New & raw web based Dominion II game server

[Johan K]

Personally I think this auto server is a great idea, but I might be biassed How much timer do you use when it counts in a strange way?

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Esben Mose Hansen:

Anyway: interest in the server continues to be low. Anybody know why? Is such a server just not in demand; is it too buggy, does it miss a key feature...? At the current usage level, I cannot bring myself to use much time on it. I will let it run for a least a month, though, and see what happens. I will also watch this thread.

It was a fun little project in any case

Probably the main reason is that it's missing the "get together" part of starting a game. I suspect that most of the time, when people are looking to start a MP game, they find that one of them can reasonably easily host, so that isn't really a limiting factor.

[Breschau]

Originally posted by Esben Mose Hansen:
Anyway: interest in the server continues to be low. Anybody know why? Is such a server just not in demand; is it too buggy, does it miss a key feature...?

I hadn't realised it existed as I don't browse these forums all that often. I've not actually played Online yet, but something like this would greatly increase the chances of me doing so (and frequency in which I did).

Is that warsofgaia game waiting to start, or is it just between turns?

[Esben Mose Hansen]

The WarsOfGaia is suffering from a bug in the game: Uplaodtime doesn't work; it will restart counting down at random intervals, thus never starting. I could of course kill the game, and then restart it without upload time. Say the word and I'll try

I think PhilD is onto to something with the gettogether part. What do you think would work? A reference to an IRC channel? A built-in chat? A forum? I could manage those three rather easily, I think

Johan K: I had some difficulty trying to understand what you wrote. Did you ask how much I had originally set the uploadtime to? Then it was 25 hours, or 1500 minutes. That is around 90000 seconds. And thanks about thinking it's a great idea.

As for visibility, I don't think I can do much more than posting in these forums You are all welcome to spread the word, the server can surely handle it. Well, maybe not if you announce it on slashdot

[Breschau]

Well, fwiw I started the NewbieTest game that's on there now. Mostly default settings.. if I understand it right it's set to host every day at midnight and to quickhost (that means it'll auto host if all turns are in before the set time, yes?). And no upload time - gotta start it manually?

As the comment says, I have no idea what I'm doing

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Esben Mose Hansen:

Anyway: interest in the server continues to be low. Anybody know why? Is such a server just not in demand; is it too buggy, does it miss a key feature...? At the current usage level, I cannot bring myself to use much time on it. I will let it run for a least a month, though, and see what happens. I will also watch this thread.

Ok, the following is not based on Dominions 2 as such, but on MP in general. I am pretty sure it is relevant for Dominions 2, though.

A key part of multiplayer games that you KNOW will run over weeks, or even months, of real time is that of having a coherent player group. It is not about random matchup with people who happen to want to join a game. The latter road will often leave you half-way through a game with people who just fail to show up because they are losing, have lost interest &etc. The player group is all about having people you can chat diplomacy with in-between sessions, that you get to know better, and that, because of the closer communication, can usually be relied on to stay dedicated. You take time to plan a game, you decide who plays which nation/faction, agree on winning conditions, optional rules (if any), and general hosting times.

Your site is IDEAL for small and quick MP games with a small number of participants, and such can be played in Dominions 2, but it is lacking in functionality that would facilitate larger games.

Coordination of the schedules and backstabbing of the players involved is probably one of the most important aspects of long-term MP in general, and that often requires a dedicated discussion thread, sub-forum, or ICQ/IRC group set up. The ability to send an ingame-message that will be read next turn is just not sufficient compared to the level of diplomacy needed when eight or ten parties are each trying to arrange a triple-cross for next session. (This happens more often than one should think - probably also in Dominions 2)

Now, it CAN be used if such a group has already formed, and have opened communication lines, in which case your server provides a clear convenience for everybody involved; They can log on at nearly the same time and start a game without risking somebody random joining and spoiling the game setup - so long as the participants can be fairly sure that nobody else by mistake takes their turn.

As such, I would expect interest in small games with casual players to increase as the server stability increases and knowledge of your server spreads, but I would not expect it to get a massive inroad of traffic with regards to larger games unless the player-player issues are addressed.

I could see a situation where a game was arranged e.g. in this forum with its dedicated discussion thread here, with the stipulation that it was played on your server.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Breschau:
Well, fwiw I started the NewbieTest game that's on there now. Mostly default settings.. if I understand it right it's set to host every day at midnight and to quickhost (that means it'll auto host if all turns are in before the set time, yes?). And no upload time - gotta start it manually?

As the comment says, I have no idea what I'm doing

One of the difficulties with the server is that someone has to start the game, and anybody can do it. There could be a consensus that the one who created the game gets to start it...

I joined as Abysia, BTW.