Technical Information

[Phogue]

WHMCS

If you're marked as a tester go to http://myprocon.myrcon.co/ and sign up for a hosted Procon account.

If you actually login to Procon it will be a miracle.

"Bank Transfer" option, but you don't actually need to pay. It's just an easy way to sandbox whmcs.

Definitions
Procon is made up of two applications. You should be sure to refer to exactly what application you're talking about.

Procon C#: The C# application that runs the plugins, connections to game servers etc.
Procon UI: Everything found at http://staging2.myrcon.com

Alpha
It's still being built and added to. Closed beta is scheduled for 30/04/2014 with Open-Beta in Mid-May. We run out of money then, so it's release or die.

Code

• Procon C#: https://github.com/Myrcon/Procon-2
• Procon UI: Closed

Documentation

• Ask questions as issues at https://github.com/Myrcon/Procon-2-Documentation
• Answers will be compiled at a later date. No need for long text as no one ever reads it. Outside of plugin developers I don't see a need for documentation. I've tried to make the UI as simple as possible.

Projects Constraints

• Users must be able to host the solution themselves
• Users must be able to access Procon from any device
• The UI must be able to stand against DDoS (or have a plan in case of DDoS)
• Communication between UI and user must be encrypted (will be for live)
• Communication between UI and C# must be encrypted.
• No options/settings for end users.
• Installing/Updating/Uninstalling packages from the UI.
• Responsive UI (Works on Desktop, Tablet, Phone)
• Myrcon must be able to offer hosting
• Must be able to support additional protocols
• Patches can be released in minutes, not weeks.
• Plugin developers must host their own packages (to avoid responsibility falling onto Myrcon)
• Plugin's can have their own UI.
• Fuzzy text matching: "kick phoaague", "kick me", "kick everyone but me" etc.
• Route text matching: "kick [player]", "something [map] [player]"
• Database support within Procon C#

However many times we edit this post, there will always be "[more ..]". It's a very ambitious project that I hope is presented in a very simple UI.

Operations

• Procon C# runs in continuous integration. All commits to master run through a build->test->release cycle into Nuget packages.
• Procon UI releases occur with click-and-deploy.
• Releasing updates and fixes for either can occur in minutes.
• WHMCS to handle support tickets
• GSP Panel for people to "kick procon C# along" when it hangs

Technology

• Cloudflare Business
• Digicert EV Certificate
• Maxmind GeoIP2 Omni
• Amazon AWS/EC2/Acronym
• JetBrains TeamCity
• Github
• JetBrains WebStorm
• WHMCS (billing)
• GSP Panel (managing Procon C# hosted by Myrcon)
• AmCharts
• NodeJS
• AngularJS (You should learn this to write Plugin UI's)
• MongoDB
• SocketIO/Websockets
• JetBrains ReSharper
• JetBrains dotCover
• JetBrains dotTrace
• NUnit
• NodeUnit
• Karma Unit

Development cost
Staggering, if you include my time. About $15,000 in various software, contractors etc.

Development History

• Procon C# has been rewritten four times. Five if you include Metabans, which was originally going to turn into an rcon tool as well.
• Procon UI has been rewritten five to eight times and includes three developers, two designers and a very, exceptionally, picky me.
• Excluding the logo, none of the UI front-end existed in January. I'm to blame for the design and implementation
• I did buy a theme to work from, but it's been so butchered I feel safe to say "I bought a colour scheme" to work from. The last part of the theme (the menu layout) will be reworked in the next month.

Pricing

• Yet to be decided.
• A free tier with limitations will be available, hopefully as a means for try-before-you-buy.
• Users can host the C# program themselves and still use the UI, we may use ads to support the infrastructure costs for this.

People

• Geoff/Phogue - Development
• Hubert/Stoichiometric - Operations
• Nick/Morpheus - Operations

People - Retired

• Cameron/Imisnew2 - Development

Notes

• While responsive and able to be used on Phones/Tablets I still imagine iOS/Android apps being created to further save on battery.
• Only very minimal optimization has occurred with the UI.
• It's only been tested in Chrome.
• If I can turn this into a full time paying job then I see the project as about half done. There are thousands of things I still want to do.
• I have been working on this project full time since August last year. I expect to continue working on it full time until July, at which point the projects future will be decided.
• If it fails, then at least it wasn't vapour-ware.

