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Any interest in an IRC channel for SPWAW?

 
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Any interest in an IRC channel for SPWAW? - 1/28/2002 10:40:00 PM   
brianleeprice

 

Posts: 176
Joined: 10/5/2001
Status: offline 		I've been itching to play SP:WAW online again but have been having difficulty finding opponents. One solution that occurred to me was to use the same method we've used for years with playing 'blitz' style Stars! (a space strategy game), that is to maintain an irc channel where people could log on anytime and get into a game or just chat or even just loiter. For temporary purposes, I've created a channel #spwaw on the WichitaFalls.TX.US.StarLink.Org irc server port number 6666 and am using my starlink irc handle 'Omnivore' there. If you're interested please stop by and give me a shout. If you have any problem resolving the server address, try the numeric address 64.57.224.2 instead. I have a cable connection and will be logged pretty much on 24/7, though of course I won't always be awake or at the keyboard If you have never used irc you can download a usable client at http://www.mirc.com. It isn't too hard to set up. Thanks,
Brian PS: if you join the channel and don't get any response from me within a few minutes, I'm probably playing SP:WAW Just type !Omnivore and an annoying sound will page me [ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: Brian Price ]



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- 1/29/2002 12:17:00 AM   
brianleeprice

 

Posts: 176
Joined: 10/5/2001
Status: offline 		It just occurred to me that some of you may not know of the advantages irc has over chat rooms and the like. First off, it is generally faster and more reliable than many web based chat services. Secondly, the most popular irc client, mIRC, is scriptable - easy to exchange and add scripts to do things like allow people to page you (play a user selectable wav file) which is quite nice for when you're in another window or temporarily away from the keyboard. But probably the biggest advantage is the ease in exchanging files. You can play pbem games over irc by simply and quickly transfering the file directly to your opponent rather than waiting for the sometimes slow email or use pbem option instead of internet play option for when your connection isn't quite up to internet play. Plus there are tons of people who are quite knowledgeable about irc and the various clients and can help you get the most out of your client software, solve any problems you have, and sometimes even make custom scripts for you to automate common tasks. I have years of experience with an online gaming community revolving around the Stars! strategy game and I can vouch for the fact that once an irc community gets rolling you can find someone, likely many someones, to discuss various topics with - especially those related to the community's purpose - 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It becomes much easier to find opponents, discover solutions to problems, and experiment with various ideas. Hehe, ok, salesman hat off. Hope to see you on #spwaw wichitafalls.tx.us.starlink.org port 6666. Thanks,
Brian

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Post #: 2
- 1/29/2002 1:00:00 AM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		I have been using ICQ chat software for several years now. I have friends on it I would greatly lament losing touch with. Still, &#^#%$#^%@^#@#$@*&^)(*#$!@!@^$%&#
sums up my feelings for how it works some days. They call it chat software, and no one actually seems to chats on it.
In my opinion "chatting" means typing in sentences that have some meaning. Which is my main beef I guess. That, and while they provide a substantial enough space to provide a reason why the user is even online and using it at all, 90% of the people I wander past, while using the programs random search function, have zero zip nadda no message whatsoever. This is of course annoying. Are these people afraid that giving out details of what they like will endanger them in some way!!
Is it an indication they are only leading an online existence because they are hopelessly boring in real life?
Merely unable to commit to a definitive statement, one they will have to live with? The alternate is MIRC software. Unfortunately with MIRC software, you commonly get people only wanting to pass 1-3 word comments all to often. But it allows the biggest amount of users simultaneous access to each other (icq ia at best able to let you chat with about 4 seperate people before your human limitations are strained to far). I am not sure about you guys, but I cant communicate effectively in 1-3 word sentences. I also insist on typing out the real words (I hate net abbreviations). Although recently I have discovered a chat site that uses the MIRC environment and I have quite enjoyed it. The site has a "room" that is pro-writer oriented, so the people there actually enjoy using words with more than 5 letters and sentences that use more than 3 words. I have tried the chat room here at Matrix, but no one is ever there. Or my schedule is always off some how. Its a pity we dont have a more effective chat environment here though. I think a lot of players would enjoy a major overhaul of the Forum. A great many posts likely would poof vanish if people could find people online in real time to ask questions of. Most of the posts seem intrinsically temporary in nature. If most of the minor-needs posts were removed (due to not being needed cause the answers were immediate and in real time) a great deal more valuable gems of the past, would remain visible to the community more easily (and that goes for all the forums I guess).

