New features and other changes in the v0.98 release of XASECO:

• new /dedicps command to select which Dedimania record is used as reference for checkpoints tracking, with the following features:
  • checkpoint references are stored for all players (according to their preferences) only at the start of a track, not when entering the /dedicps command or when the player (re)connects
  • with no parameter (/dedicps) the player's own record on each track is selected or, if none is set, the last record on the pertaining track
  • /dedicps {1-30} selects Dedimania record 1-30 on each track or, if unavailable, again the last record
  • /dedicps off disables the Dedimania references for checkpoints tracking
  • as usual, once a player gains a better finish time than the chosen Dedimania reference, the checkpoints panel (TMF) or pop-up (TMN) will use those corresponding checkpoints for further updates during the current track
  • if the checkpoints for the chosen Dedimania record are invalid (empty, or the last checkpoint doesn't match the finish time) then no record is used as reference during that track for the pertaining player(s)
  • the chosen /dedicps setting is remembered between a player's reconnects as long as /cps remains enabled, until the next XASECO restart
• new /admin shuffle (alias /admin shufflemaps) command to shuffle (randomize) the current track list; this requires having set <writetracklist_random> to True in config.xml, and defining an $autosave_matchsettings filename in rasp.settings.php – note that autosaving only happens during a track switch, so if you shuffle immediately after adding a track, the addition will be lost
• new /admin addlocal command to add a track to the server's track list from the local 'Challenges/Downloaded/' directory; the track filename cannot contain spaces or non-typable characters, but can be entered case-insensitively and the '.Challenge.gbx' extension is optional – also, the $jukebox_adminadd setting is respected
• new /admin specfree command (TMF-only) to set the camera mode of a spectator (login or ID) to Free – requires build '2008-05-07' or later
• added support for TMF Laps mode:
  • the checkpoints tracking system (if activated via /cps) will show the difference to the best lap at each checkpoint and at the lap finish, and update the best lap data after each improved lap
  • if /dedicps is activated, the lap data for the chosen Dedimania record is used as initial best lap according to the rules above
  • local records are now maintained and compared on lap basis, meaning that those records will usually be unbeatable once the server is switched back to another game mode than TimeAttack, so keep that in mind when picking tracks for TimeAttack and Laps versus other modes
  • Dedimania records are also maintained and compared on lap basis like the central Dedimania system does (where they're mixed with TimeAttack mode records only), so they are now properly supported
• added support for TMUF Stunts mode:
  • updated /track, /recs and /dedirecs, /pb and /dedipb, and all record relation commands to show scores
  • updated the 'before' and 'after' track record messages (both local and Dedimania) to show scores
  • updated the new/improved/secured/equalled record messages (both local and Dedimania) to show scores
  • updated all record sorting into descending order
  • updated /list nogold and /list noauthor to check for player scores worse than the tracks' gold and author scores
  • adjusted the /list help information
  • disabled the /list longest/shortest command
  • disabled all /cps functionality (checkpoints are inactive)
  • disabled Dedimania records handling until the central Dedimania system supports them
• added explanations why the checkpoints panel doesn't appear immediately when /cps is activated (Stunts mode, spectating, and warm-up phase all disable the panel temporarily)
• on TMF, multi-page ManiaLink windows now show the current and total page numbers in the header
• on TMF, multi-page ManiaLink windows of more than 5 pages now include Prev5 and Next5 buttons to speed up navigation through long lists
• updated the Dedimania system to randomly choose between the :8003 and new :8006 and :8007 communication ports (remember to open those ports on your firewall/router as well) in order to distribute the load across more Dedimania servers
• new records in the /recs and /dedirecs lists are now highlighted with a black time
• on TMF, the /stats output now displays the full location path (sans "World|") instead of just the nation (thanks w1lla)
• on TMF, the /server output now includes the server's location path (again without "World|") – requires build '2008-05-07' or later
• added the capability to write the log in monthly chunks named "logfile-YYYYMM.txt" in an (automatically created) "logs/" subdirectory, instead of the single big "logfile.txt" – this is activated by setting "$log_monthly_logsdir = true" in function doLog() in includes/basic.inc.php, as it cannot be a configuration option because configs aren't read until later during start-up
• various welcome messages and in-game URLs are now hyperlinked to the external browser
• updated the /add and /admin add commands to time out when the TMX site is down
• minor optimizations of all multi-page window code
• an example plugin.ml_howto.php module is included to demonstrate how to create single- and multi-page ManiaLink windows

