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I asked a time limit value for round mode on maniacontroller section in MP forum.
Until this happens, please send me an email or nrltracks [at] live [dot] fr or a pm on forums.
I can react quickly.

I saw your post on the ManiaControl forum Marty. Isn't it the S_KickTimedOutPlayer parameter that should be toggled on?

S_KickTimedOutPlayer is already ON on all servers.
It is by default. Because I ever touched this.

Yeah, but S_TimeLimit (the one you suggested if I am not mistaken) is just the time limit on each map, but I don't think it is the timeout limit...

Yes. Time limit on each map/round. Which doesnt exist in rounds mode.

FinishTimeOut is time letting to finish after the first.

I know, but I don't think that would help with Alpines' problem at hand. I think the issue is that that guy should have been kicked by the server (so that someone else could play instead of him) and he was not. A time limit would just ensure that the server would go on the next map if there are no player (or no active player).

I tried yesterday in Laps mode, and it seems that S_KickTimedOutPlayer doesn't do anything here either. I'm not sure if that's an issue with ManiaControl or with ManiaPlanet itself tbh...

Because (that's what I believe) S_KickTimedOutPlayer is only for actually timed out players. For example if you lose connection to the server for a specific amount of time.

Since he's not timed out (because he can drive normally and has steady internet connection) he won't be kicked.

The server itself offers no option (except banning him) to stop these kinds of behaviours, only solution is to write a plugin for that.
Unfortunetaly I have no idea how the ManiaControl's plugin system works otherwise I would've written one already.

I will try to have a crack at it. I don't guarantee to be successful though XD

I made something that works for Laps and TA mode. I couldn't test round mode though. The plugin is "unofficial" since the ManiaControl website is down, but Marty I sent you the preliminary version

The plugin is installed on the RaNasCar server. If you go there, give up at the start of the map twice in a row, you should get kicked at the start of the third map. Please let me know if this works (more improtantly, if it doesn't).

Well Done Mate

Is it possible you could make a plugin that kicks one if he hasn't passed through a cp within 180seconds?

That would be basically it because he never presses delete anyway, so I'm not sure if your plugin would work.

Because the 100K server has no timelimit. Someone has to finish before the finish timeout starts.
And adding a timelimit is not very good because if people try to improve on the map and reset all the time on one map.

Marty, is it possible to add 5 minute auto-restart of round and if someone has >45 points (wins) the next map starts?
This map max. waiting time would be 5 minutes. But map would restart while running.

Hmm, seems like there are so many ways to solve this. Whats the best?

The plugin works almost that way: you will be kicked if you don't pass through a checkpoint (or finish line) on N successive maps (with the default N being equal to 2).

I have instructed to press DEL only because that it forces the end of the map if you are alone on the server. You can stay 2 maps without going through a CP and you will be kicked the same way, but then it would take 20 minutes (if you are alone on the server) for you to get kicked ^^ why wait 20 minutes if you can test it in 20 seconds by pressing DEL? XD

Thing is that the 100K server has no timelimit.

You can race as long as you want on a map as long as one finishes (then the finish timeout starts).
If he's idling there and I join and press del then I can't do anything.
Since there is no timelimit to switch rounds/maps he won't be kicked.

That's why we need to kick people who haven't passed through a cp in 180s seconds (or force-spec them).

OK, I see the problem. I don't play Rounds that much exactly because of that behavior (I mean, player that give up the map so that they can get a better time instead of continuing to the next map), but hey, that doesn't really matter.

How about it triggers after N rounds instead of N maps (in rounds mode?)

We reset all the time because the server rotates 14 maps. It's not like there are 500 maps to play, and we are just hunting the best times.

A round does not end time based, as I said there is no time limit.
If A and B join the server and are placed in the race then they have no limit.
They can drive as long as they want. If A decides to surrender and presses delete then he has to wait until either B surrenders, finishes or player C (who hasn't surrendered that round) joins and finishes a round.
A cannot disconnect and rejoin, he will be in playing-spec mode (because he surrendered).

That's the reason we need it in-rounds not round by round.
A round can last as long as a player decides to idle. Sometimes 8 hours, sometimes 3 hours.

A round limit of 2 minutes (per lap?) could do the trick aswell but that's up to Marty since I don't know if he would like to do stuff like that.

If nobody finishes in 4 minutes (2 laps) then the round (not map) gets restarted.
That could be a possible solution since no ROC track is usually longer than 2 minutes (at two laps, so 1min=1lap).

I think these two are our options here, either force-spec after certain amount of time (with no round time limit) or insert a time-limit for a round and if nobody finishes restart the round and force-spec the idle players.

Soooooooooo, since every time I say 'I understand' it appears that I don't. Let me try to rephrase your problem and see if I got things right this time:

There is one guy that is idle on the server, which causes each round to last indefinitely unless at least one active player finishes the round. And since you are here to hunt, you rarely finish the maps, and thus you get blocked by this one dude. Am I right?

A simple round time-limit plugin or better, a inactivity checker plugin (=> put in spec) solve that .

Almost haha.

