Welcome to MOOCOW, the Manual Obedience Operations Control of Win!

News: MOOCOW VERSION 1.0 RELEASED!!!!!!! (4/6/09) - 27 days after starting

Images at the end

History Available at: http://www.wiremod.com/forum/off-top...wn-radmin.html


What is MOOCOW?:
MOOCOW stands for the Manual Obedience Operations Control Of Win. It is an admin mod for Garrysmod. It is a project that I created in order to replace the old, dying, and poorly coded other admin mods for gmod.

MOOCOW is a simple, intuitive system that allows users to perform actions quickly and easily, and at the same time gives you the freedom to customize it should you choose. MOOCOW is the only admin mod that features customizable teams and commands to such as degree that you can actually choose where and to whom messages appear.

Why Choose MOOCOW?:
I'm not going to sit here and list nonexistent/implied/or otherwise standard features like you'll find in the features lists of some of my competitors, instead, I'm going to tell you about, good, unique, and powerful systems that are in place in this mod and this mod alone.

• MOOCOW has toggled commands. One of the major flaws with other mods is that it makes the commands that activate and deactivate certain punishments separate. This means that they need a lot more useless code to make it that way, and they make interfacing commands more difficult. MOOCOW's commands, however, can be imagined like light switches, every time you call the command on someone, you flip their light switch on or off.
• MOOCOW allows you to run 'mass commands', meaning you can run commands on multiple people with only one call to a command! Just type a # symbol, followed by the rank to use it on, optionally followed by a + or - to have it work on all teams above/below that group respectively (inclusive with the group name you type)! (Example: "slay #client+", which will slay everybody)
• MOOCOW is not case sensitive. That means that no matter where you enter data, whether it be in a configuration file or in chat or console, MOOCOW will read "HI" the same as "hi" the same as "Hi". This eliminates a lot of aggravation that people had with my competitors.
• MOOCOW features its own prop protection systems. These allow you to configure what gets protected, when it gets protected, and much much more! There are commands for adding prop friends, tools that are immune to protection, and more, including admin flags for prop protection.
• MOOCOW has a Derma based, easy to use GUI that makes using all the commands very very easy. It's not the flashiest thing in the world, I admit, but it gets the job done well! You can also use Derma skins with this, just like anything else to tailor it to your desires!
• MOOCOW has restriction systems, allowing you to configure what is the minimum rank that can attain a specific swep/sent/tool. This is all easily configurable through the GUI.
• MOOCOW has a settings.txt file that allows you to change virtually anything that you desire! You can change the display messages for all commands, you can change what character sequence initiates a command (/help vs. !help vs. moocow help or anything else you like) and even misc settings that let you do things like determine if water should put out fires initiated by the burn command.
• MOOCOW is 'bare-bones' by itself. While the package you download is not (you'd need to take out the plugins for it to be), the MOOCOW scripts (moocow_server.lua and moocow_client.lua) are completely independent and work by themselves; everything else is a plugin, everything. That means that you can choose exactly what you want for your server, without too much or too little. Everything from separate commands to command entry via chat is done through plugins. This same system creates a unique and favorable system for third party developers to use.
• MOOCOW features customizable groups. MOOCOW is the only mod that only has one team by default. All of the other mods tell you what to use, they say you must have an owner, super admin, admin, moderator, etc. team, and that's just not a good programming practice. MOOCOW, on the other hand, lets you choose precisely what teams you want and how they're configured. MOOCOW has a powerful, easy-to-use system for creating teams in a teams.txt file in your garrysmod/data/moocow directory, allowing you to make any team you like. You can choose the name of the team, its display color for the scoreboard (scoreboard not implemented yet), what commands it has, and if it inherits the commands of a sub team.
• MOOCOW is incredibly efficient. I was surprised when looking at the other popular admin mods to see how much unneeded clutter there was in their mods. It's amazing how little code it takes to do things that other mods use over 150 lines to accomplish! Many simple things, such as checks to ensure punishments have been made more efficient by making them not run every frame, but rather only when needed; I can do this by having the knowledge of gmod's hooks that other admin mod designers don't.
• MOOCOW features a unique banning system. This means that when you ban players, it will no longer use Valve's terrible recording system, instead, information of banned players is saved to a special file that allows you to easily view, in and out of game, who was banned, by whom, when, for how long, and why. Identification of the players involved in the ban process is simplified by the addition of the player's name alongside their Steam ID.
• MOOCOW also features constant development. This means, that regardless of how old MOOCOW gets, and regardless of how many other projects I release, I will always work on MOOCOW. Any bugs you find (that are actually bugs), I will fix! Any update that breaks MOOCOW, I will handle, and I will polish this mod until it compares with no other. I also take requests for new plugins, so if you have an idea, post it and it may be created!

