[Freeciv-Dev] rfc on allowconnect

[Per I Mathisen <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been thinking a bit on how to make allowconnect work better. Right
now my impression is that it is hardly used much, and sometimes used to
abuse the server. The ability to abuse it looks to me like a fundamental
design flaw.

First off, allowconnect should be a per user attribute, and only that user
should be able to change it. Hence, it would only be settable from the
client concerned.

Secondly, the current attribute mask in allowconnect is needlessly
complicated. There is no need to allow connecting to dead players and
barbarians.

Being able to restrict the number of observers to either one or any number
seems redundant. Either you want people peeking over your shoulder or not.
The ability to set human players to observers only also seems redundant.

So I suggest removing "allowconnect" entirely, and replace it with

        /allowobserver on|off

and

        /control [connection]

where the first allows any number of observers to join you and the latter
gives the indicated connection control (or gives you control over an AI).
When you have enough observers, just turn allowobserver off. Only
controlling connections or connections to a player with no controller can
issue these commands. Players set to AI should always be set to
allowobserver on.

Finally, in the code there are comments indicating that it was originally
thought observers should be omniscient. I do not see the justification for
this, it will only lead to rampant cheating. So I suggest this
goal/comment is removed.

Yours
Per