will continue this awesome system.
I am eager to see global player statistics, usage of HWID will make it perfect.

[Falcon`]

I'm the one coding database<->protocol bridge, but unfortunately (for you), i'm now on a short holiday. Though stay tuned, i'll be back one day

[Bonecrusher]

global hacker list with their HWID ftw

[Irlandec]

So,project is dead?

[Spotix]

I think yes but idk realy -.-^^

So,project is dead?
[/quote

[Bonecrusher]

There are still discussions being held on sgas IRC channel so I hope not.

[CurryWurst]

Attachments we all like them, don't we?

[Irlandec]

Good to know it's not dead. We really looking forward on such wonderful thing as this!