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Author Topic: UFO2000 Needs Players  (Read 49347 times)

Offline Jo5hua

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #15 on: February 21, 2015, 12:42:20 am »
Hey guys what's up! I have some ideas regarding this.. Once the server is online, tested and working okay, and the website is up (server status, maybe more info that we can pull off the server itself like users online?)... Once things are ready to go public, we can do a blurb on the modsite with a catchy title with the words XCom Multiplayer. Right now OXC is single player.. Who wouldn't love to play XCom online against someone? I would! Putting a blurb on the modsite (and maybe the official site?) should get a whole bunch of people interested in playing. There are UFO2000 forums and Facebook and Google+ page, I'm sure the game can be reignited. 

Few technical questions.. I just started looking at the source and the site. Will this run on CentOs? CentOs has better memory management so I use it, but have no problem using Ubuntu.

Is there an API or statistics method where we can pull information on the server? Would be nice to have a proper hub website :)

7Saturn, you have server experience it seems? If you send me your skype we can stay connected and maybe you can help administer the website so there are two admins ensuring stability. I can set up uptime monitors to let us know of any problems but I don't expect any. Anyhow, let me know ideas. This sounds like a fun project.

Offline 7Saturn

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #16 on: February 21, 2015, 10:34:18 am »
Once things are ready to go public, we can do a blurb on the modsite with a catchy title with the words XCom Multiplayer. Right now OXC is single player.. Who wouldn't love to play XCom online against someone? I would! Putting a blurb on the modsite (and maybe the official site?) should get a whole bunch of people interested in playing.
Good idea. I believe, there are already a lot of people on OXC, who knew ufo2000, but as there isn't any »playground«... And those who just want to try ufo2000, are much appreciated as well. Maybe there are even few developers, acquiring a taste for it. =)
There are UFO2000 forums and Facebook and Google+ page, I'm sure the game can be reignited.
The game itself, probably. As for the development-team, I'm not so sure. But I'd love to be proven wrong.  ;)
Few technical questions.. I just started looking at the source and the site. Will this run on CentOs? CentOs has better memory management so I use it, but have no problem using Ubuntu.
I don't know, as I only compiled it at an Ubuntu 14.04.1 server, but it did quite well, in comparison with the client on Ubuntu. So I'd say, just try it. You might need to install two libraries. That was about all I had to do on my machine.
Code: [Select]
sudo apt-get install libhawknl-dev libsqlite3-dev
make server
OK, and then let it run as a service, of course. Listening on port 2000 TCP, also bringing a small webpage with it on that port, showing, who is currently on the server.
Is there an API or statistics method where we can pull information on the server? Would be nice to have a proper hub website :)
There must be a way, as the original servers had a page, where you even had an elo-score like ranking list. As of how this is done, you would have to ask someone who made this for the ufo2000 page, as I only can guess, that there is a database of some kind. Back then you could also see a list of games who vs. who played and won (or draw).

@Hobbes: Do you know, who did the work for those queries? Was that serge?
7Saturn, you have server experience it seems?
Well, only a small portion. One of the reasons, I rather have my things running on a machine standing at home, as I wouldn't know about security issues, when the server is online 24/7 for longer periods of time. But yes, a little.
If you send me your skype we can stay connected and maybe you can help administer the website so there are two admins ensuring stability.
Sure! Love to help out. After all, it's not completely without benefit for myself. ;)
I can set up uptime monitors to let us know of any problems but I don't expect any.
Me neither, but I never had it run and being used over a longer period. But if there could be any contact to the people who administered the last public server, I'm sure they could tell us quite a lot about it.
This sounds like a fun project.
Especially using it. =) I believe, there is nothing more blood pumping, than ending the round in ufo2000 having to watch, how well your tactics did. Sometimes it is just pure luck, when you kick ass with 3 soldiers less, than your opponent. Sometimes you only think »what a fool I am!«, watching your whole platoon killed. And there is pretty much nothing you can do, once you ended your part of the round. Pure adrenalin! ;D

Offline Hobbes

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #17 on: February 21, 2015, 03:38:05 pm »
@Hobbes: Do you know, who did the work for those queries? Was that serge?

