Topic: I wish the SFC-OP Front End for SQL worked like this

[RazalYllib]

It does not have to be a dream, we have the technology.

[Bonk]

Wow, thanks for putting this together. Good stuff to steal! 

First comment: wrt account security - I wanted to avoid the need for additional db or file use by the scripts. Originally I had the shipyard connected to a phpbb forums authentication db which required the players to register with the same "Gamespy Email Address" used for their player account on the server, it was much more secure but a hassle. (another forum to register on)  If we get a stable kit that makes this worthwhile and numbers of players will use it, then I think that is the easy way to go there, just bundle a forums package that uses standard e-mail validation with the webmap scripts, that way the extra info is kept seperate from the serverkit db and comes nice and pre-packaged.

More comments to come... thanks again!

[FireSoul]

At work, we've installed phpbb for our forums as well. However, we've disabled the register part of the forums and created a "subscriber-phpbb synchronizer" app which is run from the unix scheduler called cron.

Every 2 minutes or so, the script is run to synchronize from the subscriber DB to the phpbb DB the username and password, if any are different. Maybe something similar can be done here, if modify phpbb itself to use another DB for authentication?

-- Luc

[RazalYllib]

Back from my weekend getaway.

Will hopefully finish Part 2 and attach it along.  Am a little surprised that again no one has commented, do I have Plasma Breath?

The focus of the next part, will be on things to spend PP on.  AI movement...Racial Bank etc..  Per Bonks request, I decided to focus the first on shipyard production, since that is the most requested feature.  That is basically what sql can do.  Add features. 

For those's still baffled by part one,  I neglected to include some statement that the PP return on missions will probably have to be boosted as there will be more activities players can perform which will require the expendature of hard earned Prestige Points.

[RazalYllib]

I have recently been in contact with some old gaming buddies who have played it all. All is referring to moving square pieces of cardboard about a map.  They are grognard personified.  I queried them on my on-again off-again project of writing some text re: what can one do if one has the ability, in essence, to re-program an existing game?s strategic and economic model, by re-writing the individual data units that defines them in game.  These guyz have played it all, in fact they were doing Waterloo for the Umpteenth time when I dropped in for a chat.  That was a interesting 5 hours I had not planned on; They fed me (Pizza of course),  any how, I got to pick their brains for a little while and more interesting ideas are sure to come from continued contact, (they need a warning sign on the door-?Attention Gamers-Time Sink Ahead?.  They are not that much interested in computers, whom they feel are remote and impersonal. They have and ancient Pentium one running a dos word processor and not a single game installed.  When I sift through the ideas, I will continue this outline in Part 3 with a wide variety of things to spend PP on.

[Tumulorum Fossor]

I don't know squat about SQL.

But I love games.  And SFB.  And SFC.  So I'll comment anyway, and forgive me in advance if I say anything stupid or unintentionally off topic.

Regarding means of spending prestige points: I always thought that Prestige should CONSTANTLY be whittling away.  That, ultimately, in Space Navy, one's prestige, to a point, depends on a "What have you done for the Empire LATELY?" perspective.  What's more, the more you deliver, the more is expected of you.  So, if you cash in a tremendous amount of prestige on a battle fleet, well, I'd expect the prestige cost, that is the empire's "expectation" of what you produce, to go up accordingly.  And, if, after buying your battle fleet, you can't keep up with the PP "payments", well, the navy repossesses.

So what this does is, it means that you don't "buy" a ship so much as "rent" it from the navy, and the navy expects a regular payback from a steady stream of Prestige Points.  Now, if you earn Prestige in "excess" of the rent, well, that gives you free time with your navy to go exploring/cherry pick easy missions, which you can bankroll.  Note that this model should give some counter, depending on the setup, of the inevitable escalation of player-controlled fleets within an empire.  In other words, it'll be harder for any given player to MAINTAIN a huge fleet unless he's out there using it a lot (and hence potentially getting blown up in the process).  Furthermore, it gives an incentive to stick with small bread & butter ships which make up the backbone of all the navies, as it becomes easier in some respect to accumulate PP in a modest fleet than a large one.

Just my thoughts.  Hope they're relevant in this thread.


-TF