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.

Observers will simply have to subscribe to a list of ongoing games. All observers will get the result and update messages and will be able to participate in chat about the game (I'm debating between a home-brewed chat and a Google Wave implementation). Additionally, I will put in some crowd noises in a similar fashion to that used by the JavaBBowl client, though I would like to create a system that uses the in-game Momentum. Perhaps certain certain crowd noises in favor of the active team become available if the momentum is high, while negative crowd noises are available only if the active team's momentum is low.