www.elfball.net

I started the dedicated Elfball Java server this evening. It will be called Momentum and this evening was spent building the messages that it will use.

The theory is that a server will host more than one game, and each time a client sends a message to the server that message will include a user_id. The user_id is tied in to which team and which game the player is involved in. The connection will be done via SSH and the user_id will be distributed via a third party. This should make the connection secure from cursory hack attempts and with luck will prevent cheating.

I apologize for the delay in updates. I'm afraid that between minor bug fixes and issues with getting the site running (no dedicated theme yet, you note) I'm afraid I lost a bit of momentum. Click 'read more' for the rest and to download the setup alpha build.

Sorry about the long delay. Overtime at work, the scramble to look at houses available for purchase, founding a California Class-C corporation, and a few other personal matters came up.

So, tonight was all about relearning the code. Specifically rewriting the code to work with OS X. There were a variety of issues with the graphics rendering that caused it to not work with OS X and this is a problem since I have turned my Mac (yes, that means I have on XP machine, 2 Linux machines, and 2 OS X Macs) into my primary development machine.

Click the "Read More" link for the actual progress.

Progress for the last couple of days has been pretty good:

• Added support for different field textures. Players can specify one that they would like
• Added support for a variety of player actions, such as move, pick up, etc. The code isn't there to tie it all together quite yet, but it will be soon
• Updated the way that the game, dice rolls, players, and pitch all interact. This means that the game is more efficient in execution than it was. Also, it is a bit more scalable than it was which will be good when I get to the (other) optional rules.

I realize I've been talking about this off and on, put we should have a more appropriate theme for the site shortly. More "elballish" colors, I promise!

So, some additional progress tonight:

• Fixed a problem that would allow a Monster player in the faceoff circle for the hometeam if you left the faceoff cirlce empty and then ended your setup phase. That will teach me to overthink things...
• Added logic to prevent overloading the faceoff circle with more than one player.
• Added Faceoff logic. Now, once the setup is complete the faceoff roll is made automatically.
• Minor updates to the elfball.net site. Copyright notice and link to Impact!

Tonight's progress, the setup rules are complete. It now:

- Flips a coin to see who sets up first.
- Checks to make sure that you have at least one player on the field and that you have the player in the faceoff circle and checks that you have at least one player in the guardian circle if you have additional players available. The logic is all done.
- Allows a player that meets the above conditions to end their turn
- Enables the other player to begin their turn once the previous player has finished.

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