Sorry, I don't remember anymore.

Offline Jo5hua

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #18 on: February 21, 2015, 09:26:54 pm »
So it looks like the area51.xcomufo.com site is dead, along with it, the map depot for ufo2000.. Luckily I found all the maps and screenshots, the entire Maps page is saved on archive.org! 

https://web.archive.org/web/20120106102020https:///area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm

I'm thinking we can copy a duplicate of the openxcom modsite and style a new one for ufo2000 and put all the ufo2k maps/mods stuff there.. Leaving it open if anyone wants to add new stuff to it..

7Saturn found an sqllite database file which saves all sorts of information: elo-scores, draws, defeats, wins, last login

So we can do a really nice indepth statistics page. Looking at their facebook page, there are a lot of people asking about the old server that went offline.

Offline Hobbes

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #19 on: February 21, 2015, 09:30:36 pm »
So it looks like the area51.xcomufo.com site is dead, along with it, the map depot for ufo2000.. Luckily I found all the maps and screenshots, the entire Maps page is saved on archive.org! 

https://web.archive.org/web/20120106102020https:///area51.xcomufo.com/depot2.htm

I'm thinking we can copy a duplicate of the openxcom modsite and style a new one for ufo2000 and put all the ufo2k maps/mods stuff there.. Leaving it open if anyone wants to add new stuff to it..

7Saturn found an sqllite database file which saves all sorts of information: elo-scores, draws, defeats, wins, last login

So we can do a really nice indepth statistics page. Looking at their facebook page, there are a lot of people asking about the old server that went offline.

area51.xcomufo.com was my site, so I got all the Map Depot files somewhere on my drive if you need them.

Offline Jo5hua

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #20 on: February 21, 2015, 09:38:53 pm »
area51.xcomufo.com was my site, so I got all the Map Depot files somewhere on my drive if you need them.

Sweet! That would be great.. Any reason why it was taken down? I can provide hosting+ftp for it if you like.. I'll email you my email so you can send it to me :)

Offline Hobbes

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #21 on: February 21, 2015, 09:52:59 pm »
Sweet! That would be great.. Any reason why it was taken down? I can provide hosting+ftp for it if you like.. I'll email you my email so you can send it to me :)

No idea, but that site hadn't been updated for more than 10 years, so lets leave it at rest... ;)

Offline 7Saturn

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #22 on: February 21, 2015, 10:10:21 pm »
No idea, but that site hadn't been updated for more than 10 years, so lets leave it at rest... ;)
But you don't mind, if we take your work, and republish it here, somewhere? That's what I meant with »your work«. I liked it back in the days, when ufo2000 was still very active. And it would be great to have it used again.

Offline Hobbes

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #23 on: February 21, 2015, 10:28:21 pm »
But you don't mind, if we take your work, and republish it here, somewhere? That's what I meant with »your work«. I liked it back in the days, when ufo2000 was still very active. And it would be great to have it used again.

There are plenty of maps on the Depot that were not made by me, I was simply offered at the time to host the depot. The content is free to be republished and it's actually better to have it spread around. :)

Offline Jo5hua

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #24 on: February 21, 2015, 10:48:06 pm »
There are plenty of maps on the Depot that were not made by me, I was simply offered at the time to host the depot. The content is free to be republished and it's actually better to have it spread around. :)

Nice.. I'm creating a new and nice looking UFO2000 website.. Will be putting everything on there :)

Offline Mr. Quiet

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #25 on: February 22, 2015, 05:06:19 am »
That'll be fun to see. Love the OXC modsite.

