This thread marks the official "launch" of CivStats.com (http://www.civstats.com).

It's been up for a while, but the last site update allowed me to cross off every item on my design doc that I wanted to cross off for version 1.0. So with that, a new thread! Plus the other thread calling it a "Proof of Concept" is a little out of date!

CivStats.com is a (not-so) new free service that allows players in a Pitboss game to view lots of information about their game right on the web. See an example game here. (http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=5)

Key features include:
A diplomacy center that allows registered players to communicate with each other. This is there because the in-game diplomacy center is very buggy, and I find email to break the "immersion" factor. The diplomacy center on CivStats.com shows a picture of the leader you're sending a message to and is designed to look similar to the in-game diplomacy screen.
RSS feeds for each game showing who has and hasn't finished their turns. There is also an RSS feed for the game log.
New turn notifications. Registered players can choose (default is on) to receive email notifications when a new turn begins. The built in turn notification system is pretty buggy, and this allows players to easily choose whether or not to receive them. Plus, in the future the notifications will contain information about what happened in the game.

You should change the RSS feeds so that they link to the new page rather than the old one.

Thanks Overload. 2 games I'm in uses this great program. I appreciate you hosting this and doing the program.

Thanks Overload. 2 games I'm in uses this great program. I appreciate you hosting this and doing the program.
Ditto from me Overload. Thanks!

Now I must crush Tubby. :evil:

You should change the RSS feeds so that they link to the new page rather than the old one.

What RSS feed are you using?

Are they loading off of the apartment 167 site? Those are very old feeds - that's why I said to update your feeds to load off the new site. ;)

Still though, you have a good point. I'll change those old feeds to not display anything except a "please update your feed sources" message.

Thanks Overload. 2 games I'm in uses this great program. I appreciate you hosting this and doing the program.
Aye, two for me too. Thank you for your time and effort to make such a nifty program! :goodjob:

Cheers Overload- am in 3 pitboss games using this right now and its the most usefull thing i've seen for many a year goodjob :goodjob:

Thank you everyone for the kind words. :)


A non-mandatory minor update to the uploader has been released.

There was a bug causing the program to appear locked up if more than 1 pitboss window was detected when you click "Auto Detect."

I'm hosting one and playing in two, and it's a great system from both points of view. :D

Suggestion: when there is a new uploader version, perhaps you could email the people who are actively hosting?

Now that the system is 'officially' released, I'll restate my offer to help out in whatever way you need. Also, I'm shouting out the website to anyone who hints at asking for it, over at Apolyton.

Now that the system is 'officially' released, I'll restate my offer to help out in whatever way you need. Also, I'm shouting out the website to anyone who hints at asking for it, over at Apolyton.

I've got a question for you: Do you have any experience with Civ 4 mods? :D I'm not getting any love (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=178912) over in the modding forum. :(

What would be nice, would be to have the new turn Year show up in the Subject line of the turn notification email instead of just in the Body.
Also, do you have an estimation of when the host might be able to make a custom message in the email?

I just noticed that one of the games I'm playing in has "City Clipping After Capture" enabled. ;)

I guess you hadn't checked the settings in the game until now, huh? :D

I just noticed that one of the games I'm playing in has "City Clipping After Capture" enabled. ;)

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I fixed that bug a long time ago, but in order for the change to show up, your game admin needs to go to the "Game Settings" (from the admin panel) and just click Save - that'll re-generate that string that is displayed from the fixed name in the database.

I should implement a feature that forces a refresh on all games for when I make a fix like that...

I've got a question for you: Do you have any experience with Civ 4 mods? :D I'm not getting any love (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=178912) over in the modding forum. :(
Awww! OverloadUT isn't loved... Course he is!
I haven't really got around to doing much in the way of Civ4 modding, but I do know how to program in C++, Python, and XML (it's just like XHTML :mischief: ).

EDIT: I got bored of waiting for a reply, so I made a logo...
http://www.evogame.co.uk/Dynasty/C4AC/civstats%20logo.png

What RSS feed are you using?

Are they loading off of the apartment 167 site? Those are very old feeds - that's why I said to update your feeds to load off the new site. ;)

oh ok, will do :)

Hummm... OverloadUT seems to have disappeared.

2 days of inactivity is hardly a disappearing act. ;)

I'm just taking a bit of a break from working on CivStats now that there is nothing pressing I need to fix.

I'm putting together my design doc for version 2, and trying to figure out what I actually want done in version 2. Here are some of the ideas/plans:
Autosave/Restore feature built in to the uploader. It would detect when the server has crashed and relaunch it from the latest auto-save. It would create an autosave every time the last player logs out from the server.
A new diplomacy center on the webpage that is "conversation" based (thread based) instead of single messages back and forth. It should make it easier to actually use the service as your primary form of communication. Right now it's a little unorganized when you get a lot of messages.
Full access to all of your civ's information right on the website. You could see the stats of all of your cities, your military units, foreign info, etc. It would also allow more important items to appear in the game log, like declaration of war.
Remote administration of the server. A game admin could kick a player to an AI from the webpage instead of needing actual access to the computer that Pitboss is running on.
I might integrate the saveconvert utility in to the Uploader, allowing a game administrator to change options like the turn timer without needing to run a command line tool. Combined with the previous idea, admins could change these options from the webpage.

MooMan: I like some parts of your logo, but I feel that some of the fonts break from the Civ "theme."

I've been wanting a custom icon for the uploader for a while, actually. My idea was that it would be the Civ4 icon but with something along the bottom like a series of 1's and 0's representing stats or information, but everything I tried didn't come out right. But I suck at graphical design anyway.

Well, the 'C' was ripped straight from the png at civstats.com, which I guess is from the fansite pack. The 'IV' was a best guess mock-up because I couldn't grab it from the same png (the rest of the Civilization name was in the way). The 'Stats' bit was the only script font (ie joined-up handwriting style) I had, and the rest is generic web fonts. Verdana and Times New Roman, I think. Oh and that funny target thing in the corner is just my own little logo - a bit like a signiture or a watermark.

Also, I was thinking that would be the website logo, with another one for the icon...

For additional Feature requests:

I would love to have the turn timer displayed for each game on the My Games page. It might be a bit busy looking, but the information would be very useful. Maybe even just showing Hours: Minutes so the seconds are needlessly distracting.

Could you allow registered users to "Watch" a game. If the admin hasn't set up passwords, or if it's a multiplayer per team game like Realpolitik or some other type, then it'd be nice to have that game appear under "My Games" even if you can't actually register for it.

-Fosse

Also, does the uploader read the MotD yet? Or is that still missing?

Also, does the uploader read the MotD yet? Or is that still missing?

Oh yeah! I meant to add that early on. I never use the MOTD in my game so I forgot about it. At this point I'll probably add that at the same time I add the remote administration features, that way game admins can change the MOTD right from the webpage.

And Fosse - those are some good suggestions. I've added the "turn timer on My Games page" to my to do list, and I will think about the "watch" feature. I can see how it would be very useful for games like Realpolitik.

Ok, I'll start by examining the remote admin possibilities of the Pitboss python files...

I had planned on keeping all of the remote admin stuff outside of the mod portion of the project. The Uploader will check the web to see if there are any changes to make, probably every 5 minutes, and then execute them (kick out a player, change the MOTD, restart the server, close down the server, maybe even plug in to the saveconvert tool and change some settings, etc.) - but I am interested to find out if there's some things that could be done by adding a python element. For example, can the turn timer be changed via python? Because that would open up a whole new world of possibilities that I would be very excited about exploiting.

The CivStats server is down right now. Someone hacked my server and was hosting a phishing site on it so I took down the whole server until I can get this resolved. The hack was completely unrelated to civstats - it was more likely related to the really old versions of forum software I'm running on my other domains. :(

Just leave your uploaders running - they should cache all of the data that needs to be uploaded, and when the server comes back up they should send all of it. This will be a great test of that feature!

How about some sort of automated scheudling of live sessions (you know, everybody puts in to CivStats when they are available for an online session and if there's a match across all players in a given game, CivStats automatically sends everybody an email notifying them of the possibility of an online session). Too much to ask??? Would be really cool though. :cool:

Looks like the server is down again today... Sucks that an clown has to prove he is cool by hacking a little stat site..