Enough Technical Stuff! Where can I find a Commands List?:
All commands can be found here
FAQ:
An FAQ can be found here
How do I Download/Install MOOCOW?:
MOOCOW is available as an SVN download *only* DO NOT UPLOAD IT ANYWHERE ELSE.
https://moocow.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/moocow
To install, simply follow the instructions here
For All Questions: Please, please, please go to the wiki before asking!

Credits
All of the code was written by me, turck3/Revan, however I did get a few pointers from ZeikJT of www.wiremod.com and n00berific. Both of which were a huge help. Thanks.
Thanks to the beta testers also, Darastrix, Lancelot, Medic's Medic, and anyone else who tried it.

VIDEO - NOTE: GUI shown at old revision with gaps that have since been removed (see screenshots below)
link-mirror

IMAGES
NOTE: Shown at low resolution to save on space! GUI *does* resize!

Awesome!you finally released version 1!

I swear, it says MOOCOW after almost every word. I'M BLINDED BY THE MOOCOW

... yea I'll check it out sometime.

I would love some pictures of the Derma/VGUI.

Was thinking that myself, just finished taking them.

Awesome. Hope you don't mind if I peak at your code. I won't steal but I like learning Lua. =]

Peak, steal, whatever, just give me credit if you steal :D

Even if turck3 did mind,how would he know if you did peak at he's code or not anyway -.-?

True, but I am just being nice...is being nice against the rules on Facepunch?


Anyways I shall suggest this to my friend who owns a server..once I see the pictures.

Yes,yes it is :)

and even if it was(n't) what can I do about it ;o

Images posted, enjoy. Video on the way.

GUI isn't wonderful but it gets the Job done. =]

The entire philosophy of the mod, in that sentence. It's not about having a flashy GUI, it's about having a functional, appropriate, configurable, atmosphere in which to administrate your server.

That's where New Admin went wrong.

I love flashy things actually..but I do think flashy can come later.

Keep in mind, you can use Derma skins with this. Make it look more flashy :P

True. I use Steam Flat Derma Skin. <3

Anyways I'll link my friend to this thread next time he gets on. If I had a server i'd use it but I do not.

Can some experienced coders give this thumbs up/down? I would like to see some support/comments from them before trying it out.

I personally love your mod, especially some of the other funny commands like rocket

Then you're probably going to wait a long time.

Finally, an alternative to ASSMod. Going to try this out now.

Oh god, you call that GUI productive? BRB Laughing
Oh god even the GUI of ULX is better O.o

Where exactly did NewAdmin fail at that?

Atmosphere? Your philosophy is badly flawed if you think that having a well made design and a stylish interface is not part of the atmosphere. I know of great many people who prefer just the opposite of what you are basing on. Although it is common way to choose the popular term "function over fashion", you cannot work as a supermodel while wearing function-full steel worker outfits if you know what I mean.

And derma skins won't solve your controls being badly positioned.

I do like some of the features your system hosts, but I fear that this will not get higher in the line of usages than, for say, ASSMod.

Surely the GUI could be made to look "flashy" in future updates?

I mean, it's not devastating...is it?

I really wonder if this will even reach 5% of ASSMod's popularity.

Even for a WIP this is horrible, so no.

its 2 times better then you're one(excluding the GUI)

"Its number two times better then I am one (excluding the GUI)"

What?

lol what?I didn't type that
I typed

Its 2 time better then you're one (excluding the GUI)

Broke for me when I tried to make myself owner.

] moocow setaccess [SF]HOUSEMASTER owner
Dont have required access level 
] rcon moocow setaccess HOUSEMASTER owner
Server changed [SF]HOUSEMASTER's access to owner
moocow_plugins/commands/setaccess.lua:4: bad argument #1 to 'lower' (string expected, got no value)

No other admin mods running.

And it broke camera tool

Well this seems to have gone downhill quickly, they joy of cocky coders. Also what's with the name?

It's an admin mod.. not a gamemode.. noone will see it but the admins.. so who really gives a fuck..

My dear man admins can "give a fuck". Do you think that only normal players are full of life and that admins are only soulless creatures who ban you on sight?

I give a fuck, I hate using ULX as it makes me want to punch my eyes out (possible? maybe), but I love using ASS due to the menu system being easy to understand and quick for me to use.

That's because you're a moron who didn't read the wiki which is in bold on the first post...

A system worthy of being used should be fool-proof.

