DC announcement system?

[Radical_Pi]

I wish there were some way to advertise DC games on here. I find myself out of luck when I can't see games advertised on GR, so I wish there were some way to announce the active games on here.

My (personal) ideas:
A forum with only one post which has active DC games on it, with all DC hosts able to edit it.
Some sort of announcement on the home page (would have to be a mod, I could probably whip something up fairly fast)
A shoutbox....

[SchTicK]

I'm with you on this Pi. I think it would reflect the theme of this site (Mac & PC Gamers) if we had an easy way to see if a DC was up and available.  A green light on the home page, pulsing to indicate a DC game is running with a link to the IP info. That would be soo sweet. Could use that for Tournys and other events too.

Note: There haven't been any advertised on GR for a while now, so you haven't missed anything.

[Mac]

I doubt this would work, but if HC gave the power to people who hosted DCs to be able to enter the IP and maps of a DC and set it to online. But, I don't know if that's a good idea.

[Dresh]

I think this is a good idea.  With such a large time diff it would be great if there was some sort of server monitor that shows the 'live' status of DC hosts instead of just posting that the server is online! Any chance of being able to rattle up that kinda thing? Then all the host needs to do is change the IP address (if dynamic) in the script for their server.

[Mac]

I think this is a good idea.  With such a large time diff it would be great if there was some sort of server monitor that shows the 'live' status of DC hosts instead of just posting that the server is online! Any change of being able to rattle up that kinda thing? Then all the host needs to do is change the IP address (if dynamic) in the script for their server.

We actually used to have something like this, but it was disabled because I think it caused server lag or something.

[zorba1994]

I am Zorba, and I approve this message.

JK.


In all seriousness, this is a good idea that should be implemented.

[Radical_Pi]

There is a PHP script that querys the server for info, but it takes forever to load. I'm trying to see if I can integrate it into a PHPBB test site I have. My view of the layout:

On the index page, there is a box above the forum list that marks any active games. This will only look at info cached from a detailed view

Each game has a link to a page that shows a detailed view of all the data for the game that can be requested from the server. This is the page that will take a long time to load most likely, and hopefully it won't hit a PHP timeout. Basic information (server active, # of players, current map) will be stored to the SQL server for fast lookup on the homepage, however this data is ONLY updated when someone requests a detailed view.

My early versions will have the bare minimums for this. A quick view of Host, IP, and maps on the home page and then the detailed view on a link. Hosts can enter in a new game for the listing and also delete own. No info is cached

Later version might include:
limit who can view
Cached data on home page
time-delay games
marker of a down but not deleted game

Still a WIP, and I'm not sure if it will even work, as I can't test the listing on my own server