Overload.. how much traffic does your uploader create do you think? I noticed a considerable amount of lag on one game when I have your utility running on my a server on my network.

Thanks,

Todd

Yes, the site will be down for at least a day or two now. I have to have the entire OS reloaded and migrate the data from the old HDD to the new one. Once a server is compromised, there's really not much other option.

As for the amount of traffic - it should be VERY little. The largest uploads are about 1k, and it only does that when player info changes - so whenever someone logs in or out or changes scores. Even on a server where 18 players play their turn every hour, that would be around 60k/hr - certainly not enough to even make a dialup user flinch.

However, I invite you to run a packet sniffer or some sort of monitoring tool to be sure what I said is true - there can always be bugs! An early beta version had the data constantly uploading which caused a lot more traffic than I intended - but that has been fixed since the second realease. :P

Don't forget to check for random giant midget space hamsters :p.

Yes, the site will be down for at least a day or two now. I have to have the entire OS reloaded and migrate the data from the old HDD to the new one. Once a server is compromised, there's really not much other option.

As for the amount of traffic - it should be VERY little. The largest uploads are about 1k, and it only does that when player info changes - so whenever someone logs in or out or changes scores. Even on a server where 18 players play their turn every hour, that would be around 60k/hr - certainly not enough to even make a dialup user flinch.

However, I invite you to run a packet sniffer or some sort of monitoring tool to be sure what I said is true - there can always be bugs! An early beta version had the data constantly uploading which caused a lot more traffic than I intended - but that has been fixed since the second realease. :P
I think Civstats is great, and applaud the amount of effort you put into it...

I feel tho that CivStats is a tad Spoiler-ish. The scores are uploaded by each score change... Carefully studying that information can tell you:
1) Tech trades
2) Any whipping going on

Offcourse in the end this info would be available in the game, but you would have to pay VERY carefull attention to distinguish trades and whips....
Perhaps it would be better to upload only scores on the start of the new turn, not everytime a score changes... What do yall think?

It's certainly an interesting point. It's actually a concern that I directly address in the FAQ on the site, but you can't access that right now. :P

Here's what it said:

My reasoning is this: The information that's available on civstats.com is the same information that someone could get by just staying logged in to the server and watching. They could see when people log in, and when people's score increases. This means that the unemployed guy that does nothing but log in every hour to check up gets an advantage over the players that can only log in once per day to play their turn. I find that by making the information available to everybody it prevents this slight advantage that a more... jobless person might get. You can tell when two players conduct a technology trade because both of their scores go up at the same time. But then again, you can get that exact same information (even more actually) by closely watching the foreign advisor.

So there you have it. However, I do recognize that it's possible that by some strange cosmic imbalance, people might not feel the exact same way I do. ;)

If there is enough of a demand for a feature like you suggested, I will gladly implement it. :D

When I implement the whole "all of your civ details available on the site" thing, I will probably have a lot of admin-side options allowing the admin to restrict what information is available.

Your development continues to be brilliant...

It would be good to have a wating list of potential players for each existing game so that dropouts for non play could be easily replaced replaced.

Is it just me or has civstats been down for a few days now? how come?

Is it just me or has civstats been down for a few days now? how come?Try reading once in a while:
The CivStats server is down right now. Someone hacked my server and was hosting a phishing site on it so I took down the whole server until I can get this resolved. The hack was completely unrelated to civstats - it was more likely related to the really old versions of forum software I'm running on my other domains. :( Yes, the site will be down for at least a day or two now. I have to have the entire OS reloaded and migrate the data from the old HDD to the new one. Once a server is compromised, there's really not much other option.Oh, and don't forget the LAN-party he was running yesterday.

I feel tho that CivStats is a tad Spoiler-ish. The scores are uploaded by each score change... Carefully studying that information can tell you:
1) Tech trades
2) Any whipping going on

Offcourse in the end this info would be available in the game, but you would have to pay VERY carefull attention to distinguish trades and whips....
Perhaps it would be better to upload only scores on the start of the new turn, not everytime a score changes... What do yall think?

Spoilers are out-of-game information about the game. The score-changes that civstats shows is in-game information, so can not be considered a spoiler. As you already mentioned yourself, you could decipher it yourself if you paid enough attention to the ingame scores. These things are a bit like micromanagement (which is still very much alive in Civ4, BTW). The more time you invest, the more information you get (and potentially, the better you can play).

Ya got an estimate of when you think you might have the site back up? You were planning for yesterday originally, so I'm hoping you'll have it back up soon. I know we're all anxious to see our stats again... :)

Ya got an estimate of when you think you might have the site back up? You were planning for yesterday originally, so I'm hoping you'll have it back up soon. I know we're all anxious to see our stats again... :)

I was really hoping it was going to be up yesterday, but there were complications when my host was reinstalling the operating system aparently. They've been keeping me in the loop; they are doing the last steps now, and then I just need to configure the civstats.com and restore the database from the backup I made right before it went down.

It's killing me as a player too! I didn't realize how much I depend on my own creation! ;)

Edit: So in short, hopefully all the reinstallation should be done tonight, and I'll stay up late getting the site back online, or at the very worst it should be tomorrow and I'll work on it during the day.

Awesome! Glad to see it's almost up and running again.

Just to let you know when I enter www.civstats.com I get refreshing to welcome page. https://www.civstats.com:19638/welcome/ which there is no answer from. I assume you know this just giving you info if you didnt know.

Just to let you know when I enter www.civstats.com I get refreshing to welcome page. https://www.civstats.com:19638/welcome/ which there is no answer from. I assume you know this just giving you info if you didnt know.
Uuumm ... that link seems to redirect me to something called "www.snakeoil.dom" (I kid you not) ...

Oh, I see now....you're into the kinky phreaky stuff.... :D

Uuumm ... that link seems to redirect me to something called "www.snakeoil.dom" (I kid you not) ...A. Surely you mean www.snakeoil.com (which I believe is a Lynx/Axe product website or at least, it was)
B. You appear to be a victim of spyware and/or brower hijacking. I would recommend either Adaware or PrevX to check and remove such software. Oh, and make sure you don't use McAfee as every single product of theirs has been comprimised recently.

It's not actually redirecting to snakeoil.com, it's popping up a security certificate warning saying that the certificate's domain (which is snakeoil.com for some reason) doesn't match the domain entered (civstats.com) - I'll have to tell them that the certificate is pointing to the wrong domain.

But that redirect is normal - it's the control panel I use; looks like they finally got it installed although I haven't received an email from them yet. As soon as I "add" civstats.com as a hosted domain it won't redirect anymore.

This means that I should be able to get the site back online today.

A. Surely you mean www.snakeoil.com (which I believe is a Lynx/Axe product website or at least, it was)
B. You appear to be a victim of spyware and/or brower hijacking. I would recommend either Adaware or PrevX to check and remove such software. Oh, and make sure you don't use McAfee as every single product of theirs has been comprimised recently.
That's what I thought at first (spyware/browser hijack) but all scans show nothing ..... and the certificate actually does say ".dom".

So have they given you and updates on the server yet, Overload?
I never realized that your server was offsite somewhere. I always just figured it was a computer in your home or something like that.

Site's back! :D

Get those uploaders working, fellow admins!

Well, as Fosse said, the site is back up! Hurrah!

I brought it up an hour or two ago but I was having a hell of a time getting the rss feeds and the score graphs to work. For now, the score graphs are disabled, but they'll be back soon.

HitAnyKey - Yep, the site runs off of a server that I rent in San Francisco. That's why it runs so fast. :)

Yay! Thank you Overload! :D

Site's back! :D

Get those uploaders working, fellow admins!

Both of my uploaders appear to be working on the pitboss server side, but both games are still showing "uploader not connected" on the civstats site. :(

Both of my uploaders appear to be working on the pitboss server side, but both games are still showing "uploader not connected" on the civstats site. :(

Hrm... Which two games are yours?

The uploader is saying that the upload was successful when you mouse over the little network icon? Try upping your LogLevel to 3 in the .ini file and seeing if the log gives any better information.

ID's games are the CDZ grouphug game and the CivIVor game :)

Overload,

Tho I have got the Turn email checked in all my 3 games... I am not receiving any emails?

