[Freeciv] Re: play by email version

[Raimar Falke <rf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Mar 26, 2003 at 12:25:52AM -0500, Jason Short wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-03-25 at 13:58, Raimar Falke wrote:
> > On Tue, Mar 25, 2003 at 09:36:21AM +0000, John Allman wrote:
> > > Hi - i'm new to freeciv but it looks great. I had a look on the site but 
> > > there doesn't appear to be a play by email version of the game. Is there 
> > > one being developed or are there any plans to develop one?
> > 
> > This feature is requested often but AFAIK nobody is working on it and
> > no patch exists. One solution is to play with a large timeout of 1 day
> > or so.
> 
> I had a few thoughts on what would be needed for such an
> implementation.  But then I ran into a wall, and I'm sure in any case
> there are many things I haven't thought of.
> 
> I assume we want to be sending one e-mail per player per turn.  This
> e-mail is sent to the server, which also receives every other player's
> emails and sends an e-mail back to each player.
> 
> There are two things this implementation would need:
> 
> 1. Change the network protocol to deal with binary files that can be
> emailed rather than a continuous stream.
> 
> 2. Extend client functionality & change game rules so that the server
> and client don't need to communicate at all *during* a turn.  This is
> assuming one email per turn will be sent.
> 
> 
> #1 should be pretty easy; the dataio code just needs to be extended. 
> Basically, we still do have a continuous stream of data - it's being
> sent in e-mail rather than through TCP.
> 
> 
> #2 would be much harder.  To begin with, nobody can make moves during
> the turn - we'd need something like the proposed goto-at-end-of-turn
> system where everyone enters goto moves and the server processes them
> all at the end of the turn.
> 
> But this is just the beginning.  Currently almost every player action
> involves the client sending a packet to the server and receiving another
> packet in return.  Here the return packet needs to be cut out.  In most
> cases this just means the client needs to know more about the game
> logic.
> 
> 
> My question is, what is the point?  The only advantage I can see to
> play-by-email is that a direct connection to the server is not
> required.  But the implementation would have many spin-off benefits from
> reduced lag effects.

As you point out it will change the game a lot (both gameplay and also
the code). IMHO will this create another game.

        Raimar

-- 
 email: rf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 "The very concept of PNP is a lovely dream that simply does not translate to
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    -- Jinx Tigr in the SDM