I want to start a directIP pitboss game with 24 hour turnover. This will run on a dedicated box with dual xeon 3G's and 2Gigs of RAM. A few other processes will run on that box, but it's got plenty of cpu cycles and RAM to spare. I figure we can do a dozen players. 24 hour turnover. Simulatneous turns. post email addresses and race prefs. Emails are for scree's Pitboss Turn Notify so if we're all faster than 24 hrs, the system will email us that a new turn is ready. I think that's a must especially for the early game so we can move it along if possible. I think with 12 ppl we'll need a large or huge map size. I suppose clients will need above average hardware for these size maps from what I've heard. I haven't really had a problem loading them but I got the game for x-mas, so I started with 1.52. Maybe that was earlier versions. If anyone has issue with a map that big, let me know, but I think it's probably needed with a dozen players. Again I need email addresses, race prefs, and leader prefs from serious players. I don't want to be playing with 11 AI players after 2 weeks. I will return the favor as well. My skill level is pretty low, but if I get snuffed out, obviously the box will stay up. I'm just happy to host such a great game for fellow enthusiasts. Hmm. Yep that's a long enough first post.:D

Im in!!

Email: JoJoRunyan@aol.com
Civilization: Inca

Im down for either a Large or Huge map, its up to you. Thanks!

Mmm, nice computer. :)

I'm in.
Email aviv /dot/ hurvitz /at/ gmail /dot/ com
Civ: Random

I'm on board too!

It'll be my first PitBoss game.

Email: shawn.kwa [at] gmail [dot] com
Civilization: Tokugawa of the Japanese

Hey! This sounds great! Count me in!

email: wec5533 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Civilization: Aztec

I'll join.

E-mail: (sent via PM)
Civ: Random

Thanks!

Great! I'd like to join.

email: (check your PM)
Civ: Random

Okay, we got 6, 7 counting me. Not bad for less than 12 hours. I figured it'd take longer than it has so far. Checking on things, it appears that createing a random game within the game, you cannot have 12 ppl unless you choose huge. But the PB app lets you choose I think 17 or something even when it's set on standard. I can only imagine that is because not everyone is going to be connected at once. I need an opinion, will we be bumping into each other on large and HAVE to use huge? I'd like to use the smallest map possible and still have a decent game. Input?

I would like to try a PB game. I have not played one yet, so just tell me what I need to do. I can PM my emaill address.

Guys I have another question for those more experienced. If a person chooses random race, during first login, how do I keep them from choosing one of the races that I have reserved for someone else that doesn't want random? I guess I just assign slot numbers to ppl? Like I could say the first 5 are chosen races, so anyone that wants random should stay away from those top 5 slots. Does that work?

Also could someone help out pennywise? I'd like to include him. I pm'ed him already but a couple other views on the subject might help. Thanx!


desolat

Guys I have another question for those more experienced. If a person chooses random race, during first login, how do I keep them from choosing one of the races that I have reserved for someone else that doesn't want random? I guess I just assign slot numbers to ppl? Like I could say the first 5 are chosen races, so anyone that wants random should stay away from those top 5 slots. Does that work?

What you need to do is assign everyone a player number from 0 to max-1 before you generate the game. Use these assignments to match a player's civ with the player # in your PB setup screen. When the game generates, the DOS window will list all the civs (with leaders) assigned in order from 0 to max-1. You'd then post here which civ/leaders each person received, since many chose random. Otherwise, those who chose random would be able to pick and choose from the random civs generated, and you don't want that.

Players would then select the leader you indicated in your post when they first log onto your PB server. Once a leader's been claimed and the player has password-protected it, on subsequent logins, the leader's name at the login screen will be replaced by the player's name that you assign during setup.

BTW, please use Vindicator as my game name. Thanks!

Also consider if the turn cycle could be 12 hours and not 24 hours. Game would proceed more quickly and it's not huge issue if someone misses a single turn since it's possible to queue both unit moves, tech and builds.

Also consider if the turn cycle could be 12 hours and not 24 hours. Game would proceed more quickly and it's not huge issue if someone misses a single turn since it's possible to queue both unit moves, tech and builds.

I agree. I found 24-hour turns to be too long.

12-hour turns are a good compromise between too long and not long enough. :p

Alright, thanks for that, that was what I was considering is assigning slots. Wasn't sure if it was necessary, thought there may be a way around that. OK will do. Vindicator name is updated in my spreadsheet. 12 hour turns it is, as long as no one has issue with it.

Still need more folks to join up BTW...

I'm trying to decide if I want to join. I'd like to, but I know I'll be on vacation from Feb 12th through Feb 19th. Now, if you let me into the game. I'd play as normal up until then, building and doing what I can. Then you'd boot me from the game during that one week, allowing the AI to take over, and then I'd take over again when I return.
If you don't want this, then I'll just find a game later on after I return. Mysterio is already going to have to do this in the game we currently have going on his server. (I just havn't told him this until just now). :D

Hi desolat!

