The join-screen hall of fame has escaped the join screen. Following on from our first Server Stats post, we have built a link between our heavily modified ServerTools mod and the Bad Neighbors website. The server now pushes data to the site, where it is updated and available for everyone to browse. Your questionable decisions have a web address now.
From ServerTools to the Website
This work connects what happens in-game with what you can see here on the website. Our version of ServerTools sends the data across, and the website handles displaying it. That gives us a place to share our gameplay stats, show starter items, and keep current auction listings and bounties accessible outside the game.
- Server Stats: Check the player stats and leaderboards, compare your adventures, and admire the numerical evidence of somebody else’s bad day.
- Starter Items: See the starting-item options on the website.
- Current Auctions: Browse the current listings and see what players have put up for sale.
- Bounties: Cannon fodder and hunters need some love as well. Check the boards and see who has made some frenemies. We are all one big happy gaming family; some of us just express our affection by putting a price on each other’s heads.
This connection also carries across all seeds hosted by Bad Neighbors, bringing our hosted worlds into the website so you can follow the stats and activity for each seed.
It is another way to share the life of the server, even when you are away from the game. The website reflects the latest data received from the server, so treat it as an updated snapshot rather than a second-by-second live feed.
More Room for Zombies, Less Work Serving Web Pages
The key difference is where the public-facing stats are hosted: on our website, separate from the game server itself. The game server still collects and pushes the data, but it does not have to host the stats website or serve pages every time someone checks a leaderboard or browses an auction.
That keeps the web hosting work off the game server and saves its resources for running the world, dealing with zombies, and processing whatever architectural crime somebody is currently committing with concrete.
Love to the People Who Gave Us the Bones
Our heavily modified ServerTools started with the hard work of other developers, and they deserve the credit. A huge thank-you to Dmustanger, ObsessiveCompulsive (ObsComp), Gik, Koi, Android_Data, and Thunderbolt, credited in the original ServerTools project, and to everyone who contributed along the way.
We love you for the bones you gave us to work with. The original tools, ideas, and effort gave us a foundation to build on, pull apart, and turn into our own particular flavour of Bad Neighbors chaos. This website connection is our continuation of that work, and we are grateful for everything that made it possible.
And Yes, About Those Block Counts…
Yes, we know the block counts really are that fucked up. We are working on it. Apparently the apocalypse got into the accounting department.