"Global player stats tracking system, supporting anonymous player as well"

I can say that I have the cryptographic parts done now (in the project d0_blind_id on github -> http://github.com/divVerent/d0_blind_id ), and need to embed it into darkplaces's connection protocol now.

There will be multiple kinds of servers:
- auth required, stats tracked globally
- auth required, stats tracked locally
- auth required, no stats
- auth optional (and required on banned ranges), stats tracked globally if authed
- auth optional (and required on banned ranges), stats tracked locally if authed
- auth optional (and required on banned ranges), no stats
- no auth

Additionally, for team balance purposes, stats may be gathered in the client's local database for e.g. team balance purpose even if a player is not authenticated. As these stats never are published, they are not of any privacy concern.

On most servers, auth will not be required. Personally, I'd probably host a server with optional auth, not sure about the stats though.

Changing your nick will NOT affect your stats, by the way. If you are logged in, stats are always created for your ID. You ca"n at any time choose to "log out" and connect to a server without providing your ID, even with your usual nick.

Also, in the "status" command one will be able to see whether a player is authenticated. His IP address will not be shown, but his public ID string will be shown instead - even when playing with a different nick. Of course, this can be turned off by the server admin (just like it is now) so it would only show "unauthenticated" or "authenticated" but no IP or ID.

Nick name protection will be provided as an additional service, of course.

Sounds good. Just it would suck if only 5% of servers supported stats tracking. Would be great if all of them (or at least 50%) had an optional auth service.

Does nickname protection means I can't change my nick to add a 'status part'? or maybe a 'status' feature would be added, an additional text field similiar to current nick/name but being capable to change anytime.

I mean: doesn't nick protection mean less freedom for registered users?

Does nickname protection means I can't change my nick to add a 'status part'? or maybe a 'status' feature would be added, an additional text field similiar to current nick/name but being capable to change anytime.

I mean: doesn't nick protection mean less freedom for registered users?

That is an interesting thought. It would hurt people who change their nick style often, or add / remove clan tags at the end of their name. Perhaps this could work like on IRC. You can protect / register one or more nicks that you identify to, but if you change a few letters you just go unprotected during that time. Can't see a better way...

Well, you could have base nicks and then two cvars for prefix and suffix.

I have no idea to say for now, but I can't say how much I agree that it would be so fun to have a system like that, I mean something like a ladder that shows ur rank. some people think this is ridiculous and it's about having fun not about winning blah blah, I think competition is a very important reason of why someone plays and sticks to a game.

Well, you could have base nicks and then two cvars for prefix and suffix.

That seems like a best solution to me. Would make pleyers recognisable all the time and give freedom for sculpting your nick as well