Offline 7Saturn

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #26 on: March 03, 2015, 02:02:25 pm »
Nice.. I'm creating a new and nice looking UFO2000 website.. Will be putting everything on there :)
Well, I hope that isn't the reason for it beeing down, atm. ;)

Offline Jo5hua

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #27 on: March 03, 2015, 08:18:12 pm »
Well, I hope that isn't the reason for it beeing down, atm. ;)

Switched a better and robust DNS/servers. This will be super from here on.

Offline 7Saturn

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Temporary UFO2000 matchmaking-server running
« Reply #28 on: March 13, 2015, 11:27:01 pm »
Well, I believe, I have to go through with my threats. :P  Just to get some people really keen on the game again...  ;D

Currently, you should find an ufo2000 matchmaking server running at the address mobile-infanterie.gamersunitonline.net:2000. The corresponding activity-site is also https://mobile-infanterie.gamersunitonline.net:2000/. There you can see, if someone is online, atm. Don't let yourselves be stopped by an empty server. Otherwise, nobody ever will play a game, as nobody ever connects to be the first player. ;) So in general, it is more usefull, to simply connect to the server via ufo2000 client, and wait for other players. Klicking on a player, first, means you're challenging him, and starting in the first round. If you have been challenged, the challenger turns green and you can accept by klicking on his name. For further information, you may also look here.

If in doubt about the server being online, just look here. If the server isn't listed as online there, please PM me! I'll see to it, that it is online, again. In case the whole server doesn't seem to respond any more, feel free to do the same!

And something I coded quick and dirty: A stats-page. Not pretty, not to informative compared to the original one, but it does get the basic job done. There you will find any match results and the elo-score of every player, that was connected.

About how to get ufo2000: Look here for the ufo2000 win32 installer. There are also the sources, but I failed to get them to run on my Ubuntu 14.04 x64. If anyone has some ideas regarding that, I'd love to hear them.  :)

You will need the xcom- and tftd-files, like with openxcom, to run ufo2000 with original graphics, but the game also runs without them. You then have no option to use the original interface, units and maps, then. Also the sounds will be limited without the original files. For additional maps, look in the above mentioned archive-snapshot. Besides that, it's very helpful, to look into the config-file »ufo2000.ini«. It's especially useful for resolution-settings and such things.

About some small differences to (open)xcom:
  • The path searching algorithm does not give you ways through doors! You will have to place the soldier next to the door you want to send him through and then right-klicking behind the door to open it.
  • If you try to throw a grenade when being inside a house, you will not be warned, if this won't work. If it will hit the ceiling, the grenade simply bounces of the ceiling, and in turn falling in front of you, with no warning. Very bad experience... ;)
  • In original xcom/tftd, one never was limited by, how strong a weapon is or how good an armour is. The only interesting part was, how many items, how many space for units in your craft and maybe how strong the soldier is, for carrying stuff. The latter also applies for ufo2000, but there is no item- or unit-limit in the conventional xcom way. You arrange a points-limit with your opponent. Every item, armour or unit costs points, and you can not start a match when exceeding the agreed points limit. That can make matches very interesting, e. g. with 7k points limit.
  • There are also different game modi, as like an assassination match, where the primary goal is not to kill the entire platoon of your opponent, but only one specific soldier.
There are a lot of other things, as varying map-sizes and so on. Just have a look at everything in a hotseat game against yourself.
As for the »temporary«-aspect: This server is running at my home, consuming energy on my bill, so in consequence costing my money. That's ok, for the time beeing. But I intend to not have it running longer, as for the next 4 weeks. I'll try to be online one it, some times, but for the following week, I won't, as I won't have the time. So knock yourselves up with it! ;D I seriously wanna get the game running, again, so I'll try to give it some initial sponsoring.

@Mods: Can somebody make this thread sticky, for the next few weeks? It would also be nice, to somehow promote the server/this thread.

Offline Hobbes

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Re: UFO2000 Needs Players
« Reply #29 on: March 13, 2015, 11:40:48 pm »
I don't know if anyone here has talked with Serge but two days ago he updated the UFO2000 Server page at the UFOPaedia with a new address:  ufo2000.net:2000