Expressions of Interest: TCP server

[smiley1983]

If a TCP server were available, would you use it?

What game(s) would you like to see running there?

It would be very easy to set up an Ants server. There is also working prototype code for an Asteroids-style game.

Previous contest engines (RoShamBo, Tron, PlanetWars) could be rewritten or ported to run on the current TCP server code.

It's going to take a fair bit of effort to get "official" contest servers running in the same way as before. TCP is easy, however. Requires a bit more technical understanding from the users; they have to modify a script and actively run their bot against the server, rather than just uploading and forgetting about it. On the upside, you get heaps of games for very little server power.

Do you think a community can be built around TCP servers alone? Do we really need the cumbersome infrastructure of official contest servers to bring everyone together?

If someone wants to set up official contest servers I will be very grateful and want to help (as I am grateful to the previous organizers for everything they have done). However, I suspect that it will be a long and slow process unless a very effective core of people (or an individual) decides to get it up and running fast. TCP servers can be provided today, within the hour in theory, and new games can be added as soon as they're written.

https://github.com/smiley1983/ants-tcp

[sky-coder]

Hi,

If there is an ants TCP server I think I would use it

[aerique]

Yeah I would be interested and use it, although my time has been very limited the last year.

My main interest would be Ants since I wasn't able to compete in that challenge. Perhaps PlanetWars as well since it was so cool.

Asteroids would be nice although perhaps it would give people a head start if it is ever used in an official challenge.

[sh4wn]

I would also be interested. I think we can get enough people to join if we promote it at reddit and stuff.

[ramn]

+1 for Ants server!

[lorill]

I wouldn't use an ant server (i participated in the last contest, not interested to work on it anymore), but i would use one for any new game.

I think we can build a community with a well known tcp server like tcpants was last year.

[smiley1983]

It looks like the organizers might not be as completely disbanded as I had thought; if there's any chance that they (or a subset of them) will run another contest, I'm hesitant to run any new games which might be used.

However, I have Tron code under development here:

https://github.com/smiley1983/ants-tcp/tree/tron

It's not quite the same as the one which was run previously: the I/O format is different, it can support n-player games with multiple agents controlled by each player, and the edges wrap. More than two players per game are not good for fairness, but that can be restricted by only running 2-player maps.

Anyone want to re-implement PlanetWars? I might do it but not straight away.

I also like Dimkadimon's RoShamBo idea, and it would probably be quite suitable for TCP games.

Suggestions and discussion are welcome regarding which games should be saved for official contests if they ever happen, and which can be freely experimented with. I think there are some great ideas for games floating around, and some of them might be unsuitable for central servers, but very suitable for TCP.

[JimmFlimm]

PlanetWars would be cool