cool breeze Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Until we get more people playing regularly (and hopefully after too) I think we should have some offers and I hope challenges. Anyone can say a date and time they hope to command a battle (or many) and anyone can offer to play as the other commander. Hopefully those interested in participating (and I hope following orders) will sign up and i hope feel uninhibited about requesting which team if they so desire. When someone offers to command a team on a date and time they set the conditions. Backing out uptill one day in advance not at all frowned on. Shorter notice and I will briefly frown. When a challenge is made the challenged (if accepting) picks conditions, day and time until agreeable one is found. ClaytoniousRex, is there yet a way so scenario can be picked right before it starts? I am much more looking forward to being commanded but to break the ice I make an offer: Thursday 730PM West Coast USA time. This might not be possible for me. I am going on a family trip tomorrow morning and will say if its possible before 1220pm Wednesday at latest. If many sign on before Wednesday and I can't command a team I will request a replacement. It will be on a non CTF server picked on Wednesday. I think a new forum should maybe be started for this, so we can have one thread per offer/challenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaytoniousRex Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 This would be great fun. Until the player population grows, you will probably be better off making "open" challenges. "I need an opponent at 7:30pm Wednesday" instead of "I want to kill KONSTANTINE at 7:30pm Wednesday" along with whatever parameters you want for the game. What would make it really interesting, of course, would be to always return to the forum and post the results of the game in the thread where the challenge originated. I would say 1-on-1 games are perfectly fine for this, too. I personally enjoy them at least as much as a server full of humans (sometimes its fun to have obedient troops). Only admins can set the current scenario on a server right now. If you can't run your own server, then you might have to settle for whatever scenario is currently running (you could both wait for the next scenario to start at the closest time) and/or pick a time when one of us admins can be there to set the scenario and players up for you. Maybe Poesel or Hub or someone else with a server would be willing to run a "challenge" server, at least part time? Or, if you can get a handful of other regular players interested in this idea, several of you could pool together for a good $90/month dedicated server and you would ALL be admins and you could ALL set the scenario, teams, and anything else you want for every challenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan/california Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 What would be really interesting, although a pain to code, is a searchable databse of every game played on the main server that could be massaged for all kinds of data. How often does a team with a certain combination of players or a certain commander win for instance. But I am bad person, I stay up nights thinking up ways for you to stay up nights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poesel Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Could you please state the time in GMT+-x? If you are not in the US then West Coast time doesn't tell you much. dan: I'm not sure if the final table after the scenario does not end up somehow in the log file. If so a parser for that wouldn't be hard. Another nice feature would be if one could record a film from a scenario. That is, not a captured screen but the server saving the movement and actions in a file. This file could be used to replay the thing from any point of view. IIRC Doom et al have such options. There Clay - not that you get bored Edit: should have read the other thread first... Clay - I'm clearly stunned. Are you into mind reading lately? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aittam Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 west coast should be -9h comared to you poesel, you are in standerd european time right? east coast -6h uk -1h i don't know the aussies, I think there should be a couple, ok quick check something between +4 and +6 depending which part of oz awe are considering o btw fine idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander SquidLord Williams Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Dan, I was reading along and you basically hit the nail on the head insofar as reading my mind goes. Clay, I figure most of the data on the core server is being stored in some kind of XML format, including the data the client gets when requesting a list of network games. Kind of going along with your poll re AAR replays, I can only guess you're thinking of just keeping nore data in general. Since network accounts are registered, anyway, maybe we can just go part-way toward that and start caching more information in some kind of web service that anyone can query and massage. Making a web site that tracks games currently in play and for the past X hours would then be easy, and doable by anyone. (More interestingly, you could have "completed games" be an RSS feed that outputs XML / formatted HTML that folks to subscribe to, and get an ongoing feed. Once you're keeping the data, building an interface that displays a ladder or stats on network players (preferred element, overall hit percentages with various ammo, whatever) would be just a matter of minor data mining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaytoniousRex Posted August 15, 2006 Share Posted August 15, 2006 We did a little of this during the public test, Alex, but never got to the level of a web service (or even very cleanly munged data) but it's a great idea that I hope we can make time to get back to soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeltz Posted August 15, 2006 Share Posted August 15, 2006 Ohhh, I wish I had more play time with all the cool idea's being tossed around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool breeze Posted August 16, 2006 Author Share Posted August 16, 2006 Since nobody has said they want to play me and I might have a hot date Thursday I am cancelling. Sorry if any y'all were hoping to battle with commanders tomorrow. We should do it soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junglist Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 I just jumped on to say I'm up for mass battle Thursday night...I guess we wait. Does anyone else want to suggest time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander SquidLord Williams Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 I'll try to slide on. My shift starts at 9p, Easterm so I free up for a while then if calls are slow. Of course, I can't shoot to save my life, but ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junglist Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 Squidy, accurate or not, I love your attitude, and would be proud to be on the same team. I gotta say I enjoyed your rebuttals in that *other* heated thread we've all been reading. Peace out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