My name on civstats is the same as my forum name...

It looks like emails are indeed broken, both for new user registration and new turn notification. I will look at this today.

Hrm... Which two games are yours?

The uploader is saying that the upload was successful when you mouse over the little network icon? Try upping your LogLevel to 3 in the .ini file and seeing if the log gives any better information.

I'll do that this evening and let you know. And as BCLG says, mine are CDZ-grouphug and CivIVor-OT.

A sugestion:

In the "My games" screen, next to each game it would be nice to have the time until next turn.
Useful for when one plays in several games.

Overload, I wasn't able to download the latest uploader through the web site either. If you could check that I'd appreciate it. :)

Thanks,

Bernout

Okay, email notification should be working again. Please tell me if it doesn't work at your next turn change.

Bernout1 - Oops! The download link was piped through a script on my other domain which isn't back up yet, so the link didn't work. I changed the link to point directly to the file, so now you can download it.

I know I finished a turn on "smartmap" last night (1 am-ish) but didnt get a turn email?!

Was it the fact I was online at the time? PB doesnt send an email if you are online... Or maybe the uploader was allready offline at the time? Anyway just thought I would let you know....

Hrm... Which two games are yours?

The uploader is saying that the upload was successful when you mouse over the little network icon? Try upping your LogLevel to 3 in the .ini file and seeing if the log gives any better information.

I think I was executing an old version of the uploader on both boxes. :blush: It is working now, on both. :)

And on a semi-related note, I remember you were talking about one of the features for 2.0 being an auto-save, I just located where 'recovery saves' are stored, so maybe that feature would be automatically loading the latest recovery save (or maybe end-of-full-turn save, for less bandwidth) to your webserver, for preservation in case of pitboss server hard drive failure/virus/buildingburningdown etc?

Whoop ti do... !!! I got a turn email :)

And it isnt disappearing into the unwanted email anymore either :)

Great one... Overload :)

Yeah, when I said the email stuff was working... I lied. :mischief: I thought I had fixed it but I didn't.

But I DID fix it last night for real, and it sounds like it's working now so that's good.

Fosse - Are the "recovery saves" created more often than once per turn? My objective of the improved auto-save feature will be to have it save the game every time a player logs off, to create the absolute safest situation - if the server crashes, there should be no rollback unless someone was actually online at the time.

However, right now my civstats development time is being taken up by devloping the mod portion of the project. When this is done it will be a sight to behold! ;)

I belive that they are saved every time a player ends his turn. So if people in a game tend to log on and log off without ending their turn, your Auto Save feature would cause an increased number of saves.

I may be mistaken about this. Great Scott might be able to answer that question with some looking, since 90% of the time when people log onto Realpolitik they don't end the turn.

Actually I just looked at mine, it saves every time a player logs out - turn completed or not. My own last turn was completed at 8:30AM this morning, I logged in again at 11:30AM and adjusted a city name. On the pitboss server my own recoverysave is timestamped 11:30AM.

And there are a dozen other recoverysaves (one for each player) in the last 24hrs, all the same size (~250Kb) or growing slightly larger, exactly the same size as my "manual save" made at the same time.

That's great news. Thanks for checking, Igloo.

Where are these saves stored? The only saves I know about are in the autosave directory and those are made once a turn... I haven't looked that hard though.

Now I am getting 2 emails :( one with <<< No Message Collected >>>

and one "normal" one ....

Now I am getting 2 emails :( one with <<< No Message Collected >>>

and one "normal" one ....

Me too. For both games I am in...

Me too. For both games I am in...

At least one player in my games (Ybbor) is having the same problem, though I'm not.

Where are these saves stored? The only saves I know about are in the autosave directory and those are made once a turn... I haven't looked that hard though.

C:\Documents and Settings\<yourloginnamehere>\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Saves\multi\auto

Yes, I am having the same problem on my game. I will look in to it. I have no idea why it's sending twice...

I made a slight code change to see if it will fix it. I doubt it will though.

When I have some more free time I will look in to it better.

Yes, I am having the same problem on my game. I will look in to it. I have no idea why it's sending twice...

I made a slight code change to see if it will fix it. I doubt it will though.

When I have some more free time I will look in to it better.

If you've already done anything about it, then it worked. I got only one email for the new turn in the CDZ grouphug game... :)

:goodjob:

Me 2 got 1 turn email...

Got a small request tho, In "My games" can you list the time remaining? Nothing big cause its easy enought to check, but this would be that little bit easier :)

Notice: People are getting lazy allready (and spoiled)

2 mails again, for both games... :(

Alternate reality: 1 good one and one <<< No Message Collected >>>
CDZ grouphug: 2 identical mails

me 2 too....

I'm working on the problem.

The problem seems to be in sendmail itself, not in my code - which means it'll be a little difficult to fix.

Okay I think the problem is fixed now. I sent myself about 30 test messages and got no duplicates.

Please post here if you get double emails in the future.

Just a quick heads-up, I and another player in my game (both Gmail users, I think) had our civstats notification emails go into our spam folders last turn. Not necessarily something you can do anything about, but figured you might want to keep it in mind if someone reports not getting email. :)

OverloadUT, I've just initiated another pitboss game (Civivor Warlords) and when executing the v1.0.01 uploader, it asks me for the location of pitboss.exe. Per this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=179291) I'm using the 'fixed' pitboss executable, but it is Civ4Warlords_Fixed_v200.exe or thereabouts. Do I just select that executable, or do I need to rename it in order for the uploader to run?

Edit: Nevermind, it appears that selecting the fixed v2.0 version of warlords pitboss worked fine.

In my smartmap game, one of the players was eliminated... But is still showing a score? Magzi was eliminated some turns ago...

Where are you seeing this? Magzi is showing as eliminated for me, with a score of 0; same thing with zenspiderz.

Its fixed now.... I think the uploader at the host stalled for a few turns. I had send him an email about that possibity too....

Please disregard.

Hmz, It seems to be a problem with MY browser.
I was quickly having a look at a friends house. Everything OK (re: Previous post) now, not OK...

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/2478/naamloosbd6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Clearing the cookies and file history took care of the problem... :confused:

Ah, so the problem is in the score graph - you didn't say that before. The problem is that IE is apparently caching the score graph and not requesting it from the server each page load. The problem with this is that the score graph changes often, so it shouldn't use a cached version. I'll have to look in fixing this in IE...

I don't recall if you have addressed this question yet or not. Is it possible to have multiple people 'register' for the same leader of a Civ and have it them show up on each of their My Games list?

I haven't added that yet, but it is on my to-do list for 2.0. It will require a rework of how several things work, so I will have to figure out how I want to handle it.

All my time recently has been spent working on the biggest new addition to 2.0: Full access to all of your civ details. It's moving along at a very nice pace, and I think you'll be pretty impressed with it when it's finished. 2.0 will be a very big update. :D

I'll need beta testers pretty soon.

Uploader and Warlords.

http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=110

The player summary doesnt have what Civ's everyone is, and the score graph is black. Can you fix this?

I'll need beta testers pretty soon.
I'm in, of course.

Uploader and Warlords.

http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=110

The player summary doesnt have what Civ's everyone is, and the score graph is black. Can you fix this?
Have you tried getting people to register their leaders?

Setting what leaders each civilization is is the game admin's responsibility - it is not done automatically.

However, the new Warlords civs are not in the database yet so they cannot be selected. I will add them soon.

I figured that, just as I clicked post.

Awesome site, thanks a heap. I've been using it for the last month or so and it's always been very handy and useful.

One request for a future "to do"... is it possible to keep an on-site record of individual players and the games they're involved in (or have previously been involved in), their status (rank and score or "eliminated"), and other such goodies? I reckon that'd be really cool. :)

I am looking for people, that could help with big programming challenge – transform PitBoss server into Windows service, that is connected to CivStats. So Pitboss providers could run several PB servers (more than 1) .
It’s really tough mission, because we need to get rid of all GUI applications needed to run PB server.

