Dedicated Servers?

Esben Mose Hansen · #1 February 16th, 2004, 02:33 AM

I've made a Dominions Server not following the ideas below

) It's pure TCP/IP hosting, and not fleshed out fully yet. But do head over, post some comments here
and play a game!

Gandalf Parker · #2 February 15th, 2004, 03:26 PM

Excellent start there. The tcpip server method will be good for marathon games.

But if you get some of the 1-turn-a-day games then they can Last months. I figure if I can make the upload/download simple then a cron to do a daily host can allow the same machine to start a new game every day even if they are all running. If we can get 2 servers going.. one for marathons and one for daily-turn then I think a large gap in the community could be provided for.

Esben Mose Hansen · #3 February 15th, 2004, 05:22 PM

Gandalf has very good points

But just to make it perfectly clear: I won't mind hosting a few one-turn-pr.day games on my server. So if someone out there wants to start one of those, and needs a place to host it, go ahead

(As long as you don't mind me joining)

A real problem, not specific to my setup, is "how to get some AIs"? One could, of course, start with several gods and then become computer controlled. But then a lot intellegence about that AI would be known to someone.

What I would like would be a command line switch:
--AI Man --AI Ulm
but I'm not sure such can be faked...

Gandalf Parker · #4 February 15th, 2004, 05:45 PM

Such a switch would be nice but there is a possible work-around. AI's can be created with map commands.

I think the map is probably in the player files so to avoid an error you would probably have to leave the map named the same. But you could...
1) copy xxxxx.map to xxxxx.tmp
2) append the AI comands
3) start the game
4) copy xxxxx.tmp back to xxxxx.map so that you always have the original in place

Esben Mose Hansen · #5 February 15th, 2004, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Such a switch would be nice but there is a possible work-around. AI's can be created with map commands.

I think the map is probably in the player files so to avoid an error you would probably have to leave the map named the same. But you could...
1) copy xxxxx.map to xxxxx.tmp
2) append the AI comands
3) start the game
4) copy xxxxx.tmp back to xxxxx.map so that you always have the original in place

If there's a mechanical way I'm sure I could whip up a Perl script to automate it.... or rather, build it into my existing "launch&control" script.

That would be awesome... I'll go read & experiment some.

Kristoffer O · #6 February 15th, 2004, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Esben Mose Hansen:
A real problem, not specific to my setup, is "how to get some AIs"? One could, of course, start with several gods and then become computer controlled. But then a lot intellegence about that AI would be known to someone.

What I would like would be a command line switch:
--AI Man --AI Ulm
but I'm not sure such can be faked...

That won't be a problem with the coming Version. There will be switches to enable AI players as well as some other switches that I have forgotten about. Maybe the --preexec is a new one.

Gandalf Parker · #7 February 15th, 2004, 07:35 PM

YAY! yes the preexec is one I requested. Thank you! We can automate backups and have email notices tell us who didnt do their turn.

By any chance...
make game and quit?
more involved stat output?
is master password a switch? (I cant remember)

[ February 15, 2004, 17:36: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]