Hi

I've been working on a rewrite of Galactic Dynasty the last few days.
It's coming along well!

Still to do:
- Diplomatic relations (including war, spies etc)
- InterBBS

Done:
- Everything else.

This version of the game I've decided not to include lua support, since I
think no one ever made any events. And it's a depenency that would get
people stuck when building.

There's lot's of ansis in this version (mostly headers, but also for main
menu etc.)

For interbbs, I'm going to rethink the whole thing and try and make it
easier on Paul to maintain a game league. I'm also thinking of making
packets JSON files rather than binary files, for easier debugging.

I could really use some feedback, so if you haven't already, jump on to HappyLand and try it out.

Andrew

--
|03Andrew Pamment |08(|11apam|08)
|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!


--- Talisman v0.12-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happyland.zapto.org:11892/ (21:1/182)

BY: apam(21:1/182)


|11a|09> |10I could really use some feedback, so if you haven't already, jump on to|07
|11a|09> |10HappyLand and try it out.|07
Once you are ready for someone else to try the interbbs, I'm up for trying to get that working with wwiv. We've no other interbbs support at the moment, so happy to try to get this working.

Will likely need to make network stack changes to make it work, so may be slow, but would love to make it work.

|11r|09ushfan|07



--- WWIV 5.7.0.3459
* Origin: Mystic Rhythms BBS (21:2/115)

BY: Rushfan(21:2/115)


|11R|09> |10Once you are ready for someone else to try the interbbs, I'm up for|07
|11R|09> |10trying to get that working with wwiv. We've no other interbbs support|07
|11R|09> |10at the moment, so happy to try to get this working.|07
That would be a plus, Id like to see more bbs types involved.


--- WWIV 5.7.0.3455
* Origin: inland utopia * socal usa * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

Re: Galactic Dynasty 2
By: apam to All on Sun Mar 14 2021 02:07 pm

For interbbs, I'm going to rethink the whole thing and try and make it easier on Paul to maintain a game league. I'm also thinking of making packets JSON files rather than binary files, for easier debugging.

FreePascal has a pretty nice json unit as well. not really sure what utilities an interbbs door might need but it's there ;)
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (21:1/183)

Once you are ready for someone else to try the interbbs, I'm up for
trying to get that working with wwiv. We've no other interbbs support
at the moment, so happy to try to get this working.

Will likely need to make network stack changes to make it work, so may
be slow, but would love to make it work.

Do you mean via wwivnet or ftn? With ftn all my games need is filebox
support for interbbs.

Andrew

--
|03Andrew Pamment |08(|11apam|08)
|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!


--- Talisman v0.12-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happyland.zapto.org:11892/ (21:1/182)

FreePascal has a pretty nice json unit as well. not really sure what utilities an interbbs door might need but it's there ;)

Does it? I'm using C++.

The way I've done InterBBS in the past is just creating packet files
which are tossed around via fileboxes, so no particular utilites really
needed.

Andrew

--
|03Andrew Pamment |08(|11apam|08)
|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!


--- Talisman v0.12-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happyland.zapto.org:11892/ (21:1/182)

Still to do:
- Diplomatic relations (including war, spies etc)

This is now all done. The game should be able to be played and won
eventually.

I'll do interbbs another day. I'm pretty happy with what I've got so far..

Theres a few things different to the old one.

Andrew

--
|03Andrew Pamment |08(|11apam|08)
|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!


--- Talisman v0.12-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happyland.zapto.org:11892/ (21:1/182)

On 14 Mar 2021 at 02:07p, apam pondered and said...

Hi

:)

I've been working on a rewrite of Galactic Dynasty the last few days.
It's coming along well!

Cool. Thanks for looking at this.

Still to do:
- Diplomatic relations (including war, spies etc)
- InterBBS

This version of the game I've decided not to include lua support, since I think no one ever made any events. And it's a depenency that would get people stuck when building.

Good idea. Less is more I think.

For interbbs, I'm going to rethink the whole thing and try and make it easier on Paul to maintain a game league. I'm also thinking of making packets JSON files rather than binary files, for easier debugging.

I could really use some feedback, so if you haven't already, jump on to HappyLand and try it out.

Thanks Andrew.

From my end the off the top of my head pain points are

1) nodes that continue to run on auto pilot that are running outdated
versions of the game and sending packets that the HUB system will just reject as bad.