1. Replace GUI for civstast upload with something Pythonic. In attached file U can see the PbAdmin.py file, that saves all the necessary data to HDD. I think it is possible to send these data straight to civstats.com. Hopefully OverloadUT will help ...
If you want to try it, just make a mod, or replace core files (don’t forget to make backup!). Replacing core files (in something like ... GAMES\civ4\Assets\Python\PitBoss) may cause multiplayer version incompatibility, but is better, because PitBoss does not start twice (like in mod version :-(

136430

2. Find program (or method), that is free for non-commerce and that help us to convert PitBoss.exe to Windows service. I used AlwaysUp, but it’s not free and converted .exe files is not possible to use after uninstalling AlwaysUp application. So this is not the way ...

3. Replace GUI of PitBoss – (again) by changes made in PbAdmin.py and PbWizard.py. So Pitboss.exe will read settings from some .ini file without the necessity to open the GUI.

4. Prepare everything for Warlords and future relases as well.

Any objections? Or volunteers ;-)

garf

May I ask what the benefit is of having it actually run as a Windows service? I'm all in favor of hiding the GUI (it's why CivStatsUploader minimizes to the tray!) but it seems like a lot of work to make it a Windows service without much benefit.

The work you've started as far as removing the GUI goes is actually something I had planned on doing myself - CivStats will have the ability to automatically re-launch the Pitboss app in the event of a crash, and will therefore need the ability to load the latest save and whatnot from a config file or a command line parameter. Since I'm already knee deep in python code for the CivStats "mod" it should be pretty easy for me to implement that other stuff too. So if you haven't done it yet, I will be doing it later. :) But if you want to or already have done work on changing the pitboss python scripts to either read startup options from a config file or command line parameters, go for it! I'll be happy to work with you so that CivStats could take advantage of this improvement. In envision CivStats eventually being a companion to Pitboss - even if a game admin does not want to upload his game stats to the webpage, he could still use the Uploader's other features like crash protection or this GUI removal you're talking about.

Oh, and don't worry about having the modified Pitboss python scripts spit out information for CivStats - my mod does the same thing, so once that's fully implemented, the Uploader will no longer need to actually read the controls from the Pitboss GUI.


And as a final note: I noticed that the code you added is mixing tabs and spaces. Warning! Warning! You should fix that. ;)

And as a final note: I noticed that the code you added is mixing tabs and spaces. Warning! Warning! You should fix that. ;)

:-( ... and I hoped IDLE will take care of it (by default).

As for the other things - I would like to understand Python, and CIV4 is good place to start, so I've just started. If U have a task, that Python noob programmer can do, submit it to me. But I am natural born lazy guy and have no need to work more, than is absolutely necessary ;-). Studying code of advanced developers will do the same work for my studying purposes.
BTW: If U want to continue with coop, maybe we should change a thread (e.g. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=178912). I used this thread before just to catch the attention :crazyeye:

Sorry if this has already been asked. The thread is long...

How do I remove a game from My Games list after the game is over?

Isn't there a removal link next to it somewhere?

That's only if he's hosting, and I actually recommend that game hosts not delete their games when the game is over - the game history can be interesting and I will add features that make scanning back through the game more interesting.

However, I haven't implemented anything to handle a game actually finishing! I'll add that to my list for v2.

Surely a quick fix for now, would be to add a button marked "This game is finished"

And the database entry, and the code to display the checkbox, the code to fill in the checkbox based on the current setting in the database, the code to "hide" the game from the My Games list, the code that reads the selection when submitting the form and storing it in the database, and of course the extensive testing to make sure it all works! :crazyeye:

This is code; nothing is a simple fix. :lol:

I'll probably put something in today. I'll also add that turn timer people have been asking for on the My Games page.

I'll probably put something in today.
So version 2.0 is coming out today? ;) :D

Oh god I wish.

But it's moving along at a very good pace! At best I would say it'll be ready in a week, but that might be wishful thinking. ;)

I never said simple. I said quick.

Excellent work on this site. Any chance of a feature where Pitboss hosters could post up proposals for games and players can sign up to participate?

I got a problem. AVG is identifying my newly-downloaded v1.0 as a trojan horse. I keep telling it to ignore it, but what's worse... I haven't been able to run v1.0.

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."

First time I ever heard that one. Any ideas? If not, can someone point me in the direction of the last version, so i can use it until a solution is found? (I deleted 0.9... arck!)

It's 90% likely that it's a false positive. The program is written in the AutoIt scripting language. AutoIt can be used to make trojans or virii, so occasionally one of the AntiVirus companies will try to add a particular trojan to their def files but they make it too loose of a definition and it ends up catching all compiled AutoIt scripts.

I would appreciate it if other people could download the latest version from the website and scan it with their own scanners to see if they detect it as well. You can never be too careful!

As for not being able to run it, I have a feeling it's your AntiVirus program blocking access to the exe because it detected it as a virus...

Here's a link to the latest pre-1.0.01 version you can use for now:
Version 1.0.0.0 (http://www.civstats.com/downloads/CivStatsUploader_1.0.zip)
Version 0.9.0.1 (http://www.civstats.com/downloads/CivStatsUploader_0.9.0.1.zip)

it took me uninstalling AVG for any of the versions to work. I'll reinstall AVG later and see what happens... just for reference in case people have the same problem..

Reinstalled AVG, and it does a scheduled scan at 8am. It still identifies the Uploader as a trojan.. but as least it doesn't try to delete it.

So: if you install the Uploader, make sure you uninstall AVG, run the program for the first time, then reinstall AVG.

New features:

Small update. I added the ability for players to unregister from a game on their "My Games" page. It's a little rough around the edges but it works.

I also added "Time Left" to each game on the "My Games" page. It doesn't update in real time; I will have to rewrite the javascript to work and this was just a quick update. My main focus is on the big new 2.0 features. That, and my arandomnumber.com website, which has become way more popular than I ever imagined...

New features:
I also added "Time Left" to each game on the "My Games" page.

Nice! I like it... :)

New features:

Small update. I added the ability for players to unregister from a game on their "My Games" page. It's a little rough around the edges but it works.

I also added "Time Left" to each game on the "My Games" page. It doesn't update in real time; I will have to rewrite the javascript to work and this was just a quick update. My main focus is on the big new 2.0 features. That, and my arandomnumber.com website, which has become way more popular than I ever imagined...

I wouldn't think it needs to update in real time; anyone looking at it is almost certainly just looking for how many hours until they have a turn up.

And arandomnumber.com is a pretty cool concept, do I have your permission to include it in my sig on other forums?

When I just tried to unregister from Oobs first game, I got "Error: You are not game admin"

When I just tried to unregister from Oobs first game, I got "Error: You are not game admin"

Oops! That was indeed a bug. I just fixed it, so try now. ;)


And arandomnumber.com is a pretty cool concept, do I have your permission to include it in my sig on other forums?
Of course! More exposure is a good thing. :)

Is there a way to remove a game from my 'Games You Are Administrating' list (after the game is over) without deleting the game from the database entirely?

I went to delete 'CB's Intensity', the 10-turn game that I just finished hosting, and it warned me that others might be sad if I deleted it completely. I agree, but I don't want it to remain forever on my 'my games' screen. :)

Also: Are there plans to add the expansion nations?

They'll be in V2.0 when Overload wakes up and gets on with it... In fact, there might even be support for mods as wel... although you may have to wait until v2.5 or v3.0

Something I've thought of just today that would be another nice addition eventually. Definately not something that I would want to hold up the release of 2.0 though. :D

On the My Games page, it would be really cool if it would display next to your game if you have any new Diplomacy messages. Some people don't have the site set to send them an email when they get a message...and even some people forget to check the site even after they get the email that it's there. But if the My Games constantly shows that you have a new Diplo message until you've read it...that would be perfect. :D

I've forgotten my password for the main Civstats site... is there some way I can dispatch an email to my own email address to remind me of it? I haven't logged in for a while, and only just got a diplomatic message which I (frustratingly) can't read.

Username: emperor
Email: lordparkinATgmail.com

Thanks. :)

Hi! This is awesome! Congrats! How about this:

1. Change the background color of the cell when a user is Online to green. Easier to see if someone is online.

2. Possibility for the admin to add text for the e-mail.

3. Add the Warlords leaders. (Next version right?).

4. Now the tricky one: How about sending out the "next turn notify" to MSN clients? Since Messenger Live now handles offline messages, it should be possible?

Great work! Keep up the effort!

