CivStats.com - View your Pitboss games on the web
- Thread starter OverloadUT
- Start date
![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
oh and
Seriously Overload, thanks - civstats is a huge improvement on pitboss-based multiplayer.
WolverineFan
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2007
- Messages
- 3
whiplash_CDC
King
OverloadUT
Stats Monkey
Thanks everybody.
You shouldn't need to, no. I made one tiny fix about the "auto detect" game name thing, but other than that there should be no changes.
You shouldn't need to, no. I made one tiny fix about the "auto detect" game name thing, but other than that there should be no changes.
One wish-list item that would be kind of nice, would be the ability to enable automatic e-mail notification to the last human player that hasn't moved yet. This would help with people holding up turns, by making them know, everybody's waiting for them.
OverloadUT
Stats Monkey
I'll add that to my list.
Okay, so now that I have officially started work on 2.0, it's time for some more big text:
Tell me your wildest dreams
But only if they are about cool features you wish Civstats had. Basically, I'm compiling a list of all of the features that would be neat. I am probably not going to implement all of them, but the ones I like the most I will try my best to do.
So tell me every little feature that you have thought of or your players keep asking for or whatever. Some big items I have on my list are: the ability to "stage" a game before it starts, so you can use Civstats to find games needing players; A mini-forum for the game where players (or observers?) can post (it would probably be implemented much like a "shoutbox" - nothing fancy).
Okay, so now that I have officially started work on 2.0, it's time for some more big text:
Tell me your wildest dreams
But only if they are about cool features you wish Civstats had. Basically, I'm compiling a list of all of the features that would be neat. I am probably not going to implement all of them, but the ones I like the most I will try my best to do.
So tell me every little feature that you have thought of or your players keep asking for or whatever. Some big items I have on my list are: the ability to "stage" a game before it starts, so you can use Civstats to find games needing players; A mini-forum for the game where players (or observers?) can post (it would probably be implemented much like a "shoutbox" - nothing fancy).
Here's a few things for the potential wishlist.
1. The ability to zoom in onto the score plot. Nothing fancy. Even a simple option to display only the last "n" number of turns would be a great improvement (though selecting vertical range would help even more). The problem is that later in the game, the plot is so cluttered that it's hard to see individual civs anymore (for example look here: http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=399)
2. Quite unnecessary, but a nice touch would be adding a "Date Started", or "Days Played" column to the Civstats Game Listing. You could see how long the game has been going on - not the most important feature out there, but certainly cool to look at (I guess).
3. You should add advertising banners to your CivStats webpage, and individual game listings. I visit mine quite often during the day, and I'm sure others do as well.
4. A minor problem I noticed with your plot, is that the background matches some civ colors (for example you can't see Germany's line, because it's the same as gray tiles). You could possibly pick a different color, for background that's not used by any of the civs. Perhaps Black?
1. The ability to zoom in onto the score plot. Nothing fancy. Even a simple option to display only the last "n" number of turns would be a great improvement (though selecting vertical range would help even more). The problem is that later in the game, the plot is so cluttered that it's hard to see individual civs anymore (for example look here: http://www.civstats.com/viewgame.php?gameid=399)
2. Quite unnecessary, but a nice touch would be adding a "Date Started", or "Days Played" column to the Civstats Game Listing. You could see how long the game has been going on - not the most important feature out there, but certainly cool to look at (I guess).
3. You should add advertising banners to your CivStats webpage, and individual game listings. I visit mine quite often during the day, and I'm sure others do as well.
4. A minor problem I noticed with your plot, is that the background matches some civ colors (for example you can't see Germany's line, because it's the same as gray tiles). You could possibly pick a different color, for background that's not used by any of the civs. Perhaps Black?
Personally, I think that sending a mail to the person who is holding up the turn is a bad idea, because it might encourage people to actually wait for that e-mail if they like to always go last. Having it as a fdeature that can be turned on and off by the host would be neat. Here are my own ideas, most of them have to do with the 'my games' page, some of them I mentioned before, but I'll give them again to get them all in one place 
:
I had some other ideas, but now I've forgotten them, if I think of them, I'll post them.
:- Games should disappear from the 'My Games' list (and the 'Games You Are Administrating' list) once a winner has been declared (however, they should not be removed from the database entirely).
- Allow the host to change the name of the game after it has started.
- A mobile version of the My Games page, so one can check it from a cell phone.
- A widget version of the My Games page (with counting clocks) so we can keep it more easily on our desktop.
- 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.
