Options for other PbF Support?
-
This has probably been asked before by I couldn't find it anywhere so here go's....
Was wondering if it was possible to add in other Forum(s) in the Play By Forum Option? Like MyBB or Xenforo so the info is posted to the forums that the players are on rather than a 'third party' as it were...
Scratch
-
@ScratchMang this forum is the one most people who play this game use. The software you refer to (MyBB or Xenforo) is not fundamentally any different from the Node BB being used here other than feature sets and technical details that really don't matter to end-users. This is actually pretty good (as good as any i've used anyway) and is far superior to our previous platform (nabble, which ironically enough was a service).ok scratch all that not sure why i thought Node BB was OS i guess it is a service also.
-
No worries,
NodeBB / phpBB / vBulletin / Xenforo / MyBB are all Forum software, usually based around a LAMP system, (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) for community building as it were.
I've setup TripleA on a spare server I had kicking around as a number of the Gaming group I belong to were looking for something else to play as a "Break" form the usual stuff (Guild Wars2 / NwN / Wow / Diablo 3 / etc...) So TripleA and OpenRA were just two we are looking at as possible 'Distractions' OpenRA because it's quick and TripleA because of the Play By E-Mail and Play By Forums options that are built in. As we have out own Forums (Running MyBB at this time) I figured I would ask and see if there was any other options or way to implement other forums into the Play By Forum settings so that turns and the like are posted to "Our" forums directly rather than these ones or the Axis and Allies forums.
Anyway it was just a thought, if there were some way to have it integrate with other forums it would be a nice addition I would think....
Scratch
-
@ScratchMang @roiex incorporated it here for this (our new forum). I am sure he will be able to help you.
-
@ScratchMang the forum needs to expose a web-api and we have to add integration code into TripleA for it. If the forum has a nodeBB API and is just a different URI comapred to this one, then it's pretty feasible we could make it an option. If the forum is not just another NodeBB then I'm not sure we'll get to it.
Looking to the far-medium and long term, I'm hoping we can use "cloud-saves" that would not need a forum at all.
-
I'm no programmer
So I admit fully to not completely understanding API's and exactly how they work.Xenforo 2.1 has a "RestFul API"
https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/dev/rest-api/
And as far as MyBB goes.... I cannot find anything on it having an API
ANyway it was just a thought, a "Nice to Have" but in no way diminishes the game itself. Thank you for the reply.
-
Thanks for finding that @ScratchMang , unfortunately it would not be a just configuration change to integrate with xenforo, but it would be possible nonetheless. The initial and maintenance effort could be hard to justify unless the forum were to be very widely used.
Is there a limitation where using this forum (forums.triplea-game.org) does not fit your needs?
-
Yes With a But?
What's happening is I am setting up an TripleA Game for members of a Gaming Clan. We have a whole bunch of members who all play different games, and we thought that having an On-Line game that we could play as a Clan would be a fun exercise. As everyone already checks into our Clan forums (MyBB in this case) having the updates / turn records sent to our forums would be preferred rather than having everyone (Those who are playing as well as those who are just following along), having to setup account here. All in one spot as it were.
Like I said, it would be a "nice to have" but really it's not a show stopper by any means. Even if the results could be sent to a separate 'static' web page that could be hosted by individuals who are hosting the game itself? Nothing that would require a login or anything but a simple record of the moves / turns (Maybe with and image of the board after said turn) if that makes sense? So I could setup a page like "TriplaTurnResults.myclan.net/index.php" or something like that where anyone could simple go in a view, which would be automagically populated / updated by TripleA itself?
Again, pipe dreams, random thoughts.... This is in no way a complaint, just thoughts on possible future possibilities...
Scratch
-
The forum is here for such thoughts
Indeed, the 'yes, but' is there, the work and pay-off is difficult. We'd have to have someone set up the forum locally, write integration code, update PBF to allow for an API-key to be accepted, you'd have to generate and distribute an API-key, and then we'd have to make sure that all stays working as the game evolves (which means setting up some automation, deploying that forum with the prerelease automatically, doing some testing around, perhaps manually). As you can see it's regrettably not quite just plug and play (so to speak
)It is a long term vision though for games to be 'cloud-save' capable and for stats to be recorded with players. In this case case there would be results pages viewable in-game, and by player. I think missing from that is just the concept of a clan.