I've just added the Warlords Civfr pitboss ant it's running pretty good !

Keep up the good job :goodjob:

Could we have an option to enable an "extra" email if you're the last person left on a turn? It would be an option settable on a per-player basis, since I check my email a lot more often than I check my games directly.

Personally, I think that would be a bad idea, as it mgiht encourage people who like double-turnming to actually wait for the e-mail before taking there turn. and for those who are not into double-turning, you should be taking your turns as soon as you see the 'new turn' e-mail... no reason to wait.

Personally, I think that would be a bad idea, as it mgiht encourage people who like double-turnming to actually wait for the e-mail before taking there turn. and for those who are not into double-turning, you should be taking your turns as soon as you see the 'new turn' e-mail... no reason to wait.

There is a reason to wait... to AVOID a double turn you may have to wait for your enemy to make his move first yes?

But, you don't have to wait to go late, you can just wait 8-12 hours to give him a reasonable chance to take his turn, after that, it's not really your fault if you get to move twice before he moves...

And it also really only matters between two people who are at war.

Well, I didn't mean it as that, I meant it as an extra REMINDER to take your turn, so the rest of the people in the game aren't waiting for you. Sometimes I'll see the new turn notice, but not play immediately because I'm doing other things, and I end up forgetting to play completely fairly often.

If that's the case, then it's only useful if you're the only one who is forgetting. Maybe a better option for the reminder would be to send another E-mail to everyone who still hasn't taken their turn when only, say, a quarter of the timer remains...

And it also really only matters between two people who are at war.
And then it only matters if you make a "braeking" move...
I.e. take 2 turns at the start of the war. This way You allready raze a city without your opponent even knowing about it :(

I like the idea.

For me, it's as simple as this: If someone is intentionally double-turning to gain an advantage (e.g. war time or a settler race) then kick them out of your game. They're not playing with sportsmanlike behaviour and in a game that takes over a year to play, they should be removed early and replaced with someone that has similar gaming-morals as your other players, to be sure the game will be fun for everyone.

That mini-rant aside - I don't think adding the feature would encourage unscrupulous players to abuse the system; they're going to do it with or without the feature. So the question is, does the feature have any use outside of the potential "abuse?" I think the answer is yes. Often times players in my game can't take their turns right away or they're busy with something else - but when I call or message them telling them they're the last player left, they usually do their turn right away because they don't like to hold up the game.

I agree. If someone intentionally takes advantage of a situation like this, kick them out of the game, or disable the feature. My view is the same for all controversial features like this: Include the feature for those who want it, but include an on/off button for those who don't.

Btw, any estiamte on when the next version is coming out? I'd really like to at least see the warlords civs in up there and all that, since I'm in a few warlords games.

Here's a thought: you may have a situation where two players at war have agreed that one will go first and then the other, so as to avoid double turns. In that case a handy feature would be that one of those players can have civstats email them when the other player has taken their turn.

Here's a thought: you may have a situation where two players at war have agreed that one will go first and then the other, so as to avoid double turns. In that case a handy feature would be that one of those players can have civstats email them when the other player has taken their turn.

I second this! :D I'm doing the email myself right now in a turn based war situation so this would be very convenient.

Bernout

I see there are some game on list which didn't have here "subscription topic". Is possible to join to/talk about them ? I personally I'm curious about the last one ... "2 if by sea" ...

Regards

Those games are most likely either organized on other forums or private games just for friends. There's no way to contact them unless you recognize one of the player names and know them personally.

Ahhh - O.k., sorry me for ask this. :)

Regards

Civstats just crashed, taking my PTBS server client with it.

It seems to be fine now, but I thought you might want to see the error message for debugging purposes, and I don't have your e-mail address at hand.

For reference purposes, I'm using WinXP Pro SP2. My Proc is AMD dual core. At the time of the error (in addition to the PTBS server client and the CivStats updater) BitTorrent Client was running in the background and I was watching a movie in Windows MediaPlayer.

Here's a thought: you may have a situation where two players at war have agreed that one will go first and then the other, so as to avoid double turns. In that case a handy feature would be that one of those players can have civstats email them when the other player has taken their turn.

Unfortunately I'm not sure this kind of rules applies in a pitboss game : any player can connect when he wants or when he can ! If you have a war between two players the thing is "still" easy, but it's much more complicated if more players are involved in the same war ! You can't say those players to connect always at the same order. Therefore, there are situations where a player is obliged to play two turns in a very short gap of time (i.e, at the end of a turn and the beginning of the next turn) because his job, family or other circumstances.

In my pitboss game, there are no rules at all. Every player knows that there are "risks" when playing these kind of games.
:crazyeye:
.

Civstats just crashed, taking my PTBS server client with it.

It seems to be fine now, but I thought you might want to see the error message for debugging purposes, and I don't have your e-mail address at hand.

For reference purposes, I'm using WinXP Pro SP2. My Proc is AMD dual core. At the time of the error (in addition to the PTBS server client and the CivStats updater) BitTorrent Client was running in the background and I was watching a movie in Windows MediaPlayer.

Thanks for that screenshot. It's definitely a bug in the code but it'll be hard to find because there are lots of lines with that same text and the line number is wrong. ;)

Unfortunately I'm not sure this kind of rules applies in a pitboss game : any player can connect when he wants or when he can ! If you have a war between two players the thing is "still" easy, but it's much more complicated if more players are involved in the same war !

While that can make things tricky, there are generally only two 'sides' to every war even if there are more than two players involved, so the solution is to treat each side as seperate players, so one side moves first then the other. The players involved would need to arrange times to play to take into account their seperate commitments.

This is a good reason to have a long turn timer (mine is 24 hours, which ends up being about 26-28 hours because the timer runs slow) so that everyone has time even in these situations.

If all of your side can move before the other, then it is gg.

Civstats just crashed, taking my PTBS server client with it.

It seems to be fine now, but I thought you might want to see the error message for debugging purposes, and I don't have your e-mail address at hand.

For reference purposes, I'm using WinXP Pro SP2. My Proc is AMD dual core. At the time of the error (in addition to the PTBS server client and the CivStats updater) BitTorrent Client was running in the background and I was watching a movie in Windows MediaPlayer.

I just got this error message now when I closed PTBS (so in my case it didn't take out the server).

Nothing major, but I thought I would mention it.

In our game: Pitboss Smartmap
Madiba and Portuga formed a perminant Alliance a few turns ago. They as a team now have the highest score (accoording to civ itself).

Thus the score on civstats is in the wrong order.... It should read:
Portuga
Madiba
Me
NetBjarne
Julius

Is there any particular order in the Eliminations? I think that is even less important...

Is there some way to tell civstats that Portuga and Madiba have joined to be a team? Or can civstats pick that up somehow from the game itself?

Greets....

Excellent work on this site. Any chance of a feature where Pitboss hosters could post up proposals for games and players can sign up to participate?

@ OverloadUT: First let me salute you for being such a selfless person...so much time and effort for no personal gain. :clap:

To get back to the suggestion in the quote...
As a newcomer looking for games, I found it not only time consuming browsing countless threads on 3 sites to try and find a new game or a replacement position, but also extremely frustrating when someone else, who might already be playing in multiple other games, snatches the vacancy an hour or so before you spot it.

Having this facility with a rotational feature will be great. If someone takes up a game that he was invited to from Civstats, he drops to the bottom of the list. That way it sort-of equalises the number of games people play in.

Some sort of feature that allows organizers to post games with "open slots" that advertise for people to join is on my long term to-do list.

Speaking of features, I just rolled out a small but needed one: Victories!

Check out this game (http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=5) to see what it looks like, and read the news page (http://www.civstats.com/index.php) for more information. :)

OverloadUT, there are some minor errors on the victories screen. Look at my game "MP Pitboss Game". Some spelling errors (victorty) and not the correct name as the winner (hardcoded from the other game?).

Civstats was really helpfull when playing pitboss game. It's so easy to bookmark your current game and see who is delaying the turn. This is much better than a e-mail notify. Thanks!

PS! Are the expansion leaders on the way?

Thanks for telling me about those. That's what I get for coding in a hurry and not error checking well enough. You know, every time I read the victory thing, I thought "victory" was spelled wrong. Then I would look closer and I never noticed the extra letter. I usually just concluded that it must look strange because it's at the start of a line without a capital letter. I can't believe I missed it so many times!

