Hi everybody (new owner)
Posted:
Aug 22, 2013, 12:29 PM
Greetings fellow Pentegonians,
I bought the website, in case you were wondering A few days ago, we moved the server. The idea was to, aside from a few hours maintenance, have you back up running again as if nothing happened, but sadly we made a small booboo and lost almost 24 hours of moves. Once again my apologies for that, I hope it doesn't happen again. To me at least, the new server seems a lot snappier to browse and play on.
If you are fearing a strange new (like facebook does once in a while) radical overhaul of the website, then fear not in the near future My first concern when I bought it was to keep it alive, but it seems that hurdle is overcome for now. Other than dweebo's ToDo-lists, I'll be happy to listen to suggestions, but you should expect them to be implemented in the not so near future. The whole website's code (a piece of art), is new to me, and the languages it is written in are also not familiar. Good thing that all that is only a temporary state. My own ToDo list included - captcha for the forums and restore headlines (done-ish) - facebook page for more traction (a like lets your friends now about pente.org, like a casual invitation) (also done-ish) - push notifications for the iOS app - an iOS app for realtime play - clean up the databases Far-future items are - Android app - Facebook app - ... As you can see, a little list of technical things that hopefully make playing here a bit more fun.
Feel free to engage me here if you have questions or concerns, I'll try to answer as much as possible.
Re: Hi everybody (new owner)
Posted:
Aug 28, 2013, 10:22 PM
Hello Rainwolf,
Just wanted to say thank you for your efforts to keep Pente.org alive and well. It would be nice to see the website and game evolve, so eventually organized multi-player pente would be awesome, but that would probably involve much more work. Everything else is great the way it is. In the mean time, do you still need contributions for maintenance?
Re: Hi everybody (new owner)
Posted:
Aug 29, 2013, 10:01 AM
Hey Nodice,
By multiplayer pente, do you mean tournaments? Secondly, donations are always welcome to cover server costs. But I should somehow make this website cover its own expenses, or bring in more to upgrade the hardware. Tricky, tricky, tricky
Re: Hi everybody (new owner)
Posted:
Aug 29, 2013, 10:31 AM
Maybe I don't know the correct terminology, but to me, multi-player would be games allowing 3 or 4 or possibly more people to play at the same time, in the same game. Its more of a social event than a conventional serious game, because threats/blocks can be deferred to another player, almost requiring real-time communication, which might help to attract more players to Pente.org since its the only real-time venue.
People have their own ideas, but generally there are no mixed-pair captures (captures must be of the same color). If you lose 5 captures (in total), you are eliminated from the game. But to win, you have to eliminate all of the other players, or make 5 captures of the same color (even if the captures are from a player that has already been eliminated), or get 5 in a row. This version tends to make the games simpler and shorter than some of the other multi-player versions because there are so many ways to lose. But maybe there could be a menu to select different multi-player versions, to let people see which version works best. I don't want to start a debate on those details in this thread, especially since this modification would be difficult and take lots of time. I just brought it up for something to shoot for in the future.
The main thing is that Pente.org is still a going concern, thanks to you.
I did just think of an improvement that wouldn't be a huge project. It looks like the Game Database may have to restart. Is there a way to separate "live" games from the turn-based games? Most of the turn-based games have thought behind them. But a significant portion of the "live" games are nonsensical.
The "Filter Options" in the Game Database has 10 selections, so maybe the "Event" filter could have a sub-menu something like: All, Live, Turn-based, etc. Maybe this suggestion should be its own thread.
Anyway, thanks again. Let us know if there are any financial concerns.
Message was edited by: nodice at Aug 29, 2013 11:51 PM
Re: Hi everybody (new owner)
Posted:
Sep 2, 2013, 2:16 PM
Hi inigo, There should be a (paypal) donation link on the homepage. Look on the right, scroll down, and you should see a box showing donors.
@biggie80: Android is a long way away, it's only an idea now For comparison: The idea to create an iOS app to play on pente.org stayed an idea for 4ish years, maybe less. As soon as I get my hands on an android phone and as soon as I find the time to get to it, give me a few years