Bug fixes in the v0.98 release of XASECO:

• when <lists_colortracks> is True, recently played tracks are no longer greyed out to visually distinguish them from tracks that can be jukeboxed – fixed
• jukeboxing a track via /admin add and /admin replay leaves out the Environment value – fixed
• even when a player ID cannot be obtained from the local database, there's still an attempt to insert a finish time for the pertaining player login – fixed
• on TMF, the /admin shutdown command produced a PHP warning because /autoquit is now the default – fixed, a QuitGame call is only done if /noautoquit was active

New features and other changes in the v0.97 release of XASECO:

• on TMF, the brief /cps pop-up is now a permanent, small transparant panel, mid-center of the screen just above the race time; it is temporarily disabled when a player switches to spectator mode though
• on TMF, the checkpoints panel now also shows the difference against the best run at the finish ('CPF')
• in TMF Cup mode, the end of the warm-up phase no longer generates an onEndRace event, preventing several chat messages that only belong at the end of the track; also, during warm-up the checkpoints panel is temporarily disabled
• on TMF, the /tmxinfo window now displays the track screenshot from TMX
• on TMF, /tmxinfo {ID} and /tmxrecs {ID} accept an optional TMX section parameter (TMN, TMU, TMNF, and even TMO, TMS &ndash all case-insensitive) after the TMX track ID to enable displaying track info from another section than the default (as outlined in the v0.96 release notes)
• new /admin scorepanel command (TMF-only) to show the current Automatic Scorepanel setting – displaying the scoreboard after each run/round, or only at the end of the track – and to toggle it with an ON" or "OFF" (case-insensitive) parameter
• new /admin roundsfinish command (TMF-only) to show the current Rounds Finishpanel setting – displaying the rounds panel for all players when the first player finishes, or not until each player finishes him/herself – and to toggle it with an ON" or "OFF" (case-insensitive) parameter
• displaying colored or stripped player nicknames in /top10, /top100, /toprecs, /topsums, /topwins, /recs, /dedirecs and /active is now configurable via new config.xml setting <lists_colornicks> – because of column formatting caveats, it's recommended to keep nicknames stripped on TMN, as they were before
• displaying colored or stripped tracknames in all /list commands, /best, /worst, /jukebox display and /admin listdupes is now configurable via new config.xml setting <lists_colortracks> – again, it's recommended to keep tracknames stripped on TMN as they were before
• the teamnames in the /topclans output are not color-stripped anymore
• Dedimania system timeouts are handled better to prevent record message flooding; also, improved logging and debugging of the low-level Dedimania layers
• on TMF, any admin with the new server_coppers ability can see the server's coppers amount in the /server output
• new /admin coppers command (TMF-only) to similarly check the server's coppers amount
• on TMUF, the output of all /list commands (including /best, /worst) and of /jukebox display and /admin listdupes now includes an Env(ironment) column
• on TMUF, the chat and log messages for the next jukebox track now specify that track's environment
• added new internal onBillUpdated, onChallengeListModified and onPlayerInfoChanged events for the corresponding new TMF callbacks; also, the onEndRound event is now triggered by the real TMF EndRound callback
• the new onPlayerInfoChanged event is now used to keep track of players' spectator status to avoid an extra GetPlayerInfo call whenever that status is needed (thanks Dagobert)
• updated the stripColors function to strip out the '$h', '$l' and '$p' links for TMF as well
• clarified all error messages related to XML config files not being read or parsed correctly
• fine-tuned column widths of many ManiaLink windows
• when restarting XASECO, all ManiaLinks on all connected clients are cleared

Bug fixes in the v0.97 release of XASECO:

• when Dedimania is slow to respond to a track switch, the updated records message for the finished track may not appear until the next track is loaded, and use that new track's name – fixed
• on TMF, very long country names cause layout glitches in the /players output – fixed, country names longer than 14 characters are mapped to their nation abbreviations
• on TMF in Rounds/Team/Cup mode, the last 'Rx>' rounds report isn't shown due to a different callback sequence – fixed by using the real EndRound callback above
• if a player connects without a team name, the TMNDataFetcher is used to try and obtain it from the TMN master server, even on TMF – fixed
• the file_exists_nocase function (used by /add and /admin add) doesn't work correctly on Windows – fixed (hopefully)
• adjusted two function declarations and related calls to avoid pass-by-reference warnings on some PHP setups
• the /summary chat message was largely lacking the shadow attribute – fixed

