Re: Any plans for an \"official\" hosting server?
 

It wouldn't be so terrible to have turns processed serially to avoid the file collision problem. The PBW server for SEIV processes games like this, and a quick count shows 90+ games running currently. I'm not sure how DomII and DomIII multiplayer games would work, but as long as it isn't running as a pseudo-TCP/IP game (everyone online and playing at the same time, only sending turns via email instead of TCP/IP) all the time, serial processing shouldn't be a problem. Just set an upper limit on processing time, and require an admin to authorize over-runs for games where it takes longer than that.

If DomIII could be tweaked to prevent temp file collisions (directory for each savegame perhaps, store temp files there?), then you could have a very large number of games running on a modest box, the only thing to work out is the queuing to throttle simultaneous processing of turns, so each instance isn't starved out of processor and memory resources.

That's how I see it anyway. I could be missing something obvious about Dominions multiplayer, having only played the demo for Dom2. I soon plan to be educated with a full copy of Dom3 though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Any plans for an \"official\" hosting server?
 

On windows Dom uses %tmp%\domWXYZ\ where WXYZ is a random number. Therefore it already uses temp directories with random folder names which are supposed to be unique - but somehow it doesn't work out that way sometimes for unknown reason.

Don't know where dom puts its files under linux -better ask Gandalf about that- but I guess it will be very similar.

Re: Any plans for an \"official\" hosting server?
 

Temporary file collisions were just a bug in Dom2 that happened because the server didn't always pick a different temporary directory than other instances of the server. So I don't really expect it to be a problem in Dom3.

Re: Any plans for an \"official\" hosting server?
 

I could help admin it, as long as you're hosting under linux or windoze. Working dog shifts now (3 - midnight here), but once it's setup I can check status / fix things at least twice a day. (Recommend Linux - less resource intensive, easier to create scripts to automate things.)

Re: Any plans for an \"official\" hosting server?
 

I could help admin it, as long as you're hosting under linux or windoze. Working dog shifts now (3 - midnight here), but once it's setup I can check status / fix things at least twice a day. (Recommend Linux - less resource intensive, easier to create scripts to automate things.)

Re: Any plans for an \"official\" hosting server?
 

Woot! Cainehill, once again, you da man!

Re: Any plans for an \"official\" hosting server?
 

Hmmm. We had:


And then this:

Too bad this didn't pan out.

Re: Any plans for an \"official\" hosting server?
 

That was less than 6 months ago. Since there is no "plug-n-play run-a-Dom3-host" module then it might be possible that someone is working on one (though probably not as a full time project). There would at least be alot of testing and security checking on the 3 versions of a hosting setup that have been offered.