Stickmen Wars

[SimonH]

Sorry I wasn't here - way too much in the bigger frame ATM!
I think the no-comms problem is googleapps engine - it seems to spread itself around a bit & I've made the mistake of believing that few calls==same servlet instance. Wrong.
I'm gonna have to use their crummy DB api. Arse.
It is a good game when it works though, honest! While I attempt to get it going properly, try playing with a friend that's close by geographically (so you get the same servlet instance) it is a laugh!

Sorry folks! Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible...

[Riven]

Never make any assumptions

It should be fun to finally play against some intelligent opponent.

[SimonH]

Never make any assumptions

I love 'em! 

Third time lucky? It wasn't as hard as I thought to implement DB support (but I have blunted my hatchet doing in it!). Fingers crossed!
I'll be on for the next hour if anyone fancies helping me test it!

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[Riven]

Sorry, still doesn't work.

I can see Kapta, he can see me, we can both invite eachother, but never play.

Also chat doesn't work. We're both typing, and we both can't see what the other is typing.

[SimonH]

Damn! So close! Me and Kappa managed a couple of games, but my hack for storing messages was a hack too far I guess!
Thanks for your time guys!  It's frustrating to get sooo near it working!

[kappa]

From what I've played so far, online play is really fun, it involves a nice bit of strategy too.
Hopefully you'll be able to squish the bugs soon.

[SimonH]

From what I've played so far, online play is really fun, it involves a nice bit of strategy too.
Hopefully you'll be able to squish the bugs soon.

Thanks! Me too!

Think I might have nailed it;

1	java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: dataToSend: String properties must be 500 characters or less.  Instead, use com.google.appengine.api.datastore.Text, which can store strings of any length.

Not that it should be sending anything that long anyway...

[Eli Delventhal]

Well, I officially beat Arniebot on every map. His main issue is that he doesn't adapt at all - once he got me to about 10% but I still built an engineer and he didn't. And that meat machine is pretty awesome against his strategy if you deploy it under the cover of some footmen.

Dumbot won't reply to invitations...

[Riven]

Maybe important when you're debugging: I can't even play the bots, they never accept my invitation.

[_Mac_]

Woha dumbot accepted my invitation but I was told

"The game will start in 5764580 seconds"

isnt that just a bit long?

I also think its discriminatory that the username needs at least 4 characters. 

cheers,

Mac

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[Mike]

When loading the game I get the following error:
error ioe2: Server returned HTTP response code: 500 for URL: http://kfapp2.appspot.com/kfapp2

And not even the bots accept my invitation (and I guess you couldn't see mine either Riven)

[SimonH]

Um, dare I say it? _{fourth time lucky?}
Lots of fixes;
Bots should now be a bit keener to play!
Strange -ve message length problem sorted - think this might have been the main problem!
Message passing improved.
User names can now be 3 characters (just for you _Mac_!).

I also tidied the load screen a bit.
You now start with 30 credit - not sure if this is a good change or not...

EDIT: Hold on - it's crashed again... 
Humph! Error;

1	com.google.appengine.api.datastore.DatastoreTimeoutException: Unknown

leads me to;

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9

GAE's session handling is backed by both the datastore and memcache. App Engine's datastore is built on Big Table, which is a very large, distributed DBMS. Because of its distributed nature, you will likely see a small amount (generally 0.1 to 0.2 percent) of datastore operations fail over time. We are constantly making improvements to App Engine's back-end to drive this percentage even lower, but if you depend on sessions to manage your application's state, you should definitely be aware that there is the potential for failure and appropriately handle any exceptions that get thrown in the event of a datastore issue.

In other words, I can never be sure if a message has been stored or not!
Pass me that crowbar - I'll see if I can get a rollback system in there...

[Apo]

...
User names can now be 3 characters (just for you _Mac_!).
...

And for me =)
I know it's hard to balance but I would prefer more units =)

[Eli Delventhal]

Wouldn't let me play either bot, and said my ping was 999.  :-(

[SimonH]

So sorry folks! This is so near working!
Kevglass has pointed me in the right direction (if I can do it) so please be patient - this WILL work! *maybe*
It really needs a spectator mode though (not possible as is) - I tink I gotta get smart...

[Eli Delventhal]

So sorry folks! This is so near working!
Kevglass has pointed me in the right direction (if I can do it) so please be patient - this WILL work! *maybe*
It really needs a spectator mode though (not possible as is) - I tink I gotta get smart...

Sheesh, you'd better hurry.

[SimonH]

Sheesh, you'd better hurry.

Maybe, just maybe...this one will not be as SNAFU as the others!
It uses JCache now which *seems* to work (fingers crossed!)
I fixed a fundamental logic error which meant that both players could win (that was most entertaining!).

EDIT: Still SNAFU - *thinks* why did I ever start this?

[h3ckboy]

I actually got play arnie bot, I lost

[SimonH]

Stickman Saga - episode VI
I put in a partial gamestate exchange mechanism so it should be more in sync than before, it is still possible for both sides to win, but they'd almost certainly have to collaborate to make it happen...
The price tag for this is slight jitter on enemy units (especially the flail).
I had to reduce the credit increment per airdrop or it would have been possible to flood the map with ever increasing numbers of units. I've also upped all the unit speeds to make the game pacier (and faster to test  ).
I'm very tempted to stick an expensive rocket launcher in the last free slot, just for those 'Quick! Blow them all up!' moments...

[Eli Delventhal]

Riven and I just played and we had some very bad sync issues.

His guys kept not arriving, our life totals in our places were slightly off, and more. I think you should give up on this approach and just do a proper client/server relationship, no?

[Riven]

What Demonpants said.

Adding to that: it's a heck of a lot better than the previous version! Go girl!

[SimonH]

Riven and I just played and we had some very bad sync issues.

His guys kept not arriving, our life totals in our places were slightly off, and more. I think you should give up on this approach and just do a proper client/server relationship, no?

Well, good sync is never going to be an option with this... Units not arriving is really baaaad - I mega-goofed somewhere... but where? Man, I tied players as close as they could possibly get. Damn, damn, damn!
Re proper server: Could do, but surely this current approch is possible? And free...  and unsigned... I'd need port 80 on a dedicated server...
Ugh! I think I just put my foot in a can of worms!

[Apv301]

Omg this is epic win!