Probe the idea of "Poor man's TCP/IP"

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars of 1805 - 1815 >> Tech Support >> Probe the idea of "Poor man's TCP/IP"

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Probe the idea of "Poor man's TCP/IP" - 2/5/2008 8:26:52 PM

Jimmer

Posts: 1968
Joined: 12/5/2007
Status: offline

I want to fish around for ideas on a possible way to play the game partially by TCP/IP. This is a brainstorming thread, so dump any and all ideas on the table. After a while, I'll probably encapsulate the major ideas, and then start a new thread on actually accomplishing the feat.

The idea was originally thrown out by one of the Matrix staff members (I forget which). It was an off-hand comment. However, it's been gelling in my mind ever since then, and I think there's a chance it might be do-able.

The idea is to use a shared location on a file server as a sort of central repository. Instead of emailing the files around, the gamers would instead copy them to this one location.

A background utility would transfer the files, as they come up, into the commin folder of each game session, so players could just click the button and grab the right files as they become available.

Problems I can think of:

- The utility needs to be able to grab files and copy them in real time.
- The storage location must be accessible to all players. If the game is not played inside a home, there would have to be some mechanism to contact this location regulary (and, without too much effort).
- I think only one game could be played at a time, because the file names might be common between games. I'm not sure about this, though.

Note that IF we can get this running, it basically mirrors the PBEM style, nearly exactly. As a result, it should be very easy to switch back and forth between networked and PBEM.

_____________________________

At LAST! The greatest campaign board game of all time is finally available for the PC. Can my old heart stand the strain?

Post #: 1

RE: Probe the idea of "Poor man's TCP/IP" - 2/5/2008 9:48:25 PM

Grimrod42

Posts: 92
Joined: 1/10/2008
Status: offline

I always thought doing it by videoconferencing an intersting idea.

(in reply to Jimmer)

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RE: Probe the idea of "Poor man's TCP/IP" - 2/6/2008 12:06:49 AM

Grognot

Posts: 409
Joined: 12/7/2007
Status: offline

The names of PBM turn files encode the game name in them, as well as year, month, phase and player.

The battle files encode game name, location, and a number I haven't bothered determining the meaning of. I also haven't experimented with determining whether it's harmful to have somebody else's battle files, or to share them.

Backup saved games encode the game name and which player they belong to, but their filenames do not include month/year/phase.   Backup saved files already incorporate all .pbm data prior to their generation, as far as I can tell.

The required functionality on the server side would essentially be shared file transfer capability, probably with ZIP compression (commonly available in library form; useful for detecting random corruption as well as saving bandwidth; doable on-the-fly); and with some function for purging old files. A 'request' might be

(a) given a date (of last sync, perhaps in GMT...) and game name --
    (1) identify all .PBM and .battle files after that date
    (2) if any, zip and provide
(b) given a game name and incoming data that matches the ZIP format,
    (1) unpack that archive
    (2) if it's valid (not obvious corrupt) keep .pbm and battle files

A client could be written that would facilitate such requests.

This completely ignores multiple facets such as backup save files, any risks of propagating extra .battle files or purging old files. Other than the .zip file bit, it's close to a subset of functionality of, say, rsync or version-control software like CVS.

With a shared CVS or RCS (or Subversion or whatever) repository, you'd just need batch files for getting new files, unzip if need be, and copying them to commin; and moving files from commout to the repository, zipping if one likes, and committing them to the repository. Deciding when to purge files from the repository would be a little trickier.

(in reply to Grimrod42)

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RE: Probe the idea of "Poor man's TCP/IP" - 2/6/2008 10:21:33 PM

baboune

Posts: 121
Joined: 6/1/2003
Status: offline

This is so complicated.... Why dont you let one server EiaNW run and listen on a specific ports for incoming files. Then players send their updated moved to the host using an EiANW client, and voila... no file management of any sort, the EiANW host does all the managment for you.

So let's play player A and B are playing. Player A setups the server to listen on an IP:port. Then all players upload their setup.
Phase 1 starts, PLayer A is first in the sequence, he gets an email indicating he needs to play his phase. He connects to the server using an EiANW client that retrieves the required info. Then plays his phase and submit it to the host. The host registers the changes and moves on to the next player B, etc...

< Message edited by baboune -- 2/6/2008 10:26:23 PM >

(in reply to Grognot)

Post #: 4

RE: Probe the idea of "Poor man's TCP/IP" - 2/7/2008 4:56:34 PM

isandlwana

Posts: 30
Joined: 1/16/2008
From: North Carolina
Status: offline

At some point I would hope that Matrix would develop an EIA dedicated server allowing game play over internet--ie some type of thin client server set up allowing us to log in with software included in the game software and with a password enter the correct game--One could then have dedicated times for individual games allowing almost FTF like play. This might speed things up and make the game closer to the original. I am not upset (too much) by the speed of PBEM play except when anxiously waiting results of battles etc. I would envision being able to play at least two or three months in a given 2-3 hours session/week if we could have a quality server driven way of playing in a group format in a FTF like fashion. I realize I am not a techno geek BUT this is possible....maybe charge a small fee for access to help maintian server and cover matrix costs--I would pay a monthly fee to be able to play on line in a more FTF like fashion for sure!

(in reply to baboune)

Post #: 5

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Empires in Arms the Napoleonic Wars of 1805 - 1815 >> Tech Support >> Probe the idea of "Poor man's TCP/IP"

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