Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Hello everyone, I've actually been away from the internet for almost a day, but it looks like everything's been fine in the meantime.

Um, I can't read Spanish, sadly, so your contributions are lost on me. Maybe I'd better go google...

Xietor, according to the log it received two 2h files from you. It says it replied to the first with a receipt confirmation, and to the second with a "Revised 2h file received" message. Did you never get the first message then? Odd.

The server checks its e-mail every 5 minutes. Given the time e-mail takes to go back and forth, I reckon that means on average you'd expect to get a confirmation within 5 minutes, and always within 10. If you don't get one within 10, something's probably up.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Well, this works well, but people aren't taking their early turns very fast.

While there is little theoretical difference in the speed at which people can take turns, PBEM vs. IP, people aren't playing very fast. For example, the last people to take their turn is very seldom taking two turns in quick succession, for whatever reason.

So, if I were going to use a system like this to save bandwidth (or for the convenient autonotification, which is nice), I'd start using direct connection, get the first dozen turns or so out of the way at least, and then switch to PBEM.

Of course, I am not a patient man.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Fair enough, good point. I guess the advantage with a direct connection is that if you're the last person to take your turn, you straight away automatically download the new turn, and it's impossible not to look at it, and then it's very hard not to take it - so people tend to immediately take the next turn.

Myself I can't offer a direct connection (stupid university firewall) but I guess it'd be possible to do a bit of teamwork to start the game on someone else's computer and then transfer it to the llamaserver. It'd be very easy to transfer - I just need the ftherlnd file.

By the way, are people using the website? Myself I find myself checking it loads, but I don't know if everyone else has found it.

Incidentally you can go straight to the Alpaca page at
http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=Alpaca - for some reason that doesn't appear in your address bar normally (anyone know how to fix that?), but if you follow that link once you can then bookmark it.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

The obvious answer for next time is to start with a 3 hour blitz. Cultilvate serenity Dr. P.

I check the site, it's the key feature of the set up IMO.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

I can host the game for a blitz. let me know. cable connection, decent machine, and i have forwarded port and am actually hosting a blitz 1 on one game right now.

Maybe some time this weekend I can host(you need to transfer me the files and help me set it up) and we can do a 3-4 hour blitz with 5 min time limit per turn.

I would not actually time it, but if one person is taking 10 minutes longer than the rest, we may have to ask him to speed up a bit.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

I check the site. That way I can see that I'm one of the last people to take their turn. And that is precisely the issue for me. While I can see the appeal of a blitz session I don't have time for them. Once every 24 hours I can get a turn in. But, to schedule a specific time to play for a few hours? No. And, whether it were IP or PBEM that wouldn't change. Thanks for hosting, llamabeast.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Yes, I think a blitz will have to be a suggestion for a future game rather than something we can do for this one. The chances of finding a time we could all do would be pretty minimal. Myself I visit my girlfriend at the weekends / she comes here, and while she actually quite likes Dominions (to my great surprise) I think a blitz might be pushing it.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

I see you staled, RZ. Hope it wasn't due to any kind of technical issue.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

I definitely submitted turn 2--did you get that one?

If we're talking about turn 3, my stale would be because I forgot to check my email before I went to bed last night. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Yep, turn 2 was received fine - hopefully you'd have got a receipt e-mail when you sent your turn in? But turn 3 I think you staled.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

So, as Dr P pointed out, I don't think that so far the last player to take their turn has often taken their next turn immediately afterwards. It doesn't really matter too much, but it keeps the game moving a little faster if you do.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Dragon sighted!!

The Arcoscephalian Dragon has been sighted in our lands. We are attempting diplomacy...

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

I'll be on buisness travel from Apr 23 to Apr 26. I don't know if I'll have internet access during this time.

Can the game be put on hold during this time? If the delay is to long, a substitute is acceptable.

Thanks

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

That'll be fine. I'll just put it onto a longer timer while you're away - so that if you can take a turn it'll process, but if not it won't.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Ermor seems to be dominating the hall of fame. Evil lurks!

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Okay, I've set the turn timer to be longer for the moment (96 hours, in fact), so that JayThomas doesn't stale. If everyone can still take their turns as normal, then if Jay does manage to get in a turn either today or while he's away then the game'll be able to host.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Man has done its turn, i do not think you need the 3 days for turn-ins now.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

It's true, thanks for taking your turn JayThomas, I guess you must have found some internet access somewhere. Just waiting on you now Valerius.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Just waiting for Ermor...

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Did 10 & 11 just now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Well color me stupid, I forgot to actually send in turn 11. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Ah well, I can recover.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

/whistles innocently.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

I'm intrigued.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

JayThomas (Man) is having troubles with his internet connection, so I've postponed the hosting a bit to give him time to send the turn from work.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Mail is fixed this morning and we are back to normal.

Thanks for waiting a bit llamabeast.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Are we planning to patch? People should probably keep using the old version of the executable until you do.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Ah, good, this'll be interesting and a very useful test. The llamaserver's meant to react as soon as someone sends in a patched turn, send an e-mail to everyone explaining what's happening and stop all timers until I can patch it. So if someone can send in a patched turn, we'll find out what happens.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Oh, if and when it sends out the "stopped until patched" message, I'd greatly appreciate comments on the accuracy and clarity of the message. Version changes tend to cause mass chaos to MP games, so I'm really hoping the llamaserver will manage to be robust and non-confusing.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

I just did an extra backup of all the game files just in case.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Okay, all under control. You should have all got an email (or several!) from me, but anyway the llamaserver's all patched up, and the plan is to use v3.06 for this turn and v3.08 for future turns. If you accidentally use v3.08 for this turn though, I _think_ you'll probably be fine. Sorted!

