Introversion

Well, all right, it wasn't exactly the best kept secret: I have been working on a dedicated server for Multiwinia, predictably named Dedwinia.

Binaries are not available for download at this point, but there's a test server up to catch the last million bugs. The server name is "Dedwinia Test".

Here's what's different from regular games when you play on the server:
- No matter how many players are there, only two need to press ready to leave the lobby and load the map.
- The server changes the map to adapt to the number of players. X players will always play on a X player map. The bit that is confusing there is that the lobby always shows four free slots, no matter how many the current map supports. Just ignore that, it's only the UI.
- On the server list, while X players are on the server, it will always show as an X+1 player server with the appropriate map that will be selected once you join. (Unless X is 0 or 4, of course.)
- Game modes are selected randomly, and if the system is working, more popular modes will be selected more frequently.
- Same with maps, if there is a choice.
- The server will talk to you. In the lobby, there will be a bot doing the talking ("Dedwinians"), and in the game, you'll see server messages in your own chat. Unfortunately, that is currently the only way to give you readable messages. Waiting for spectator support here.
- There are extended chat commands. Say "/help" for a list.

If anything is not working properly or if you have questions, post here. The server is keeping extensive logs, so if you say when you played and your name, I should be able to find the game and check what's wrong.

Question, how does the server determine what modes are more popular if the mode selection is random? Is this something the host manually inputs?

Feud wrote:Question, how does the server determine what modes are more popular if the mode selection is random? Is this something the host manually inputs?

It measures the time it takes to attract clients. Faster joins -> mode/map must be more popular.

Also, I'd like to note that I got a lot of help from IV in the forms of specs, code and even one feature in the MW client itself, the transfer of the end scores to the server. So here, you don't have to worry about /setscore and such.

Oh sweet.

Loving it, seems a little laggy at times though - simple bandwidth issue?

Excellent work, I'm amazed you could come up with this so quickly.

streaky81 wrote:Loving it, seems a little laggy at times though - simple bandwidth issue?

Partly; in some game situations, bandwidth can be tight, what with the same poor little machine running all the Dedcon servers, too. It's also a CPU problem; I haven't seriously attempted any optimizations yet, and the server is logging the full network traffic, too.

And it was only possible for this to grow to this stage so quickly because a) I built a prototype during the betas, b) it was possible to recycle large chunks of Dedcon code and c) of IVs help.

Not a massive problem, but it seems that the purple team colour is not available on Dedwinia?

I've played a few on the test servers so far, and when I've been the first to join a new game, purple hasn't been available, and stays unavailable.

Like I said, no massive problem - but I like purple

But, more importantly, excellent work, and thanks a lot Bert. The introversion community owes you a lot of beers...

Ah, the bot apparently grabs purple. It seems to be the default colour. I'll see if I can correct that.

There also is a freezer bug in the color randomization, like the territory selection freezer when you manage to get Territories per player * players > 6 in Defcon. I'll have to catch it next time it happens, the first time, it slipped through.

Played a few games on this now. It's pretty good. As mentioned, maybe a little more laggy then a normal server, but as you have written, there is room for improvement in that area.

The map and dynamic player support is very nice. Now sure on the purpose of registering, and I don't like the fact it seems to require 8 characters! I want 14; like the game has!

Then again, I don't know the point of doing so, I expect you'll explain that a little more another time.

May I ask, is the server something you have coded separate from Multiwinia? A modified normal client? Some more technical details would be nice

Just played a few games, including with immortalnights no less!

Impressive, what is the site that your ranking is shown on again? Is it up yet?

immortalnights wrote:The map and dynamic player support is very nice. Now sure on the purpose of registering, and I don't like the fact it seems to require 8 characters! I want 14; like the game has!

Ah, but registration keys ARE 8 characters long. You don't pick them yourself, that not-quite-finished site gives you yours, and it's a random 8 character sequence. The process is register at site -> note key -> register on a Dedwinia server to link your game account with the ladder account.

I don't think there's a publicly accessible version of the ladder site yet. I have the old ranking scripts for Defcon and could parse the logs through them, but Jelco's stuff looks so much more sophisticated.

immortalnights wrote:May I ask, is the server something you have coded separate from Multiwinia? A modified normal client? Some more technical details would be nice

It shares some code with Multiwinia, but mostly, it's a separate project, without all that stuff that would be overhead for a server. Luckily, MW's design allows for a dumb server that doesn't know a bit about the gamestate. The server just needs to manage settings, players, and a player input history.

mr_shoe_uk wrote:Impressive, what is the site that your ranking is shown on again? Is it up yet?

No, sorry. At the moment it's only open for testing.
Also, the looks are ugly at this time. (which reminds me I still have a template to finish >.>)

Dedwinia told me to post this file on the "IV Forums", but those don't seem to exist. So here it goes.

--edited out for your sake--

DoubleFelix wrote:Dedwinia told me to post this file on the "IV Forums", but those don't seem to exist.

You're at them now.. IV = Introversion