Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

Who wrote Real-Time Client?

The reason for my question has to do with the game crashing when PBW goes down.

I am wondering if RTC could be modified not to crash by giving it's user a choice.

Here's a prospective scenario....
-The user starts RTC and the player is merrily imputing his data.
-PBW goes down
-As it stands now, everything is lost. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
-The question is whether RTC can be modified to allow the turn completion(the following is only one possibility).

A window opens informing the user that PBW is down and gives the player the choice of either
a) completing his turn which will be saved to the "savegame" file or
b) accepting the disconnection with the consequence of having to start all over again when PBW starts up again (as we do now).

If a) is chosen, the player "happily" continues with the imputing of his turn. When the turn is completed, another window opens to inform the player that the turn is saved to the "savegame" file and he will have to manually upload it or e-mail it as an attachment.

I do not think this will require any drastic revision of the RTC code.

The question is "Is it doable?" and if so, will the creator of RTC be willing to make the changes?

Re: Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

It's on the to do list. Admiral wrote it and he is no longer involved in PBW having moved on to bigger and better things in life. We have a guy that does code maintenance and adds features and whatnot. This is one that is on the list to do, eventually.

Geoschmo

Re: Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

Thanx Geo

The prospect of PBW going down while using RTC is not too much of an issue in the early game (which is where I am with my games).

But I can see it becoming a factor when one is into the 200th or 500th move where hundreds of decisions have to be made and possibly wiped out with PBW going down... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

To be fair, you did mention the potential for disruption by PBW going down when I made my decision to use RTC. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

Actually, the modification could be even simpler...

When PBW goes down, a window opens saying something like:

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And then for those of us who suffer from short term memory loss http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif , at the time the game is saved...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

Re: Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

Hmm, i was thinking that such a pop up would say "Connection to PBW server lost. Your game turn has been saved as file XXXX in your \Savegame directory" or the like, not far off what you already said

Then once connection to PBW can be reestablished (even if RTC is exited then restarted at another time when a PBW connection can be made) and you select the specific game that had already saved that you had already played that game turn for, it would ask if you would like to send the game turn that you already made or delete it and replay the turn

Re: Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

Gimboid, good points. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

What I was trying to do was suggest a minimum upgrade consistent with saving the data already inputed into the game.

My thinking was that there is a greater likelihood of getting a simple upgrade within the near future than if we asked for a more complex upgrade.

Re: Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

What i had suggested after reading your post isnt to complex to implement. And i can understand your logic in asking for a smaller upgrade and hoping it will result in lower time to completion

But as Geo has said this is only one of the things on the todo list, i aim to implement it along with numerous other todo list items but several other activities have my attention at present (such as uni exams).

Your suggestions are still welcome however http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

Oops! Gimboid, are you the "guy" geoschmo refers to in the following posting?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If so, my apologies if I gave the appearance of telling you what to do.

As I said, I liked the points you made in:

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">As for university, I know how mid-terms and finals can throw a monkey wrench into things. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks Gimboid. I appreciate the affirmation of my assessment and your acknowledgement that it wouldn't be too "complex to implement".

I used to be somewhat active in machine language coding as well as higher level Languages such as basic and fortran.

But, I stopped coding many years ago. Things change and different tools are available to assist in coding, so I could have been out to lunch on my assessment of modifying RTC. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Who wrote Real-Time Client?
 

Because of some flakiness in Netscape 7.1 (now there's a shocker, buggy software) I'm considering using RTC on my new computer.

What I need to know is, has the game crashing when contact with PBW is lost, been addressed? Or does the problem still exist?