[Kazan]

I know you're all familiar with IRC - but most of you are not familiar with havens - telnet://curryco.they.org:4616 is an example of RAThaven


Inquisitor and I are arguing about what we want for a backend for the lobby.  IRC would be nice because it would be externally connectable, not another service to admin, etc.  The problem is I [or someone else] would have to write a C/C++ IRC interface and I cannot make heads or tails of RFC 2812.  It would also take longer to implement an interface suitable for the PXO screen.


With RATHaven all I have to do is write a front end filter - as it is not a fancy protocol - everything major is handled server-side and I just have to filter some input (the output from the channel command, etc).  The rathaven would also be externally connectable.  I may be able to have a rathaven front end within hours instead of weeks


Both allow us to kick, ban, etc obnoxious users

[jbond04]

As long as the front lobby works, it sounds good to me.  I don't think the backend matters so much if it performs as advertised.

[Drew]

and make sure to allow chat logging...ingame, kills, evrything annonced to the player should be logged...

[mikhael]

Go with RAThaven. IRC stuff is ugly in the extreme. If you need connectivity from outside of FSO, you can just write your own RAThaven client. That'd certainly be far less painful than trying to deal with IRC and the fact that most IRC software (server and client) pretty much ignores the RFCs regularly.

What drew mentioned is intriguing though. It would be interesting if, when players entered a game, it spawned a new 'channel' or 'room'. If all mission messages were sent to that room, then spectators could watch the action, sort of. I dunno. Its just a fruity idea.

Oh wait. Ignore me. I'm not supposed to be answering the question. I'm supposed to be criticising and belittling. Um... chat bad!

[ChronoReverse]

If both can do the same and RATHaven is easier to do, why not RATHaven?

What are the disadvantages of RATHaven?  We need to know that too.

[Inquisitor]

I strongly, strongly favor IRC. It's well documented, well understood, I have servers already being used as game lobbies we can plug right into, it's easy to manage, I can manage it effectively etc. IRC scales. IRC is flexible.

While the RFC itself is obtuse, it is an otherwise well understood protocol, clients are easy to create (just look at all the VB and Java clients), servers themselves are well documented and understood, and it's darn convenient for the likes of me to get new machines tasked to the purpose It's also in the best interest of the implementor to learn a widley used protocol

I will need convinced to use any other protocol.

That being said, lore is about to ship, there is a possibility I will be able to talk my programmer who implemented our IRC lobby code (all in script by the way) into coming over to the dark side of open source like development

-edit-
I don;t really feel strongly about much else technology wise. I do feel strongly about this

[Kazan]

no real disadvantages of rathaven

mikhael: i only have to write a client for the _game_

a client is already written

TELNET

go
telnet curryco.they.org 4616

[Drew]

Originally posted by Kazan
no real disadvantages of rathaven

mikhael: i only have to write a client for the _game_

a client is already written

TELNET

go
telnet curryco.they.org 4616

the problem is, telenet is kinda unflexible as a shell; IRC is so mainstream, it would be easy to do all sorts of fun stuff with it.

EDIT: Btw, IRC can easily be downed by the thousands of of the self programs. A dumbass script kiddy and a DoS proggy are the IRC networks worst enemy. Havens are used less, they would manage to slip under the radar of scrip kiddies....

[Kazan]

well considering i have a basic internal client already implemented - i just need to strip color codes from the text now and then make it so it populates the user and channel windows....

[Drew]

Originally posted by Kazan
well considering i have a basic internal client already implemented - i just need to strip color codes from the text now and then make it so it populates the user and channel windows....

im sure u can change color codes ingame, for like different teams and for announcements (eg. Death_Box ate Ligtspeeds maxim) iv have problems with games that have no color coding ingame. *cough halo cough*

[Kazan]

yes i still have to _STRIP_ the codes from the string

[Lightspeed]

IRC. easist to use and most flexible moderator / admin management.

Maybe add an exta command for mods / admins to set the MOTD, and that's it.

But... you could always use that other thing as a temporary solution while you're implementing IRC.

[Kazan]

perhaps lightspeed

of course all these cries about "ease of management" are coming from two people who haven't the SLIGHTEST FREAKING CLUE what they're talking about because they've never used a rathaven let alone moderated one

[Lightspeed]

thats EXACTLY the reason why i think IRC is easier. We all have experience with it.

[Kazan]

IRC will probably be better - because then we can have colors and what not... i'll also have to write a custom GUI class [YIPES] etc

[Inquisitor]

of course all these cries about "ease of management" are coming from two people who haven't the SLIGHTEST FREAKING CLUE what they're talking about because they've never used a rathaven let alone moderated one

Bingo. Whereas I have moderated IRC as a game lobby. Pretty strong argument, experience.

Anyway, it sounds like some progress was made last night on prototyping an IRC client.

[Kazan]

and getting myself klined from irc.maxgaming.net

[Starks]

Put the server on irc.rizon.net

They allow most things that most servers won't allow such as fansubs, fserving, and game lobbies.

Also, rizon is a fast, huge, and stable server and has the option of hostmasking. If rizon can handle the entire anime fansub community, it can handle FS2 game lobbies.

[Kazan]

LL: Inquisitor is a IRCoper on *.maxgaming.net - one of the other IRC didn't know what was going on, Inqui lifted the kline

[Starks]

I'm just saying, if you need a backup...