[Phogue]

Timeline

31/03/2014 - 19/04/2014
Alpha will be run on the same development servers we currently have. They are very tiny servers, but useful for us to test minor details and continue with current development.

We may need to wipe the database daily.

This test is to iron out the major/critical issues with the software, releasing updates or writing plugins.

19/04/2014 - 27/04/2014
Alpha will switch over to production hardware.

All existing hardware and processes will be decommissioned.

All databases wiped.

28/04/2014 - 31/05/2014
Closed beta. Everyone with a colourful name will be invited in to stress test the production hardware and processes.

All databases wiped.

01/06/2014
Open Beta. Signup, payment but with the expectation of bugs and improvement on our end.

01/08/2014
Release. It's just a day where we eat cake.

Databases for plugins is commissioned, all Procon instances restarted to connect to database. Plugins requiring a database will now function.

Development Timeline
(Where you will see major improvements and my main development focus)

01/04/2014 - 07/04/2014
WHMCS / GSP-Panel testing. If you have any problem submitting tickets, signing up etc. This is the boring bit of the project for me but it does need a weeks focus from me leading up the change over on the 19'th

08/04/2014 - 11/04/2014
Closing open issues on the Procon 2 C#, specifically packages loading in full source.

12/04/2014 - 18/04/2014
Building foundations of History, map management, settings and manual bans. Improving player details.

21/04/2014 - 29/04/2014
Bug fixes, more improvements and optimizations. Hopefully have the UI feature complete but a little tattered around the edges.

+30/04/2014
The thousands of ideas I have.

[Phogue]

Alpha FAQ - User

1. Can I take screenshots, movies or talk about it?
Yes, you didn't sign an NDA. I would almost encourage you to, but try to make my work look good

I would respectfully request that you keep critical thoughts to this forum so I can improve on your concerns first.

If you do take screenshots please scrub them of URL's.

2. I'm a little underwhelmed. Can some one hold me?

The UI didn't exist as it is in February. I've still got almost two months from this date to get it shmick.

I plan on charging for this service and hope to offer something pretty damn good.

3. I don't know if I'll use it till it's got plugins.

True, in fact you might find it a little useless without them to begin with. I'll be making and releasing plugins after it goes live.

During the alpha all I ask is you at least login and look at it once a day. Follow the threads in this forum to see what's new.

4. I miss feature X

Feature X was probably very frostbite specific. This service is designed to run on any game, but with plugin panels I think a majority of the functionality specific to a protocol can be included. It will be a long road though.

5. It's broken on browser X

I have not done any browser testing other than Chrome. I won't be doing browser testing until Beta.

6. It's broken on Chrome

Tell me with bug reports, red text and screenshots that have huge red circles around them. That started genuine and went to sarcasm, sorry.

I do mean it though, if it's broken in Chrome then huge alarm bells.

7. Responsive fails at 487px

Yep, not looking till Beta. So long as it looks okay at 486px and 488px..

8. Price

I have not decided on the price yet, but if you are still unhappy with potential prices when we go into Beta then this software is already a failure.

I honestly expect it will be so well refined and easy to use that people will be willing to pay for it. If it's not then it sucks already, right?

9. I can get it hosted elsewhere for X cost though

Get it hosted elsewhere for X then. Capitalism!

I do plan on running a service so good people will want to pay for it.

Alpha Developer - FAQ

1. Help! I don't know how to think in generics..

Stop. Thinking. Frostbite. It's difficult at first, but you'll come around.

We don't have a Commander attribute on the player for instance, instead we make a Group { "Name": "Commander", Uid: "1" } and attach that to the player. Otherwise we have a pointless property in Call Of Duty.

We don't support the infinitely detailed settings of Frostbite at a protocol level, instead we pass on packets to plugins to deal with these.

2. So what does Procon do?

Gives a very simple abstract interface for poking/prodding a server that a majority of games will support. Kicking a player, killing them, moving the map forward etc. Basic.

3. Where's the documentation?

HAHHAHA.. No, this time around I do intend to document this. The source has very good documentation and we have examples of plugins that must pass unit tests for our CI to build+release. I will add more examples - whatever helps people make something crazy.

If you ask me a question and I respond to it, I beg you to include it in the documentation at https://github.com/Myrcon/Procon-2-Documentation

Dot point. Copy + paste. Anything so it may be expanded upon in the future. "Phogue said plugins are abstract beings of wonder and mystery" will do.