He drives sometimes but sometimes he just stands at the start doing nothing.
If someone else doesn't pay attention and presses delete then he can't do anything.
Rejoining has no effect, he can only hope for the idle player to surrender or someone else to join (if they haven't surrendered they can drive although the round already started) and finish thus causing a new round to start since a finish timeout is set (it begins after the first finished).

When I'm hunting and see him join I automatically stop hunting times and finish everytime because I don't want to get stuck on a map and not do anything.

As Marty said a round time plugin for Rounds would be ideal.
I think the standard ManiaPlanetServer allows no timelimit during rounds mode with points so a plugin that checks if a round has been going for more than x minutes then the round force-ends or restarts (don't know whats suitable).
Force-Specing the idle player would be way better though because the idle player otherwise still is listed as a player and not spectator thus causing the next round to be waiting for the plugin-timelimit to kick in aswell.

And always waiting 2-3 minutes (when he's online and idle) is not fun at all.

I wish I could help you with making a suitable plugin but I don't know a thing or two about ManiaControl and only have messed (programmingwise) with my own personal Controller.
Making a plugin that does just that wouldn't be too hard for me on my platform so I think it shouldn't be too hard for ManiaControl aswell.

I think it would be wiser to make two separate plugins: one to kick idle players after N rounds or N maps, and one to end a given round after a predefined time. I'm on it

Well just one of these two is really necessary, force-specing after 180s no-cp would be ideal since that was the case when we played on maniaplanet3 I think.

Anyway, thanks for your effort. I'm sure me and all the ROC players will appreciate it!

Alright, I managed to make a timer in my KickIdlePlayer plugin. The server admin will have the choice to either have players been kicked after N maps (default 2), or after X seconds (default 300 = 5 minutes). The timer checks every 15 seconds and kicks players that have been inactive in the past X seconds. There is a warning message before the last map or the last 15 seconds so that you can activate yourself (by passing through a CP) and avoid being kicked. That should work in all modes of interest (Laps, TA, Rounds). Also, there is an option to force spec instead of kick.

Do you have in running somewhere so I can take a look?
And what do you mean by "being active"? Chatting/passing cp?

Would be nice if you could set it to 120~180secs on a server (so I don't need to wait 5 minutes each time to test it) so I can have a quick look!

By active I mean passing checkpoints, finish line, and respawn. Players who give up are not kicked. We just tested that with Marty and it seems to be working fine. The RaNasCar server is set in Rounds mode just for tonight so that you can test if you want (timeout limit = 120 sec).

Wow, not bad at all!

Just to let you know, if you join back in as a player too fast the plugin force-specs you immediately (3secs after start) again.

See here: https://i.imgur.com/l3hL9KH.png

First warning with fast join, second with waiting like 10 seconds, and the third one with the double kick again with fast join.

Also the timeout is a bit off.
I passed a cp at 1:41 (after triggering the first warning) and got kicked at 4:01 when the warning came at like 3:31, so I had 20 seconds more time.

But hey, what am I complaining about?
Thank you very much Ranig for your help and thank you Marty for installing this plugin on the ROC server (I hope you do!)

If we find any errors or bugs I'll let you know Ranig, for now this should do just fine!
I'm sure all the other fellow players at 100K will appreciate this as much as I do!!

My pleasure, it was a fun little project here to do on my side Thanks for testing, I changed it so that now you should not get force-spec'd back if you de-spec. Let me know if that works ^^

Works good, the extra time (+~20s) before force-spec (after cp pass or reset) is not too bad since the plugins seems to be working just fine.

The force-spec after the fast rejoin is fixed as you said.

Marty install this please!!

Why not ban him/her from joining and disrupting the server? If they have been approached/warned about it previously and are still being an absolute pain then they have no excuse.

It's been going on for far too long which is in no way fair on the rest of the players who want to enjoy the server.

There are strict rules on official ROC servers by Nadeo.

During ROC he's no problem because everybody finishes without resetting and he rarely can idle a few seconds before the timer runs out anyway.

I don't know if Nadeo allows you to ban people from official high ladder servers and doing so might result in a revoked license for running a 100K server so the best to do is force-spec/kick on idle time.
This way you don't take any chances.

Again well done Ranig Mate

It will be installed on ROC Alp

Not a good reason to ban McPheeda Bro !

Installed
Thanks a lot Mate

there seems to be an issue now with multiple players who are driving getting forced into spec if more than 4 active players on the server. even if you pass the first cp you can end up in spec. fortunately lau was playing and has rights to restart maps but shelbygt quit to another server before he had a chance to explain.

That is totally weird and I am sorry that it happened. I can't access the ROC server at the moment (it says "connection shut down by server", not sure why), but I'll have a look at it asap.

EDIT: actually I'm not sure I have enough LP to play on that server anyway XD If an admin comes around, can he has a look at the values for the KickIdlePlayersPlugin parameters?

As I suspected, the time limit was 60 seconds, but all maps are more than 60 seconds long in general XD I have raised the time limit to 120 seconds, hopefully it should be more stable. Let me know if that helps.

Thanks for doing that, yeah it was odd