- Another column in which the host of the game can place a short (25 characters or so) message. This could be used to notify players of server status (like 'will be down Dec 12-15') or in-game news (like 'The Mages are eliminated'
- A way for the host to set the game as 'temporarily inactive' with a simple check-box (maybe in the 'Games you are administrating' list). Perhaps this would replace the timer with the word 'down' or turn the name of the game red or something like that. This way, if the host knows something is wrong, or planned for the game to be down, the players can easily see the status of the server without logging into the forum where that game is being discussed.
I had some other ideas, but now I've forgotten them, if I think of them, I'll post them.
the oob
Retired PTBS host
OverloadUT said:
Well there was this unicorn, and it was in this beautiful meadow with all these
OverloadUT said:
Oh, right.
* Have an option that people can tick so that they will be emailed if they haven't finished their turn and there's only an hour left on the timer.
* A system for admins to send an email to everyone in their game. Currently I'm keeping track of everyones email address but this is a bit of a pain when there's a temp or if I have to replace a player... much easier if this is handled automatically as people register/deregister on civstats.
LordRahl said:
Just make sure you don't run into any legal issues with this (IANAL).
whiplash_CDC
King
* A system for admins to send an email to everyone in their game. Currently I'm keeping track of everyones email address but this is a bit of a pain when there's a temp or if I have to replace a player... much easier if this is handled automatically as people register/deregister on civstats.
I've asked for this before. It would be very handy for hosts.
I've asked for this before. It would be very handy for hosts.
Also!
This is pretty important:
If you want to do the MOD thing (personally, I think you should try to avoid it if possible), then you need to make someway for people playing the scenarios (since the scenarios are actually really cool this time) to still be able to use CivStats.
That means one of three options:
To illustrate the issue: I'm signed up for three BtS PTBS games that are all just about to begin. All three of them are already planning on using a MOD as part of the set-up.
--
Also, keep in mind that these PTBS games can last over a year in many cases, and they cannot change MODs mid-way through. Whatever MOD the first turn was taken with, must be loaded for all turns on all players machines, in order to work. This means that you cannot change the Civstats MOD in the future without allowing the old MOD to continue to work, at least until all the games that started on it are finished.
This is pretty important:
If you want to do the MOD thing (personally, I think you should try to avoid it if possible), then you need to make someway for people playing the scenarios (since the scenarios are actually really cool this time) to still be able to use CivStats.
That means one of three options:
- The ability to run the uploader without the MOD by disabling some of the new features.
- Distribute simple instructions for making the CivStats MOD part of other MODs
or - Create a new version of each of the new BtS scenarios (at least) with the CivStats MOD included
To illustrate the issue: I'm signed up for three BtS PTBS games that are all just about to begin. All three of them are already planning on using a MOD as part of the set-up.
--
Also, keep in mind that these PTBS games can last over a year in many cases, and they cannot change MODs mid-way through. Whatever MOD the first turn was taken with, must be loaded for all turns on all players machines, in order to work. This means that you cannot change the Civstats MOD in the future without allowing the old MOD to continue to work, at least until all the games that started on it are finished.
I'm just throwing an an idea out here, and I could be completely wrong - but rather than using a mod (with the downsides mentioned by CD Droege above), would it be possible to parse all the extra information from the pitboss savefile itself?
I'm pretty sure the game settings are not encrypted in anyway, but this is probably not the case for all other things. I guess it would be nice to have access to all the plots, not just the Score (GNP, Production, Military), and statistics. I doubt those are just in the file though. Most likely they're being calculated dynamically during the game.
But since the savefile contains information about the state of the map (how many units you have, what's built in your cities, their size, map tiles, and what tiles are being worked), then hypothetically it should be possible to calculate the value of each graph (though it would most likely take an enormous amount of figuring out to accomplish). That, and the fact, that most data in the file is probably encrypted to prevent tampering with it.
I'm pretty sure the game settings are not encrypted in anyway, but this is probably not the case for all other things. I guess it would be nice to have access to all the plots, not just the Score (GNP, Production, Military), and statistics. I doubt those are just in the file though. Most likely they're being calculated dynamically during the game.
But since the savefile contains information about the state of the map (how many units you have, what's built in your cities, their size, map tiles, and what tiles are being worked), then hypothetically it should be possible to calculate the value of each graph (though it would most likely take an enormous amount of figuring out to accomplish). That, and the fact, that most data in the file is probably encrypted to prevent tampering with it.
OverloadUT
Stats Monkey
Great suggestions guys; keep 'em coming!
The mod issues are pretty important. It's possible that 2.0 won't actually have the fancy mod stuff though. Basically, I am rewriting the site from scratch, as is sorely needed, but by doing so the code will be very modular and easy to add new stuff to. Once that is done, I will work on the mod portion and all of the extra stuff that that will involve. So really, it depends on how long it takes me just to get Civstats 2.0 back to what it is now.
