Hosting a MP Game--Newb Questions

[Mooglay]

Hello. I've been silently prowling the forums for a few weeks now and figured it was time to finally come forward.

I love this game. I never played Dominions before--never even knew about it--but the solid review on Gamespot enticed me and I immediately went and ordered a copy. I think it's by far one of the best, if not the best, strategy games I've ever played. I find that so many of the games that come out nowadays are all flash and no substance. This game is utterly, refreshingly, opposite that claim.

Suffice to say, I have only explored SP games so far. I don't think I'm very good--I lose to the AI more often than not and most people on these forums seem to be able to handle the AI with no problems, but I play to play, not to win. I really want to try out MP but every time I check this forum it seems like all of the games are full and running.

So, to bring me to my questions, I was thinking about hosting a game myself but I really don't know much about it. Here are a few queries for the experts to field:

1. Does hosting mean that I would have to leave my PC on at all times?
2. Can the game be configured to generate new turns at certain intervals (say, 24 hrs, for example) or do I have to do it manually at an interval that the players have agreed on?
3. Is hosting separate from playing? In other words, do I have to separately "log into" the game that I am hosting?

Thanks for your time in responding.

Moog

[Evilhomer]

I'll take a stab at answering your questions

1. You could set up a play by email game (in it players submit their pretender/turns to you/host through e-mail and you generate the new turn and post it back to players etc).

In the other option (non-pbem) you would have to a computer online constantly for the duration of the game.

2. Yes, this is no problem. You can also enable quick host (a new turn is generated when all players has submited his/her turn).

3. Yes, if the host is playing in the game he would log into the game seperatly like any other player basically.

[Gandalf Parker]

Good answers. But I cant resist putting my longer versions just in case part of one and part of another are helpful to other people.

1. leaving it up all the time is mostly so that people can transfer files. You can setup another transfer method (ftp, email, web, etc). Or you can say "only up during the day" but keep in mind that internet is international so you need to specify whose "day" you are talking about.

2. the game has hosting options such as every x hours, or certain days and certain hours, or immeadiate. But those are mostly for leaving it running. If you dont leave it running you can manually host whenver you want. Or setup some timing feature on your machine to host-then-quit if you want it to host in the middle of the night but not stay online.

3. Usually yes, do go ahead and login becuase its easier. Bring up two copies of the game. Dont worry about the serial code since Dom3 doesnt compare the host serial to the players for purpose of catching pirates. If you are doing the file-transfer thing (like an email game) then no you dont have to login. You just do your turn, then switch to host.

[Mooglay]

Thanks for the fast replies.

Gandalf, would you mind further qualifying your response to #2:

In other words, would it be possible for me to, for example, host (without using PBEM) but still shutting down my PC at the end of the day? In other words, the players would have to post their turns between certain intervals (modified for time zone, of course), let's say, between 9:00 AM and 11:00 PM each day, and then I could shut down my PC and host the game (with the new turn generated) again at 9:00 AM the next day.

Because I have a good PC, I don't mind hosting, but it is a bit taxing on my system to leave it powered-up 24/7, and PBEM may be a bit too much for me to manage. I basically want to know if I could sustain a long-term game even though I would be shutting down the server at the end of the day each day and restarting it in the morning.

Moog

[Evilhomer]

I will try to answer again =)

Yes, techically speaking that will not be a problem. You should of course state in the (eventuall) game thread how the hosting will work (times etc), since the time intervall the game is "open" will be different depending on where a player is playing, and much of the time could end up being at odd hours.

[Mooglay]

Indeed. It would require that all the players understand, up front, what times the game will be hosted and how that translates into their native time zones. I just wasn't sure if, once the server is taken down, the game is lost.

Thanks for the reply.

For one, final, scarily newbish question, does anyone know how Eastern Standard Time translates into GMT?

Moog

[Evilhomer]

Eastern standard time is GMT -5. So your (eastern) 9:00 to 23:00 time would become 14:00 to 4:00 in GMT or 15:00 to 5:00 in CET (central european time), so it would work for europeans I guess.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ive seen blitz games run that way in the IRC channel (online chats). They start a game and run it was quick-turns (instant hosting when every player turns in a turn) and then after 6 or 7 hours of play they finally say "shutting down for the night, see you all tomorrow". To play, you would need to open another copy of Dom3 and connect to it.

Dont sweat the time frames. Im kindof out of touch with US daytime even though Im in California because I get up really early and go to bed early. On the other hand there are some people in other countries who are totally night-owls. Just pick a time frame and hold to it.

[Mooglay]

Thanks for the responses, Gandalf and Evilhomer. I think I understand now, although I might have some more questions about the actual running of the game further on down the road.

[Gandalf Parker]

I have no problem with that at all as long as they are asked and answered publicly. That way it can help a dozen or two other people for each person who is brave enough to ask questions.