How do you play the game

[NCommander]

^- that was basically what I was going to do. My desktop has 32 GiB of RAM, and can easily leave a VM running 24/7. Set the game to Hotseat mode, and then just have people switch in and off and connect when need be. Perhaps some house rules on handing intercepts and such to keep the game flowing nicely.

[76mm]

Interesting discussion. A couple questions about VMs:
1) I guess you need a separate Windows license for each VM on your machine (that uses Windows)?

2) Do the VMs impose much of a hit on computer performance, in terms of RAM or processor? Does the performance hit affect the computer or the VM itself?

[NCommander]

1. Depends on the version of Windows, the professional ones generally allow you to virtualize freely.

2. Depends how beefy the VM is setup to be. If you're just doing MWiF on a moderately powerful machine, shouldn't be an issue. You could also use Amazon EC2 or something similiar.

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: NCommander

^- that was basically what I was going to do. My desktop has 32 GiB of RAM, and can easily leave a VM running 24/7. Set the game to Hotseat mode, and then just have people switch in and off and connect when need be. Perhaps some house rules on handing intercepts and such to keep the game flowing nicely.

Even better is the cloud based idea. No need to worry about the host ISP connection going down or having a local power failure. (Of course whoever this happened to would have to wait to join in again.) No need to worry about performance or memory issues.

And I really like the HotSeat - do your thing when it's time to do it idea - because both NetPlay and normal HotSeat require the non-active players to sit and watch and wait. With a cloud based host you could watch or wait for an email or IM or text saying it's your turn to do something. Very nice idea for players that need to take their time to move the entire Eastern Front in mid-'43.

Edit: Plus there'd be no license issue.

[NCommander]

If there is interest, I will set this up sometime today or tomorrow. Maybe do a trial run of Barbarrosa to make sure theres no unexpected hiccups, and then see how many people we can get for a real MP WiF; I've been told the best is 5.

[brian brian]

Wargames are going to have to move away from the player of the game owning a copy of the game, I think.

[Numdydar]

Elite Dangerous which just came out has this model. While not a war game, it is a persistent online game that you can play alone or in a public setting. In a public setting you will have all other online public players 'live' in the universe at the same time as you are.

Not sure how that model would work for a war game. What might work is a bunch of server 'instances' of WiF where people could join a game. But instead of everyone online at the same time, when someone needs to make a decision, they get a test message/email/etc. and then can reply to the text to let the engine know what they wanted to do. Like intercept a bombing mission and with what planes.

But this is way beyond the capacities, and the budget, for WiF, but 5-10 years from now I could easily see a model like this being used. Not sure if I personally would like it, but I know others would [:)]

[paulderynck]

Does Teamviewer or other screen sharing software have the option to only grant certain members of the audience the ability to point and click as opposed to just view?

...we could have a grognard tournament with the rest of the WiF-world invited to observe the game - kind of a real-time AAR.

[NCommander]

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

Does Teamviewer or other screen sharing software have the option to only grant certain members of the audience the ability to point and click as opposed to just view?

...we could have a grognard tournament with the rest of the WiF-world invited to observe the game - kind of a real-time AAR.

Not sure on team viewer itself does, but you could always install UltraVNC in addition to Team viewer and set it to Read-Only. Biggest issue is USE would be visible to all unless Shannon changes the way it works so it can be hidden better ...

[AlbertN]

I think to sit and watch it's pretty much a must given most oft the interaction is required (abort from a fight? Intercept? Choosing which combat table? Etc.).
In long sessions where one can bugger off from the pc (Other side moving, for example), one can simply go do things!

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: NCommander

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

Does Teamviewer or other screen sharing software have the option to only grant certain members of the audience the ability to point and click as opposed to just view?

...we could have a grognard tournament with the rest of the WiF-world invited to observe the game - kind of a real-time AAR.

Not sure on team viewer itself does, but you could always install UltraVNC in addition to Team viewer and set it to Read-Only. Biggest issue is USE would be visible to all unless Shannon changes the way it works so it can be hidden better ...

I researched Teamviewer and it looks like the way you could set it up would be as though it's a presentation with different "presenters" being given control of the mouse. Once one person has done his thing, he passes control to the next "presenter". So it looks very do-able for those who are playing to pass sole control back and forth and there also to be an "audience", members of which would never be given control.

However, you might need the commercial version of Teamviewer to do this. I'm not sure how many participants (either active or passive) are allowed with the free version.

[NCommander]

If we're using EC2 or something similiar, then set WiF using WIndows RDP (which has the advantage that players don't need to install anything, Remote Desktop is preinstalled since XP and later), and then install UltraVNC in real only. I'm currently playing through a soltiare Barb, but I'm honestly looking for players for a 4-5 match.

[Zorachus99]

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

ORIGINAL: NCommander

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

Does Teamviewer or other screen sharing software have the option to only grant certain members of the audience the ability to point and click as opposed to just view?

...we could have a grognard tournament with the rest of the WiF-world invited to observe the game - kind of a real-time AAR.

Not sure on team viewer itself does, but you could always install UltraVNC in addition to Team viewer and set it to Read-Only. Biggest issue is USE would be visible to all unless Shannon changes the way it works so it can be hidden better ...

I researched Teamviewer and it looks like the way you could set it up would be as though it's a presentation with different "presenters" being given control of the mouse. Once one person has done his thing, he passes control to the next "presenter". So it looks very do-able for those who are playing to pass sole control back and forth and there also to be an "audience", members of which would never be given control.

However, you might need the commercial version of Teamviewer to do this. I'm not sure how many participants (either active or passive) are allowed with the free version.

Following an idea on another thread, I created a 40GB Win7 VmWare machine just for MWIF and teamviwer. Keeps my system safe, so I can walk away, or browse the web while the the other player is doing something tedious.

VMWare is much faster than Windows XP mode, or Microsoft Virtual Machine. VMware player is a bit easier and is free, but the license key for the OS is not. Theoretically you can play with Windows XP, but XP is not supported any longer.

Anyway, teamviewer is working for me. Currently the only way you can play with more than two players is with Teamviewer or programs similar to it. It would be nice to start a 4 to 6 player game.