Spectator mode

[DisLike]

Hallo, I have a simple idea for Warzone 2100 that I would like to discuss. Few days earlyer I have submited a message to bugtraq because I thought of it as a defect (http://developer.wz2100.net/ticket/719).
My idea is to create a spectator mode for players that are defeated. I think that this would make multiplayer game even more interesting. That is actually not the only reason. At the moment in multiplayer mode when host gets defeated, a window with game statistics is displayed for him. After pressing continue, host disconnects instead of continuing at the same time ending the game for everyone who had been playing with him. It would be wise to make the game interesting even after defeat and I believe (and hope) that his wouldn't cost much effort as functionality of sensor for viewing all the map could be used here without writting code from scratch.

[Zarel]

Yes, this is on our to-do list already.

[DisLike]

Super!!!

[NEXUS]

It would also be neat to enter the game as a spectator from the start of the game (as some kind of a referee) or as a learning tool for people new to the game.

[Zarel]

Yes, that is also on our to-do list.

[nonchip]

what i'm missing is a dedicated server. because my server PCs dont have 3d graphic cards (who wants a SERVER with 3d graphics?? they often dont have a screen!), i just cant host any warzone server. oh and if there will be a dedicated server option, it should have to be configurable to automatically start the next map (of a given list, simple text file with the map names) at round end. so someone can start a server and it will keep running forever (or restart itself). if it were not configurable to do so, then one should be able to configure it via command line only, then i could write a wrapper script which does the map rotation on server shutdown (which should be at round end)

if its possible to join/host in spec mode, then i think it would be easy to just disable all graphics and sound, and use stdIO as a chat/console interface. that would be like the server described above

[Air Up There]

what i'm missing is a dedicated server. because my server PCs dont have 3d graphic cards (who wants a SERVER with 3d graphics?? they often dont have a screen!), i just cant host any warzone server. oh and if there will be a dedicated server option, it should have to be configurable to automatically start the next map (of a given list, simple text file with the map names) at round end. so someone can start a server and it will keep running forever (or restart itself). if it were not configurable to do so, then one should be able to configure it via command line only, then i could write a wrapper script which does the map rotation on server shutdown (which should be at round end)

if its possible to join/host in spec mode, then i think it would be easy to just disable all graphics and sound, and use stdIO as a chat/console interface. that would be like the server described above

Puh... this is what i am currently working on. As far as i got, it opens the server password protected, the first to sign in with the correct password gets admin rights and can set basic parameters. however as soon as some other player joins the server kills itself and i still dont know why(afaik its not related to the code i added but to the code i changed[had to remove all that gfx stuff])

Best solution would be to add the Software renderer to the game again. I know it used to work, i used to start a mp server on my root server via vnc those days.

Still, another problem is that the server would remain as a player in the game, rendering the max number of players to be 7(on an 8p map) making fair teams impossible(makes a difference if 4 people do research against 3 people)

[Buginator]

While a 'spectator' mode will be nice, this is *way* down in the priority list AFAIK. We are missing decent GUI code for starters, and adding the code to the game isn't as easy as some people think. Lots of stuff would have to change.

Same for making it a dedicated server.

Even if it was possible, right now, the ghost host would be a sitting duck, and then we would need some kind of code to tell the server to reboot the game when the win condition is met.

[nonchip]

but if there is no dedticated server, the game can only be played at lan-parties because the admin must always be there (and he even has to play).

and for that winning-condition-met-restart-code: just let the server quit when the game ends (when the stats-overview-window is displayed), and the admin/server hoster could make his own map rotation script.
because when the server is started in a loop inside the script, it will be restarted (maybe with some other settings) when it ends itself (or receives signal11)

oh and btw: if its really so much work, then maybe it should be done now, because when its done later, it will be even more work, because all the new features that were done before also must be disabled,

and you don't have to remove the gui part, just add a command line flag ("--dedicated"), and use if/else-statements for gui and startup functions.

[Buginator]

oh and btw: if its really so much work, then maybe it should be done now, because when its done later, it will be even more work, because all the new features that were done before also must be disabled,

It is allot of work, but nobody has the time to do anything like this. That is why we need more developers, and 'Spectator mode' is *way* down the list, as I have mentioned.

/me puts up the help wanted sign

[Zarel]

Meh, it's the first thing on my list for after Betawidget... it's not that hard to achieve.

[Air Up There]

Even if it was possible, right now, the ghost host would be a sitting duck, and then we would need some kind of code to tell the server to reboot the game when the win condition is met.

Correct. But who cares if the server is a "sitting duck", as long as you dont have 8p to play?
Right now, as I understand the code, removing the player on the Server instance is not possible, so far we have 2 options: a) we accept that the server takes one player slot or b) we start a separate project called "Warzone2100 dedicated server", which would take way to much work and would require major modification each time netcode changes in the original game.

So far I say, lets take option a) and be happy.

About controlling the server, my current solution(which is working, but still has the graphics) spawns a webserver on port 2101, which allows control of the multyplayer parameters. This way an external script could check the server from time to time, whether the game is finished, or, on the other hand, it could check after it has lost the match(which is quite likely to happen when you have only one truck ) whether all the other players have lost/won the match. as long as no player remains that has neither lost nor won the game, the game itself must still be running. if this condition applies no longer(all players have lost or won) the server could respawn itself. But let me just get my little project running, especcially with that gfx things all stripped off, and then I will post my work for everyone to test and check out^^

[Zarel]

Wait, wait, are we talking about a spectator mode, or a dedicated server here? o_O