What does it take to set up a pitboss game?

[Mickeyj]

Hi there,

I’m very keen on playing more pitboss games and was wondering what is required to setup and run a pitboss game. I’m no IT expert so some of my questions may seem basic to a lot of you. These are more about how to get a server up and running as opposed to getting the game up and running.

I and I’m sure others would appreciate it if somebody or many people could write a definitive setup guide answering some of the questions below. Once up and running us amateurs could then look into more ‘extravagant adventures’ like running two games from on server and adding mods. I’ve had a look through http://forums.civfanatics.com/showth...152361&page=21 but it’s 21 pages and my eyes just glazed over at some of the jargon.

Some of the questions I have (and these are very basic):
1. Does it have to be run from a server or can it be from a windows xp PC that’s on 24/7? Another hard drive? And if so what about security of the PC.
2. If I have an old PC and want to set it up as a server do I have to have windows server or are there other ways to run a server?
3. If I’m prepared to pay are there remote servers where you can set up your own programmes, hire per gig or something similar?

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers

[MMC]

1. A pc that's always on is good enough. Normal PC security should be adequate, although make sure you have port 2056 open on your firewall.
2. Nope if it runs Windows 98 or higher, you're pretty much made.
3. PitBoss has no method of remote control as yet. You must be able to physically run the app and load the save file.

Once the Pitboss server is up and running, you can run Civ4 on the same machine as the server (assuming you have enough memory... 1Gb is plenty to spare in this case), or you can run it on another PC on your network (if you have one - don't forget to set Civ4 on that PC to use a different port from 2056).

That is pretty much all there is to it, apart from following the simple options through when you run the wizard, but they're pretty self-explanitory.

If you have any more questions, just head over the the Apolyton IRC chatrooms, and join the #c4pitboss channel.

[Mickeyj]

Thanks for that.

Will give it a try on my PC.

[MMC]

Sorry for not answering your question on IRC... let's just say I was 'asleep at the wheel'.

Anyway, to find out your IP address, just Google for "what's my IP" or something similar. If you have a static IP, you can use this everytime you play with DirectIP. If not, you'll need to check everytime you want to play, and even then you might want to look at something like www.no-ip.com

The main alternative is to choose the 'Internet' option which goes through the GameSpy lobby. This doesn't require you to know your IP, but it does require a Civ4-enabled GameSpy account. If you don't have a GS account, start up Civ4, choose Multiplayer -> Internet -> Create New Account.
If you have a normal (non-Civ4-enabled) GS account, follow the same procedure, but make sure you fill out all the details to match your existing account. NB: There is no other way to enable Civ4 in your GS account.
Once you have a Civ4-enabled GS account, you can login into the GS lobby and join a game. NB: To run PitBoss over GameSpy, you require 2 seperate accounts - one for PitBoss, and one to play with. Both must be Civ4-enabled.
Try to make sure all GS accounts you make use the same email address, that will make your life a lot simpler should you ever need to make changes to any of them.