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Text File | 1996-12-30 | 12.8 KB | 313 lines

GLOBAL WAR INTERBBS DOCUMENTATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (c) 1997 Joel Bergen ProVision BBS (206) 353-6966 & (206) 353-2494 5228 89th Pl SW, Mukilteo WA 98275 FidoNet 1:343/65 Internet home page: http://home1.gte.net/jbergen/index.htm Internet E-Mail: jbergen@gte.net What is Global War InterBBS? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Global War InterBBS (GWIBBS) allows you to share games, scores, and hall of fame files with other BBSes. GWIBBS is a great way to get more players involved in your games and allows players on one BBS to compete against players on other BBSes. What is required to run Global War InterBBS? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. A registered copy of Global War 3.0. 2. A copy of PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP.EXE located in your path. 3. The ability to move a file from your BBS to another BBS and vice versa. A FidoNet style front end mailer (Binkley, Frontdoor, InterMail, etc) will do the trick, but isn't required. Any way that you can come up with to send and receive a ZIP file from one BBS to another will do. If you do use a Fidonet style front end mailer, you will need a program to cause your front end mailer move a ZIP file from your BBS to another BBS. Here are some examples of programs known to work. PROGRAM FRONT-END MAILER FILENAME ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Fmove Any *.msg FMOVE.ZIP (included with Global War) Xrobot Front Door XR301DOS.ARJ Squish Binkley/Squish SQSH_111.LZH Please Binkley PLZ22.ZIP Imsend InterMail Included with InterMail. PXsend Platinum Xpress Included with Platinum Xpress for WC! 5. These programs are widely available, but if you can't find them locally they are available on my BBS or internet home page. How does Global War InterBBS work? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GWIBBS networks consist of any number of BBSes (referred to here as Nodes) arranged around one central BBS (referred to as the Hub). Node Node \ / Node - Hub - Node / \ Node Node A Global War InterBBS Network. All games must be Fixed Turn Order games. This is a new type of game in Global War 3.0 where players take their turns in sequence ( for example: first player 1 plays, then player 2, then player 3, etc). New games created on a Node are moved to the Hub, where they are assigned a game number, added to the Hub's game area, and copies of the game are sent to all Nodes. New games created on the Hub are sent to all Nodes. When any change in a game occurs (turn taken, player joins, etc) on a Node, the Node sends a copy of the game to the Hub and the Hub sends copies of the game to all Nodes. When changes to a game occur on the Hub, copies of the game are sent to all Nodes. Score file updates on Nodes are sent to the Hub, combined with the master score file, and copies of the master score file are sent to all nodes. When a player wins the Hall of Fame, his/her name is added to the Hall of Fame and a Hall of Fame ANSI bulletin (bulletin.ans) is sent to all nodes. How to set up Global War InterBBS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE: GWIBBS games are NOT compatible with Non-InterBBS games. If you are currently running Global War with a set of local non-interbbs games, you must delete them or set up a second copy of Global War InterBBS in a different subdirectory. Do not attempt to use any existing games as interbbs games or mix interbbs games with non-interbbs games. 1. Install Global War on your BBS. Refer to the file SYSOP.TXT for directions. Once you have Global War up and running, perform the following steps to enable the InterBBS feature of Global War. 2. Determine if you are going to be a Hub or a Node. If there is already a Hub in your area then the choice is easy - you'll be a Node. If you're setting up a brand new GWIBBS network, one BBS will have to be the Hub and all the rest will be Nodes. There can only be one Hub, but there can be any number of Nodes. Who should be the Hub? The Hub will be making a lot of phone calls - many more than any of the Nodes will. Select a BBS that is reliable and not too busy and designate it as the Hub. 3. Edit your WAR.CFG file. Set line 3 to 255 to make sure you can see all games. Lines 17-29 have to do with scoring. I recommend that you leave lines 17-29 set to their defaults, which are 3,3,3,3,2,1,2,2,2,1,1,2,4 respectively. These have to be set the same for every BBS in the network for consistent scoring. Lines 30 and 35 are the lower and upper limits for the rankings. I recommend leaving then at 0 and 80 respectively. They should be set the same on every BBS in the net. Lines 53-58 are the bonus armies for holding a continent. They must be set the same for every BBS in the net. I recommend leaving them set to the defaults which are 3,7,2,5,5,2 respectively. Set line 60 to A. Set line 61 to 3. Every BBS should use the same value here too. Enter your BBS name on line 62. 17 characters max. Once you enter it, don't change it. Your BBS name will be linked to the player's names. Players who begin or join games on your BBS cannot take their turn on any other BBS where the BBS name is different. 4. Unzip GWIBBS30.ZIP and copy all of the files in it to your Global War directory. 