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Post #: 3
- 1/29/2002 1:07:00 AM   
RichardTheFirst

 

Posts: 466
Joined: 10/17/2001
From: Algés, Lisbon - Portugal
Status: offline 		I have mIRC at my PC but only my sister uses it. Have to ask her to give me some lessons. Seems complicated : I entered but didn't saw any #spwaw wichitafalls.tx.us.starlink.org port 6666.... [ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: RichardTheFirst ]



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Post #: 4
- 1/29/2002 1:27:00 AM   
brianleeprice

 

Posts: 176
Joined: 10/5/2001
Status: offline
quote:

Originally posted by RichardTheFirst:
I have mIRC at my PC but only my sister uses it. Have to ask her to give me some lessons. Seems complicated : I entered but didn't saw any #spwaw wichitafalls.tx.us.starlink.org port 6666.... [ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: RichardTheFirst ]
Looks like I should've explained that part better. I'll try a bit of a walk through. After starting mIRC, you'll get the popup registration dialog unless you've previously registered (mIRC is shareware though not a limited version). For now, just close that dialog box. Next you'll see a dialog box entitled mIRC Options. Perform the following steps: 1) From the IRC Servers: drop down box select StarlinkOrg 2) From the untitled drop down box immediately below that select StarLink Org: US, TX, WichitaFalls 3) Enter your name in the Full Name box 4) Enter your email addres in the email address box (this is optional - can just put a dummy address there if you want) 5) In the Nickname box enter the nickname you want to use on irc. It is limited to 9 characters and if it is already taken, the alternative nickname will be tried. 6) In the Alternative: box enter the nickname you want to use if the primary nickname you entered in step 5 is already in use. (Note that StarlinkOrg is a small irc network these days and it is rather unlikely that someone will already have both of your choices.) 7) Press the Connect to IRC Server button 8) Once the Status window shows that you have connected (you'll get a message of the day and a line that begins with Local host: followed by your internet address) enter the following text in the text entry line at the bottom of the window and then press the enter key: /join #spwaw At that point, the #spwaw channel window should pop up and you should see at least two users listed in the right hand pane - one will be your nickname, the other will be @Omnivore. (The @ sign indicates a channel operator and Omnivore is my nickname on StarlinkOrg) In the main pane of the channel window you should see the topic. If I am away from the house for more than a moment and no one else is in channel, I'll change the topic from the normal "Welcome to the SP:WAW irc channel" to "Welcome to the SP:WAW irc channel - Omnivore will be back
Post #: 5
- 1/29/2002 2:30:00 AM   
RichardTheFirst

 

Posts: 466
Joined: 10/17/2001
From: Algés, Lisbon - Portugal
Status: offline 		Just had a very nice chat with Brian. IRC works great! And... oh... we will try to play online tomorrow.

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Post #: 6
- 1/29/2002 8:10:00 PM   
brianleeprice

 

Posts: 176
Joined: 10/5/2001
Status: offline 		Three players stopped by yesterday, so we're off to a start as that is three more than my worst case scenario I'm only on during EST times, currently online some days during the week as well as evenings and weekends. It would be nice to have at least a couple people with broadband connections in other time zones stay online and in channel during their waking hours so that a friendly live greeting can be given to people stopping by at common times regardless of where they live. There are some plans in the works to make the initial visit much easier via a web portal. Once connected it is much easier to talk someone through installing and configuring a 'real' irc client. The purpose of the channel is to provide a place for real time online community gatherings for all spwaw related purposes, it is not limited to online play. It would be, I think, a great place for people to meet who are cooperating on scenario and custom campaign designs. It would also be a great way to get a bit of team play going. Anyhow, please drop by and say hello. Brian

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Post #: 7
- 1/29/2002 8:45:00 PM   
Tuomas Seijavuori

 

Posts: 91
Joined: 1/29/2002
From: Espoo, Finland
Status: offline
quote:

Originally posted by Brian Price:
Anyhow, please drop by and say hello.[/QB]
Hi Omnivore, it's Tuomas from Starbase Delta. I'm always looking for SPWAW Online opponents (preferably ones I know already), but our time zones may be a problem. Anyway I'll stop by at your channel.

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Post #: 8
- 1/29/2002 9:05:00 PM   
csmz

 

Posts: 9
Joined: 1/18/2002
Status: offline 		for all those that do not need a fully featured irc client, trillion is a good software in my opinion.
it features icq aim msn irc and yahoo messenger in one program.
if you however use a "full service" irc client, i suggest using bersirc incase you use windows.
it does not cost money like mirc does, and is in general a better program in my opinion.
btw i suggest when using an irc network, to use sorcery. it is a gamers network, and has one of the most advanced networks. it has built in services, ip masking, nickname protection etc. www.sorcery.net is the homepage of their network.

