Poll: Official Multiplayer Game Server

[Maltrease]

I'm sorry to keep bringing this up. However, this time I thought I would do it in a way that makes it very easy for people to chime in with their view points.

I'm complained in the past about delayed games which was frustrating. I haven't played a single (non-blitz) multiplayer game that hasn't had server problems.

And now is appears very possible that a large multiplayer game is gone. We still had 10+ active players and around 40 turns into the game. I don't want to tally up all the hours I spent on this game... mostly in preparation and build up to what WAS soon to come.

It is certainly understandable that a "real life" emergency can occur. If something happened to my family I can assure you that keeping the Dom3 game running would be the last thing on my mind.

However, you are still affecting many people. I would guess that their have been 100's of hours put into this game collectively by the people playing it.

And what if the cause of the game ending is not some emergency. Perhaps the host has simply "moved past" dominions or is unhappy with how they are doing in the game? This doesn't seem to be an acceptable risk to me.

I think shrapnel (or Illwinter) should setup an official game server. Please place your vote and your comments.

Thanks for your time,
Adam Schroeder

[Baalz]

Alternatively, maybe a solution could be come up with to allow a different player to host in the event the original server goes MIA? Seems like it would be as easy as distributing the information in the "ftherlnd" file to every player, so all that would be needed to switch hosts would be to connect to a different server (or email your turn files to a different person). Maybe its not quite as simple as that (I've got no idea how this architecture is, and you'd have to think about server password issues), but something like that might be workable as a future feature. I'm involved in the game Maltrease mentions and talk about a sour taste in my mouth! It really makes you think about the multi-month commitment the host is making even if he's eliminated. Obviously some percentage of people are not going to be reliable enough to follow through on that commitment.

[llamabeast]

If you handed out the ftherlnd file, each player could then host test versions of the game themselves. For example, if I was about to attack an enemy army, I could host and see if I'd win. Obviously the enemy wouldn't take a move in the test game, but that might not matter. So handing out ftherlnd files might not be a good solution.

[Baalz]

Maybe you could only host if you have $(adjustable) percent of the expected turn files?

[Teraswaerto]

The ftherlnd could be given to just a few trusted people, no need to give it to everyone. Ideally, those people would not be in the game at all.

[Gandalf Parker]

I cant see my answers.
Yes they should for others. But I only play solo. And I am running a server for mp. In fact Im running two servers for mp games and hosting a total of 14 games (1 demo_only, 6 2-4 player blitz games, 3 10-player mid sized games, 1 super map game, and 3 beta games)

Ive also provided backup accounts for some long-running games. Particularly play-by-email ones.

Backups are like any backup needs. Its always a good idea. Just set the --preexec command to zip up the gamesave and put it somewhere. Maybe even mail it yourself on a different machine such as a junky yahoo account. That way if the hosting machine crashes then it can be sent to someone else to continue hosting it.

The idea of cost might be a good idea to bring up since I think Shrapnel already said they were interested but the problem wasnt the server, it was someone to run it. Of course, if many people say they would be willing to pay then maybe one of the players would be willing to run one.

(by the way, historically on such polls. Only one in ten of the peope who say they will pay for it actually show up later. But its still a good poll.)

[Maltrease]

I agree. If it is impossible to create an official (or collectively managed) server then at least having a few "official" or "trusted" people that could store the ftherlnd files would allow people to ressurect the game if the host disappears.

Does the ftherlnd file change between turns? If not it could be as simple as mailing Gandalf (or someone else) the file at the start of each game. For the most part it will never be needed again so it shouldn't take much time from the "game keeper".

If the ftherlnd files updates every turn... then backing it up with other people is not going to be reliable safe guard method.

[Maltrease]

Re:Paying...

My initial thoughts on payment or gold level account might be something like this:

30 slots are open to the public. Games are vanilla (no mods or non-standard maps). Each person can only start one game at a time, if all 30 slots are not already taken. The "vanilla" approach will also make it easy for non-expert players to start a game and for others to easily join (without having to worry about installing mods or downloading huge maps).

Then people that contribute could *buy* their own slots. So someone that contributes $20 might have 2 personal slots. These would let the player use mods and custom maps.

This solves both the "it should come included with the game" issue while also giving the people that want to contribute something extra for their $.

However... I'm open to absolutely anything if it will get an official server running.

[FAJ]

I would be willing to pay 10+ bucks a month to garuntee my games went smoothly.

[Gandalf Parker]

With Dom3 the fatherland file does update each turn. I think its a move along the path to "turn memory" which so many people want.

Paying for a slot to run a game might actually work. I like that. It might even be best to do it as a "rent" since some games can run for a year. Instead of $20 for a game, something like $5/month.