And hard coding the name was pretty bad of me too. :P But it all works now!

Also, the Warlords leaders are now in there with their correct colors, but the pictures are not up - it will use the question marks that it does when the leaders are not set. I will need to manually take pictures of all the new leader for Warlords because the ones up on CFC have the IGN watermark on them which I don't like.

I am receiving two NewTurn and diplomacy e-mails instead of one ...
Could U repair it, pls?

That was fast, thanx :-)

Oh yeah I forgot to post. I fixed it. :p

Steps To Run CIVSTATS ?

Can you outline or confirm for me and my peasize brain what are the steps to install and run this useful utility ?

I am going to surmise it's the following:

1) The Pitboss host downloads the uploader
2) Each player registers for an account
3) The Host adds the game
4) The plays add themselves to the game

Is that correct ?

Are there other things the pitboss host needs to do ?

That pretty much sums it up. Some of those steps, like "Add the game" actually have a few steps inside it, but it should be pretty easy because the website gives you step by step directions as you add it.

It should be noted as well that the whole player registration thing is completely optional. You want it if you are using CivStats for email notification and/or diplomacy. Otherwise, just being able to see the server status is extremely useful regardless.

Bernout

I think the server needs to be adjusted back to Standard Time. All of the server messages (game end, diplo email sent) are one hour off.

Also, you said that the Warlords civs are in by name only now, right? How would I update my game to reflect that? Or is that for new games only? Here is my game:

http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=137

Thanks for the great app,

milspec

Anyone have any hints about using civstats uploader when running more than one pitboss game at the same time?

']Anyone have any hints about using civstats uploader when running more than one pitboss game at the same time?
What problems are you having? If you're using the latest version of the Uploader, nothing special is required - you just run a second instance of the app and select a different profile.

I think the server needs to be adjusted back to Standard Time. All of the server messages (game end, diplo email sent) are one hour off.

Also, you said that the Warlords civs are in by name only now, right? How would I update my game to reflect that? Or is that for new games only? Here is my game:

http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=137

Thanks for the great app,

milspec
Coding the timezone and daylight saving stuff was a huge pain. I got it all working except for daylight saving adjustment so I just had it assume that we were in DST. Of course, that came to bite me now that we're not in DST anymore. Luckily it turned out to be an easy adjustment to make it properly handle DST - now the time stuff should always be correct, even when we enter DST again. :)

As for setting the leaders, the process is the same as before - simply click "Player Settings" on your game page, if you're logged in as the user that created the game.

I guess its not worth the time to make DST work for the people who just entered it.

I believe he was saying that he just fixed it and set it up so that it is working. Since I just looked at civstats, and all looks good to me. And we just went into EST (we just left DST, actually).

I believe he was saying that he just fixed it and set it up so that it is working. Since I just looked at civstats, and all looks good to me. And we just went into EST (we just left DST, actually).

Well, when I checked "Automatically adjust for daylight saving time.", it didnt send the clock forward an hour like it should have, since DST just started in Australia. But like I said, no big deal since I can just change my timezone from GMT+10 --> GMT+11.

Thanks for the answers. The time looks correct, and I set the right leaders for Warlords people. Now everyone gets pretty colors!

milspec

Thanks for a great website. The diplomacy page especially makes it easier to keep track of a conversation thread. I do have some minor improvement suggestions though.

Not really a suggestion, but I found a typo in the <title> when reading a message, diplomatic is spelled 'diplimatic'.

The timestamps on messages sent and received don't use your personal timezone setting.

In the reply-to screen, it would be nice to have the message displayed above the textarea, just to refer to it if it's a long message.

Lastly, a feature request. It'd be interesting to be able to click a player name, and see a list of the games that they're involved in (yes, I've tried to suss out another player's performance in other games before!) This would come close to ranking players without actually having a ranking system.

Anyway, hope some of this is of use to you. Keep up the good work!

I just won a spaceship victory in MTDG Test Game 2 (http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=51). Is there anything special I have to do to get the victory screen?

I was online when the turn changed, and I selected "just one more turn..", if that affects anything.

Dave, as I understand it the admin has to appoint you the win in order for it to appear on the CivStats page...

Dave, as I understand it the admin has to appoint you the win in order for it to appear on the CivStats page...
Correct. :)

The admin will have a button named "Declare Winner" where he can set who the winner was and what the reason was. Civstats currently has no way of automatically determining the winner.

Many thanks to OverloadUT for civstats!

I have one improvement suggestion to the civstats diplomacy messageing system. The ability to send a message to many players at once would be a neat feature. If I want to do it now, I have to send the same message separately to every player.

http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=51

It's better than nothing, but after the uploader was disconnected it forgot my civ (Kublai Khan). :lol:

http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=51

It's better than nothing, but after the uploader was disconnected it forgot my civ (Kublai Khan). :lol:
Hm, the uploader being connected has nothing to do with the leader selections. Your admin should have set the leaders at the beginning of the game using the "Player Settings" button at the top of the page. I remember that all of the leaders were set to "Unknown" when you first asked about the victory thing, so I know it wasn't the uploader disconnecting that caused it.

Overload -

In this game: http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=110 the colors and country names are still blacked out, do I need to adjust something to fix it, or is that something you can take care of?

Overload -

In this game: http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=110 the colors and country names are still blacked out, do I need to adjust something to fix it, or is that something you can take care of?
Did you ever set the leaders? It asks you to do this when you first add the game - you can also do it at any time by clicking "Player Settings" at the top (assuming you're the game admin.)

Did you ever set the leaders? It asks you to do this when you first add the game - you can also do it at any time by clicking "Player Settings" at the top (assuming you're the game admin.)

Oh man... :blush:

Thanks. :)

:bump:

Can this thread be stickied ?

Someone asked on Strategamer how to find the "main thread for a game." This sounds like a useful enhancement, along with being able to find out who "owns" a game and maybe some way of contacting the owner.

Here's the original request (http://www.strategamer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=603), asking where the thread for a game called "Geer" is. As an added service, if the owner of "Geer" happens to be watching here, you've got a potential recruit out there. :D

Hey overload,

Is it possible to put 2 email adresses in the email box and have the email notifications send to 2 email addresses?

I will be going out of town (see sig) and will be replaced but I would like to keep recieving the messages myself as well so I can get a feel for what has been happening...

Greets...

Why not put one email address in the game and your other one in the CIVstats program ?

Because in this particular games the hosts are not sending out emails at all...

Overload, there seems to be some sort of bug in the uploader or civstats....
check out this game

http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=182

I'm betting it's because the player put an '=' in their name. Probably messed up the program.

By the way, I just noticed that while the Civstats site shows a whole lot of info about the different games being played, it doesn't actually tell the size of the worlds. Can that be fixed? :)

It's showing a couple of players on my game WarningU2's Game ... as being eliminated but they are not.

The issue started when pitboss was inadvertantly shutdown without closing out civstats.

Just letting you know and wondered if this is a known problem ?

It's showing a couple of players on my game WarningU2's Game ... as being eliminated but they are not.

The issue started when pitboss was inadvertantly shutdown without closing out civstats.

Just letting you know and wondered if this is a known problem ?

I'm sure it's a known problem, as it happens in lots of games and not just yours. I see it all the time in the games I'm in. It doesn't actually change their final status...just tosses out that line while it's reloading.

Still the elimination sort of disrupts the graph which can make it look very strange....

Is there a way to change the name of a game after it had already started?

It looks like the civstats webserver is down at the moment? It's returning a ping, but no HTTP.

I can now access the site :)

Is there a way to change the name of a game after it had already started?

??

Also, I had an idea for the My Games page. It would be neat to see a column showing me how long (on the game's clock, not real-time) it has been since I last ended a turn in each game. That would help me take at least 12 hours between turns during a war, without having to check the page for the individual game.

I have another suggestion, is Overload still watching this thread, or is he tired of our suggestions? :)

??

Also, I had an idea for the My Games page. It would be neat to see a column showing me how long (on the game's clock, not real-time) it has been since I last ended a turn in each game. That would help me take at least 12 hours between turns during a war, without having to check the page for the individual game.

