Approved Possible Fix for the Recent Issues with the !friendly Command on the Idle Server

[Auntie Sotaar]

Recently, a user had an issue with an exploit involving a player being infinitely Ubercharged whilst in the opposing team's spawn area. I had posted my most likely unneeded insight as a comment, but I felt the need to dedicate a separate post to resolving this issue. I hope this is a thorough post and I can assist in resolving the issue without the total removal of the plugin.

Currently, the solution executed was the removal of the !friendly command. As a regular on the idle server, I waited quite a while for the opportunity of such a command so i could enjoy the community without having to worry about being gunned down by a F2P or someone being a general annoyance killing everyone in sight. Though I agree the Uber exploit is a serious issue, having dealt with it myself both being Ubered (yes, I am guilty) and fighting off someone Ubered. However, there is a way to remove the exploit without removing the plugin.

The way the exploit works is that a Medic on Team A builds up an Uber, then goes into A's spawn area. The Medic then activates their Uber on someone while having the advanced option of continuous healing enabled, and then switches to friendly mode. The Medic loses its Uber normally, but the game still thinks that the other player is still Ubered, as it never ran out before the Medic's Medigun was removed from their inventory upon entering friendly mode. The reason the Medic can keep their charge is that they don't have to respawn to switch to friendly mode while in their own spawn area.

I believe the easiest way to fix this problem is to make it so players HAVE to respawn to enter friendly mode. By this, I mean that using the !friendly command should slay the user instantly. That way, a Medic attempting to activate this will not be able to retain their Ubercharge upon switching to friendly mode, rendering the exploit impossible to use.

Again, as someone who enjoys the ability to spend their time without being murdered, I hope we, on the idle server, get to see it stay. If there's any other information regarding this that you need to know, or if you have any comments on this, feel free to share. I can more thank likely supply any extra needed information regarding this plugin, as I've done fluent testing with it ever since it was added.

Also, I apologize if this comes off as being backseat admin, this is not my intention. I simply wish to have the plugin remain whilst it being exploit-free.

Thank you for your time, and I hope to see this issue resolved and the idle server friendly once more.

 

[Renegade]

It's never best to take the easy way out. The best thing to do like Sotaar said was to add a command where you suicide as soon as you activated the plugin

That doesn't work if they're standing in spawn.

 

[Auntie Sotaar]

It's never best to take the easy way out. The best thing to do like Sotaar said was to add a command where you suicide as soon as you activated the plugin

Though I don't mean to toot my own horn, I feel like that'd be one of the easiest and most effective ways to deal with the situation. The ultimate decision is to whomever is in charge of handling the plugin, Bottiger, I'd imagine.

That doesn't work if they're standing in spawn.

And that's my point, friendly doesn't activate until you respawn, and standing in the spawn area negates the need for that. If using the command killed the player, it'd get rid of any Medic's charged Uber regardless of where they are.

 

[Bottiger]

It seems like no one can agree on a solution so the best thing to do is to leave it removed for now. After all, we survived without it all these years.

Maybe you can try discussing possible solutions on the plugin page to see if anyone else has any good ideas.

https://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=213205&page=40

 

[Jermaphobe]

This is why we can't have nice things. Some assholes find an exploit and someone crys about it

 

[Auntie Sotaar]

It seems like no one can agree on a solution so the best thing to do is to leave it removed for now. After all, we survived without it all these years.

Maybe you can try discussing possible solutions on the plugin page to see if anyone else has any good ideas.

https://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=213205&page=40

After reading through the thread, I noticed the plugin creator's comment of:

"I'm working on a way to easily auto-update the game data without actually updating the whole plugin.
Also, I usually cheat and steal the gamedata data from the [TF2] Melee Only plugin but he has changed how that plugin works. I'll take a look and see if his method of resetting a weapon is better.
In the meantime, you can configure the plugin to slay players before enabling Friendly Mode on them."

In that sense, I believe he and I have similar ideas of simply insta-slaying the user upon use of the !friendly command. Another solution someone suggested was refreshing everyone's weapons, status, and ammo upon transitioning to friendly mode.

"TF2_RegeneratePlayer
SetEntPropFloat(medigun, Prop_Send, "m_flChargeLevel", 0.0); // 0.0 - 1.0"

The plugin creator also agreed with this proposed solution, but timing would play a large part of getting this way to work.

This is why we can't have nice things. Some assholes find an exploit and someone crys about it

I agree. I waited for quite a while for such a plugin, and I enjoyed it while it lasted. I hope that the exploit is corrected soon and the plugin returned.

 

[Renegade]

The problem isn't the glitch itself. The problem is the people using it to do stupid shit.

 

[Auntie Sotaar]

The problem isn't the glitch itself. The problem is the people using it to do stupid shit.