1. It doesn't function half the bloody time - the GUI breaks often so that I can't even use it, then commands start to fall apart at the seems too!
2. It's case fracking sensitive!
3. It's not configurable in almost any way
4. The code looks like it was written by a two year old

I'm tired of seeing people hounding over things like Crisis because of graphics when they really should be picking up a copy of something like Starcraft. It was never meant to be a flash GUI, it's quick and easy to use. And do tell, why do you believe them badly positioned? (Keeping in mind you can drag any window and they *do* save location)

Funny, for someone boasting a mod which doesn't even work. Oh did I mention before, yours also leaves trashy files, even after uninstallation. Best part, everyone on your thread *recognizes* that you stopped working on it because of how trashy your mod is, so don't talk.

Ah, thanks. That was definitely a bug. The *one* place I didn't have a check to see if the file existed... it's fixed, just update. I would've caught that in my beta tests, but unfortunately those who I had testing it were adding their IDs manually to the file, so I never caught that.

It has nothing to do with your camera tool. If it broke, it's due to something else.

It is for the most part. The one error that was found thus far was found because my beta testers used a different method. That has been fixed within 5 minutes of my seeing it and I can assure you that all other bugs that are posted will be fixed just as fast (if you can find any).

I urge all of you not to take anything Darastrix says to heart. He speaks as a third party and doesn't represent MOOCOW's interests directly. While I appreciate his support, he has an irritating way of going about things most of the time. His solutions are often *not* correct, and that is why on multiple occasions I have spoken to him about letting me make the corrections instead.


As for the rest of you,
understand. The GUI was my *lowest* priority; by far. It functions, it's quick and easy to use, what more do you *really* need? If you happen to believe that it should be outlined another way, post something CONSTRUCTIVE and I will gladly review your idea and who knows, make it.

As a last note: I'd also like to mention that the GUI is also incredibly efficient. Every single frame that you will see is reused on multiple occasions. The code is extremely flexible and allows for a whole lot of GUI elements to be drawn using the same block of code. *That* was my focus in this part of the project; to make something reusable.

Part of the reason that the entire mod is no more then 300kb is because I reuse most of my code, and not by copy pasting, but by having a structured, planned out environment; one of the flaws that other admin mods (and just other mods) often have.

We all know that crysis sucked. I, personally, never payed attention to the hud nor interface but the whole game was just bloated. And why are you suddenly mixing in starcraft? Actually, why are you implying that I'm only playing games for their eye candy? People just feel uncomfortable when looking at unpleasant visual aspects.

You must have understood me wrong. I'm pretty sure I said "controls" not "windows". Take, for instance, this:



Don't take it as me showing off my work. Take it as an average example. What do you see there? Alignment. Constant size that fits other elements in that window. While still looking good, the extra elements don't interfere with the usage.

Also, in defense of Overv, at least in my opinion, this pretty much sums it up. I don't really know what people in this forum take as good code(I've seen some arguments about this aspect) but I believe that that is not the way you're supposed to do things.

1. Very few windows are any bigger or smaller then the rest of them. Most of them are standard size, I expanded some windows out of need and left the others small so that you didn't have half your screen taken up for most of it.
2. On all windows there is an 'ok' and 'cancel' option. To continue, press the buttons found at the bottom of the GUI or in some areas you can right click to bypass. To cancel, just press the close button in the top right.
3. There are a few types of windows
a. The main GUI
b. Other lists - mostly used for player lists (weapons sometimes though)
c. Sliders & Text input - done on the same pane and supports any number of elements
d. Restriction style window
e. Button window

On all of these windows, more then one element can be added. I showed off different sized and different types of windows in the screenshots so that you'd get a variety of different windows shown on purpose. Most windows are standard to the player lists in size.

4. As for the moocow.lua - first off, that's the first thing I wrote, so that aside, I don't really see anything wrong with that aside from an elseif CLIENT where it should just be else.
a. The concommand is for flushing the system in the unlikely event that an error occurs, it's also great for debugging
b. The hook is there to ensure that it loads later in startup, which fixes some issues that would otherwise occur.
c. The reason that a server check is done in the moocow_load concommand is because I originally intended it to be able to flush the client side too, I just never bothered to perfect it so I left it only server side.
d. I'll remove the unusual parts of it.

That code is fail, epic fucking fail.

As for the whole barebones shit, this is JUST like FizzMin (my admin mod). Fuck.

I'll take a code peek later...

ps. menu system is horribly innefficient. Just have either a) !ban/!unban etc, or a menu where you click once, twice max (FizzMin has twice, one click for select player, the other for reason, I might remove reason, depends).

You are again misunderstanding me. I am referring to gaps, sizes and spaces in yours windows. I am short on time, so I cannot explain this further. At least, not now. But tomorrow I will provide you with "visual explanation" of what exactly it is that I am driving you towards.