MP Game - Humans High Gems Low Magic

I would hope that everyone would allow at least 1 slot to be open for people who cannot host their own games, especially newbies.

I'm sure common courtesy should be taken into consideration, especially considering Mose is the one who is providing you with the service in the first place.

[Norfleet]

That logic doesn't work, Zen: If one slot were always left open for somebody that couldn't host their own game, either there would have to be an infinite number of slots, or somebody unable to host their own game would claim the Last slot.

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
That logic doesn't work, Zen: If one slot were always left open for somebody that couldn't host their own game, either there would have to be an infinite number of slots, or somebody unable to host their own game would claim the Last slot.

I think the logic is that someone who already has 4 games going wouldn't, shouldn't, grab the single available slot as soon as it comes open in order to start a fifth game, thus monopolizing over 20% of the games.

[Cohen]

Well if someone wants to create a game, tell me and I'll stop that game in creation right now.

[Chazar]

Well, in fact I wanted to start a game at mosehansen's server since a couple of days and was checking regularly, but I couldnt. Obviously people that were previously playing are the first to notice when their game is over and that therefore a new slot is free again...

I would have joined your game (when I first saw it, my favorite nation was still free to grab) or any other game, but I cant join a 24h game:

Usually I have enough time to play daily, but I am a long distance commuter on every other weekend, which means that I can't play on these weekends and I assume that three stale turns in a row per fortnight ruin a game pretty much for sure.

Therefore I'd want to start a game with at least 48h turn time limit, or preferably 3 days.
(BTW: A 24h game with no hosting on weekends seems to be a bad solution to me, or does Quickhost even means hosting on forbidden days if all turns are there?)

...but then again, I'm not sure if anyone wants to play with me such a slow paced game, since nobody responded to my previous thread asking for a slow paced game. So I dont want to stop you from playing!!!

I just post here since the topic was already started and I felt asked...

I'm hoewever really wondering why there is only one (private) server available and none from illwinter or shrapnel...

Maybe mosehansen's server should have a queue for new games which only-nonplaying logins can enter, but I'm too shy to ask. I mean, his server seems pretty well done so far, and asking for more seems a bit ungrateful to me...

[ June 17, 2004, 14:55: Message edited by: Chazar ]

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Chazar:
Well, in fact I wanted to start a game at mosehansen since a couple of days and was checking regularly, but I couldnt. Obviously people that were previously playing are the first to notice that a new slot is free again...

Yeh - yesterday morning there wasn't a slot free (I checked), sometime before evening Cohen grabbed the slot as it came available. Never mind that he's had horrible luck finding players for his settings lately, going so far as starting a Faerun map game with 8 players because he got tired of waiting. 424 provinces, eight players. And another Faerun he started with only 12, on a map with fixed positions meant for 17 races.

...but then again, I'm not sure if anyone wants to play with me such a slow paced game, since nobody responded to my previous thread asking for a slow paced game.

Well - looking back (I was offline for 2 weeks until yesterday), you wanted a 99 hour game - not sure how many people really want something much slower than 48, maybe 72. You forget what was happening in the game, you might even forget you have a turn coming up with anything over that.

Worse - when you posted, there wasn't any slots on mosehansen, so you needed a volunteer host. Not that many people have the computer / internet connection resources to do that. ( I might now, but don't yet know how bad the electric power situation is here yet, so I power down at night, when going out, etc. Plus, dynamic IP address would be a pain. )

So anyways - no open slot on mosehansen and no host machine... There isn't a game until you have one of those, so people probably didn't want to rush in to say they'd play a game with no idea of a start date. (The 99 hour hosting might've dismayed people as well.)

But I dont want to stop someone else from playing. I'm just wondering why there is only one (private) server available and none from illwinter or shrapnel...

Not sure Illwinter has the resources, and Shrapnel probably doesn't want the headaches of setting up a server, supporting it, and listening to the political BS and complaints because things didn't please everyone. ("Hey, I want to start a game and I can't because there's 512 going already!", or "So-and-so joined my game and I didn't want to play with her!")

Then too - Illwinter has provided the tools whereby anyone who wants to can host, either via TCP/IP or email, so they (IW and Shrapnel) may not feel it's a high priority issue.

Maybe mosehansen's server should have a queue for new games, but I'm too shy to ask. I mean, his server seems pretty well done so far, and asking for more seems a bit ungrateful...

Well, I think I remember Esben commenting that it was almost more fun to do work on the game server than it was playing the games.

A queue of some sorts, or a weighted lottery for starting games (so that someone having 5 games already going had much less chance of 'winning' the lottery than someone with none going) might just be a great thing.

[Maltrease]

Taking it further off topic...

Maybe it is just me but I have a hard time keeping up with the games that are not on Mos server. There I can go and on one page look at each game where I have a turn due, and how long I have to complete it.

I'm in multiple games all with different host times. Some games everyone is very fast about putting in their turn, so even though its 48 hour host times, if you waited more than 20 you are holding up the game. Other games are much slower. Its "work" to have to look several place to see whats due and where... and you end up forgetting one sometimes.

I do wish their was a single super server that could handle almost all of the MP gaming. People would still be free to host their own of course, but I probably wouldn't join them.

If Esbens server could contain 200 games and you had the same control that you had when hosting your own game... why would you ever not use his?

I think an official game server from Illwinter or Shrapnel would be excellent idea. You are really not talking about much in terms of cost. Bandwidth is not a big issue and for $2000 you could probably put together a server with a 3Ghz processor and 2 Gigs of RAM.

My thoughts... for what they are worth.