I'd like to join if there's room:

corossol dot civ at gmail dot com
Louis, Gandhi or Qin in that order (do I really need 2nd and 3rd choices? no one likes Louis)
GMT -5

Thanks for hosting!

Mysterio and HitAnyKey, if I get in I promise to play fast and uphold peace in the world. :)

I did notice that there's people from all over the world putting in for this one. There's one thing I'd like to point out based on the PB game I'm in with Myst and Cor.
Myst set his up for only people between the GMT-8 and GMT-5 timezones. The purpose of this one was so that sessions could be scheduled during the week in the evenings (we try for 7pm-10pm EST a couple times a week) and even on weekends (this past weekend we played from noon-7pm EST and then again from 10pm to midnight).

Having all the players in relatively close timezones make for a better PitBoss game, because you can all log in at the same time and get a bunch of turns done really fast. And then you just log in at least twice a day on days when sessions can't get scheduled.

I am very in.
PM sent with my info.
I would like to be Catherine as I have never played her in a game and I hear good things.

I suggest a continents map. This allows for good room for early expansion but still allows for Naval units and strategy to be a factor in game.

Also you might want to consider having tech trading turned off. Having it on allows for possibly too much collusion between players who form out of game alliances from day one etc.

Having all the players in relatively close timezones make for a better PitBoss game, because you can all log in at the same time and get a bunch of turns done really fast. And then you just log in at least twice a day on days when sessions can't get scheduled.

Yes, but that's assuming everyones has a rather regular sleep schedule. :D I'm usually awake at the same time with the US east coasterneres. Therefore, if there's still room:

jorjala...gmail.com
Random

I'm unsure if my pc handles huge at the later stages. I'm upgrading sometime soon, though.

Oh if I'm accepted, I'll also take a Random Civ. And my email is this username at gmail.

HAK, I understand your concern and I've seen that method floating around the PB forum. However, with a 2 year old boy at my house, things happen at ALL times of the day and night, and I cannot gurantee any time I could make it to a game. Thus, pitboss. Which solves that problem for me quite nicely. I am using the Turn Notifier to help speed things up a bit, and we are changing to 12 hour turns. Note that Furious and Dandrige. 12 hour turns. I will probably start the game sometime in the evening but I've heard that PB has issues with losing or gaining time, so it will slip. Can you guys make 12 hour turns from over there? If it's a problem, I may go back to 24 hour because we still do not have 12 ppl yet.

And yeah kicking you from the game when you go on vacation is fine. No complaints here bro.

We are doing the continents thing, I love the Navy aspect too.

I see what you are saying about tech trading. "I'll research this while you research that" conversations via email offline. Yeah that would suck. OK no tech trading unless there is sufficient arguement otherwise.

If HAK wants to join, we have 11 with me. We need one more. One other thing, I am on a business trip out of town right now, but will be back tomorrow night. Earliest it would start would be tomorrow night, more likely the next night for me to get organized. I don't want to half-ass this. Preferences list, spreadsheet of players and their emails and races, Outlook distribution lists and entering the emails again into Turn Notifier takes alot of time. Especially just to get my ass kicked by you pros. I've been lurking around for a bit, I've seen alot of you guys active in this forum, and know who I'm up against. :sad:

Okay I took so long to post that last that HAK and another person both chimed in, so we have 11, 12 with me. Game closed. Let's look at tomorrow night, as long as the world doesn't fall apart on me, I will most probably get the server up tomorrow night late, and email you all with the address and password. It is possible but not probable, that it may have to wait until the next night, but no further. No yelling at me till then. If there are ANY issues at all during the game, you'll all have my email and I will admin issues every night. Hopefully it should run pretty smooth but I'm betting on bugs coming out of PB with 12 ppl and huge maps. Not sure if a large game has been done a whole lot yet.

sweet, looking forward to starting. One quick question though, doi I need to download anything for a pitboss game?

I'll play random civ.
joebrookes@pbcenters.net

pennywise, the only thing I can think of is be sure to have patch 1.52 installed please. And do you know how to connect to a directIP game?

Joe, sorry but we have enough ppl now. Please monitor this thread, if anyone drops out we will most definitely welcome you.

I am all set on the patch, but I am not sure how to connect to a direct IP game

When you click on the Multiplayer link the middle one says Direct IP. It's the one two above Play By Email. You click that one. You'll have your name on top. On the right side you'll enter in the IP Address and Password for the game that is provided to us by desolat. Then you'll click on your Civ name and click Ok. Then you'll be asked to enter your personal password (first time you'll be asked to set it).
Then when you do your turn, you ended it just like in pbem, and then exit back to the menu.