4. How do I test the UI of my plugin locally?

I had hoped by this point to have a plugin tool to help developers make plugins. Nothing like this has happened and probably will not happen until August.

I may have an idea on being able to host a php script locally to mimic the entire process of communicating with a mock local UI.

5. Cool! TIME TO MAKE PLUGINS!!! YEYYAAAHH PLUGINS!!! GOGOGOGOGO

Wait. Yes, you can make them but there is a hard lesson learns from Procon 1 that must be conveyed.

Procon 1 suffered when everyone had plugins in week 2 and I couldn't edit the plugin interface, even after having some cool ideas or just wanting to rename a variable.

I promise you, I will release updates to Core that will break plugins you write in the next three months.

I might rename a variable in an interface. I might remove a method you rely on or change it's functionality. I will not be thinking about your plugin in this time. I won't give warning, nothing. You will login and see broken tears of pain instead of plugin joy.

Saying that, in June'ish I promise I will not release updates that break your plugin over something so minor.

6. Why is the UI closed source? Do you hate the open source community?

No... maybe a little. No, I don't, but I also need to hold onto a card if I want to make this a full time job for me. Procon 1 had about five months full-time development by me over the years.

Procon 2 has had several sporadic years full-time development. I have been full time 9-5 pm on Procon 2 since June 2013. It's financially fucked me.

If I spent all this time on it now, imagine what another year will have. I can only do that if I can monetize it just enough to pay a minimum full time wage for me (let alone support staff)

[Phogue]

... and we're away. Go break my years worth of work: http://myprocon.myrcon.co/

Note: WHMCS/Gsp panel is two days old. I'll be spending the rest of the week on it.

The alpha starts as soon as you hit the link above and try to sign up for hosting

[MorpheusX(AUT)]

Just as a warning: it appears like the registration/setup emails are somehow not always sent properly.
Furthermore, we'll have to mark your payment as processed manually in order to activate your accounts.

If you didn't receive your login details within 24 hours of signing up, ping me @ [email protected].

[PapaCharlie9]

Er ... am I supposed to ignore that the pay-wall wants AU$10? A "testers get a free ride" message would be nice. Or a mention in the FAQ. What do I know? I'm ignorant.

Or is this some kind of new "pay to test" gig?

EDIT: Ha, the pay-wall says "starting from AU$10", but the actual shopping cart says AU$5. That kind of accounting is not going to make you much money.

EDIT: Tricky marketing! Says AU$5 monthly, but 1 connection is another $5. So it really is starting AU$10 monthly.

FINAL EDIT: Got the emails (3) immediately. Just waiting for the magic pay-fairy to pay my account.

[Phogue]

Or is this some kind of new "pay to test" gig?

if you went back and READ the 5000 word wall of text I put a minor edit into, you would see that it clearly says, buried under the rest of the text.

"Bank Transfer" option, but you don't actually need to pay. It's just an easy way to sandbox whmcs.

Next time, please RE-READ the entire thread start to finish for minor un-announced edits that I'm announcing here.

Compounding the wall of the text, here is stuff on the topic of pricing:

Hosts have unfortunately set the market very low. They have data centers with servers to spare and they don't actually need to pay developers to work on the software.

Some of them do offer a lot of support, a majority don't. So we end up being the support. We're also entirely responsible for what happens with their hosting as well some times. It's great. Now Myrcon skims off their $ (which they pass on to the customer anyway) they even use it as an out to put more responsibility onto us.

With #2 I will, off the bat, redirect people back to their hosts if they have any problems. I cannot pay support people to work on support for our company and theirs. If people pay to have their software hosted with us then I will hire people to support them full time. Nice people. People not jaded by #1. People that want a client facing role, you know

Us actually hosting the software now means we have a vested interest in how well it hosts.. so that should benefit everyone.

[Phogue]

Hubert (Stoichiometric) recently moved and still does not have internet at his new location. I'll be calling him tomorrow to see what we can do about getting setup this weekend, but I don't like our chances.

His provided has mentioned he will have internet at the end of the month, so we may unfortunately need to play this one by ear.

If end-of-the-month is the go then we will continue with the timeline but extend the closed-beta time by however many days we lose.

[Phogue]

Hubert's been told by his ISP he will have internet on Tuesday. We'll see how we go getting this setup mid next week.

[Phogue]

First brief with Hubert, he'll start looking into the task list today and we should meetup over the weekend to get everything sorted.