TimeWaster’s Place

Foreword: I write this article especially with two projects in mind: “Eventscripts” and “Truecrypt”. Come and get me.

The species called “Programmer” seems to be a bit thin-skinned when it comes to issues only “related” to their work.

The first thing is documentation:
Eventscripts is the best example for a lack of documentation. Eventscripts is a scripting engine which enables one to write gaming server related scripts for CS:S for instance. Eventscripts uses python for the underlying scripting engine, but adds a vast amount of increments to it regarding the game events and so on.
There is a wiki containing documentation, but it is by no means complete. many commands are missing, others are incomplete, others are simply wrong. IT IS A PAIN IN THE ASS to write a script with this bad documentation.
I started a conversation regarding this issue with the Eventscripts creators, and it degenerated fast into a conflict, arguing about whose job it is to do documentation.
Since the wiki is writable for everyone, the creators have the opinion that the users have to write this documentation.
But how i ask, how can a user write this documentation without knowing what a command can do? or even not knowing that some commands exist?
IMHO it is always the job of the programmers to document their work! I also write code i publish (mostly unter GPL), but i would never even think of publishing it without a complete documentation!

The second thing is behaviour that is not caused by the program but by the operating system:
I assume you all know Truecrypt: When one creates a large container file in Truecrypt, he will most probably leave the creation process running over night, since it takes many hours to create.
The problem is: after creating and formatting the container, the operating system needs to do a task which requires system privileges. The system asks the user to give it to this process, but since no one is on the keyboard, it runs into a timeout and tells Truecrypt that the format was unsuccessful. Truecrypt then tells the user that it could not format the container AND DELETES the nevertheless successful created container.
The argument in the forum why this bug isn’t fixed is that it is a issue with the operating system, therefore it’s not the Truecrypt programmers fault. They easily could fix it by requesting the admin privileges for the process on the beginning of the formatting.

So, what is it with programmers to accept their own babies to be incomplete or faulty by simply stating that’s not their fault? I could never do that! It would break the rule of delivering a complete and usable product!

So to all the programmers out there: Stop whining and start writing cool, complete and usable software!!!

TimeWaster’s Banking Script is an advanced bank based on Eventscripts v1.5 and a SQLite database which makes it incredibly fast.
There’s an converter included to convert and copy “EternalBank” bank accounts for your easy switching pleasure.

Features:
- Multi language capable (atm English and German)
- Display of balance and interest rate within the main menu
- Automatic deposit
- Automatic withdraw
- Transfer money within a menu structure (no need to type silly commands)
- Manual deposit
- Manual withdraw
- Top10 List
- Every round will bear an interest
- Ability to turn off messages send on player spawn
- customizable name, interest rate, info rate and language (English and German atm)
- Included is a converter to copy bank accounts from an existing EternalBank.

This script is released under the GPL: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php

You’ll find a list of servers running this script here: Game-Monitor.com

Installation:
1. The plugin “Eventscripts” has to be installed on your server: http://www.mattie.info/cs/ (both versions are fine). If you are using ES 1.5, please make sure you have the latest version installed (v1.5.0.171b), otherwise the money transfer will not work.
2. Extract this script inside your MOD folder /cstrike/
4. Configure the Banking script regarding your wishes in the script file itself
5. Add the following line to THE END of your autoexec.cfg
es_load banking
6. Restart your server
7. If you want to copy the bank accounts from an existing EternalBank database, you have to do the following:
7.1 Open your server console and type in: “BankConvert”. this will start the automatic conversion process. there’s nothing more to do.
7.2 After the conversion has successfully finished, remove your EternalBank completely and remove the loading command for EternalBank from your autoexec.cfg.
7.3 Restart your server.

PLEASE NOTE FIRST: the conversion process WILL COMPLETELY STOP your server from responding for the time the conversion is running. do not kill the server process, this is normal. Afterwards a short status message will be displayed in the server console.
In general it is not a bad idea to run this conversion on a local test server. (Recommended)
There’s also a glitch which is ES_Tools related: ES_Tools wants to kill and restart the server process when it’s detecting the server has stopped responding. it is a good idea to deactive ES_Tools by moving away the “es_tools.vdf” file temporarily and restarting the server before starting the conversion process.

Download:
TimeWaster’s Banking Script

TimeWaster’s Happy Hour Script v1.0 for Counter Strike Source

This script will give every player weapons and equipment for free at the period you define.

Requirements: EventScripts 2.0 or higher

UPDATERS PLEASE NOTICE:
Version 1.0 is not compatible with any previous version before 0.6 since it is a complete rewrite in python. Please remove every old Happy Hour related config you might have left in your server.cfg or autoexec.cfg.

Features:

• Translation file system (Atm English and German, please send me your translations for other languages)
• Decide which primary and secondary weapons as well as equipment will be given to the player (disengageable for every weapon type)
• The timeslots are freely configurable, one slot can run over several weekdays
• Advert system announcing start and end times for Happy Hour (disengageable)
• Warmup timer to stop Happy Hour as long as a warmup script is running
• Can play a sound at start and end of Happy Hour
• Can run any command at start and end of Happy Hour
• Fun stuff: Endless grenades (default: off), multiple bombs (default: off)
• You can start the Happy Hour anytime you wish using the following rcon command: “rcon happy_on 1″

If you want to playtest this script you can do so on our public clan server: 83.142.84.182:27015
There’s every day from 8 PM to 9 PM (CET/GMT+1/UTC+1) (20 bis 21 Uhr) Happy Hour.

Download: Happy Hour Script

Installation:

• Make sure you have installed EventScripts 2.0 250i Beta 2 or higher.
• Unzip happyhour_v0.6a_python.zip inside your /cstrike/ folder
• Configure this script in “/addons/eventscripts/happyhour/happyhour.cfg”
• Add the following line to THE END of your autoexec.cfg:
  es_load happyhour

• Restart your server.

Version Notes:
v 1.0
- Added feature: HH can give more health
- I hereby declare this version 1.0 final (Feature complete and passed public testing).
v 0.6b:
- Some code optimizations
- Added feature: Player can get now an arbitrary amount of any type of grenades
v 0.6a:
– Some code cleanup and minor bug fixing
v 0.6:
– A complete rewrite for ES 2.0 Python
– Added feature: Timeslots can be configured freely
– Added feature: Bombs and defuser will only be given on de_ (bomb) maps
– Added feature: HH can be started via console command
v 0.5:
– Fixed Bug: On spawn, when weapons will be replaced the old weapons will lay around
– Fixed Bug: On spawn, when weapons will be handed, some weird one after the other weapon delivery effect happens
v 0.4:
– Changed loading method
– Fixed Bug: Welcome message meant for joining player is seen by everyone
– Added feature: Abandoned Weapons will be removed after spawn
v 0.3:
– Documentary cleanup
– Added feature: Multilanguage support (now i need your translations!)
– Added feature: Display of predefined text (start and ending times) instead of calculated values
– Added feature: Warmup timer to avoid screwing Mani Admin warmup time
– Added feature: Play a sound when the HH starts or ends
– Added feature: Execute a server command when the HH starts or ends
– Added feature: Prevent block hh_time from being run twice (e.g. after server restart)
– Added feature: Weapons and equipment are now configurable
v 0.2:
– (2nd) Initial version