I have been hosting game servers for my community for 20 years, I have used a lot of tools, LGSM, Generic Scripts, Ark server manager, Open Game Panel, Pteradactyle, TC-Admin, WGSM, and more. So please take my feedback comming from a place of love for hosting.
The install could not be easier. Where AMP gets you into trouble is the configurations. Most other server managers have a super simple interface and one layer to access a game servers status, events, consol etc.
AMP has a much more complicated interface. First you have to create an instance, then manage that instance, then inside the management do the things. This is increadably confusing for new people because in the main instances widows you have all the same configuration options which dont apply to jack diddly.
The natural assumption goes like this, If for instance I want ALL my instances to do a thing, I would set it up in the main instances window, for instance ALL game servers check for an update and update every 15 minutes if available. But that is not how AMP works.
Same goes for configurations, If I change a deployment setting, the natural assumption is it will update all the isntances for me, for instance changing the BASE URI for authentication or link generation. - AMP should automatically update ALL instances linked to that installation node to the new URI, but it doesnt. You have to go in and manually change all the config files, and when you have 20+ game servers its a rediculous thing to do. God only knows what a paid game host would have to go through.
Installing on Linux was a breaze, domains were set correctly etc. But NOT for windows. the Base URI was set to what ever my browser read at the time, and this broke a lot of things. Linux promts you during install for the domain, Windows just assumes one for you. This needs to be fixed for windows to work the same as the linux install where you are promted.
For the All instances page, when you right click and get the context menu, there needs to be options to stop/start/restart the game server and not just that “instance”. Theres no reason I should have to click manage and then click stop/start/restart. It’s un-intuative and anoying.
The whole Instance thing needs to be removed from the user facing front end entirely. Theres no need for a user to see this or care about it at all. All the user should see is the direct interaction with the game itself. AMP should manage the “instance’s” behind the scenes.
Instances also need the option to change the game server that is installed inside them to be more up to snuff with modern host providers.
Port management is increadably easy and works really well, so that is a plus. I really like how this was done and the ability to add or remove additional ports for extra tools.
The triggers section needs work, its very confusing at first, and some of the most important things just dont work like checking for updates via steam then getting the game to update.
My advice here would be to simply make a few predefined triggers for the most commong things, for instance updating via steam. The user can just select how often and add it. Another one I would suggest is reboot schedules.
Last suggestion here is when you click advanced time schedule, stop auto selecting the minutes… it’s really anoying to have to go and unclick all that crap. You could just add an option to use Crontab input instead of clicking on things, that would be nice.
