What is Better Host?

A lua Addon Script for AMS2 Dedciated Server to help reduce lag between players when host has poor ping to dedciated server. The Host is the first person to join the server.

How does it choose better host.

The default is better host will capture all players pings every 15 seconds, then takes the avg of these pings and compares it to other players. If the host has the lowest ping, there is no better host however if a player has a lower ping value, they should be a better host. There is a paramater in the config file called "bh_ms_range" to reduce minor ping variance between players with a default set of 75ms. If the host has a avg ping of 150, a better host would need to have an avg ping of 75 or less to become a better host.

How does a better host become host?

In order for the better host to become host, everyone between the current host and the better host needs to be kicked from the server. The affected players will be notified via in game chat to leave and rejoin server however there is a default limit of 3 reminders whith reminders sent to player in game chat every 10 secs, if they don't leave they will be kicked.

Note: The list/index of players is based on jointime to the server, so you might be determined to be the better host but 10 other players had joined server before you, these 10 players will receive message to rejoin server and if ignored will forcefully be removed.

At the moment, better host only runs in Lobby and Practice sessions, however this might get extended to Qualifying (opt in) in future releases.

How to install:

1. Download latest release.
2. Unzip folder locally
3. Rename folder to "better_host"
4. Upload to AMS2 Dedicated Server folder /lua Your lua folder should look/contain these folders:

better_host
lib_rotate
sms_base
sms_motd
sms_rotate
sms_stats
test

6. To activate this new script, you need to add it to the server.cfg file. Open this file with editor of choice and add "better_host" to the luaApiAddons section.

  enableLuaApi : true  
  luaAddonRoot: "lua"
  luaConfigRoot: "lua_config"
  luaOutputRoot: "lua_output"
  luaApiAddons : [  
      "sms_base",
      //"sms_rotate",
      "sms_motd",
      "sms_stats",
      "better_host"
  ]

7. Now you can start you server and better host will load up and start gathering player info should 2 or more players be on server and in Lobby or Practice sessions.

You can also type cmd in the ingame chat to get a list of commands you can use to show stats.

If you wish to tweak some of the default settings, please modify the newly created "better_host_config.json" file that is located on the server under the lua_config folder.

Default Config

// Built in High Ping kicker enabled - Default is false
// Only enable if ams2_bot is not installed/active
"hp_active" : false,
// Define the acceptable ms ping the member can have. Default 500
"ping_limit_ms" : 500,
// Grab the members ping every x seconds . Default 15 (4 times per minute)
"grab_seconds" : 15,
// How many warnings before kicking. Default 3
"warnings" : 3,
// Better Host system
"bh_active": true,
// Send Chat message to all members when joining showing BHB is running on server.
"bh_announce_when_joining" : true,
// Better host by default will run in Lobby. Enabling the below will extend better host to continue running into the Practice session if setup.
"bh_enable_in_practice" : true,
// Adds a buffer to the best avg_ping to avoid smaller variances in determining better host.
// eg: If the current host has a ping of 65ms, in order for that to change to another member, they would have to be less than (65 -30) 35ms.
// The lower the number the better the host is however it may swap more hosts if pings are close.
 // default is 75
"bh_ms_range" : 75,
// This number is used to determine if that members ping should be included in finding better host.
// The greater this number the longer it will take to determine better host. The lower the number might switch between better host quicker, especially when new members join.
// ie if ping_count = 2 and ping_scan_secs = 15, it will take a minimum of 30 secs to find better host.
"bh_ping_count_start" : 2,
// Frequency in seconds in scan/update ping data. Default : 10
"bh_ping_scan_secs" : 10, 
// How many warnings before auto kicked. Default : 3
"bh_rejoin_warnings" : 3,
// Frequency in seconds to remind member to rejoin. Default : 30
"bh_rejoin_reminder" : 30,
// Frequency in seconds to scan/update better host. Default : 15
"bh_scan_secs" : 15,
// Announce to all when better host is actual host.
"bh_is_host" :  true,
// Store member data in local file storage = true, in memory = false. Default: true
"addon_data_store_members" : true,
// A list of better host admins who will have some additional commands available via in-game chat. start, stop, ebh (enforce better host - kick members between current host and better host.)
"ingame_admins_steamids" : "",