12 hours between turns? That doesn't necessarily seem fair if you are at war with someone. Normally you'd want to give them at least 1/2 the timer value if you are waiting for them to move on a new turn.

By your logic, you could do a turn sequence that looks like:

1. Player A does his turn pretty quick.
2. Player B does his turn.
3. More than 12 hours elapses before the end of the turn.
4. Player B does his next turn before A has a chance to do anything.

I only mention this because I would have assumed most people just want the timer value and that is what is currently displayed.

Bernout

Is the civstats site down? I havn't been able to bring it up all day.

Is the civstats site down? I havn't been able to bring it up all day.

The website is down, along with email notifications, though I can ping it. I've PMed OverloadUT via Google, but he didn't respond.

Hi,
We have a private PitBoss match and I've been using Turn Notify to send e-mail notifications. Well, this was a big advantage but something was missing, so I made an irc bot that checks the mail periodically and reports on a given irc channel when it's time for the next turn.

Anyway, Turn Notify is a bit restricted: for example, you can't get player scores or the info about who has not completed his turn yet. Furthermore, sending and checking e-mail introduces a delay of 5-20 minutes. Would it be possible to create a version of Civstats client that writes the information to a file? Or, if it was possible to define the statistics server address in the Civstats client and the communication protocol was opened, it would be more than enough to create personal turn trackers.

Of course, other ideas are welcome, too :) And thanks for the Turn Notify and Civstats, really nice tools!

Hi Overload, first I want to thank you to offer such a awesome service to the community. I just registered my civstats account and am going to play my first Pitboss game now.

I want you to point on a rather small bug. I live in Germany where we have the GMT+1 timezone but I have to set it to GMT to get the proper time.

Cheers,
Klammi.

Hope this suggestion is not too late and forgive me if I missed it in any of the previous posts.

In looking for games to join, I have found it extremely frustrating to find the associated thread where the game was set up or discussed in order to find out if a particular AI is available for human take-over or not. If each game had a link to it's associated thread, that a host populates on registration, that would make it easier for players to find games. Obviously, if there is no link entered, players would now that AI's are intentional and additional players aren't sought.

I don't think Overload has looked at this thread in quite some time.... :(

I want you to point on a rather small bug. I live in Germany where we have the GMT+1 timezone but I have to set it to GMT to get the proper time.
Hmz, you are forgetting daylight savings time my friend... You much like holland are currently in winter time. Which is -1 hour making our time actually GMT not GMT+1

I am not getting my turn emails at my Hotmail address, I havent changed it and used to get them from civstats. Anyone have simular problems?

Edit: It seems to be an issue with Hotmail, as I am now getting it at my new address.

CivStats looks like a great web service and I tried to attach number
350, the Rasbora Pitboss game.

But it tries to "parse" and never finishes, so I have no log to
include or ini file to edit.

Does it try to use the Pitboss window with the information on?
I cannot use it either! It just gives me an hour-glass when I
go their with the mouse and I cannot push any buttons there
since a few hours after I started the game. The Pitboss answers
on the 2056 port but not on the GUI.

Do someone have a good idea what to do about the Pitboss?
I use the Warlords-2.08 Pitboss. :confused:

-- Stormumriken

Anyway, Turn Notify is a bit restricted: for example, you can't get player scores or the info about who has not completed his turn yet. Furthermore, sending and checking e-mail introduces a delay of 5-20 minutes. Would it be possible to create a version of Civstats client that writes the information to a file? Or, if it was possible to define the statistics server address in the Civstats client and the communication protocol was opened, it would be more than enough to create personal turn trackers.
This proved to be very easy once I got around to investigate the message format. I now have a PHP script (running on localhost, redirected with hosts) that accepts and saves the data that the Civstats uploader sends. If someone else is interested in this, just tell.

I am having a problem adding a game, I wondered if anyone could help me, or has experienced something similar.

I have the uploader running on the server along with the pitboss game, it detects the game name, and it parses and monitors the data fine when activaded(I checked the logs). It even appears to sucsessfully connect to the server according to the little network icon, and when I input an incorrect password the server replys with a login error.

My problem is on step 3 when adding a game to the website, I have the uploader running, only when I click next on step 3 the website gives me an error saying "Uploader not connected"

I have tried this countless times now with no luck.

I have checked my portforwarding just incase, but 80 is open on my router (as I use the same machine as a web server), which is the port it uses apparently. I don't have a firewall on my PC, and windows firwall is disabled.

It must be something really simple, I just don't know what.

I am having a problem adding a game, I wondered if anyone could help me, or has experienced something similar.

I have the uploader running on the server along with the pitboss game, it detects the game name, and it parses and monitors the data fine when activaded(I checked the logs). It even appears to sucsessfully connect to the server according to the little network icon, and when I input an incorrect password the server replys with a login error.

My problem is on step 3 when adding a game to the website, I have the uploader running, only when I click next on step 3 the website gives me an error saying "Uploader not connected"

I have tried this countless times now with no luck.

I have checked my portforwarding just incase, but 80 is open on my router (as I use the same machine as a web server), which is the port it uses apparently. I don't have a firewall on my PC, and windows firwall is disabled.

It must be something really simple, I just don't know what.

Make sure the name you selected for your game on Civstats is the same as the name you selected when you first ran Pitboss.

As people were saying, I wasn't checking this thread for a while. Sorry!

I am amazed and flattered by the number of people that are using Civstats on a regular basis!

As a little treat to everyone, I finally implemented a tiny feature that people had been asking to get for quite a while: You can now tell if you have unread diplomatic messages in your games from the "My Games" page!

Yay! Now, I have some other suggestions that have been building up for a while... Let me find my list...

:)

I love the feature! However, my RP FFA Pitboss game has shown me that I have a message since the feature began. I have not received any message in that game and the icon isn't going away when I check my diplomacy anyhow.

Thanks for the addition! :)

Despite having new diplo messages several times now, I have yet to see the message on the my games screen :(

Well I never said the feature works! Picky picky!

Okay okay I fixed it!

That query was written so incorrectly I can't believe it worked at all in my test case!

Please let me know if it still has any problems. :)

And I just got a diplomacy message and it worked correctly! Now I can disable all my emails. :)

PS. How about a Master Preferences by which you can decide if ALL of your games generate emails with turns and/or diplomacy instead of having to change each individually? ;)

Also, sorry you're back, because it means you have to hear these incessant complaints.

Not complaints.... Suggestions... Like: A mobile version of the My Games page, so one can check it from a cell phone, or a widget version (with counting clocks) so we can keep it more easily on our desktop. ;)

CivStats looks like a great web service and I tried to attach number
350, the Rasbora Pitboss game.

But it tries to "parse" and never finishes, so I have no log to
include or ini file to edit.

Does it try to use the Pitboss window with the information on?
I cannot use it either! It just gives me an hour-glass when I
go their with the mouse and I cannot push any buttons there
since a few hours after I started the game. The Pitboss answers
on the 2056 port but not on the GUI.

Do someone have a good idea what to do about the Pitboss?
I use the Warlords-2.08 Pitboss. :confused:

-- Stormumriken

Now I have found out what the problem was: Being a game with
Swedish players, one of my players used his own name as his leader
name and it contained a non-ASCII character. This made some
Python code, part of the Pitboss server, puke at the character
(the Swedish language contains three letters that are not ASCII
characters) and lock up the UI part of the Pitboss server, so
the CivStats client could not use it.

When the name was changed to ASCII-only characters, everyone
is happy again and we could begin to use the CivStats service.
It is really great! :)

Should I report this to Firaxis and how do I do that?

Best regards,

Now I have found out what the problem was: Being a game with
Swedish players, one of my players used his own name as his leader
name and it contained a non-ASCII character. This made some
Python code, part of the Pitboss server, puke at the character
(the Swedish language contains three letters that are not ASCII
characters) and lock up the UI part of the Pitboss server, so
the CivStats client could not use it.

When the name was changed to ASCII-only characters, everyone
is happy again and we could begin to use the CivStats service.
It is really great! :)

Should I report this to Firaxis and how do I do that?

Best regards,

Wow, nice catch. Sorry about not being helpful. :P

I like the "mobile" My Games page... I will think about this.

I like the "mobile" My Games page... I will think about this.