The HUB game continues to send those nodes later versions of packets that they too (I expect) will reject because of the same mismatch in version and/or
game ID at their end.

e.g.

Galactic Dynasty - Packet Report for 2021-03-14 19:27

VERSION "00021"
GAME ID " 93"

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |NODE | SYSTEM NAME |VERSION|GAME ID| LAST PACKET
| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 2 | Agency BBS | 00021 | 93 | 2021-03-14 11:02
| 3 | Daves BBS |*00019*|* 81*| 2021-03-12 20:36
| 4 | Castle Rock BBS | 00021 | 93 | 2021-03-14 16:45
| 5 | Capitol City Online | 00021 | 93 | 2021-03-14 09:00
| 6 | 2nd Choice Core BBS | 00021 | 93 | 2021-03-14 17:30
| 7 | The Underground BBS | 00021 | 93 | 2021-03-14 17:11
| 8 | Dragon's Lair BBS | 00021 | 93 | 2021-03-14 14:07
| 9 | Raiders Inc BBS |*00019*|* 82*| 2021-03-14 11:44
| 12 | Black Lodge Research BBS |*00019*|* 85*| 2021-03-14 12:51


2) nodes who have stopped sending in packets but the HUB game continues to create packets for them that just build up as they remain uncollected

e.g.

For Honour - Packet Report for 2021-03-14 20:01

VERSION "00005"
GAME ID " 25"

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |NODE | SYSTEM NAME |VERSION|GAME ID| LAST PACKET
| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 2 | Agency BBS | 00005 | 25 | 2021-03-14 19:27
| 3 | Black Lodge Research BBS |*00004*| 25 | 2021-03-14 07:52
| 4 | Castle Rock BBS | 00005 | 25 | 2021-03-14 19:45
| 5 | Phoenix BBS | 00005 | 25 | 2021-03-14 14:00
| 6 | 2nd Choice Core BBS | 00005 | 25 | 2021-03-14 19:40
| 7 | The Underground BBS |*00004*| 25 | 2020-11-23 03:10
| 8 | VA7AQD's Tavern BBS |*00004*| 25 | 2021-03-04 12:11
| 11 | Rocket Town BBS | 00005 | 25 | 2021-03-14 19:27
| 12 | BZ&BZ BBS |*00004*|* 22*| 2020-11-08 07:36
| 15 | Shadowscope BBS |*00004*| 25 | 2021-03-14 18:10
| 16 | Total Lost BBS |*00004*| 25 | 2020-11-09 20:29
| 17 | Bottomless Abyss BBS | 00005 | 25 | 2021-03-14 19:00
|

Suggestion: could the software look nodes sending in wrong versions/game
IDs and act on it after x days of this happening?

Ideally at the HUB end something like this would happen...

a) make the node inactive so the HUB game stops creating packets for the node

b) send HUB admin and node an alert that something is amiss (netmail or echomail) / flag this also in a txt report that might be be posted to echomail and

c) auto stop the flow of packets being sent out until node sends a packet with the correct ver/game ID or HUB admin removes a 'passive mode' switch to restart game packet feed/processing for the node

At the node end some smarts would be good.

d) if the HUB send different version / game ID generate an alert for the sysop via report or echomail/netmail

e) the node system won't send more dated packets to the HUB until the sysop fixes the issues reported to him/her

Perhaps the game itself should publish an alert to all users logging in to
play it e.g. 'Please let the sysop know there's an issue with the inter-bbs config of this game. Error code 1 - wrong game version or Error Code 2 -
wrong game ID (Now 32 should be 35)'

3) update reports.txt to include a template to add certain extra fields.
Would love to have the option to show 'days inactive' for a node. This could align with a different report the system could generate that the HUB admin could bot post showing which nodes had been set inactive and why along with
how many days the issue had been occurring.


4) sending league wide resets seems hit / miss. It seems to work (mostly) for me when I do this for GD but with FH I don't think I have been able to do it.
I often end up manually having to copy the CFG file nodes should be using to all their fileboxes which is not ideal in order for them to get the file they need.