But let's talk about the mod issues for a moment. First of all, I did consider using the save game files as suggested. But the bottom line is I felt like that would be a significantly harder thing to get all the data I want, and it would be hell each patch because that data could change.
Now, I can alleviate one fear: It is possible to update the Civstats mod in the middle of a game - I tested it and it doesn't seem to cause any problems. I believe this is because the Civstats mod does not change the functionality of the game at all; rather it just hooks some events (more like all of them) and outputs data to a file.
I will probably always support the ability to use the current version of the uploader that just scans the admin window, in the case that people don't want to use a mod. However, I am planning on figuring out some way to support most mods out there. In fact, that's one of the biggest (code wise) new features that the Civstats 2.0 website will have: mod support. Initially the purpose is to properly support Warlords and Beyond the Sword instead of the hacky and barely-working method I am using now, but it will also mean that you'll be able to use other mods that I specifically implement.
And lastly, the mod portion of Civstats 2.0 (which might be dubbed 3.0) is going to undergo a probably-lengthy beta process. The other Civstats features can be broken and it's not really a big deal; but the mod being broken could actually ruin a game if it were to display the wrong information to the wrong person.
The mod issues are pretty important. It's possible that 2.0 won't actually have the fancy mod stuff though. Basically, I am rewriting the site from scratch, as is sorely needed, but by doing so the code will be very modular and easy to add new stuff to. Once that is done, I will work on the mod portion and all of the extra stuff that that will involve. So really, it depends on how long it takes me just to get Civstats 2.0 back to what it is now.
But let's talk about the mod issues for a moment. First of all, I did consider using the save game files as suggested. But the bottom line is I felt like that would be a significantly harder thing to get all the data I want, and it would be hell each patch because that data could change.
Now, I can alleviate one fear: It is possible to update the Civstats mod in the middle of a game - I tested it and it doesn't seem to cause any problems. I believe this is because the Civstats mod does not change the functionality of the game at all; rather it just hooks some events (more like all of them) and outputs data to a file.
I will probably always support the ability to use the current version of the uploader that just scans the admin window, in the case that people don't want to use a mod. However, I am planning on figuring out some way to support most mods out there. In fact, that's one of the biggest (code wise) new features that the Civstats 2.0 website will have: mod support. Initially the purpose is to properly support Warlords and Beyond the Sword instead of the hacky and barely-working method I am using now, but it will also mean that you'll be able to use other mods that I specifically implement.
And lastly, the mod portion of Civstats 2.0 (which might be dubbed 3.0) is going to undergo a probably-lengthy beta process. The other Civstats features can be broken and it's not really a big deal; but the mod being broken could actually ruin a game if it were to display the wrong information to the wrong person.
One pre-mod request: can you add the BtS-specific civs/leaders as choices in the registration page?
I can't think of anything that anyone hasn't mentioned yet, but the ad banners are brilliant, and I'd suggest (if you don't want to do them) that a donation button (paypal or something) would be good.
I can't think of anything that anyone hasn't mentioned yet, but the ad banners are brilliant, and I'd suggest (if you don't want to do them) that a donation button (paypal or something) would be good.
A Civstats mod would definitely be great, and while I never used any (I like my games standard), this is something I'd definitely install right away. It'd be awesome to just log onto the website and browse through all the statistics, while waiting for the next turn. Especially from work, or when I don't feel like firing up the game, just to look at stats.
What language are you coding in?
What language are you coding in?
OverloadUT
Stats Monkey
The current uploader is in AutoIt, although the 2.0 version will not be.
The website is php+mysql+html+css+javascript
The civstats mod will be in Python, as it's a Civ4 mod.
The new uploader will probably be coded in C#, but I'm not totally sure yet. I might even have the mod itself do the uploading ,and therefore not require a separate uploader app.
the oob
Retired PTBS host
* 'email admin if civstats is disconnected' would be handy
WarningU2
Prince
The ability for the game administrator to change civs that are registered incorrectly.
ie. someone registers the wrong leader/civ - unable to correct unless you start from scratch again (add the game new) ... believe me I've tried.
btw ... thank you very much for doing this project ... if it's any comfort I understand the game designers were / are very impressed with civstats.
ie. someone registers the wrong leader/civ - unable to correct unless you start from scratch again (add the game new) ... believe me I've tried.
btw ... thank you very much for doing this project ... if it's any comfort I understand the game designers were / are very impressed with civstats.