konstantine Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 After a week's hiatus I will be online tonight taking orders if someone's there to give them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrimsonDestiny Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 I'm off work tonight. I am prepared. By your command. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aittam Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 i thought i had posted, i'll be there for an hour or so around 23 uk time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junglist Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 I'm down for tonight, with or without the man with the idea (sorry cool breeze - hope things go well with your date!). It seems we have lotsa people (myself included) who are open to the idea of being a grunt, but does anyone want the added pressure of command? To the commander goes the eternal glory/shame - are YOU ready for the challenge? I know Horus is, but maybe it would be cool with a human commander for a change. That's right, I take my orders from Horus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B0nes Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 I think Horus has the chops for a staff position. Yep, I fancy old Horus for the brass. Montard on the other hand is a sandbag. He's not fit for latrine duty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aittam Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 that has been fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junglist Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 That was fun. I guess that is the end of Round One - Thursday night in Europe that is. Now it's time for Round Two -Thursday night in North America...but not exclusive to North Americans of course. Be there or be, well...uhm, not there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yurch Posted August 17, 2006 Share Posted August 17, 2006 Am I missing something? Every time I check in, the only thing with players is the demo server... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilibird Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 It's generally later in the night. 9 or 10 my time (Eastern.. GMT-6 I think?), there's usually at least 5 or 6 people on, and that's on weekdays. It's not uncommon for the server to be full on weekend nights, especially friday. FYI- Herin, I'm using this map as a reference. http://tbgsoftware.com/TheRimSector.htm I think a cool idea would be to create 2 'factions' here on the forums. The players could either be randomly devided, or choose their factions. Each is fighting for control of the rim planets. Every week.. say friday night, another 'battle' is declared for a given planet. Given that some planets have multiple battlefields (Like Hopewell), they could be chosen at random. Each match is played at say.. 9 PM EST friday night. Whichever faction is victorious, wins control of that system, or prevents loosing it to the enemy. Now then, as you notice by looking at the map, there are a LOT of planets on there. (335 to be exact). So what we want to do is just use a given solar system (The big green circles = 1 system).. in this case, the Rim. This whole scenario could go in 2 ways. 1 way is that all of the rim sectors that are being used are devided equally between the factions. Every week, one planet bordering one controled by another faction may come under attack. (use the lines to see the 'borders') This could switch week to week, so each faction has a chance to gain/loose ground. This method would allow the war to continue indefinately until one victor is declared. The second method is to kind of reenact the Mu Arae wars. One faction gets all of the planets, and the other gets to attack one planet every week. The defending faction must hold on for a given time period (say 3 months), and if they still hold at least say.. 3.. systems at the end of this time, they are considered victorious. Now then, i'm sure you are all thinking 2 things right now. 1, that's a lot of thought for the admins to have to coordinate all this, and 2- I have a life, I don't want to dedicate playing a given night. Well, to the first question- this can go multiple ways, but the way I was thinking is that a map is kept showing what faction controls what planets, and when it comes time to battle, one planet is selected at random to be the battleground. The admins then set the server to keep repeating that map for the night. and 2- Of course. I do too. I can't guarentee that I'll be able to play on a friday night. So we have a fog of war. You don't know where, when, or even if your enemy will attack. So basically, if there is at least 1 human per team, (even if it's 7 on 1) the match continues on to a finish. If one, or both, teams fail to have a human player join before 9, the battle is considered to have a lack of defenders, or the attackers screwed up. If 1 side had humans, and the other didn't, then that side wins, and gains (or retains) control of that system. If neither side showed up, the battle never took place, and there is no change of control. There are no set players for that night. If you can show up, then show up. If you can't, or forget, then oh well, it's a game. I personally like the first of the 2 options I presented. Not only will it generate some friendly rivalry here on the forums, it might attract new players seeing how we have a 'war' for the rim for them to participate in, and it isn't just random gaming. I'm perfectly willing to try and explain this better if anyone is intersted. Hopefully someone decided to read, and understand, all that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yurch Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 Total Annihilation's now-very-expired boneyards gaming service did something this. It was one of the finest experiences I've ever had online. Problem is, there were hundreds of players. I don't think we've quite got enough for that sort of thing - you're going to end up with the 'skewed' battle very often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junglist Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 Well things were fun earlier this evening, but have kind of petered out. I sometimes think there are more people writing on the forum than actually playing the game on any given night. I'm up for any ideas that will enhance team play and get more people to commit to playing on set nights. Anyway, back to reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
konstantine Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 0/12. It's always 0/12 lately. I am GMT -8 and I get home from work around 7:30 and eat and hang out with the wife. So 8:30-9:30 I check the servers. Before there were often 2-6 people or more on line, now there is never anyone online. What gives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aittam Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 that's means that you 're chcecking now while i'm having breakfast, but it's still summer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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