5) I think this is something you are working on. But a way for someone to
tell with ease who sent the game packet would be helpful. Right now I have 97 FHR files in my inbound that don't seem to be getting processed. I couldn't tell you which node they were :(

14/03/2021 03:10 a.m. 77 070011B4.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011B5.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011B6.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011B7.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011B8.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011B9.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011BA.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011BB.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011BC.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011BD.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011BE.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011BF.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011C0.FHR
14/03/2021 04:10 p.m. 77 070011C1.FHR
14/03/2021 08:35 p.m. <DIR> INCOMP
28/11/2016 08:18 p.m. <DIR> LOCALSEC
10/03/2021 07:57 p.m. <DIR> UNSEC
91 File(s) 7,007 bytes
5 Dir(s) 132,202,168,320 bytes free


Sorry that's a bit of a brain dump but best I get it to you while you're pondering things for both games. :)

With thanks, Paul.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Sorry that's a bit of a brain dump but best I get it to you while
you're pondering things for both games. :)

Thanks Paul,

I've not done too much thinking on InterBBS yet, but I have thought about chucking out the old system and starting over.

Which will probably bring new challenges...

Anyway, what I have thought so far is using client generated UUIDs
instead of node numbers, so adding and removing nodes would be
unnessicary. Of course you'd still need to setup file boxes for the
nodes, but the hub on receiving a new uuid would just add it to the game.

Removing nodes could just be done on a timer, so if the hub doesn't
receive a packet from a node in say a week, it gets removed from the
game. (It doesn't matter if it's they just went on holiday and their
system went down, because when it sends a new packet it would get
re-added)

I'm also thinking of interbbs being a seperate program. Right now the
galactic dynasty binary does everything. I want to make a client program
and a hub program as well as the galactic dynasty game.

That should make things a little bit more managable, so clients run the
client program on receiving packets (and to send packets.) the hub runs
the hub program on receiving packets (and forwards packets) and the game
is just the game.

That's my thinking so far. Though part of me wonders if interbbs is worth
it at all - and rather run the game on something like door party instead.

Then there is the other idea of using a different method all together,
ie, something not FTN powered at all. Could be done via HTTP or something.

Anyway, I'll see your brain dump and raise you another :P

Andrew


--
|03Andrew Pamment |08(|11apam|08)
|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!


--- Talisman v0.12-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happyland.zapto.org:11892/ (21:1/182)

On 14 Mar 2021 at 06:13p, apam pondered and said...

Anyway, what I have thought so far is using client generated UUIDs
instead of node numbers, so adding and removing nodes would be unnessicary. Of course you'd still need to setup file boxes for the
nodes, but the hub on receiving a new uuid would just add it to the game.

Removing nodes could just be done on a timer, so if the hub doesn't receive a packet from a node in say a week, it gets removed from the
game. (It doesn't matter if it's they just went on holiday and their system went down, because when it sends a new packet it would get re-added)

this all sounds good to me and keeps maint at the HUB end to a very low
level. So thumbs up from this end :)

I'm also thinking of interbbs being a seperate program. Right now the galactic dynasty binary does everything. I want to make a client program and a hub program as well as the galactic dynasty game.

I think this would help with debugging things and keep changes to
functionality in each area less interdependent... so again thumbs up.

That should make things a little bit more managable, so clients run the client program on receiving packets (and to send packets.) the hub runs the hub program on receiving packets (and forwards packets) and the game is just the game.

yep

That's my thinking so far. Though part of me wonders if interbbs is worth it at all - and rather run the game on something like door party instead.

Please don't remove the inter-bbs stuff I enjoy running/offering it to nodes.
I think there's still a demand for stuff people can setup and config themselves. Well there is from me anyway ;-P

Then there is the other idea of using a different method all together,
ie, something not FTN powered at all. Could be done via HTTP or
something.

Yep there's that also. Guess it depends how closely you want to align it to a BBS ecosystem... If it's a BBS style game then at least keeping that known inter-bbs option (of sorts) would be worth doing IMHO.

Anyway, I'll see your brain dump and raise you another :P

Back at ya :)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Please don't remove the inter-bbs stuff I enjoy running/offering it to nodes.
I think there's still a demand for stuff people can setup and config themselves. Well there is from me anyway ;-P

Yeah, I know. :)

I just wonder sometimes, a distributed game with one player on each bbs,
vs a central game with multiple players on one bbs - isn't much
different, and knowing that the interbbs part is probably going to be
more work than the game itself...

I do understand though, people like setting up doors on their bbs, I do
too.

At any rate, it's probably best to think of this as a new game, rather
than a continuation of Galactic Dynasty, as I've completley rewritten it,
and the old interbbs stuff wont even work with this as it is :P

Andrew

--
|03Andrew Pamment |08(|11apam|08)
|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!