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Post #: 9
- 1/29/2002 9:59:00 PM   
brianleeprice

 

Posts: 176
Joined: 10/5/2001
Status: offline
quote:

Originally posted by csmz:
for all those that do not need a fully featured irc client, trillion is a good software in my opinion.
it features icq aim msn irc and yahoo messenger in one program.
if you however use a "full service" irc client, i suggest using bersirc incase you use windows.
it does not cost money like mirc does, and is in general a better program in my opinion.
btw i suggest when using an irc network, to use sorcery. it is a gamers network, and has one of the most advanced networks. it has built in services, ip masking, nickname protection etc.
Thanks for your interest and advice csmz. I chose StarlinkOrg as the irc network primarily because it has been home to the Stars! gaming community for over six years and I'm quite familiar with it. I also know quite a few people there and can usually get answers to arcane technical issues quickly. As far as built in services go - frankly I'm not to fond of some of them - nickname protection is necessary when you have quite a few users on the network - we don't -it also is necessary with ip masking for automated identity verification. I think ip masking just gets in the way of exchanging files and adds more steps to starting up many online games. I have no experience at all with Trillion, however I have heard a few good things about it and it sounds as if it would work. If you'd like to post some installation and configuration tips for SP:WAW players who aren't computer hobbyists or professionals, I'm sure it would be appreciated. As far as bersirc goes, I hesitate to recommend it at this time. I was interested in using it as a basis for an irc whiteboard program using its plugin capabilities a few months back but after examining it I found it to be a bit too raw and unpolished as of yet. I also had it crash on me more than once. While free, at least at the moment, it is *not* open source and frankly that also causes me to steer away from it. Besirc is a promising irc client though and I'm sure in time it will mature. Assuming, of course, the programmers involved don't get tired of working for nothing with little thanks or other benefits and move on to something else like has happened with so many other similar programs and utilities over the years. I chose to recommend mIRC because it has been around a long time, is quite mature and feature rich, has a polished user interface, is quite bug free, and it is a program I am quite familiar with. As shareware, it costs nothing to try out and quoting directly from the mIRC registration page:
quote:

The current registration amount is US$20.00, however you can choose a lower amount on the registration page if you need to. This is a one time registration, which also works with future versions of mIRC, so you will never need to register again.
Interestingly enough, mIRC has absolutely no built in penalties for not registering - no time limits, etc - it, as all good shareware, operates on the honor system. Thanks,
Brian [ January 29, 2002: Message edited by: Brian Price ]



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Post #: 10
- 1/30/2002 1:03:00 AM   
Lars Remmen

 

Posts: 357
Joined: 5/9/2000
From: Copenhagen, Denmark
Status: offline 		Hi, Possibly I'm daft but I can't connect to most servers. Connecting to 64.57.224.2 times me out or refuses connection. Are there any settings that needs to be altered? Regards, Lars

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Post #: 11
- 1/30/2002 1:21:00 AM   
brianleeprice

 

Posts: 176
Joined: 10/5/2001
Status: offline
quote:

Originally posted by Lars Remmen:
Hi, Possibly I'm daft but I can't connect to most servers. Connecting to 64.57.224.2 times me out or refuses connection. Are there any settings that needs to be altered? Regards, Lars

Port number is 6666 - maybe you need to set that? You have the correct numerical address so that shouldn't be a problem. You could use the new web gateway I just got running
http://www.geocities.com/brianleeprice/spwawgate.html logon through that (really easy almost automatic) and I'm sure we can try to work out what is wrong. Hope this helps,
Brian

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Post #: 12
- 1/30/2002 4:44:00 AM   
lnp4668

 

Posts: 517
Joined: 11/10/2000
From: Arlington, TX, USA
Status: offline
quote:

Originally posted by Brian Price:

Port number is 6666 - maybe you need to set that? You have the correct numerical address so that shouldn't be a problem. You could use the new web gateway I just got running
http://www.geocities.com/brianleeprice/spwawgate.html logon through that (really easy almost automatic) and I'm sure we can try to work out what is wrong. Hope this helps,
Brian
The webpage access works great.

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Post #: 13
- 1/30/2002 7:10:00 AM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		I am fairly stupid when it comes to using anything new on my computer, but I will definitely be interested in any manner of real time Steel Panthers environment. Keep me posted on any developements guys. You got me email handly so dont leave me out eh.

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I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.