Correct, but there's always going to be that one person who goes off and abuses it, ruining it for everyone. As much as I hate to say it, I feel like preventing it entirely, using it to be friendly or not, would be in everyone's best interest. You don't even need to be Ubered to do friendly things, that's what the whole command is for in the first place.

 

[SPACE_KITTEN]

indeed i really like the idea of just killing you as soon as you type it in anywhere you are it would kill you once the cammand was used. it would get rid of tons of problems and trying to moderate, swap teams, ect. is usually not as useful in some cases it cant be there in time for it like getting in admin, or pointing fingers to get people banned for it i dont really agree with those i just see Sotaar's kill you instantly idea the easiest and most effective way to get rid of the glitch.

 

[Auntie Sotaar]

indeed i really like the idea of just killing you as soon as you type it in anywhere you are it would kill you once the cammand was used. it would get rid of tons of problems and trying to moderate, swap teams, ect. is usually not as useful in some cases it cant be there in time for it like getting in admin, or pointing fingers to get people banned for it i dont really agree with those i just see Sotaar's kill you instantly idea the easiest and most effective way to get rid of the glitch.

Thank you, and I hope we get everyone to agree on this, or something similar. Hopefully soon we can see the idle server friendly once more, but this time exploit-free.

 

[mikej_]

+1

I approve of the suicide suggestion or any solution for that matter if it helps bring back the !friendly command.

The idle server has a great community but there are a few individuals who purposely make it their
goal to ruin everyone's fun. That command really takes the wind from their sales while still allowing people to
enjoy themselves.

 

[Spadow]

The plugin has returned in idle. But, it's dumb in its current state. Only a maximum of players can become 'friendly' and you will have to wait if you want to become 'friendly'.

 

[Auntie Sotaar]

The plugin has returned in idle. But, it's dumb in its current state. Only a maximum of players can become 'friendly' and you will have to wait if you want to become 'friendly'.

That both makes me happy and not at the same time. This isn't a fix, it's a band-aid solution. I don't mean to sound so critical, but I just don't think that this is a solution that would do anything in terms of keeping the peace. The whole purpose of this thread was to attempt to have the exploit nullified, not to have the situation tossed into the corner. Nothing has changed, just less people have the chance to abuse and hog the status. Again, I apologize if I'm coming across as far too critical, but this isn't what I was expecting would be done.

 

[KinCryos]

I'm on right now and the weird thing is that there doesn't seem to be any friendlies

 

[Auntie Sotaar]

I'm on right now and the weird thing is that there doesn't seem to be any friendlies

Hmm, when I tried to switch over just a moment ago it said that there were too many. Perhaps something went wrong in the code and set the max to 0? Either way, I don't see how this "adjustment" fixes the overall problem. Though I do appreciate the command being back for the time being, limiting the number of people using it does more harm than good.

 

[KinCryos]

I think I found the problem. using the command /friendly_v will show the version, as well as how many friendlies there currently are. number of current friendlies: 1024

 

[Auntie Sotaar]

I think I found the problem. using the command /friendly_v will show the version, as well as how many friendlies there currently are. number of current friendlies: 1024

That would most likely do it. I don't suppose anything can be done about that at the moment, however.

 

[Bottiger]

All I did was add a TF2_RespawnPlayer at the front of the command.

If it breaks like that then I don't know how to fix it. You will have to ask the author of the plugin to fix it.

 

[KinCryos]

All I did was add a TF2_RespawnPlayer at the front of the command.

If it breaks like that then I don't know how to fix it. You will have to ask the author of the plugin to fix it.

I just looked over the documentation, it seems all you had to do was change the sm_friendly_action_f_spawn CVAR to -1. doing so will slay them if they're in spawn before applying friendly mode, which would fix the Medic issue (or you could change it to -2 so it would act like the player is out of spawn, waiting for them to respawn before applying friendly)

 

[Auntie Sotaar]

I just looked over the documentation, it seems all you had to do was change the sm_friendly_action_f_spawn CVAR to -1. doing so will slay them if they're in spawn before applying friendly mode, which would fix the Medic issue (or you could change it to -2 so it would act like the player is out of spawn, waiting for them to respawn before applying friendly)

Doing so would be the fix we're looking for, and as for the issue with there being a current 1000+ friendlies, a simple reboot of the plugin should remove anyone currently "friendly." Or sm_friendly_maxfriendlies may have to be altered if the problem persists.

Either way, thank you for helping possibly resolve this Kin <3

 

[Auntie Sotaar]

While on the server today, the "Too many friendlies" issue is not occurring, I'm able to become friendly like normal. And the current fix, for anyone interested, is that while in the spawn zone, you are killed when using the command. The player even says "No" as an added touch. But if you're outside the spawn zone, it works like normal. I speak for everyone on the server when I say thank you for resolving this issue, so thank you.