It's a far-off effort, I hope it gets done in the next year or two. @ScratchMang is the suggestion about right in terms of what you're looking for, that it would fit your use-case if the stats were simply in-game?
-
I get the amount of work vs Payoff int he long run, and totally understand the amount of time and effort it would require. If one of the Dev's strikes it rick and wins a 50 Million dollar lottery then maybe?
As tot he Stats in Game, perhaps, but that would not, shall we say "Encourage" those who are not playing to maybe try playing. So if say we have 20 out of 200 (for example) playing TripleA, and it's constantly being posted to a thread on the existing Clan Forums, the hope would be people (even those not playing) would check it out, eventually become curious, and hopefully give the game a try themselves?
Really it's a 'want' for daily updates to be shown publicly on the forums for everyone to see, UserA attacked UserB and took Territory "X", that sort of thing, generate interest in the game and get more people involved. Even if it's just text in a post, giving a blow by blow account of the progression of the game, Graphics and images would be a bonus really....
I know that the Xenforo Fourms I run (Not for the Clan but for another hobby of mine) can display 'RSS' feeds in a side-block Not sure of that would be a simpler thing to manage? Again I'm totally ignorant of what it would involve so excuse my ignorance on these matters, I know just enough to be dangerous and ask stupid questions
That also brings me back to the previous statement of generating a static webpage or similar after every turn, generate a static page/Image in a pre-set directory...
turn001.html (Simple image of the board at the end of turn 001)
turn002.html (Simple image of the board at the end of turn 002)
turn003.html (Simple image of the board at the end of turn 003)
...
...
turn427.html (Simple image of the board at the end of turn 427)
etc....So people could "Walk thru" the game as it progresses, seeing who is advancing, retreating etc....
Again, pipe dreams and stupid ideas and questions I know.
-
I been noticing this forum gets way more viewers on the weekend ... which makes sense but its pretty quiet during the week and I think I've seen maybe max 25 people show up on 1 day so any ideas to get more people to the forum are good
-
Does this forum let regular members create private groups?
-
@ubernaut Not atm but I could turn it on. What did you have in mind? As an admin you can add subgroups tho.
groups are created here https://forums.triplea-game.org/groups
-
@prastle just wondering if private groups would solve @ScratchMang 's dilemma.
-
@ubernaut Well he would need to become a moderator of that subgroup and I guess we could remove it from displaying in the recent topics. How many members are part of your clan @ScratchMang ?
-
@ubernaut But either way it appears he wants to use his current forums.
-
@prastle yeah i guess i just figured maybe there was a compromise which would get them what they wanted without @ScratchMang learning how to to build it from scratch.
-
@ubernaut Well more TripleA members are always welcome to play triplea here
-
@prastle yeah that was my initial thought but i guess they want it to be private for members only for whatever reason.
-
Hey Everyone,
Thank you for the multitude of replies and suggestions. I don't mean to be rude when I suggested a method for the ability to post games result (or play by play commentary as it were) on our own Clan forums, it's just some people have issues with going to a bunch of different places to get info. Sign up here, Login over there, Post to this thread or that one. I know it does not seem like a lot of bother initially, but we are trying to increase and encourage our users to use 'Our' forums, not send them elsewhere.
Our clan plays a multitude of different games, all of which are Coordinated / Discussed / Talked about on our forums, Raids planned, Updates discussed, well you get the idea. So adding in TripleA to our Clan forums, and having half of the info there, and the other half of the info here, would be, well, not ideal shall we say?
Again I don't mean to be rude, I'm sure that some folk would come over here as we do have a bunch of people who are into Table Top gaming, and after all Axis and Allies was a Table top Game to begin with. But we want to encourage people to play, not just those who are "Immediately" interested, as we have a few of those, but also those who are 'on the fence' as it were. If they could follow along in our forums which they are logging into daily anyway. Watch how a game progresses, it might just encourage them to join in a play themselves.
