Old host, maybe soon to be returning for more punishment.

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

Hi Gang!

It has been quite a while hasn't it?

I look around, and I see a lot of old friends (Ed, Merlyn, Matthias, Stefan,
Maurits to name a few), and quite a few new names.

To the old hands: it's nice to be back. To the newer people, I look forward
to seeing you on a host site somewhere and blowing you out of the sky
(hehehe).

As the old hands among you would well remember, I used to run a VGAP Host
site (Surfies Space Skirmishes), and whilst I have not yet set the site back
up yet, I am looking at starting up again, this time with my own hosting
program, rather than one coded by somebody else.

To this end, I would like to know the following:

1) Is the RCCL still being used? Has it been adopted as a standard
reliability test yet?
2) With the number of host sites that are around at the moment, would it be
worth my while (in your opinion of course) in me bothering to start hosting
again?
3) If I was to return to hosting, what styles of game would you enjoy
seeing?

Basically, at this stage, I am really just testing to waters to see if there
is enough interest to make it worth my while. If there isn't I will move
onto something else, and just start playing.

Cheers!

Surfie

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

Salut,
>
> To this end, I would like to know the following:
>
> 1) Is the RCCL still being used? Has it been adopted as a standard
> reliability test yet?

The main promoter seems to be NAVGAP, Robohost and HighCommand and a few
minor and vanished hosts show up, if you look at the RCCL pages:
http://www.home.aone.net.au/neilgrigg/ladder.html
I still consider it the best scoring method around, but sadly most hosts
have their own individual ranking.

> 2) With the number of host sites that are around at the moment, would it be
> worth my while (in your opinion of course) in me bothering to start hosting
> again?

I guess it takes some time for people to come around to a new host, but
I guess there will be interested people

> 3) If I was to return to hosting, what styles of game would you enjoy
> seeing?

Personally I prefer the plain vanilla games, with just three possible
alterations:
different ship lists (esp. plist 2.4, tlist 1.1)
explore map
wrap around map w/o. any seam.
I might go for TKF some time, but first I'd like to get aquainted to plist.

Cheers,
Ingo

--
Ingo von Borstel <newsgroups@planetmaker.de>
Public Key: http://www.planetmaker.de/ingo.asc

If you need an urgent reply, replace newsgroups by vgap.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

Hi Surf, good to see you "back". As for RCCL... it is used by some, but
since it doesn't integrate with auto hosting... and looks like it never
will... some of us bigger hosts just don't have the time to put in the data
submissions required to use it. I have enough on my plate doing everything
I do. So a site that uses the Ladder would probably be a boon... and of
course having another host to play on myself would be a nice addition.

Ed

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

Op 2005-03-11, Surfie schreef <surfie@surfie.webfeet.com.au>:
> It has been quite a while hasn't it?

Hi Surfie. Welcome back!

> 1) Is the RCCL still being used? Has it been adopted as a standard
> reliability test yet?

I play at PlanetsServer.com. They have their own system. But RCCL is
the only pointing system I've heard of that is being used at multiple
sites.

> 2) With the number of host sites that are around at the moment, would it be
> worth my while (in your opinion of course) in me bothering to start hosting
> again?

I myself am firmly rooted at PlanetsServer.com. I like it there and I
don't want to play many games, so I won't be likely to start a game on
another hosting site.

Every now and then a new hosting site springs up. Most probably don't
get a lot of players, but I haven't investigated. I think there is
always room for an 'old master' to show his hosting skills.

> 3) If I was to return to hosting, what styles of game would you enjoy
> seeing?

Absolutely Phost (preferably version 4) with custom wrap around
map. As a bonus I like exploremap in there. I currently favour
Plist2.4, but the original list or Tlist1.1 is fine as well. No other
add-ons, though for battles TKF is fine (but it's not perfect and not
maintained any more) or maybe the newer TVCR2 (untested by me).

> Basically, at this stage, I am really just testing to waters to see if there
> is enough interest to make it worth my while. If there isn't I will move
> onto something else, and just start playing.

I definitely advice to also start playing one game at some host to get
a feel for the game again and for how a hosting site is run.

--
Maurits van Rees | http://maurits.vanrees.org/ [Dutch/Nederlands]
"The question of whether computers can think is like the question of
whether submarines can swim." - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

 

[Matthias]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

Hi Surfie,

welcome back. I look forward to see your site rise up again.

> 1) Is the RCCL still being used? Has it been adopted as a standard
> reliability test yet?
Ed has said it before: There seems to be no way that the trn-procedure is
implemented to run automatically. I found a way creating a mail by using the
Autotroll web-templates, but this is not very comfortable or satisfying.
Currently I'm not adding new games to the ladder. Very sad, it could be an
over-all platform to identify reliable players.

> 2) With the number of host sites that are around at the moment, would it
be
> worth my while (in your opinion of course) in me bothering to start
hosting
> again?
Currently I have about 200 players, about 70 are active. New players join
recently.
I believe I have half the players you had at your "good times", I see a good
chance that your former players will return to you.
I'm playing in 2 games (Navgap & Battlestar) and will not have the time to
join more games.

> 3) If I was to return to hosting, what styles of game would you enjoy
> seeing?
I found that mostly the standard games with changed maps are requested. I
always have problems to get the addon games filled. But looking at Ed's site
this seems to be a problem at my host only.

Can you tell us sth. about your hosting program? I'm pretty satisfied with
Autotroll, but always curious for new.

Greets Matthias, HighCommand
www.high-command.de

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

> Can you tell us sth. about your hosting program? I'm pretty satisfied with
> Autotroll, but always curious for new.
>
> Greets Matthias, HighCommand
> www.high-command.de
>

Hi Matthias!

Thanks for the feedback (and to the other who have replied so far).

At this stage, it is in concept only, and as a result, at this stage I want
to keep it pretty quiet, until I actually get a somewhat working version
going.

Sorry, but because of this, I can't really tell you exactly what it will or
won't be capable of...

If I can get a version working well, I may consider offering it to the wider
host market as a whole (possibly for a nominal fee, possibly not - not
really sure yet). So that is another reason for me to keep the information
close to my chest at this point.

Cheers

Surfie