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Please can you let me know if you get any quirky behaviour going on at all? One of the players in the other game on the llamaserver had it reject one of her 2h files, even though there was nothing wrong with it. If anyone else has had anything similar, please let me know.

In fact in general, please please please report any quirky things at all, even any spelling errors in the e-mails it sends out, or if you think any of the e-mails are less clear than they could be. It would be great to have all the basic running of the server completely smooth before I open it up to more games (I'm planning to allow other people to admin games on it, so there may end up being a large number of games going without me even necessarily being involved).

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Okay recieved email, tried to use turn 19, 3.06 didn't accept it. Tried turn 19 with 3.08 everything worked fine.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

I thought i sent in turn 19 earlier, trying again.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

All the turns are in. Is it not hosting?

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Ahem. I turned the hosting off while I altered some code, and I appear not to have turned it back on again. Sorry about that.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Being as the website (not the server itself, in fact) was down a day or two back, I thought I'd just make a general comment about how the llamaserver works.

It'll _always_ check its e-mail before it hosts a turn. What that means is that if you e-mail it your turn in time, you can be sure that you won't stale, even if either the website or the server are down. It's not like a direct connect game where you can't take your turn if the host's computer is down.

Having said that I think the website going down was quite unlucky and hopefully will be a rare occurrence. And the llamaserver should in principle never go down, unless I do something stupid. Which I do fairly often, unfortunately.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Out of curiosity, if I were looking for someone to whom I would give all my gems and items - who feels they are in a good position to fight a successful war with Marignon and Pangaea? Right now I'm inclined to give all my treasures to Man, but whoever is on Marignon's southern border (or across the southern sea) is also a prospect.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

If you are looking to give away items, you could give them to me. Although we have fought, I was always forthright about my position, and even when things looked grim, did not switch to what looked to be the winning side-you and man.

Also this is my 1st mp game, and i need all the help i can get.

Marignon will likely kill me next(: As any other opponent will require him to switch continents.

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Arcoscephale shares the southern continent with Caelum, we also have a small outpost on the tip of the continent to our north. There were some strange little goblin creatures that attacked our lands briefly but our elephants seemed to delight in cleaning their feet on them. We think we killed their pretender but it was such a pathetic creature we are still not sure if it was actually a pretender.

We relish the idea of a surplus of gems, our astrologers will put them to good use in divining the fortunes of Arcoscephale.

May the heavens grant your nation a kindly fate.

~Arco~

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Greetings from the head of the Marignon Insurgent Mafia, a (normally) covert organisation determined to bring down Marignon from within.

For some time now, the trading operations of Marignon have been firmly under the control of our organisation. As such, we can _guarantee_ that, if you send your gems and items to Marignon, you will in fact be weakening them from within.

Without a doubt, we are the best possible recipients for your gems. The rulers of Marignon will never see the threat coming!

Shinuyama out!
 

The goblins' irrational fear of your dragon led us to overlook the more potent threat of your elephants, much to our detriment.

Now that Caelum moves to carve up what remains of Shinuyama, our extinction is just a matter of time, so I bid a farewell to those left standing.

Good luck to all of you!

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

ROTFL http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Okay! We are moving!
 

Unfortunately, it seems that I will be spending all of my gems bleeding Marignon directly.

Eventually I will run out of gems to power by combat magic, and then I'll be toast - but until then, we will continue to fertilize the fields of our land with Marignon's dead.

We hope that whoever conquers them in their current weakened state is exceptionally cruel and savage.

Server not accepting my turn
 

I've sent my turn in like 10 times....server not sending acceptance email and the server still says turn not recieved from Arco.

What's going on?

I'd hate to stale because of this.

Re: Server not accepting my turn
 

Hmm, that's really odd. Your e-mails haven't come through at all.

Well, I've got your 2h file from your direct e-mail so I've forwarded it on myself, and it's worked fine, so you won't stale.

Can you send to the server again, and copy me in (my llamabeast address), so I can see if there's anything up with your e-mail?

Re: Server not accepting my turn
 

Okay...I've sent an email to turns@llamaserver and llamabeast@llamaserver.

Re: Server not accepting my turn
 

Er, looks like it's worked fine. I'm at a bit of a loss to explain what was going on then, because the previous e-mails didn't even arrive, it's not like the server was ignoring them. Very odd.

Re: Server not accepting my turn
 

Yep just recieved the confirmation back from Llamaserver so all is good! Thanks for your time!

Re: Server not accepting my turn
 

No probs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Server not accepting my turn
 

I gave a bunch of gems to R'lyeh - if he'll agree to consume Marignon while he's weakened (reducing the number of astral powers that might oppose you, and giving you a highly defensible land position!), I'll send him the rest.

Otherwise, I'll send them to Man, even though I figure Man is probably in about the same situation as I was just in - about to be eaten alive from two directions.