New Old Fart

[bananas]

Greetings!

I played Alamaze long, long ago, back when it was on paper and you'd send messages to other players on 3x5 index cards. Well, OK. I only played one game. I was the Ranger. I was just a kid and really couldn't afford to play, so one game was enough. Years later, I found Alamaze again and was able to send in orders and get results via email on my dialup connection. They had a custom app to build your orders. Talk about advances in technology!

In that game, I was the Underworld and had written a Perl script to parse parts of the turn results and keep track of information. It was pretty cheesy, but I liked it. I didn't finish that game due to real life issues, but I heard someone (Paladin?) claimed victory a few turns after i dropped out.

Anyway, I'm elated to hear that Alamaze is back! I have not signed up for a game yet because it seems the turn around can be pretty fast. So I have a few questions.

1) What is expected turnaround time per turn on a slow game?
2) Are there deadlines on when you can submit your orders?
3) I heard there is a web page to submit orders, but what do the turn results look like (plain text? html? zip attachment?)?
4) How big/active is this community?
5) Are there any tools/mobile apps available?

[Lord Diamond]

Greetings!

I played Alamaze long, long ago, back when it was on paper and you'd send messages to other players on 3x5 index cards. Well, OK. I only played one game. I was the Ranger. I was just a kid and really couldn't afford to play, so one game was enough. Years later, I found Alamaze again and was able to send in orders and get results via email on my dialup connection. They had a custom app to build your orders. Talk about advances in technology!

In that game, I was the Underworld and had written a Perl script to parse parts of the turn results and keep track of information. It was pretty cheesy, but I liked it. I didn't finish that game due to real life issues, but I heard someone (Paladin?) claimed victory a few turns after i dropped out.

Anyway, I'm elated to hear that Alamaze is back! I have not signed up for a game yet because it seems the turn around can be pretty fast. So I have a few questions.

1) What is expected turnaround time per turn on a slow game?
2) Are there deadlines on when you can submit your orders?
3) I heard there is a web page to submit orders, but what do the turn results look like (plain text? html? zip attachment?)?
4) How big/active is this community?
5) Are there any tools/mobile apps available?

Email me at ded127@aol.com and I will send you some of my old turns and setups. They are much prettier than what you remember, but the data is mostly the same.

Turns are on Tuesday week one and Monday and Friday week two. It goes like that and turns are due by Noon.

The web program is awesome and takes your previous turns data into account.

No mobile apps. What limd of tools did you have in mind? Lots of reference and spreadsheets.

Take a look at the Valhalla report here in the Forums to get a feel for how many players have finsihed games.

Welcome back!

[bananas]

Email me at ded127@aol.com and I will send you some of my old turns and setups. They are much prettier than what you remember, but the data is mostly the same.

Wow, I didn't expect PDF. I've never tried to parse one of those before, but Mr. Google pointed me to some tools. On the other hand, what y'all are doing with the powerpoints of the map is awesome. Honestly, it sort of takes the wind out of my sails. My tool would not have been as pretty. And by replicating the entire map per slide, you have clear and easy access to history. Graphical representation and history were the main things the tool offered. I might still try to write it though, because once you have harvested all of the goodies from the turn and put them into a database, you can start running all kinds of queries.

Thanks for the info!

[kevindusi]

Email me at ded127@aol.com and I will send you some of my old turns and setups. They are much prettier than what you remember, but the data is mostly the same.

Wow, I didn't expect PDF. I've never tried to parse one of those before, but Mr. Google pointed me to some tools. On the other hand, what y'all are doing with the powerpoints of the map is awesome. Honestly, it sort of takes the wind out of my sails. My tool would not have been as pretty. And by replicating the entire map per slide, you have clear and easy access to history. Graphical representation and history were the main things the tool offered. I might still try to write it though, because once you have harvested all of the goodies from the turn and put them into a database, you can start running all kinds of queries.

Thanks for the info!

I think you should still go for it! Most of the fun stuff we have are either done by or inspired by players. Frost Lord and Lord Diamond are responsible for the current incarnation of Valhalla. UncleMike worked with Ry Vor and Cipher to make the online entry program a reality. The Excel book that I use to track everything was done by John Moe (for those that remember him) waaaaaay back when, and still kicks butt (though Wynand had to fix a couple of the broken macros because I'm Excel-stupid). It's fun to see what players do with the tools that exist and how they modify them to make them 'better' - or simply to make them work for them.

Would love to see what you come up with!

There are a couple of new games with sign-ups going. One is a 'mentor captain' came. Might be a good chance to get some of the tools that the experienced players have an modify them to your own use.

I'm available at kdusi13@gmail.com should you have any questions or want a copy of anything I have.

[bananas]

Just posted the tool in the Alamaze Rules and Resources forum.