Posts made by tonez

Why is it that dicey servers are so unstable?
I’m trying to update the TripleA dicey servers list, but I’m having trouble finding free, working servers to add.
Here’s the rundown I’ve got:

1. TripleAWarClub/MARTI.php

• this used to be the default, but it hasn’t worked in a couple of months

2. Irony dice server

• this one stopped working for awhile, then I found an updated URL in the TripleA unstable stream, and now it works (and FAST) but doesn’t send out emails

3. Frood.net simulator

• this one looks cool, but is overly complicated I think to integrate.  All I want (for now) is an xd6 ADS generator that sends emails.  A lean version of this that just rolls dice would be cool.  Froodster…?

4. Daak low luck

• only the low-luck version is free, it seems.  I’m not to the point yet where I want to integrate low-luck diceys. Basics first.

5. AAMC dicey

• this one is a little slow, but seems relatively stable. I think I’m gonna integrate this today for lack of other options

6. I have my own dicey server (perl cgi script) that my brother (rjclayton) and I have been using.  I don’t have the bandwidth to host, and it’s pretty slow, but if someone else wants to give my perl script a try I can pass it along.  It is a reverse-engineered clone of the old TripleAWarClub MARTI.php script.

So, in summary, if there are any stable, simple, free dicey servers that I’ve missed, please let me know!  IIRC, djensen was playing with the idea of adding one to a&a.org.  That would be very cool if it could be integrated into triplea.

As far as I can tell, ABattleMap uses a closed data format, so interoperability between ABattleMap and TripleA will likely never happen.
If this is an incorrect assumption, or if anyone has insight into the ABattleMap map file data formats, let me know.

If one player is using ABattleMap, and the other is using TripleA, then yes, it may be less convenient then if both players are playing with ABattleMap and emailing the map back and forth, and certainly less convenient than if both players are using TriipleA.
I see your point.  I have not been on this forum long, and from looking at games in progress, it seemed that players were using different map tools already, but that may have been a misjudgement on my part.

For the player using ABattleMap, they still would have access to the TripleA screenshot from the other player, so hopefully the inconvenience is relatively small.

For the actual TripleA changes, we’ve moved the topic here:
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=8259.0

A feature to hijack the dice is certainly a possibility, and would be a fairly easy undertaking.  From a battle standpoint, I was actually thinking of a more general solution - which is skipping the dice altogether and just fixing the battle outcome. To be honest this would probably be not too difficult to implement in the current game engine.
Still, you could accomplish this after the fact with a map edit, although it would not be as elegant for that particular scenario (fixing a battle outcome).

I wonder how many real examples there are that don’t involve fixing a battle outcome?
rjclayton mentioned:

• A player forgot to move a unit
• The dice turn on a player in a crucial battle

As for parsing turn summaries from the forum, I’m not very interested in this at the moment.  There would need to be a concerted effort to standardize the format of forum posts to make this worthwihile, and even then it would be imperfect.

The more I consider the options, the more I think I want to maintain the flow of the game whenever possible.  I think having to replay your opponent’s turn with fixed battle outcomes in order to update the game state could be a good thing, as long as it’s not a tedious exercise.  Having to fix every die would probably get tedious when you already know the outcome.

I’m starting to think that the best solution might be to have both:
-  the ability to fix battle outcomes
-  a free-form map edit step at the beginning of every turn

Also, the map edit thing I envision is actually a game edit with the following capabilities:

• add/remove units from territories
• change territory ownership
• change IPCs held
• change tech (not a high priority)

Being the aforementioned brother “currently working on some coding”, I guess I can provide an update.

I’ve been working on a number of PBEM improvements to TripleA, with success.  Our test game has been at a stalled pace for some time because I am generally busy, and have been putting any free time I get into hacking TripleA instead of playing it (no really, it’s not because I’m getting spanked in that game!).  As a result, I expect to have a new jar file for TripleA (Stable 0.8.2.2) for beta testers to play with by the end of the weekend. I am currenlty putting on some finishing touches.

The overall goal is to make TripleA the easiest way to play PBEM games, even if your opponent chooses not to use TripleA.

Here’s a summary of work done so far, for those interested:

• new screenshot and turn summary / history log features
• auto-post end-of-turn screenshot to a public image server
• auto-post end-of-turn summary, save game file, and screenshot link to A&A.org Games In Progress forum
• improved the UI behaviour for default selections when moving units and loading/unloading transports

There have been some comments about TripleA not being a map editor. The ability to freeform-edit a game-in-progress in an auditable fashion is next on my list of things to tackle.  This is a tricky undertaking and I am engaged in design discussions with Sean Bridges (the TripleA author/maintainer).

Stay tuned this weekend for an initial beta of my current changes.