The Council of Wyrms

[The Panther]

Turn 13 is out and no one staled! The next turn is due next Sunday at 8 PM MST unless ALL the following things happen:
1. I somehow find my lost Dominions CD before tomorrow morning and install the game on my laptop.
2. I receive all 16 of the 2h files in a timely fashion and they all work.
3. I find an internet connection in Arizona and manage to host a new turn.

I would be willing to bet that it is unlikely to have all three items above happen in the next few days!

[Cainehill]

The Panther said:
Since we both do love a good argument (I guess it is all that New Mexico sunshine on our heads), I have to disagree:
1. QH off means that the owner of the server has to keep on top of things to force host if someone goes AWOL, or have a fixed hosting schedule.

Ah, and the host doesn't have to keep on top of things with pbem? I didn't realize all the status emails, reminders, running the turns and mailing them out were automatic. Seriously - right now, you go to run the turn and realize you don't have a valid turn file for someone, meaning you have to contact them and ask for another. Not to mention checking to see if you have all the turns, nag people who are going to stale, etc.

2. I have seen no less than 3 MP games on a server (2 with me and 1 that my son was in) go crazy such that the game ends. With PBEM, you can always go back to previous fatherland files and attempt to re-start at a point before the game goes Nagot.

Set up the server to run a script / batch file before each turn runs and you can have it copy the fatherland and other files. Just as easy to recover from an error then. Oh, and even with PBEM, don't you have to do something to save off the fatherland file each turn, lest it go corrupt? I mean - way back when, I recall having to give up SP games because the fatherland went bad.

3. People with servers rarely do the non-QH option, although I did manage to convince the hosts for my last 2 server games to go to a fixed schedule (which, as you know, solves a lot of the problems with QH).

Back when mosehansen was a viable server, I often made games I owned fixed schedule once the early game rush was over.This one's just a matter of what the host is willing to do; if I should get a low-power machine I'm willing to leave up full time, I'd certainly be hosting some games that went fixed schedule no later than turn 20 or so.

4. Many people forget to do their server turns if not reminded in an email. I know I do. The frequency of stales on a server is probably 5-10 times that of a PBEM.

Heh. I expect the rate of stales on a PBEM would be about as high for a PBEM, if the host didn't send out reminders to people. And, of course, nothing keeps the host of a server based game from sending out emails, if they just get the email address for all the players. (Could even be done automatically via cron jobs on a linux box, possibly Windoze too.)

But admittedly, most people running server games don't go to the effort to setup anything fancy with backing up key files, notifying players, etc. IIRC, Esben did for mosehansen though, with a variety of options for being notified when a turn had run.

[puffyn]

As per order of the council, all posters to the wiki who do not identify themselves (or at least obtain a marginally clever pseudonym) will be summarily eaten.

- Apep, who longs for some good red meat

(Translation: you have to log in to the wiki to post now. It's fast, it's easy, it's fun...)

[Huntsman]

I'm currently in my first two PBEM games and they seem like a lot more hassle/work/chaos than the server games I've been in. But maybe it's just because the server ops were better than average. All I know is I got an email telling me when the turn was ready, I'd login and take my turn, logoff and wait for the next 48-hour notification--just like clockwork. The only problem I had was every once in a blue moon the first connection attempt didn't work but the 2nd always did.

The one thing I think where PBEM has an advantage is in being more forgiving for stales since the host usually delays the game until said staler decides to send his/her turn. Of course, this is only beneficial if nobody minds the delays...

[The Panther]

I know it has been almost a week since our last turn, but I am delaying hosting turn 14 until tomorrow for the following reasons:
1. QM did not get his Ermor turn in.
2. Tauren did not get his TC turn in because of the holidays last week meant he had no internet access.
3. I will have to go on a business trip to Washington, DC on Thursday morning, returning Sunday around noon. Thus, I cannot host Thursday anyway.

So, the turn schedule for the next week will be Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday at 8 PM MST (-7 GMT). I will be hosting on those three days whether or not I get all the turns sent in, for this game does need to start moving faster. No more Mr. Nice Guy with respect to the stales!

The Panther

[The Panther]

Turn 15 has been sent. The next deadline is Wednesday at 8 PM MST. This time, there will be no tolerance for late turn files and the game will host on schedule.

I received 31 gold and 1 gem from one nation for revealing capitols and will be emailing location information to the smart pretender in charge of that nation!

[The Panther]

My email to Zooko bounced back to me. Do you have another email address that I can use?

[Zooko]

zooko@zooko.com is the only one I use. Why did it bounce??

[The Panther]

Here is the message:

The following addresses had delivery problems:

<zooko@zooko.com>
Permanent Failure: Bad destination system address
Delivery last attempted at Mon, 28 Nov 2005 16:17:21 -0000


I sent it again to see if it would work.

[Ygorl]

I also have yet to receive the turn file... Never had any problems in the past, but it's been 3.5 hours since your post, and I'm starting to get worried/impatient/greedy...
Good chance it's just bogged down somewhere between New Mexico, Iceland, and Rhode Island, but if you end up needing to send Zooko's turn again and wouldn't mind re-sending me the Ms, it would be great.
And as always, thanks for being an awesome host.