--- Talisman v0.12-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happyland.zapto.org:11892/ (21:1/182)

BY: apam(21:1/182)


|11a|09> |10Do you mean via wwivnet or ftn? With ftn all my games need is filebox|07
|11a|09> |10support for interbbs.|07

Maybe both eventually but can start with FTN.

I have no idea what filebox is though. :)

|11r|09ushfan|07



--- WWIV 5.7.0.3459
* Origin: Mystic Rhythms BBS (21:2/115)

Re: Re: Galactic Dynasty 2
By: Rushfan to Apam on Sun Mar 14 2021 04:08 pm

I have no idea what filebox is though. :)

What do you use for a mailer with WWIV? A filebox is just a directory you connect to a node and all the files in that directory are sent to the node and deleted.

Binkd has support for filebox's for inbound and outbound, I only use outbound. Here's a clip from the sample binkd.conf

node 5047/999 -md hostname;* password i /var/spool/ftn/personalboxes/to999 /var /spool/ftn/personalboxes/from999

Ttyl :-),
Al

... I couldn't repair the brakes.. So I made your horn louder!
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)

BY: Al(21:4/106.1)


|11A|09> |10What do you use for a mailer with WWIV? A filebox is just a directory|07
|11A|09> |10you connect to a node and all the files in that directory are sent to|07
|11A|09> |10the node and deleted.|07

Ah that makese sense. Instead of adding it into the BSO control/flo files just drop it in to send it. That's easy enough.

What does WWIV uses? It uses binkp with a server I wrote, it also does some special things for wwivnet, but supports most of the BSO outbound/inbound (enough to work with FSXnet and FidoNet, although some people on fido grumble when something isn't exactly to their liking or like binkd does it)


|11A|09> |10Binkd has support for filebox's for inbound and outbound, I only use|07
|11A|09> |10outbound. Here's a clip from the sample binkd.conf|07
|11A|09> |07
|11A|09> |10node 5047/999 -md hostname;* password i|07
|11A|09> |10/var/spool/ftn/personalboxes/to999 /var|07
|11A|09> |10/spool/ftn/personalboxes/from999|07

Thanks for the example. That helps, so it's a different directory for inbound vs. outbound and configurable. Then I gues the game just drops in the files after a player takes their turn, and retrieves anything in that directory after mail processing to respond to it?

|11r|09ushfan|07



--- WWIV 5.7.0.3461
* Origin: Mystic Rhythms BBS (21:2/115)

What does WWIV uses? It uses binkp with a server I wrote, it also does
some special things for wwivnet, but supports most of the BSO outbound/inbound (enough to work with FSXnet and FidoNet, although
some people on fido grumble when something isn't exactly to their
liking or like binkd does it)

Lol. People on Fidonet grubling??!?! What is this crazy talk!

Andrew

--
|03Andrew Pamment |08(|11apam|08)
|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!


--- Talisman v0.12-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happyland.zapto.org:11892/ (21:1/182)

Re: Re: Galactic Dynasty 2
By: Rushfan to Al on Mon Mar 15 2021 03:16 am

Ah that makese sense. Instead of adding it into the BSO control/flo files just drop it in to send it. That's easy enough.

Yes, it makes it simple to send out interbbs files or any files you want to send to a link. No need for attaches or anything.

What does WWIV uses? It uses binkp with a server I wrote, it also does some special things for wwivnet, but supports most of the BSO outbound/inbound (enough to work with FSXnet and FidoNet,

Yep, should work for you without changes, I think.

although some people on fido grumble when something isn't exactly to their liking or like binkd does it)

As long as that mailer gets the job done.. :)

Thanks for the example. That helps, so it's a different directory for inbound vs. outbound and configurable. Then I gues the game just drops in the files after a player takes their turn, and retrieves anything in that directory after mail processing to respond to it?

I just use the outbox, I don't add the inbox to my config or I'd probably need to move stuff around. All the inbounds just show up in my inbound and I look for them there.

Ttyl :-),
Al

... Age and treachery can always overcome youth and skill.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)

BY: apam(21:1/182)


|11a|09> |10Lol. People on Fidonet grubling??!?! What is this crazy talk!|07 |11a|09> |07
The guy pissed that I used pipe colors for quoting in fidonet is also getting pissy at another wwiv sysop.


--- WWIV 5.7.0.3464
* Origin: inland utopia * socal usa * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

The guy pissed that I used pipe colors for quoting in fidonet is also getting pissy at another wwiv sysop.

