family vs family, the rematch

Alneyan · #1 February 24th, 2005, 12:31 PM

The problem of the key is that Panther and Tauren are currently using the same key, but are no longer playing on the same computer (they used to, but I believe this is no longer the case). Having a PBEM hosting would allow the host to validate one of their turns with my own key; otherwise, one of them will not be able to play.

Zooko · #2 February 24th, 2005, 12:48 PM

Bleah.

What if one of them ran the host on the same computer as they played from? Would that avoid the problem?

But anyway, I'm willing to try PBEM. It would be cool if the server that sent the .trn files out could send my .trn file to both my brother and me and send his .trn file to both him and me.

The Panther · #3 February 24th, 2005, 05:07 PM

One of the early patches prevented two players from using the same CD key on two different computers, which was a HUGE pain to me. Since my son and I do not live together, we cannot make our respective moves from the same computer, no matter who hosts. A third party like Alneyan can use his own CD key to validate one of our moves, thus allowing it to work.

Also, I cannot commit to making more than one turn a day, for I have a job and many other things going on in my life. The advantage of the email system is that the moves host at the same time each day, so you don't have to constantly be checking if a turn is up or not. Also, it is far easier to recover from problems using email and games thus die much less often.

Interesting idea about the turn files. Looking at your partners position would surely make the coordination far mor robust. I can't see any reason why not to do that in a 2v2 game.

I have not looked at the map you suggested. Where can it be downloaded?

Zooko · #4 February 24th, 2005, 05:23 PM

Okay, I'm convinced. If Alneyan will host for us that would be very nice.

The map named Chandrea is available from this site:

http://www.dominions-2.org/index.htm

Alneyan · #5 February 24th, 2005, 05:29 PM

A PBEM game is indeed very unlikely to crash: even a major game bug can be recovered by rolling back one turn (or a few turns if it is really major), and I haven't heard of any such bug. I also have the fatherland files and the turn files backed on one mail, so a computer crash would not be enough to crash one of my PBEM games (and even if I were to disappear, Gandalf Parker could give you access to my mail, allowing the game to still go on).

Turn files can be sent to both players; that was my plan (and what I do in the Entwined Destiny game, where six teams of two players fight it out), and it is actually less work for me.

(Though separate mails only take a few more seconds per turn) You could also not set up any password, making it easier to browse the files of your team.

The map is available on Arryn's site I think: www.dominions-2.org

I should learn to type faster. Either that, or I should be less verbose.

Alneyan · #6 February 25th, 2005, 11:12 AM

What sort of manual placement would you like? The two teams starting near each other, several provinces away from the other side? The four capitals making a sort of square? (X provinces between all four capitals)

I can also keep the .map file a secret, so you wouldn't know where the enemy capitals are located, though you could expect them to be at the other end of the map. But with a warparound map, they could come from any direction, so you would still have to watch out for the other team.

Zooko · #7 February 25th, 2005, 11:23 AM

Hm. A wrap-around map is a torus. I.e., a donut. I'm picturing a donut in my head and trying to think of a fair way to place two teams of two. One way is to put them all in a row, i.e. all four capitols lie in a single line which is either horizontal or vertical. The order wouldn't matter as long as all four were in the same line.

The other would be, as you say, a square with a capitol at each corner. Again, which capitol was at which corner wouldn't make any difference.

Is that right?

Zooko · #8 February 25th, 2005, 11:45 AM

P.S. In both of these cases, the order doesn't matter but the spacing does! The line is fair as long as every capitol is equidistant from its two neighbors. The square is fair as long as the distance from each capitol to each of its two neighbors is equal to half of the length of the world.

Unless I'm confused.