GJK Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Hi all, Upon reading the threads about finding opponents, or the problems with doing so without having to join a ladder made me want to help out since I'm in a position to be able to do so. Thus, I've reuploaded the old Proving Grounds, without the mods, that offers an opponent finder for both CMBB and CMBO, either TCP/IP or PBEM or both. The code is a bit dusty, so there may be some bugs in it. If so, or if anyone has any suggestions, send over an email. The Proving Ground 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nevermind Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Very nice,Thank you! Just one question though,how will/can you see the current status of someone?What i mean is,will you be able to tell if that person hasnt been around for a long time? Thanks again! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcm1947 Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Not meaning to be rude or ungrateful could you explain why this site would be better or preferred over the opponent finder here at BFC? Just trying to get an idea of what this site would do for me over BFC's. Thanks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 29, 2003 Author Share Posted March 29, 2003 No problem. The advantage of it will be it's sorting features. You can find opponents by game (CMBB or CMBO or both), by type (PBEM or TCP/IP or both) by time zone, by type of battle and by the experience level of the opponent. Edited to add: Also player profiles are sortable by turns per week able to play (for PBEM), for historical only vs non-historical scenarios, by hosts or guests only (TCP/IP), by max turns per game & by nationality prefered (Axis or Allies). The BFC forum is great if you're online and itching to get into a game right at that moment, no preferences. Hopefully someone else is online also and see's your post to join your game. The Proving Grounds will hopefully give you a list of people that you can contact to that you can arrange games that match what the both of you want to play at a later time. [ March 29, 2003, 08:34 PM: Message edited by: GJK ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 29, 2003 Author Share Posted March 29, 2003 Originally posted by nevermind: Very nice,Thank you! Just one question though,how will/can you see the current status of someone?What i mean is,will you be able to tell if that person hasnt been around for a long time? Thanks again! Do you mean how long ago did they sign up/are they still actively playing -or- do you mean how long have they been playing the game/how good are they? If the later, you can rate yourself and then search for other players based on how they've rated themselves. Not perfect, but it should give you an idea of how good an opponenet is before your match. If it's how long ago did they sign up, I can add a datestamp for date of membership. Eventually, I want to add player comments to this, or an AAR section or something that would be like a blog of notes that you can read about each person; how well they played, were they quick to send turns back, etc. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou2000 Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 EXCELLENT ... I've been trying to argue the case for a dedicated multiplayer site in the "what does the community need" thread and then this pops up ... talk about a happy coincidence. Just signed up and Looking forward to the scenario finder and AAR sections getting up and running. :cool: .... good to see the proving grounds back in action. It was THE place for mods and I'm sure it will become THE place for multiplayer CM and scenarios Lou2000 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 29, 2003 Author Share Posted March 29, 2003 Originally posted by Lou2000: EXCELLENT ... I've been trying to argue the case for a dedicated multiplayer site in the "what does the community need" thread and then this pops up ... talk about a happy coincidence. Just signed up and Looking forward to the scenario finder and AAR sections getting up and running. :cool: .... good to see the proving grounds back in action. It was THE place for mods and I'm sure it will become THE place for multiplayer CM and scenarios Lou2000 Thanks Lou, it was actually your post on the "What this community needs" thread that made me realize that I already had that built. It was the mod hosting that forced me to pull the plug on the site in the first place, but no reason to not offer the opponent finder if some people will find it helpful. The original goal of the site was a place to offer scenario designers a place to upload their scenarios that are still in "beta" testing mode. A place to find playtesters and to receive feedback on the scenario before finalization and a move to the Scenario Depot. That is still a work in progress and may or may not come to fruition, I'll have to see as time allows. Thanks for the comments! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou2000 Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 ================================== Thanks Lou, it was actually your post on the "What this community needs" thread that made me realize that I already had that built. ================================== :cool: :cool: Whatever the reasons, its good to see the site back. Hopefully there will be a few new players signing up over the next few days/weeks. If I had the knowledge of how to do the profiles I'd have tried to create one myself .. but I decided I couldnt do it justice .... thankfully you can I know you have only just put the site back up and I'm looking forward to seeing any changes/updates. It will be good to see the scenario designers posting missions for beta testing. I'm sure you can use the site to add something to the CM community that is currently missing .... A good multiplayer site with interesting content and a purpose ! Lou2000 [ March 29, 2003, 11:13 AM: Message edited by: Lou2000 ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moneymaxx Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 There is another thread "What does the community need??". And I think this site is what the community needs . I especially like the experience rating and the ability to write a profile. Being almost a perfect site, I still have 2 suggestions: The most important one is, IMHO, the status of the player. As LOU2000 pointed out in another thread, it's difficult to find an opponent e.g. on the Tournament House website, not because there aren't opponents listed, but because many of them (most?) signed up years ago and do not play CM anymore, therefore they never answer mails. If this new site turns out to be very successful, then this problem will surface. You write dozens of emails and never get an answer. The solution seems to be an OPEN/CLOSED status, that is set automatically by the site. E.g. if a player doesn't visit the site in let's say a week, the status gets set to closed, so that nobody bothers to write an email. It would be nice too if the player could set the status himself, to prevent to be flooded with more game requests when he is already playing 100 PBEM simultaneously . If there is no more space to display this information, maybe the name could be colour coded, green = open, red = closed. The second suggestion is not that important , but there are still "CMBO only" players out there. It would be nice if this could be displayed. I think that most players just display the complete list and don't notice that I can't play CMBB (at the moment ). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 29, 2003 Author Share Posted March 29, 2003 Excellent suggestions. I'll work on the Open/Closed feature tonight if I have a chance. I do like the idea of setting yourself "unavailable" in the case that you are unable to play a match and don't wish to be disturbed. I'll have to think on the auto-closing. Probably something in the form of a "probe" email that if goes unanswered the person is set to be unavailable. If unanswered a second (or third?) time, then they are removed. The CMBO vs CMBB (only) listing can be made a bit more obvious, as the feature is there. Might be better to even break it down into two tables, one for CMBB or both players and the other for CMBO only players. I'll think on that one as well. One feature that I did just add is the emailing of an opponent, it now uses a form that will look up the correct email address from the database. This is to prevent spambots from harvesting the email addresses. Currently, the "from" of the email will be my webhost because of his spam filters. I've emailed him and asked to add my domain to the list of acceptable domains that can send email from forms. The message body does say "DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS MESSAGE" and does include the email address of the sender. Keep the suggestions coming, this is fun! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou2000 Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Originally posted by moneymaxx: There is another thread "What does the community need??". And I think this site is what the community needs . I especially like the experience rating and the ability to write a profile. Being almost a perfect site, I still have 2 suggestions: The most important one is, IMHO, the status of the player. As LOU2000 pointed out in another thread, it's difficult to find an opponent e.g. on the Tournament House website, not because there aren't opponents listed, but because many of them (most?) signed up years ago and do not play CM anymore, therefore they never answer mails. If this new site turns out to be very successful, then this problem will surface. You write dozens of emails and never get an answer. The solution seems to be an OPEN/CLOSED status, that is set automatically by the site. E.g. if a player doesn't visit the site in let's say a week, the status gets set to closed, so that nobody bothers to write an email. It would be nice too if the player could set the status himself, to prevent to be flooded with more game requests when he is already playing 100 PBEM simultaneously . If there is no more space to display this information, maybe the name could be colour coded, green = open, red = closed. The second suggestion is not that important , but there are still "CMBO only" players out there. It would be nice if this could be displayed. I think that most players just display the complete list and don't notice that I can't play CMBB (at the moment ). I've got to say I'm with moneymaxx on these suggestions. Especially an open/closed flag that could be set by the player in the profile - or automatically by the site after a given period - say 1 or2 weeks and would require the player to login and reset the flag ... thus ensuring that a players PBEM status is 'fresh'. I think this is almost the same as neverminds current status post. I have modified the comments in my profile to show the date joined (today) and current status, this should help The BO or BB option is available as a search parameter but would be nice when viewing ALL players in the list. When I added my profile earlier today the list was at 37 and now its at 42. Tomorrow I'll throw out my first shout for a PBEM via the site, but without knowing who is current and who isnt I may not get an answer. This site has potential ... buckets full of it Lou2000 [ March 29, 2003, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Lou2000 ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcm1947 Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Well after you explaining it GJK I think it sounds like a great idea. Also it would keep from getting hooked up with somebody like Moneymaxx that is so gamey it's horrible. No just kidding he is presently teaching me the finer points of getting my butt kicked so I don't like him at this particular date in time. I do agree with him however on his post and would think it pretty important for something like that to be done. I could see that as one thing above all to kill the site and make it not so hot. I also very much agree with him about stating if CMBB or CMBO. I also really like your idea GJK about notes that each player can post describing others. I've only played 7 pbem's in my 3 years of owning the game and 4 of them going on as we speak but can see this area to be pretty important as it could certainly keep you from wasting your time with those that play different then from you to put it nicely. Oh and I even have an original idea of my own. How about a column showing the current number of games a player is presently playing and if they are booked up and couldn't take any more games on. The reason for this is I'd like to sure sign up right now but couldn't take any more games on until I beat these fine fellows I'm currently playing. I just can't say no to somebody that asks me for a game as I don't like to reject people ( call me silly ) and could allow my self to get too booked up and become one of those that don't do a good job or return turns, etc. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moneymaxx Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Originally posted by GJK: Probably something in the form of a "probe" email that if goes unanswered the person is set to be unavailable. If unanswered a second (or third?) time, then they are removed. I don't know if one should be removed directly, I think unavailable is sufficient. Maybe you could remove someone if he is unavailable for more then x months. By the way, I wanted to notice that I dont't have the slightest idea how a website is programmed, so if it is too difficult or complicated just say so . About the "probe" email. Isn't it possible that the site just remembers when the player last visited ? A cookie maybe ? But before I ask even more, I should tell you, great site !! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcm1947 Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Oh I forgot to add that I think it would be a great idea to refer everyone to this site or one like it if there's a better one out there. http://home.arcor.de/rehbold/Gamey_tactics.htm It would help, at least I think, to get everybody on the same page so to speak. I think it's the minium two opponents should discuss and decide on before playing each other to avoid any hard feelings. I am excited about this idea of yours and am looking forward to using it - hopefully a lot. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nevermind Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 Damn Money(maxx), You seem to have influenced lcm1947 to go on a crusade to rid the world of gameyness,whats up with that? I am joking of course. Ps, my poor email inbox is sitting there awaiting a mail for someone.It looks so sad,just sitting there waiting. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 30, 2003 Author Share Posted March 30, 2003 Originally posted by moneymaxx: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by GJK: Probably something in the form of a "probe" email that if goes unanswered the person is set to be unavailable. If unanswered a second (or third?) time, then they are removed. I don't know if one should be removed directly, I think unavailable is sufficient. Maybe you could remove someone if he is unavailable for more then x months. By the way, I wanted to notice that I dont't have the slightest idea how a website is programmed, so if it is too difficult or complicated just say so . About the "probe" email. Isn't it possible that the site just remembers when the player last visited ? A cookie maybe ? But before I ask even more, I should tell you, great site !! </font> 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gautrek Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 If i was you i would change England to the UK in the country list. Or you might get lots of pissed off Irish,Scottish and Welsh people going mardy(translation for non brits getting the ar*e) with you. As they all seem to hate us brits and want to beat us all the time at Rugby.But we will see tommorow. Edited cause i can't speel [ March 29, 2003, 06:00 PM: Message edited by: gautrek ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 30, 2003 Author Share Posted March 30, 2003 Originally posted by gautrek: If i was you i would change England to the UK in the country list. Or you might get lots of pissed off Irish,Scottish and Welsh people going mardy(translation for non brits getting the ar*e) with you. As they all seem to hate us brits and want to beat us all the time at Rugby.But we will see tommorow. Edited cause i can't speel Ah, yeah, didn't even notice that. I forget where I copied that country list from but I would guess that it wasn't from a European country. Wait, here it is: Made in Mexico Just kidding to my neighbors to the south. I'll make that change right now. Actually, I'll need to leave England or it will break the records of those that selected that as their choice, so I will ADD UK. If folks want to go in and change from England to the UK, then by all means. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 30, 2003 Author Share Posted March 30, 2003 Actually, it's already in there, United Kingdom. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gautrek Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 Just ignore me then everybody else does. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 30, 2003 Author Share Posted March 30, 2003 Ok, I've added some of the change requests that were posted here: Clicking on the "Just show me all the records!" now breaks the listing up by game version, both CMBB and CMBO at the top and just CMBO at the bottom. Added a "member since" date (I modified everybody's record for you already) and a "last modified" date. If you log into your profile and save it, then the current date is appended to your record for modified_date. I figure that for now this may be an easy fix; if someone has been a member for several months, yet their record hasn't been modified for several months also, then they may not be a person you want to try to contact. I will post a notice saying something like "logging into your profile and then submitting the record (even without changes) will update your record modification date and will show others your interest in participating." Something cheesy like that... I'll work on the status listing next. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 30, 2003 Author Share Posted March 30, 2003 Ok, just added a profile status button. If you edit your profile, you will see that you are now "active, ready to game!" (I've marked everybody to be active). You can then deactivate your profile, preventing it from showing in any of the results for opponent searches. I may need to add some in between status, such as active, but unavailable to play. So that your profile does show, but in a separate table from the other listings. I'm not sure that this is needed though. If your up for playing, but you already have several PBEM's going on, make a note about it in your comments section, or hide your profile for a bit. We'll see though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moneymaxx Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 Just took a new look at the site, it looks great. How can you make the changes so quickly ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted March 30, 2003 Author Share Posted March 30, 2003 Originally posted by moneymaxx: Just took a new look at the site, it looks great. How can you make the changes so quickly ? I get paid by the hour...wait, that's counterproductive! Nah, I've been coding in this programming language for years. There's nothing that I haven't found that can be done using it. It being WebDNA from Smith Micro View my site, www.garykrockover.com for links to some projects and some other stuff that I've done with it (though it's quite outdated, need to add that to my project list) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou2000 Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 GJK - just thought I'd let you know that I have I have updated my profile and used the Proving Grounds to establish contact with 'nevermind' to setup a game. All seems to be working fine... I've set the 'active' button in my profile - should this status be showing up when searching for opponent ? It would seem you have had 10 people join in the 24 hours since you put the site back up .... I'm sure more will follow. Thanks for the effort you are putting in.. Lou2000 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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