That doesn't suprise me. At least pipe colours are a little less painful
than ANSI codes if your reader doesn't support them.

Ah well, I could complain about people complaining but, I won't.

Andrew

--
|03Andrew Pamment |08(|11apam|08)
|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!


--- Talisman v0.12-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happyland.zapto.org:11892/ (21:1/182)

*** Quoting Al from a message to Rushfan ***

I just use the outbox, I don't add the inbox to my config or I'd
probably need to move stuff around. All the inbounds just show up in
my inbound and I look for them there.

I do the same thing, just have an outbox setup with binkd and everything goes into the same inbound.

node 21:3/100@fsxnet fidohub.leenooks.net pwd c c:\\telegard\\echomail\ \fsxout -

Not that I ever USE the outbox (other than sending .ECO files to Vince), but they're there if I need them.


Jay

... Do what you will with this tagline, just don't bother me about it!

--- Telegard v3.09.g2-sp4/mL
* Origin: Northern Realms | 289-424-5180 | bbs.nrbbs.net (21:3/110)

Utopian wrote (2021-03-14):

BY: apam(21:1/182)

|11a|09>> |10Lol. People on Fidonet grubling??!?! What is this crazy

talk!|07 |11a|09> |07
The guy pissed that I used pipe colors for quoting in fidonet is also getting pissy at another wwiv sysop.

whatever colors for quoting is indeed annoying.

---
* Origin: . (21:3/102)

The guy pissed that I used pipe colors for quoting in fidonet is also getting pissy at another wwiv sysop.

That doesn't suprise me. At least pipe colours are a little less painful than ANSI codes if your reader doesn't support them.

Even the pipe codes are pretty bad, especially, if you get quoted quotes... enough to make me at least just skip the messages. To unreadable.

Spec


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
--- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
* Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)

Hey

As you might know I've been working on Galactic Dynasty 2, it's not
really a replacement for Galactic Dynasty, as it doesn't have interbbs
support as yet.

I plan to release it on wednesday, as I have an eye appointment on
tuesday in Ipswitch, so will wait until after then.

Please note, although Patreons and players on HappyLand (Thanks
Beanzilla!) have been testing it out and reporting bugs, I'm sure there
will be plenty more found after I "release" it.

There are a few things different

1) my plan is to release binaries - Win32, linux x86_64, linux arm64 and
linux arm32. While the source code will be available via the repository
for anyone who wants it, I've found that compiling seems to be a bit
tricky for a lot of people (especially when I'm using unusual libraries
etc)

2) The actual game play is different, instead of cycling through the
stages of buying troops, attacking, diplomacy, state of the empire etc,
the state of the empire is a menu, where you can do those things, then
press turn done when you're ready.

3) There is a new employment thing, so you can buy many planets, but they
won't produce anything unless you have enough citizens to work them, on
the other hand, if you have too many citizens, they will be unemployed
and generate no taxes.

InterBBS is something for down the track, something that is just as much
work if not more than the game itself - so I want to get the game right
this time first.

Andrew

--
|03Andrew Pamment |08(|11apam|08)
|13Happy|10Land |14v2.0|08!|07


--- Talisman v0.21-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand v2.0 - telnet://happylandbbs.com:11892/ (21:1/182)

On 30 May 2021 at 03:34p, apam pondered and said...

I plan to release it on wednesday, as I have an eye appointment on
tuesday in Ipswitch, so will wait until after then.

good luck with the eye appointment :)

1) my plan is to release binaries - Win32, linux x86_64, linux arm64 and linux arm32. While the source code will be available via the repository for anyone who wants it, I've found that compiling seems to be a bit tricky for a lot of people (especially when I'm using unusual libraries etc)

I'll get in touch with you to see how I can help you get these out across fsx.

2) The actual game play is different, instead of cycling through the stages of buying troops, attacking, diplomacy, state of the empire etc, the state of the empire is a menu, where you can do those things, then press turn done when you're ready.

3) There is a new employment thing, so you can buy many planets, but they won't produce anything unless you have enough citizens to work them, on the other hand, if you have too many citizens, they will be unemployed
and generate no taxes.

wow, lot's of new stuff to consider, cool.

InterBBS is something for down the track, something that is just as much work if not more than the game itself - so I want to get the game right this time first.

Fair enough, when the day arrives I'm keen to offer it as a inter-bbs league option for Zone 21 folk who want it :) If you want to do any testing let me know.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)