Format Poll (Pitboss vs. PBEM)

[Aro]

Originally posted by Beta
Aro you old dog! How are you! Long time no see!

And yes to pitboss.

How are you, beta? Civvin' all the time?

[Metaliturtle]

Don't we need someone to be the dedicated server for a pitboss game?

[astrologix]

I'd only play this demo-game if pitboss mode is chosen.

[Beta]

Originally posted by Metaliturtle
Don't we need someone to be the dedicated server for a pitboss game?

Yep - we will. We can do some searching, or maybe DanQ now that he is rolling in all the cash from the corporate restructuring can set one up for us.

[conmcb25]

Lets see if we can find someone who would host, anyone want to volunteer?

[Beta]

I have some ideas. Let me make a few inquiries.

[Locutus]

I'm a complete n00b when it comes to Pitboss, what does setting up a server involve? I assume it has to be online 24/7? Do you have to have Civ4 installed or is it a separate piece of software? If the latter, is it available for Linux? Can you host multiple games at a time, how much does it require in terms of system resources?

[Beta]

Originally posted by Locutus
I'm a complete n00b when it comes to Pitboss, what does setting up a server involve?

Me too, that is why I was trying to find someone who knows more. But I think I can answer some of the questions. Setting up the server is simply running the pitboss.exe that comes with the game, on your computer, and setting up the game parameters, etc.

I assume it has to be online 24/7?

Yes, it does. And if it goes down for any reason, someone at the server's end has to 'reconnect' the game.

Do you have to have Civ4 installed or is it a separate piece of software?

The pitboss software comes with Civ4. There is a pretty good write up in the warlords manual.

If the latter, is it available for Linux?

Not a separate piece of software. Now, no doubt someone could adapt the pitboss software, but that would likely be a chunk of work.

Can you host multiple games at a time,

My understanding is yes.

how much does it require in terms of system resources?

Don't know. Where's one of the techno people when you need them.

A number of folks are running pitboss games now - snoopy369, Alexman, and DrDeke to name 3. They may have a better idea.

[Locutus]

Well, that rules Apolyton out as a server... doesn't make sense to me that you make server software that needs to online 24/7 but not make it available to 70% of web servers

[Beta]

True.

I really think we will be able to come up with a member to host it. Just need some arm twisting ....

[astrologix]

I am currently hosting two pitboss games on my own PC, but only for 12 hours per day. The games are played by french speaking players of the CivFr forum, all europeans.

I assume that this demo game needs a 24/24 pitboss, that I'm not able to host.

Otherwise, hosting a pitboss is very simple. The point is that the hoster should do severals saves per day, because the pitboss is not 100% stable. It can crash sometimes and one need to have to relaunch it.

For hosting, a full Civ4-Warlords install is needed, but the pitboss is not a big CPU consumer, and don't needs the main program (i.e. Warlords) running at the same time.

I think that for this demo-game a dedicated machine would be the best solution. IMO, Firaxis should provide a free server for pitboss games

[Metaliturtle]

They should, but I think setting up a service like that would do something to their contract with gamespy.

[Beta]

I suspect that as well, Turtle.

I'm still arm twisting.

[Dave_Shack]

The pitboss server is a windows .exe, so running on another OS would require a significant amount of work. However, it doesn't actually require the graphics subsystem so it shouldn't be as much work as adapting the base engine. I'm not aware of anyone trying to make that happen. If it were done, it seems to require the entire installation so it can checksum the files and compare to the players files checksum. Don't know if it actually uses the files.

In terms of system resources, my machine has 500MB of RAM and a Pentium 2 running at 2.3 GHz. I was able to run the pitboss, Civ4 or Warlords, Opera, and Outlook. It paged a bit, but was relatively stable as long as the civ game wasn't too huge. Pitboss doesn't seem to be dependent on map size, it take the same resources no matter what's going on with the save.

The trickiest part is servicing it if it goes down off hours. I know (by reputation) a couple of people who are slipping pitboss servers onto work machines, but if it crashes at night the downtime is pretty bad.

The base Warlords pitboss is not very stable and CTD's and/or drops its socket pretty often. That is supposed to be fixed in 2.08 and the games I'm playing in seem to reflect that.

[Dave_Shack]

Oh, forgot to vote... Pitboss all the way!