Let me play! 1 more!

Game is up and running! Enjoy folks. Slot assignments and address/password are in your emails. Please let me know of any issues. Remember the slots go from slot ZERO to slot 11 for the 12 people. First slot being 0, last slot is 11. I'm sure most of us know this, just don't want that to get messed up. THanx!

I can not connect. It keeps telling me its timed out. :sad:

Pennywise, I see you got in now. Did you use the desolat.serveftp.net domain name or the original one I gave out?

Unable to log in with either url.

Can we use the actual i.p. address?? Numbers instead of a name?

Can't wait to get started :-)

I used desolat.serveftp.net and that worked, but I just tried it agin and it did not work. Do I have to wait until the next turn to get in again?

I used desolat.serveftp.net and that worked, but I just tried it agin and it did not work. Do I have to wait until the next turn to get in again?

Nope. You can log in as many times as you want, whenever you want, as long as the server is up.

Those having trouble getting in need to identify the text that's being displayed on the screen when the connection times out. Which is it:

Contacting host
Connecting to host
Contacting peer
Connecting to peer

???

I can't connect either.

edit: stuck at "contacting host"

To discover the IP "quad" number, run nslookup in the console window (I'm not sure you have it installed though). The DNS works for both addresses, returns the same number, but that number didn't work.

I'm not posting the number in the public forum because I'm not sure that's OK with the host. (It looks like 70.???.???.70)

mine says times out at contacting host

I got right in - very fast, no dialogs or delays.

"pitboss" url

Yeah don't post the number, it doesn't matter. The resolved number you got was correct with the 70's on both sides like that. Alright, everyone try the one I paid for and run my mailserver on, that is lambersons.com. However, all your email to pitboss.servegame.org got to the box in my closet just fine, so I know that name is resolving. Just try lambersons.com. Also I will send the resolved number in email right now. Just know this. This is a dynamic IP. It hasn't changed in a dogs age, but that doesn't mean it won't Which is why I paid for lambersons.com because I want a static domain name to run my mailserver on. If lambersons.com doesn't resolve for you all, I'd LOVE to know that, and I will get on my nameservice at once.

Anyway, not sure why it is happening, but all apologies nonetheless.

Hmm wait a minute, Furious you are saying you typed in the number that resolved from nslookup and it STILL didn't work? Nope can't explain that. Looks like over half of you have gotten in though. Try again.

If you guys don't figure it out, he's going to have to replace you with me!

Guys I'm thinking about scrapping the game. I sent you all an email about this. Not sure what the issue is but my vote is with pitboss, and perhaps the size of the game. The OS may have something to do with it too (win2k3 Server Enterprise), but intermittent issues are the hardest to t-shoot. If you have any ideas, I'm open, but the generic "make sure your firewall ports are open" or something like that isn't going to fly because we've had connections. Connections from ppl who couldn't connect previously, then connected later. I'm really thinking it is the known bug about not being able to connect while another player is in. While I'm sure you guys HAVE been able to do this on other servers, from what I'm reading, not everyone experiences the bug. One person even said in another forum that a remote client was attempting to connect on some random super high port number for unknown reasons, like 65432 or something. Once they accomodated for that port at the server it worked, but they don't know why it did that. There's no way I can combat that. Anyway, I've gotten a couple emails wanting me to keep the server up. Give me a full headcount-- a yea or nay. If you don't want to play on my server, I can kick you to AI and those that were able to connect can keep playing.

joethree just hang out, if anyone wants out I will give you their slot and see if you can connect.

Des, have you ever seen more than one person logged onto the server at the same time (not including you)?

No but I don't really monitor every waking minute. I wish there was a good log on the app. Is there?

No but I don't really monitor every waking minute. I wish there was a good log on the app. Is there?

I don't know of any. :(

Yeesh! They sure don't want anyone troubleshooting do they? <Sigh>. 'night
:confused:

OK I've played my turn. 43 minutes left on the counter.
I connected using labersons.com, although the DNS probably wasn't the reason for the previous failure.

I don't know of any. :(

Turn logging on from the server and the clients side and then look in the network log - it is reasonably clear what the issue is if people have problems connecting. Almost bet money that it will be one persons SW firewall at issue.

The game only needs the server to port forward 2056 to its IP - if people have connected then this won't be the issue.

Are people not getting a connecting at all or are they getting a connecting to peer and then failing?

I believe the next update (as and when it comes down) should resolve a lot of the connectivity issues people are experiencing.

In terms of machine spec - unless that machine is there for another reason that is way more powerful than you need - I mean WAY :) So could be worth trying it on a lowier machine first to see if it is OS/machine issue. Judicious use of port forwarding should mean no one even notices when you move it to another machine even if its temporary,

Tals

Are people not getting a connecting at all or are they getting a connecting to peer and then failing?

