Re: [Fwd: Questions and Comments]

[Stan Shebs <shebs at cygnus dot com>]

   Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 20:54:47 -0500
   From: Michael King <kingmt@home.com>

   Question 1. Is there a client-server setup working now?? In all my
   poking around the site and reading some of the mailing list archives it
   looks like work is being done but not fully there yet...

Yes, it works well enough to be worth testing.  There are out-of-sync
problems connected with involving AIs in a net game, don't know why
yet.  I wrote a comprehensive description of the setup process and
it's in the version of the manual that's in CVS.  I'll clip and send
you a copy, if in return you tell me what parts of it don't make any
sense.

   Question 2. Is it possible to set up a game where the turns occured once
   a week?? This would assume client-server setup and the ability for a
   client to disconnect and reconnect without disrupting operation. Some
   form of security would also be necessary to prevent an unscrupules
   player from logging in as a different player to gain an unfair
   advantage...

In theory yes, you could have once/week turns.  There is a variant
option that allows for sequential turns instead of simultaneous
(RTS-style) movement, and you can save/restore several times within a
turn.

Right now though, there is nothing to ensure that a networked game
restores with all the same players, so that would be a little
complicated.

I'm not entirely clear on what you have in mind.  Xconq is more of a
live-action game than pbem, and games can go to hundreds of turns,
depending on the game design.

   Question 3. How is combat resolved?? I saw the different modes of combat
   but how exactly does one unit eliminate another unit?? I am assuming
   this is answered on
   the site, but I haven't found it yet, a pointer to the information would
   be appreciated...

Certain actions, such as attack or fire, cause a unit to lose hit
points, unit disappears (or turns into a "wreckage" unit) when hp is 0.

Firing is pretty simple, there is a range, a percent chance to hit,
and a D&D-type dice spec (such as 2d5+4) to determine hp loss.
Attack has more factors affecting, such as other units in the 
defender's cell, counterattack odds, retreat odds, etc, but the
basic hit chance and damage amount works the same.

I've been contemplating adding an optional combat strength model
a la board games, because the odds and damage tables are NxN in the
number of units, which is a lot to fill in for games with many types
of units.  Details aren't worked out yet though.

     I have seen some of the emails about the "independent" vs "neutral" vs
   "mplayer" ai. Depending on how the mplayer code is set up it might be
   possible to make "ai personalities" to handle these situations. One nice
   side effect is the ability to make a range of ai players ranging from
   agressive to passive... Some of the denziens of comp.ai.games would be
   more than happy to give input. 

Yes, that's where I'd like to see this go.  There is a lot of AI
mechanism available, just waiting for clever programmers to exploit.

								Stan