New & raw web based Dominion II game server - Page 9

Gandalf Parker · #81 February 23rd, 2004, 02:48 AM

Wow thanks. Did we get the "Start game and Quit" to work in Linux? I can get it to work in Windows.

Also did --preexec make it in? The only docs I have are the linux ones and I dont see it.

Johan K · #82 February 23rd, 2004, 02:49 AM

The --preexec made it into 2.08 but a create game and quit did not.

PDF · #83 February 23rd, 2004, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by PhilD:

quote:
Originally posted by PDF:
The IP server is a good thing, but I don't think there'd ever be many IP games going : the game is really best played in PBEM... And the players are more pbem types too !

Not sure I agree with this... even for a "slow" game (PBEM speed), the TCP/IP play is simpler. And if you want a "quick" game (or even a 2-player game: not much diplomacy in there), there are no good reasons to play PBEM.

In fact, a 24/7 server like this one could be optimal, if the dom2 program itself were really made for it.

Quote:

What we still need is a PBEM server, kind'a PBW (the one for SE4). I'm pretty sure this will have more immediate success - this system has NO drawback on manual "hosting" , so every pbem game can migrate to it very soon !

I don't know how PBW or SE4 work, so I cannot comment on this.

Still, this server has a huge advantage, IMHO: it hosts on Linux, so I get fewer buggy battle replays than when Pocus does the hosting

PhilD,

Technically �P surely is the way to go, but from a practical standpoint I prefer to play by email without having to connect to a server, and with predefined hosting sessions.
PBW does just that : you can define your SE4 games, dload/upload files, etc.. everything's very neat and well done.

Esben Mose Hansen · #84 February 23rd, 2004, 07:55 PM

Johan: Great you're looking into the uploadtime thing. That bug is very annoying

And really, really cool to avoid CPU load when idling. This means that the server can handle nearly the same load as a PBEM could. (Only nearly, because there's still the memory). Have you ever managed to create a game with AI/closed nations from the command line? Can you post a working one here? That would be REALLY helpful

PDF: Just for the record: There's no reason to be Online with the server when taking your turn. Just connect, then disconnect and take your turn, then connect and upload (a message will tell you in some technoslang that this has happened.) Works great!

I have now listened and considered what you all wrote. So here's a rough idea how a matchup phase could be implemented.

1. Everyone wanting to join a multiplayer game registers with an email or similar + a login. When creating his account, the new player tells how many games he has played, and where he is on a scale of 1) often quit when losing to 4) always fight to the bitter end. Also, the profile would contain how many (more) MP games this player is looking for.

2. When creating a game, this can be done in matchup mode. That is, you state how many players, what experience level(s) (0-10, 10-100, 100+ games played) and "quit-likely" the gamers may be. Then the server sits around and await enough eligible players. When enough have gathered, a MP game is starting by sending out a master password to all players. The game is started automatically, and the title is sent along with the password. This should insure againt "people accidently dropping in".

3. After the game, statitics are gathered (who quit before the end etc.) and the profiles updated. That way, the profiles become more realistic. Profiles of a certain age �ould also be marked (to avoid constant reregistering to escape a bad reputation)

What do you think? It's rough yet, but could it work? Would anyone register? I can certainly implement most of the above with little trouble

This would of course supplement the current very free form.

P.S: Would Cae be so kind as to make his moves in the games? I suppose I really should have made a fixed "host every 24 hours" rule to supplement the quickhost in the WarsOfGaia

Johan K · #85 February 24th, 2004, 12:58 AM

./dom2 --closed 5 --easyai 7 --tcpserver --port 6666 myheavenlytestgame

That should setup a dominions server with one computer player (caelum) and one closed nation (ulm). This better be REALLY helpful now!

Esben Mose Hansen · #86 February 26th, 2004, 10:59 AM

Another server breakdown. It appears that while restoring my server Last time I managed to reenable the very logging feature that caused it to crash in the first place.

All games should be restarted now; if I have missed your, drop me a mail!

Oh, and for some reasons the "participants" and "wait_for_turn" features broke. I have disabled them for now.

And Johan: Especially closing some nations would be REALLY useful ;-) In 14 days I have some holidays coming up, where I hope to get back to some of my planned features.

Meanwhile, the server seems to have gained some popularity :-D That's great!

Arryn · #87 February 26th, 2004, 11:12 AM

I have added a link to your server page on my site's links page. I hope this will attract some more attention for you.

Keep up the great work!

Breschau · #88 March 6th, 2004, 10:50 AM

To let you know, the NewbieTest game (port 2303) isn't hosting at the correct times anymore (was at 24h) and one of the players isn't playing anymore. So it's been at turn 3 for a few weeks now. Might want to just scrap it to free up space, I dunno.

Also the ones that're on 2305 and 2306 are listed as in progress, but if you connect it shows a small selection of nations and they're all listed Open. I selected vanheim for the 2306 game but it's not one of the nations that's listed (I'm quite sure there were about double the number of nations selected Last time I connected to it).

Gandalf Parker · #89 March 6th, 2004, 03:58 PM

You might want to restart the host with a "process at midnight"

a kludgy work-around for missing players (if you didnt put in a master password) is to copy a turned-in file to the players name. It wont work for just any old file. If Man seems to be missing and Ctis has done their turn then copy Ctis.2h to Man.2h in the same directory.

This is good for when the player has actually been beaten but hasnt returned that Last file to the host to let the host know that they got that "you've been beaten" message. Im thinking that the host should maybe be rewritten to skip that.

Reverend Zombie · #90 March 6th, 2004, 09:23 PM

The Urgaia game on 2301 has been static for about a week and could probably be killed, too.

The port 2305 game is running just fine, though. Breschau stated that "Also the ones that're on 2305 and 2306 are listed as in progress, but if you connect it shows a small selection of nations and they're all listed Open." but I think that might be because he did not load a Pretender for the 2305 game.

As Marignon, it takes me directly to the passoword screen.