I am new to PitBoss games and Civstats but I want to say a big thank you for such a great idea.

Onr thing I have discovered (as have others) is that hotmail does not seem to accept notifications from PitBoss. I thought that a shame since I can get a notification on my cellphone when I have a hotmail message. I figured out a work around. I route the Civstats notification to a regular account and then on receipt have that account forward it to my hotmail and voila I have a notification!

This is slightly off topic but you will see where I am going. Another thing I have noted and this is not just Civstats but in MP it seems that you get everyone elses score, including people you have not met! I read something somewhere about anonymization and how it does not work and I just wonder of that is something that Firaxis will sort out with BTS. Also, it would be nice if it really were 24 hour turns. Would it be difficult to have PitBoss get its time from the computer?

Finally wouldn't it be a great idea if CivStats were programed into PitBoss? Have you been in contact with Firaxis?

Thanks, once again, for setting this up.

Also, it would be nice if it really were 24 hour turns. Would it be difficult to have PitBoss get its time from the computer?Possibly not, but it doesn't really matter anyway. You just figure out after the first few turns roughly how much extra time it's taking per turn (the timer stops when people are logging in and out, so this is what delays the game). Most of the people I've played games with find that for 18 player Pitboss games, a timer set to 22 hours works pretty well for ensuring that the timer will actually tick over roughly every 24 hours. Of course, this needs to be adjusted occasionally as the game goes on (turns get much longer in the modern era, etc).

Finally wouldn't it be a great idea if CivStats were programed into PitBoss? Have you been in contact with Firaxis?Personally, I think that Firaxis may not be interested, and anyway it may not be a good idea. There are a heap of Pitboss games just between a couple of friends or family members, or held at LANs, which do not require (nor could make any use of) Civstats. These games might be more annoying than useful, cluttering up the list of games (not to mention making it horrendously long). No, IMHO Civstats is something that is better used by just the few "fanatical" civvers who play regular 24-hour (or similar) Pitboss timer games, and like to keep tabs on what's going on. :)

My two cents, anyway. ;)

Personally, I think that Firaxis may not be interested, and anyway it may not be a good idea. There are a heap of Pitboss games just between a couple of friends or family members, or held at LANs, which do not require (nor could make any use of) Civstats. These games might be more annoying than useful, cluttering up the list of games (not to mention making it horrendously long). No, IMHO Civstats is something that is better used by just the few "fanatical" civvers who play regular 24-hour (or similar) Pitboss timer games, and like to keep tabs on what's going on.

Actually, I meant something slightly different, which could be done anyway. How about a local version of CivStats that resides on the server that hosts the game; the players would not see other games. Uploading to the website could be optional, which would satisfy the fans.

Rather than go off-topic on this thread I will post elsewhere about PitBoss after I have had the opportunity to think about it a little.

Actually, I meant something slightly different, which could be done anyway. How about a local version of CivStats that resides on the server that hosts the game; the players would not see other games. Uploading to the website could be optional, which would satisfy the fans.

Rather than go off-topic on this thread I will post elsewhere about PitBoss after I have had the opportunity to think about it a little.

It is an interesting idea, but (speaking here from an IT professional standpoint) there's a fundamental flaw. The pitboss application and its one necessary and little-known TCP port are not much of a security risk for a machine hooked up to the public internet. A website and port 80 are definitely a security risk, because so many attacks are focused on them, and you might have people running pitboss servers that are not competent to secure the pitboss server against those sorts of attacks.

Possibly not, but it doesn't really matter anyway. You just figure out after the first few turns roughly how much extra time it's taking per turn (the timer stops when people are logging in and out, so this is what delays the game). Most of the people I've played games with find that for 18 player Pitboss games, a timer set to 22 hours works pretty well for ensuring that the timer will actually tick over roughly every 24 hours. Of course, this needs to be adjusted occasionally as the game goes on (turns get much longer in the modern era, etc

A couple of observations on the timer.

1. I don't believe it is a PitBoss issue since it is built into the multiplayer functionality in the game.

2. The timer inaccuracy is not only a result of the timer stopping everytime someone logs in and out. I noticed in one of my recent games that at the beginning of the game a 20 hour timer was roughly 23 1/2 - 24 hours of real time. Much later in the game (about 1500 AD) that same 20 hour timer was far less...probably closer to 21 hours. I actually had to increase the timer setting so that players could have closer to a full 24 hours to get turns done. With people having been eliminated, we actually had fewer logins occuring at that time.

Bernout

It is an interesting idea, but (speaking here from an IT professional standpoint) there's a fundamental flaw. The pitboss application and its one necessary and little-known TCP port are not much of a security risk for a machine hooked up to the public internet. A website and port 80 are definitely a security risk, because so many attacks are focused on them, and you might have people running pitboss servers that are not competent to secure the pitboss server against those sorts of attacks.
This should not be a big deal. Civstats.com is a php application running on Apache server, not a separate server on its own. Most web servers are OK if they are kept up to date, and I'd guess most of the people setting up web servers know the risks anyway. Finally, it really is the problem of the user, not a reason to leave some useful functionality unimplemented.

Hiya! I wrote a vB app to manage PTBS games, and included a way to view civstats details in it locally (similar to what CB Droege mentions above). It is fully functional now, but additional users are helpful to find bugs and recommend additional functionality and such :)

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=165473

Hiya! I wrote a vB app to manage PTBS games, and included a way to view civstats details in it locally (similar to what CB Droege mentions above). It is fully functional now, but additional users are helpful to find bugs and recommend additional functionality and such :)

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=165473

It doesn't work... I set it up with my civstats username and pass, and clicked refresh, and it gave me an error. It does it every time.

What error?

This should not be a big deal. Civstats.com is a php application running on Apache server, not a separate server on its own. Most web servers are OK if they are kept up to date, and I'd guess most of the people setting up web servers know the risks anyway. Finally, it really is the problem of the user, not a reason to leave some useful functionality unimplemented.

I think one of us doesn't understand what's being proposed. I'm thinking that the machine hosting the pitboss service would also host a web service that would serve up the stats for that locally-running pitboss game that civstats.com is now doing for a hundred or so pitboss games, only with more detail?

In my limited experience, many people setting up pitboss servers do not really understand the risks associated with setting up and maintaining web servers.

What error?

It doesn't supply me with an error code, a box pops up telling me that there has been a program error, and I can either let the program skip the step and continue, or I can quit the program... I can give you a screenshot if you like.

many people setting up pitboss servers do not really understand the risks associated with setting up and maintaining web servers.

This caught my attention as I am considering setting up a Pitboss server.

Would it be possible for you to outline in brief what are the major risks associated with specifically Pitboss and what measures can be taken to minimise them.

Additionally I would be interested to know if anyone operating a Pitboss server has had any security issues.

There's not risk in setting up a PTBS server. The risk is only in setting up your own web server, if you so choose, which has nothing to do with PTBS directly.

It doesn't supply me with an error code, a box pops up telling me that there has been a program error, and I can either let the program skip the step and continue, or I can quit the program... I can give you a screenshot if you like.

I managed to replicate that on a different computer locally. It's either a problem that I didn't include the right files in the build (VBx2005 is pretty weird about its build code, and hard to figure what to package) or somehow I don't initialize something right that still works on a computer where the program's been previously installed but not on a new installation. I will try to figure that out today.

This caught my attention as I am considering setting up a Pitboss server.

Would it be possible for you to outline in brief what are the major risks associated with specifically Pitboss and what measures can be taken to minimise them.

Additionally I would be interested to know if anyone operating a Pitboss server has had any security issues.

No major risks in setting up Pitboss, only a relatively minor risk inherent in opening up a virtually unknown TCP port from your firewall to your pitboss server. The major risk is setting a webserver out on the public internet, as CB says not specifically a pitboss issue.

I'm unaware of anyone having any security issues - I've had three or four running constantly for months, and my most recent review of them has revealed no attempted or successful break-ins (and yes, someone could have coopted the box and erased their tracks, but the odds of that are very low indeed).

That said, I endeavor to apply M$ security patches fairly often, I use an administrator account with a very good password (numbers, letters, special characters), and the boxes run the bare minimum of services and no applications besides pitboss and civstats uploader. I also do not make the IP address of