On Tue, May 08, 2001 at 10:13:16AM +1000, James Cameron wrote: > On Mon, May 07, 2001 at 07:57:22PM -0400, Jeffrey Nowakowski wrote: > > The best way to grow the netrek community is to drop all frivolous > > projects and work on the really important one. Since we've been at > > one main server for several years now, it shouldn't be too hard to > > spot a spike. > > Yes, I agree. However I wasn't asking for how to do it, I was asking > for a measure so that after we've done it we can judge how well we did > it. I don't think it matters one bit whether we measure the number of WWW hits, downloads or how many times somebody connects to the metaserver. I can generate WWW and FTP stats dating back 4-5 years that do not correlate with the size of the player base. However, I do think that the player base has been improving slightly. The wait queue on continuum often gets up to the teens as opposed to 4-5. There are two leagues underway with slightly more players than the previous season. More new kids are showing up to Monday Night Netrek. And I see hockey games going on all the time. > > The really important project is to get netrek as a single download > > that includes a spiffy client with a tutorial. The download should > > include the server so the user can play without connecting to the > > network. It should run under 95/98/NT. It should include an option > > for a small sized map that lets a small group of office workers play > > and have fun. > > I agree, this should be done. Last time I looked into it, I tried an > old version of Cygwin to do the port. I got stuck (again) on the > inheritance of open socket file descriptors during a fork(). Anyone > know if that is fixed yet? In this day and age I think it's silly to build a completely standalone server that functions without an Internet connection. Internet based games are popular, and it is no longer unrealistic to expect people to have some kind of active connection to play the game like it was 2+ years ago. Time is better spent building an on-line newbie training server which would be less work. Somebody just needs to write a smart robot. I agree 100% about a revamped client, a decent tutorial and improved documentation and downloads off the web site. I've been working on and off for years (yeah, it's sad) on some of the items listed above, including improved web site and documentation. Thanks to Karthik, I am now in a position to provide write access to some individuals who actually wish to contribute to these efforts. Anyone so inclined should contact vanilla-list so that things can be coordinated. Dave -- Dave Ahn | ahn at vec.wfubmc.edu | Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Try to live your life so that when you die, you will rejoice and the world will cry. -1/2 jj^2