New features and other changes in the v0.96b release of XASECO:

• on TMF, the global mute list now uses the built-in Ignore features instead of the muting plugin, so the actual muting works much better; the plugin is still needed for the individual player muting features though
• accordingly, there are new aliases for the related admins commands: /admin ignore (for /admin mute), /admin unignore (for /admin unmute), /admin ignorelist and /admin listignores (for /admin mutelist and /admin listmutes)
• on TMF, the ManiaZones country names are mapped back to three-letter nation abbreviations for storage in the local database and for Dedimania; to repair the Nation field in the local 'players' table, you can use this script
• new $autosave_matchsettings option in rasp.settings.php to enable autosaving the matchsettings file (with a configurable name) upon every track switch
• on TMF, /add and /admin add accept an optional TMX section parameter (TMN, TMU, TMNF, and even TMO, TMS &ndash all case-insensitive) after the TMX track ID to enable downloading a track from another section than the default (as outlined in the v0.96 release notes)
• when a track is jukeboxed that doesn't match the server packmask, it is skipped with warning, and the next track from the tracklist is loaded (the next jukeboxed track will follow after that)
• on TMF, added another method in votes.config.php to really disable all CallVotes if chat-based votes are enabled
• the pop-up windows in plugin.matchsave.php are now converted to TMF ManiaLink windows too, along with minor touch-ups of the TMN pop-ups

Bug fixes in the v0.96b release of XASECO:

• on TMF, the /nextmap command always shows the first track after the current one is removed from the server's track list (via /admin removethis or /admin erasethis) – fixed
• a missing or invalid connection to the TM server (due to configuration errors) can cause a flood of PHP warnings in the log – fixed
• a track ending with no records set can cause a PHP warning in the Dedimania plugin – fixed

New features and other changes in the v0.96 release of XASECO:

• the system has been renamed to XASECO to avoid confusion with other ASECO/RASP systems, and to signify it's a complete and integrated solution for server control
• added ManiaLinks windows (via new include manialinks.inc.php) to allow the system to display TMN-style pop-ups on TMF
• added a Prev button to all multi-page ManiaLinks windows when viewing the second and subsequent pages
• added recognition of server type TMF and game mode Cup, including with the /admin setgamemode command
• updated the /server command to handle Cup mode and show the RoundsPerChallenge value (in addition to the points limit) if the server is in Cup mode
• new /admin disablerespawn command (TMF-only) to show the current DisableRespawn setting – allowing players to respawn at checkpoints – and to toggle it with an ON" or "OFF" (case-insensitive) parameter
• new /admin forceshowall command (TMF-only) to show the current ForceShowAllOpponents setting – forcing players to see all opponents – and to toggle it with an ON" or "OFF" (case-insensitive) parameter
• updated the TMXInfoFetcher class to handle the new TMNF section
• on a TMNF server (packmask Stadium) the /tmxinfo and /tmxrecs commands as well as the TMX World Record message at the start of a new track will consult the TMNF section of TMX, on a TMUF server the TMU section, and (as before) on a TMN server the TMN section
• the /add and /admin add commands will consult the TMNF, TMUF and TMN sections of TMX according to the same rules
• new $jukebox_permadd option in rasp.settings.php to allow tracks voted into the jukebox via /add to remain permanently in the server's track list (normally they're removed after they're finished)
• added extra check for non-empty TM server build during start-up
• several minor tweaks to web_access.inc.php to make it more robust and prevent stream_select() warnings (thanks Slig)

Bug fixes in the v0.96 release of XASECO:

• when a player equals his/her local or Dedimania record, it would be logged again with the next higher position (but not stored anywhere) – fixed
• new Dedimania record messages would be displayed for LAN logins making records, even though the records aren't actually submitted to the central Dedimania server – fixed
• plugin.matchsave.php used the CRLF constant in a TMN pop-up – fixed into LF

Known issues in the v0.96+ release of XASECO:

• there is only partial support for handling non-Stadium environments, coppers, and other TM(U)F-specific features
• the /statsall command doesn't work in TMF because there's no way to obtain a player's world stats (yet?)

Older release notes