Dedicated Servers?

[Gandalf Parker]

OK time to resurrect this thread.

THANK YOU Illwinter for adding the text-only mode for hosting. It works fine on my debian linux server. Now to play with switches and scripts for awhile.

Questions:

-t --hosttime X Y Host on day X (0=sunday) hour Y (0-23)
--minutes X Set host interval in minutes
-h --hours X Set host interval in hours
--pauseday X Stop timer on this day (0=sunday)

0=sunday. Does that mean that --hosttime 024 3 will process on Sunday Tuesday and Thursday at 3am?

I understand the --hours but whats the thought behind --pausday? Why would you pause the time? Pause for what? How do you restart it?

[Zapmeister]

Any ideas for handling "tyre-kickers"?

By this, I mean people who stumble on a site, click around a bit, then wander off never to be heard from again. This kind of behaviour would play havoc with a Dom2 automatic registration system if it wasn't handled in some way.

My suggestion would be the standard "we'll email you, and wait for your activation before we consider you registered". Even then, you'll still get people who will jump through all the hoops, only to abandon the game almost immediately it starts. I know this from experience with other web-based games I've managed.

[johan osterman]

I understand the --hours but whats the thought behind --pausday? Why would you pause the time? Pause for what? How do you restart it?

--pauseday 0, makes the timer not count down on sundays. This might be useful if you want to rest one day each week.

[Gandalf Parker]

[quote]Originally posted by Arralen:

mySQL? shell script? cron job?
I'm not terribly familiar with LINUX, too, but afaik there should be some possiblities to do this "the simple way".
And if you need more complex functions to work with the database and/or want a GUI for administration, why not use Perl/Python/Tcl with GUI-Kit (tk).
Or XBasic (code portable between Linux and W32 Version), so we needn't rely on M$ stuff?

Didnt read the whole thread? And the thread about running host without the GUI? Gee that sounds obnoxious but I dont mean it to be. Your suggestions are right-on for the server base I offered first (Debian Linux) but Shrapnel offered a Windows based server so the conversation kindof split awhile back between the two OS bases.

You sound like you are back in my territory (but not linux? FreeBSD? Solaris?). I gave a pretty full description in one of these threads about doing alot of useful game management mostly with web. All shell, cron, cgi stuff. Also tossing in some of my own randomizing scripts for which I use YAbasic (for the same reason, linux/windows portable). Check out the "Gandalf's Random Circus" threads for notes on that.

I can see a need for a database but I dont see it being so involved as to need a format that would require another program to load or a full server daemon of its own. Simple DBM or even just a dilimeted text file would probably do if I were making it.

[ November 28, 2003, 13:31: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Gandalf Parker]

OK some server questions have come up. Apparently the /tmp directorys can be cleaned up anytime no dom2 is running. I may need to come up with some other way to figure out what ones to delete since games can run for months

The screen display in text mode is a flood so I /dev/null that but the errors go that way also (no 2> for unix/linux folks)

Now Im trying to figure out what map directory structure is required. Apparently making a maps directory under my directory doesnt work if it was installed network-wide.

Im also hoping that the -T and --mapfile will bypass the limit on the number of maps in the maps dir.

[Arralen]

Originally posted by Tourmalyn:
As far as the platform, I would probably lean toward Microsoft since transactions to an access/sql database from PHP/ASP are dead simple.

mySQL ?

Additionaly, it would be easy to write a VB app to run 24/7 that would manage the lauching/shutting down of Dom2 servers, and maintanence of the databases. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Linux, I just don't want to deal with the tediousness of writing a C++ app to do the maintanence on an OS I am unfamiliar with.

shell script? cron job?
I'm not terribly familiar with LINUX, too, but afaik there should be some possiblities to do this "the simple way".
And if you need more complex functions to work with the database and/or want a GUI for administration, why not use Perl/Python/Tcl with GUI-Kit (tk).
Or XBasic (code portable between Linux and W32 Version), so we needn't rely on M$ stuff?

A.

[Gandalf Parker]

OK new thought on dedicted servers which Id like to put here. I see alot of back and forth traffic concerning email addresses for the games.

If we do create (eventually) a web-based manager for Doms games then one of the options on signup could be "Do you need an email address for the game?". If they answer yes then an address could by created automatically. It would work fine exactly the same as any other mailbox with POP pickup, or maybe forwarded to a real email address. Able to receive and send. Hmmm some sort of proection from being abuseable as anonymous email boxes are.

Still it would be fun to be able to create a "MrGreenJeans Chancellor of Pangaea" Pan-G22@ for game 22 in order to play. This way the game players would have a way to do diplomac without the long-term affects of using their real names and addresses. It would be interesting to play without the honor-bound-paladin expectations of playing as Gandalf.

[Gandalf Parker]

Here are my notes so far on a dedicated web server. I have the web server if anyone is interested in moving this along.....


Start signup script with a countdown toward game-start (1 day? 2 days?)

make backup copies of gods (.2h files) before starting game. (learned from experience)

Run a certain number of turns on quick then switch to midnights (cant run alot of tcp/ip games are once)

Dont start new signup/quick until all other games are on midnight. Should be able to run 100 games on rotation.

create cgi to upload files

create each game as user with email and webspace

give each nation subdir off of game webspace

give each player .htpasswd password access to their nations subdir

use midnight hosting script to gather turn files from subdirs

use midnight script or maybe --postexec to move turn files to subdir

setup procmail to extract turn files that are mailed into game email acct?

setup system for emailing turn files back to players who request it? or setup system for email notifications of turns being processed?

Possibly create CGI signup for games. List the games parameters. Offer the nations. When a user signs up then give them the .htpaswd password to the upload/download directory and rewrite web signup page to show nation taken. Requested by user: add password access to the signup? Or use htpasswd controls for that (give list of all nation access passwd to GameMaster of that game?)

Create a cron watchdog to keep an eye on the game directorys deleting anything that shouldnt be there so they dont get used as warez sites.

[Gandalf Parker]

OK new note to the project. All started games need to go in a list so that if the machine crashes you know which games need restarted.
Also the next patch should have a "start game and quit" switch coming.

[ February 05, 2004, 15:13: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[dire]

Just curious, what stage is this project at? Has it even started?