Whitman's Dormwire => HvZSource Transition

[Zed8]

Hey,

The Whitman College mod team has decided to try out HvZSource as host for our spring 2010 game. We have no experience with this engine, though, so we are going to have a few questions.

First and foremost: I filled out a hosting request form yesterday with a request for "http://Whitman.HvZSource.com" as the URL and HvZWhitman@gmail.com as the email address. I want to make sure that the request is going through the proper channels.

2) Dormwire had a handy chat feature that allowed players to banter a bit during the game, but it seems like Source is lacking that. I messed around in the demo site and embedded a html chat window in the main page that I think might work, but is there a better way to get a chat option?

3) Do players have their location attached to their profiles? Dormwire had a graph that tracked Humans vs Zombies vs Dead Zombies in each dorm and off campus. I don't need that, but I think a location option is fairly important.

4) Lastly, I was asked for a start date but not a start time. We plan to begin the game on Saturday, April 3rd at noon. Will I be able to control the exact game start time?

I'll keep updating this thread with more questions as they come up.

Thanks for helping the newbie!

[the humbie]

Hypothetically, if there were a problem on the site, would the moderators have the ability to ftp in a little magic?

[Sklovonz]

Sorry that it took me so long to get back to you.  I have been traveling all week.  This is hopefully the last season that we will be using this version of HvZSource.  We have assembled a developer team that is working on the newest version.

1. I will be setting up your game site today.  
2. That seems to be a good way to deal with the chat feature.  
3. I am not sure if we can accommodate the location in profile.  This is something that we will keep in mind when working on the newest version.
4. The start time is fully controlled by you.  When you start the game, you would just advance in the game flow section.

Unfortunately, the way we have the code written, we cannot give you access to the db.  But I can give you ftp access.

[Zed8]

Is there an internal explanation for the site being so amazingly slow right now, or is it just my connection on this end?

[Sklovonz]

I am not sure, I have been trying to figure out why our servers are getting slammed.  I'll let you all know the dealio when I get answers from the ISP.
EDIT: I learned nothing after talking to the ISP.  Here is the convo.

Joe: [9:09:56 PM] Why is my systems are so unbearably slow right now?
Tyler: [9:10:15 PM] Let me take a look, just a moment.
Joe: [9:10:20 PM] Thanks
[9:10:26 PM] Our clients are complaining too
Tyler: [9:11:30 PM] Just a moment here.
Joe: [9:12:11 PM] thank you
Tyler: [9:13:03 PM] It does come up for me, although I will agree its slow. Let me see what I can find out.
Tyler: [9:21:20 PM] still checking, the server looked fine, so I don't know what it is.
Joe: [9:23:35 PM] Thanks, let's hope it work itself out.
Tyler: [9:24:15 PM] Alright, thank you.

[Zed8]

That is unfortunate. At least it isn't permanent/normal. I was just getting worried cause I was getting 404'd and "Page Cannot Be Loaded" all over the place on the site and in the admin hub. I'll just sit on my hands for a bit.

Also, could you remove the chat window from the front page of the demo site? I saved that there just to check the functionality, but apparently someone didn't like it and removed the save front page functionality on the demo site and now I can't remove it. I think it doesn't like being embedded on two sites, and I sort of need it for Whitman's real site.

EDIT: Check that. Working now. Fingers crossed that it will last.

[the humbie]

All very exciting. Two questions:
1) How many other campuses are using the source software? Just curious (and supportive).
2) Is it possible for there to be forums for our game specifically? Or do the players have to create separate profiles to use the general forums, within which I presume we could create a thread for this game?
Cool beans. Otherwise I guess peeps will be socializing via facebook or some other such social networking device. Peep peep.

[Sklovonz]

All very exciting. Two questions:
1) How many other campuses are using the source software? Just curious (and supportive).

There are hundreds of other campuses using this software.

2) Is it possible for there to be forums for our game specifically? Or do the players have to create separate profiles to use the general forums, within which I presume we could create a thread for this game?

They would have to create a separate forum profile, and then you could make a thread in the "Current games" forum.  If you need something more substantial, let me know and I will try to figure something out.