Persistent Game - Auto-invite

Feature Requests
1

I hope this already exists and I’m unaware of it, but I’m designing a Total War-like game that has upwards of 16 players; scheduling that many people together each week is impossible, so I was hoping I could keep the game open on my computer and allow players to log in to take their turns at their leisure.

Is is possible for my open game to auto-invite players to the room so they can synchronize and take their turns? Is it possible to have a game running persistently without the need for players to email a file one at a time in a chain - which would be unwieldy with 16 people.

2

Thus spake JackFalstaff:

I hope this already exists and I’m unaware of it, but I’m designing a
Total War-like game that has upwards of 16 players; scheduling that
many people together each week is impossible, so I was hoping I could
keep the game open on my computer and allow players to log in to take
their turns at their leisure.

Is is possible for my open game to auto-invite players to the room so
they can synchronize and take their turns? Is it possible to have a game
running persistently without the need for players to email a file one at
a time in a chain - which would be unwieldy with 16 people.

You could leave the game room open on the game server—but it will
disappear anytime the server process dies, such as when I have to
reboot the system for maintenance. It’s not likely to work out that
well for you.

One of my plans for VASSAL 4 is to have persistent storage as part of
the game server, so you could do what you’re describing.

–
J.

3
  1. Would the game auto-save when the server goes down for maintenance?
  2. How often does the server die? I could vigilantly save and reopen.
  3. Any estimate when Vassal 4 will be up? :stuck_out_tongue:
4

Thus spake JackFalstaff:

  1. Would the game auto-save when the server goes down for maintenance?

No, that’s why I’m saying I doult you’d have much luck doing this.

  1. How often does the server die? I could vigilantly save and reopen.

It’s unpredictable. When I reboot the machine depends on when there are
kernel updates. But the server code is also buggy, which causes the
server process to die unexpectedly sometimes. This won’t happen for weeks,
then can happen multiple times in one one day.

You’re welcome to try it, but just remember that I did warn you if it
turns out to be frustrating.

  1. Any estimate when Vassal 4 will be up? :stuck_out_tongue:

No. I won’t make any guesses about that until after we’ve released a
series of V4 tech demos.

–
J.