5. Edit IBBS.CFG. It looks like this: 1:343/65 TOHUB D:\INBOUND\ PASSWORD Line 1: Enter the node address of the Hub of the GWIBBS network. If you are the Hub, enter your own address here. This address is passed to IBBSMOVE.BAT when sending files to the Hub system. See IBBSMOVE.BAT for more info. Line 2: This is the name of the .ZIP file that you will send to the Hub. Just enter the name (1-8 characters) not the drive, path, or extension. You will need to inform the Sysop of the Hub node of what name you put here. On the Hub system, this is not used (the file names are specified in ROUTE.CFG instead). I strongly suggest that you make life easy on the Sysop of the Hub and just leave this set to TOHUB. If the Sysop knows he will be receiving TOHUB.ZIP from every node, it will be much easier to configure the Hub system. Line 3: Enter the path to your "inbound" directory. This is the directory where files coming into your BBS can be found. Line 4: Enter a password for use when creating ZIP files. ZIP files will be encrypted using this password for security reasons. All Nodes and the Hub must use the same password. If you are joining a GWIBBS network, ask the Sysop of the Hub for the password and enter it here. If you are the Hub, make sure all Nodes know the password and have it entered correctly here. If the passwords are different, you won't be able to unzip game packets. GWIBBS will create 4 subdirectories below your Global War directory. They are INFILES\ OUTFILES\ INZIP\ and OUTZIP\. These are used when processing inbound and outbound IBBS games. Don't mess with these subdirectories. GWIBBS will manage them. 6. IF YOU ARE A HUB edit ROUTE.CFG. If you're a Node you can delete ROUTE.CFG because you won't need it. ROUTE.CFG looks like this: 1:398/2;ARTI 1:105/278;WCS 1:137/201;WOODLAND 1:115/258;STATION1 1:246/93;FIREHSE This is simply a list of all Nodes in your GWIBBS network. Each line consists of the Node's address and a filename seperated by a semicolon. The filenames can be anything (1-8 characters). Just make sure they're all different. Be sure and inform each of the nodes what filename you will be sending them, so that they can configure their end. In the above example, the file sent to 1:398/2 will be named ARTI.ZIP. WCS.ZIP will be sent to 1:105/278, and so on. The Sysop of 1:398/2 needs to know that he will be receiving ARTI.ZIP files from you, so make sure you tell him/her. See step 8. 7. Locate the batch file that your BBS uses to run Global War and edit it. Your batch file should look something like this: cd \doors\gwar war /d c:\bbs\door.sys cd \bbs You will need to add a line right after Global War. If you are a Node, the line will read GWIBBS OUT. If you are a Hub, it will read GWIBBS OUTHUB. Here is an example: For a Node: ~~~~~~~~~~~ cd \doors\gwar war /d c:\bbs\door.sys GWIBBS OUT cd \bbs For the Hub: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ cd \doors\gwar war /d c:\bbs\door.sys GWIBBS OUTHUB cd \bbs Additional Notes: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nodes: Make sure that HOF.EXE, the Hall of Fame utility, is NOT in ~~~~~~ your batch file. You can delete HOF.EXE, HOF.DOC, and HOF.ANS. The Hall of Fame utility is used only on the Hub. Hubs: Make sure that HOF.EXE, the Hall of Fame utility, is NOT in ~~~~~ your batch file. Make sure that HOF.EXE and HOF.ANS exist in your Global War directory. HOF is executed automatically from GWIBBS.EXE. 8. Next, you need to add two steps to be able to process GWIBBS files that are sent to your system. Most BBSes run a batch file when they receive mail and/or files from another BBS. This is by far the best place to add this. Locate the batch file and edit it. You will need to add two lines to it. The first line must change directories to your Global War directory (the directory where WAR.EXE is). The next line executes GWIBBS and tells it to process the incoming GWIBBS file. The name of this file is determined by the system who sends it to you, so you will have to contact the Sysop and decide on what file name to use. See steps 5 and 6. Here are some examples. For a Node: ~~~~~~~~~~~ cd \doors\gwar GWIBBS IN C:\INBOUND\ARTI.ZIP For a Hub: ~~~~~~~~~~ cd \doors\gwar GWIBBS INHUB C:\INBOUND\TOHUB.ZIP Note: Wildcards can be used if desired, as in GWIBBS INHUB C:\INBOUND\TOHUB.* 9. Last step! In your Global War subdirectory you will find a file called IBBSMOVE.BAT. Edit it. GWIBBS.EXE uses this batch file to issue the command to send a file to another node. You will need to add a program to this batch file that will handle sending the file. I have already included several sample programs for InterMail, Front Door, and BinkleyTerm. If none of these work for you, then you will need to come up with one on your own. The requirements are that the program be able to MOVE a file from your BBS to the other BBS. The file to move is passed to the batch file as %1. The address of the node to move it to is passed to the batch file as %2. See the remarks in IBBSMOVE.BAT for more details. 10 Enjoy! Hub Maintenance ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the procedure for Sysops of Hubs on how to add a new Node to the net. 1. The Node should set up his end per these docs. Tell the Sysop of the Node what file names to send you and what file name you will send him. 2. Add the new node's address and file name to ROUTE.CFG. 3. Inform the new Node of the Net password and make sure the Node adds this password to his IBBS.CFG file. 4. When the new Node is ready to receive and send files, change to your Global War subdirectory and type: GWibbs HubInit [NodeAddress] This will initialize the new node. NodeAddress is the address of the new node, which must match exactly with what you entered in your ROUTE.CFG file. (Example: GWIBBS HUBINIT 1:343/65). If you do not specify a NodeAddress, all Nodes in ROUTE.CFG will be initialized (see below). GWIBBS HUBINIT will do the following things: - Sends current copies of all games (WAR*.DAT, WAR*.LOG, WAR*.MSG). - Sends copy of the current score file (WINNERS.WAR). - Sends copy of the current Hall of Fame (BULLETIN.ANS). - Updates settings in the Node's WAR.CFG and IBBS.CFG to match the Hub's. - Updates the Node's WAR.EXE and GWIBBS.EXE to match yours to ensure that all systems in the net are running the same version. All Nodes should be reinitialized whenever there is a change to WAR.CFG on the Hub, or an update to WAR.EXE or GWIBBS.EXE. No harm is done even if HUBINIT is used unnecessarily.