Players are timing out at "Contacting host..." when someone's already logged onto the server.

Players are timing out at "Contacting host..." when someone's already logged onto the server.

Next update should make it clear but I would say someones firewall (its a peer to peer connection) is blocking the necessary traffic. If you enable your logging in the ini file i'm pretty sure it will identify the ip of the person you cannot connect to when it doesn't let you in.

Tals

Next update should make it clear but I would say someones firewall (its a peer to peer connection) is blocking the necessary traffic. If you enable your logging in the ini file i'm pretty sure it will identify the ip of the person you cannot connect to when it doesn't let you in.

Tals

But doesn't the fact that all players are timing out at "Contacting host..." indicate that the problem resides on the server's PC, not on any of the players' PCs?

I thought you said someone was connected into the server?

I thought you said someone was connected into the server?

Right, only one person's able to connect to the server at a time. So, if someone's logged into the server, I would expect another player trying to log in to time out at either "Contacting peer" or "Connecting to peer" if the problem is due to a player, not "Contacting host." From what I've seen, when someone logs in, the order is:

Contacting host…
Connecting to host…

Contacting peer… (this is the first player logged into the game; lowest slot # gets contacted first)
Connecting to peer…

Contacting peer… (this is the second player logged into the game; second lowest slot #)
Connecting to peer…

.
etc.
.

Knowing this, you can determine which peer is blocking UDP traffic on port 2056.

Is this your understanding, as well?

Yep thinking about it that would make sense - however if any one user can connect in it makes me wonder if it is another player than the actual server. Have you guys all tried to link up and try connecting in different sequences. We had a similar issue - albeit I think it went to the connecting to peer screen and that I am 99% sure was an issue with one of the players routers which was happy handling some peer traffic through it but would allow any more - was very strange.

If any one player can connect then all others time out I wonder if the servers router/network card could be at fault? Desolat - are you happy with your router, have you tried resetting it?

Tals

I am using a SW firewall, I wonder if thats part of the problem. Is there anything I can do to check my firewall. I am using zone alarm.

I am using a SW firewall, I wonder if thats part of the problem. Is there anything I can do to check my firewall. I am using zone alarm.

The easiest way to ensure your ZA is not preventing other players’ PCs from contacting yours is to set your security level from High to Medium. This unblocks UDP traffic. I believe that adding Civilization4.exe to ZA’s exception list is not enough.

The harder way is to set ZA to allow UDP traffic on port 2056.

Yeah I'm happy with it. It's a zyxel prestige. I guess you could say an above average one with 90 MHz processor and 16M RAM in it for stateful packet inspection operations. It can definitely handle more than one incoming connection. And I have played some games, albeit not civ4 through it. I will reboot it.

I enabled logging in the ini file. I would assume I need to restart the game. I'd like to not do so, but guess I will have to.

I enabled logging in the ini file. I would assume I need to restart the game. I'd like to not do so, but guess I will have to.

Yep save the game, restart - load the game. They will never know it was down :)

I suspect the clients connections are going to tell us more in there loggin files than yours will but you never know.

Tals

Done I also restarted the box. Do you know of anyone that has run this on win2k3 before? Also, I don't have a less powerful box. I have 3 of these workstations in the house. They're identical. Sux to be me I guess. :p

I'm around at the moment and mysterio is around if you fancy doing a quick test connecting in the 3 of us? If so my xfire is tals and i'll pm you my msn

Tals

when you get up and runing i'll join

donald /dot/ sheehan2 /at/ gmail.com

Hmm I think we maybe wasting our time - I just checked picturtle and his game has the same probs - I don't believe my game does


[36232.343] DBG: Resetting the portal! (m_bConnectComplete=false)
[36246.109] DBG: Resetting the portal! (m_bConnectComplete=false)
[36246.359] WRN: Disconnecting from entire Peer Network!
[36263.063] DBG: Attempting to join host at determined address xx.xx.133.144:2056

[36293.093] ERR: Our connection attempt to host at xx.xx.133.144:2056 failed. Connection timeout.. Cannot join game
[36293.578] WRN: Disconnecting from entire Peer Network!
[36302.297] WRN: Disconnecting from entire Peer Network!


So not really very clear why we can't connect.

Tals

Since the # of human players is 6 or 7 now, would it be possible to arrange a gathering and get a little more turns accomplished at once?

I still cant connect when another person is in the game. So that would not work for me.

We hypothesized that it was due to some player being connected with an aggressive software firewall, that would then stop other players from connecting while they were in the game... (Playing in Picturtles game..)

We hypothesized that it was due to some player being connected with an aggressive software firewall, that would then stop other players from connecting while they were in the game... (Playing in Picturtles game..)

True that. :o

Personally, I have my firewall turned off now everytime Civ is running. And I'm looking for a better, free one.

Perhaps at another time.