PBEM game: Advice and/or recommendations?

PashaDawg · #1 October 24th, 2004, 09:15 PM

Here's my 3 cents.

One possible way around the problem of lost emails is this:

1. At a certain time, all .2h files are due (let's say 7:30 am).

2. If some are missing, the host will send a general email to all players that so-and-so's game files are missing. The host then will wait a specific amount of time (e.g. until 6:00 pm) for the problem to be resolved. (A second special targeted email also could be sent to the missing player.)

This system would require 3 emails to be lost before someone's turn staled.

(I am trying to figure out a way that I, for example, could host and deal with such problems and still go to work during the day.)

I am concerned that requiring everyone to have backup email servers would be overly burdensome.

PASHA

Rowlff · #2 October 24th, 2004, 09:51 PM

@Gandalf: Thanks for the tip! I guess I'll take that opportunity, even before I get this demo game running (^_^)

@PashaDawg: You identified the problem... not many hosts would like to go after late players manually. After all, it quickly becomes a lot of work (and let's be honest - only very few mails get lost at all. The ones that do, are of course the important ones, but still I think the risk is negligible).
On the other hand, setting up an automatic PBEM host would be a fun project for me - rather than using email, people would log into a website to upload turns and get their results. Validation of turns could be automatic, there could be a little forum for diplomacy and trash talk, Users could start new games themselves, ...

Stay tuned! (^_^)

Rowlff · #3 October 24th, 2004, 09:53 PM

And before I forget: If you do start that PBEM game, Avocet... count me in (as soon as I get my full Version of the game, that is)!

deccan · #4 October 24th, 2004, 09:54 PM

I've been toying with the idea of making a website for facilitating PBEM play. Basically modelled on SEIV's PBW system, it should allow the host to upload the current turn file to the website, and after correctly identifying themselves, players would be able to download their relevant turn files, and after doing their turns, upload the .2h file to the website. This means that all players can know who has or hasn't played which helps to create some peer pressure to speed up games a bit.

I was planning to do it with PHP / MySQL. Any one think this would be useful? I wonder how hard this would be. I already have a modded phpBB forum running on my website that allows photo uploads/downloads.

Edit: Sheesh, Rowlff beat me to it.

Great minds think alike. Yeah, that's my excuse.

Zen · #5 October 24th, 2004, 09:57 PM

That would be a great addition Deccan.

Gandalf Parker · #6 October 24th, 2004, 10:07 PM

Theres a long thread somewhere on "dedicated servers" where I discuss alot of what a system could do.

If someone can write a nice upload script, even if it goes with defaults and only uploads .2h files, that would go far toward a good system.

An alternative might be to run a forum that allows file attach

Rowlff · #7 October 24th, 2004, 10:59 PM

@Gandalf: I'll try and dig that up...

@deccan: We could join forces, no?
And how hard could it be? I've only been doing a little thinking, but I am quite confident it's possible to get a nice system running in a relatively short timeframe. The hard part always is getting the bugs out, and implementing all the new features the damn Users suddenly seem to want (^_^)
Anyway, I develop PHP and MySQL for a living, so why not get another (free) project on the plate... PM me, if you like!

Rowlff · #8 October 25th, 2004, 12:28 AM

I found the thread you mentioned, Gandalf. Definitely an interesting read...

And I started running some tests: Hosting regular turns once you get the .2h files from the players is easy enough from the commandline (and thus automatically from a script). But there does not seem to be an obvious way to start a new game when you only have the initial .2h files from the players' "newlords" folder.

I played around with a script starting and subsequently killing a text only TCP server of "Dominions II", and that did generate a "fathrlnd" file, but even when I specify all the options like map, and set "--uploadtime 0", the damn server still insists on some interactivity on my part, having to click "OK" several times. Does anybody here know of a way to get this process completed without the user having to do anything?

[10.49pm] Got it working! It's late... still, a good start, methinks!

deccan · #9 October 25th, 2004, 01:28 AM

Heh, my day job isn't even remotely related to programming and I tend to be the kind of person who learns just enough programming to make what I need and then promptly forget whatever I learned afterwards. I'm not sure how much help I could be to a pro...

The reason why I said it might not be too hard is because there are already plenty of free PHP scripts about that handle user registration / management (including such things as "remember me" login, "I forgot my password" functionality, "I want to change my e-mail address" etc.) and file upload / download, which to my mind are the most difficult parts.

Other than that, we would only need a way for a registered user to create a virtual game with x number of open slots (which is after just rows in an MySQL table), allow players to apply for an open slot and upload their pretender file, and after the host presses the "Start Game" button, allows the host to upload turn files and Users to download them and upload .2h files in turn. Since in Dominions, the the correct .2h file is always (nation_name).2h, and the turn file is always (nation_name).trn that helps too. You'd also want some functionality on the game page to allow the host to post news on the game (which I suppose would also get e-mailed automatically to each player).

It would make it really easy to do if we force the host to upload each .trn file individually. I suppose the alternative would be to allow the host to zip all the turn files into a zip and upload that and have the server unzip them and sort all the (nation_name).trn files correctly, which would be a lot more complex and need lots of testing. (You need error checking of all kinds such as seeing if the host forgot to include a particular nation's .trn in the zip etc.)

Personally, I'd just aim to get the above to work first (and force hosts to upload each .trn individually) before thinking about other things, like e-mail notifications, giving players the option of having the latest turn attached to their e-mail notification etc, allowing players to withdraw, allowing the host to kick a player etc.

Yeah, I've been thinking about this for a while now. And oh, you'd also want to think about some reasonable size limits for the various files. How big can a .2h get? How big can a .trn get?

deccan · #10 October 25th, 2004, 01:35 AM

Quote:

Rowlff said:
[10.49pm] Got it working! It's late... still, a good start, methinks!

Oops, looks like you've been playing around with actually hosting a game. Remember, my thought was to simply make a web-based tool to help hosts organize PBEM games, not to actually host a game. But if you have the machine and always-on connection to make it happen, hey, more power to you.