[Freeciv] Re: freeciv server setup question

["Sean Bickel" <sbickel@xxxxxxxxx>]

I guess play by mail isn't quite what I am thinking of. You still connect to
the server to play, but just when its your turn. You don't mail the turns
and moves from player to player you just mail them a notice that the game
can't continue till they finish their turn.

What happens with freeciv server now if a player gets disconnected?

The only thing I would like to see is where a player can reconnect if he
drops. What would be nice is if the game can send an email letting a player
know everyone is waiting on them to finish their turn.

Sean Bickel

-----Original Message-----
From: freeciv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:freeciv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Reinier Post
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 3:06 PM
To: freeciv@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Freeciv] Re: freeciv server setup question



On Thu, Feb 28, 2002 at 02:58:32PM -0600, Sean Bickel wrote:
>
> I am interested in setting up a server that will allow players to connect
> when its their turn then email the next player when that it's their turn.
> Can the server be setup this way?

Not really, although you could write a wrapper script to support it.

Previous threads on this subject:

   http://arch.freeciv.org/freeciv-dev-199812/msg00046.html
   http://arch.freeciv.org/freeciv-dev-199904/msg00069.html
   http://arch.freeciv.org/freeciv-dev-200010/msg00029.html

> Sean Bickel

A possible implementation using a wrapper script around civserver:

+ an e-mail message contains a special file with MIME type

  x-freeciv-gamepair

+ such a file consists of a compressed pair of files:

  + civgame.sav, a saved game
  + civgame.con, an ASCII list of pairs playername - e-mail address

+ the e-mail client is configured to execute a special application
  'civbymail' on this type of file

+ civbymail

  + starts civserver on civgame.sav, setting timeout to 0 and
    saveturns to 1 for the sake of robustness
  + creates an empty civgame.con, if it doesn't exist
  + starts civclient with autoconnect, using the
    first username in civgame.con, if it exists
  + waits for the first savegame to appear
  + if the game hasn't started yet, asks the user
    whether another player should be added, if so, the name and
    e-mail address, and adds the result to civgame.con
  + rotates civgame.con and mails the resulting {civgame.sav,civgame.con}
    off to the first e-mail address

This is easy to program with a Unix shell script.  It will take some
work to catch error conditions.

--
Reinier