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Post #: 14
- 1/30/2002 7:33:00 AM   
RichardTheFirst

 

Posts: 466
Joined: 10/17/2001
From: Algés, Lisbon - Portugal
Status: offline
quote:

Originally posted by Les the Sarge 9-1:
I am fairly stupid when it comes to using anything new on my computer, but I will definitely be interested in any manner of real time Steel Panthers environment. Keep me posted on any developements guys. You got me email handly so dont leave me out eh.
Brian and me are working on that. The objective is to have a gateway to mIRC at The Fans. We already settled a WORLD HAPPY HOUR so that fans know when it is more probable to meet people. See time frames at the main page.

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Post #: 15
- 1/31/2002 6:37:00 PM   
brianleeprice

 

Posts: 176
Joined: 10/5/2001
Status: offline 		The channel has seen quite a few visitors in the past few days. Unfortunately yesterday I was out most of the day and reviewing the log I see I missed a few people. If you log on and don't get a response within a few minutes, please check back later. Until we get a 'critical mass' of people on the channel, there will be times when no one else is there. Hopefully some others with broadband connections will start logging in and leaving their clients running in the background with a paging script. (If you're interested in doing that but don't know how to set it up, see me for details.) During the week I'm on during the following hours US EST (GMT -5): 0530 to 0730 and 1700 to 2200.
During weekends it is more like: 0630 to 2300. So far we've been mostly discussing various topics, helping each other with various small problems, and doing some scenario testing. One pbem game and one online game have started from the channel so far. Hopefully there are many more to come. Drop by for a visit Brian http://www.geocities.com/brianleeprice/spwawgate.html

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Post #: 16
- 2/1/2002 1:43:00 AM   
Lars Remmen

 

Posts: 357
Joined: 5/9/2000
From: Copenhagen, Denmark
Status: offline 		This is a bump! Happy Hour has just started. Come join us! Regards, Lars

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Post #: 17
- 2/3/2002 10:19:00 AM   
Tuomas Seijavuori

 

Posts: 91
Joined: 1/29/2002
From: Espoo, Finland
Status: offline 		Great games on Saturday - thanks Brian! We had a couple of 1 vs 1 games, one on a Random desert map and another on a Large pre-made map (of mine). The night was concluded in a massive 2 vs 2 players GER - USSR 6/1946 mortar-fest where my relentless hammering of seemingly empty woods kept the SS Rifle & Engineer hordes' heads down for just long enough for me and CaptChris to hold on to the victory hexes we had grabbed in the beginning.

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Post #: 18
- 2/5/2002 12:58:00 AM   
Capt Chris

 

Posts: 200
Joined: 2/4/2002
From: Rochester, NY
Status: offline 		What an awesome game we had Saturday night. Thanks Ominvore, Tuna-Fish and Tuomas for a really great time. (I even got to kill a King Tiger!) I really wish a chat client could be built into the game so everyone could be one the same page, but until then, my main hangout is #spwaw on IRC. Finding opponents for online play is kinda a pain in the neck sometimes. I have sat around in CombatNet for hours and found nobody to play. I know a lot of people use ICQ, but I am still meeting people and don't have a huge contact list. There were a bunch of people at #spwaw each visit I made this past weekend. I hope a lot more people decide to try it out.

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Post #: 19
- 2/5/2002 5:50:00 AM   
richmonder

 

Posts: 158
Joined: 12/9/2001
From: Richmond, VA USA
Status: offline 		hmmm. this is starting to get interesting. may have to hook up here..

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Post #: 20
- 2/5/2002 5:17:00 PM   
Fredde

 

Posts: 498
Joined: 6/7/2000
From: Goteborg, Sweden
Status: offline 		Great idea Brian. I hope many more will start to use this channel.

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Post #: 21
- 2/15/2002 12:21:00 AM   
Capt Chris

 

Posts: 200
Joined: 2/4/2002
From: Rochester, NY
Status: offline 		Bump! This is a great meeting place for online play or even to setup PBEM games.

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Capt Chris

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Post #: 22
- 2/15/2002 1:36:00 AM   
challenge

 

Posts: 465
Joined: 10/10/2001
From: Austin, TX
Status: offline 		Now I'm running into people here that I know from Stars! sites? I shouldn't be surprised, really, war gammers will play anything once...

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Challenge

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Post #: 23
- 2/28/2002 12:45:00 AM   
Capt Chris

 

Posts: 200
Joined: 2/4/2002
From: Rochester, NY
Status: offline 		Another Bump for the newbies!

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Capt Chris

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Post #: 24
- 2/28/2002 3:58:00 AM   
Cyric

 

Posts: 28
Joined: 1/20/2001
From: Hanko, Finland
Status: offline 		I´m all thumbs up for this one. Visited there briefly and began to wonder why this channel was taken to use only now? It´s nice to see good ideas. I personally don´t play online games, but it´s a nice place to hang around and talk about the weather Yeah...

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Post #: 25
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