Getting Connected - fsxNet Galactic Dynasty

=============================================================================

Galactic Dynasty is an Inter-BBS game coded by the world famous Apam :)
There are a number of BBS connected to fsxNet and involved in the Zone 21 Inter-BBS league. If you would like to join here's what you need to do.

1)

Download the latest version of the game from a fsxNet BBS that carries the FSX_DOOR file base echo.

The file you want to grab is either GDYNWIN.ZIP (Windows 32 bit version) or GDYNSRC.ZIP (Source) if you want to compile it for your Linux system

2)

Contact Paul aka Avon at either avon@bbs.nz or 21:1/101 and ask for your
fsxNet node number to be set up at the fsxNet Games + Usenet Gateway (21:1/10)

3)


Create a new echonode entry in your BBS config for 21:1/10@fsxnet

Use the settings below BUT - change ensure your 'Session Options'
are as follows: agency.bbs.nz:24557

This address and port number may differ from the usual address and/or port
you connect to for your fsxNet HUB. However the Gateway runs on a different BinkP server to feed your BBS Games + Usenet News compared to your usual
fsxNet echomail / netmail traffic fed from a fsxNet HUB (21:1/100, 2/100
3/100 or 4/100)

It's important to enable Filebox and to set the path to a directory you
will be using to send your game packets to the 21:1/10 HUB with.


Description │ fsxNet Games + Usenet Zone │ 21
Active │ Yes Net │ 1
Archive Type │ ZIP Node │ 10
Export Type │ Crash Point │ 0
AllFix PW │ Domain │ fsxnet
PKT Password │
Session Type │ BinkP
Route Info │
Max PKT Size │ 512
Max ARC Size │ 2048
Use FileBox │ Yes
FileBox │ c:\mystic\filebox\fsxnet\
TIC Password │ Session Options

4)

Unzip and install the Galactic Dynasty files in to a directory you plan
to run the game from. Compile the Linux version as per the instructions contained in the .ZIP

** This walkthough assumes a Windows install but you can modify paths etc.
as required **

5)

Edit the galactic.ini file to add the specific details about your BBS, node number, etc. to it. This is the example from Agency BBS with comments.

[Main]
Turns Per Day = 20 <--- Set this to 20
Turns In Protection = 60 <--- Set this to 60
Log Path = c:\doors\galactic\logs <--- Set path for log files
Bad Path = c:\doors\galactic\bad <--- Set path for bad packets received Delete Bad = False <--- Set 'False' to move bad packets to
Bad Path or set 'True' to delete
bad packets received at your BBS

[Interbbs]
Enabled = true <--- Set to True or no Inter-BBS 4 u! System Name = Agency BBS <--- Your BBS name
League Number = 21 <--- Set this to 21
Node Number = 2 <--- Refer to GAL-IBBS.CFG for your node# File Inbox = c:\mystic\echomail\in <--- Points to your BBS inbound dir Default Outbox = c:\mystic\filebox\fsxnet <-- Outbound Filebox defined earlier

Note: The node number (4th line in Interbbs settings) is not your regular fsxNet node number. It's the number assigned to you by the League Coordinator and can be found in the GAL-IBBS.CFG file that will be sent to you by the Coordinator once your node is set up at 21:1/10

6)

Obtain an updated GAL-IBBS.CFG file from the League Coordinator and place
this file in your Galactic Dynasty working directory.

7)

Set up a menu option to run your game. Here's the example from Agency BBS

Display Text │ 1 - Galactic Dynasty (fsxNet)
LightBar Low │ 1
LightBar High │ 1
Hot Key │ 1
Access │ s20 Up │ 0 Escape │ 0 Display Type │ Access Down │ 0 Tab │ 0 X Y │ 0 0 Left │ 0 PageUp │ 0 Timer │ 0 Right │ 0 PageDn │ 0 Timer Type │ Interval Redraw │ Yes Home │ 0 End │ Command ────────────────── Access ─── (D3) Exec DOOR32 program c:\doors\galatic\start.bat %P\door32.sys %3 %0

The contents of start.bat looks like this

c:
cd\doors\galatic
GalacticDynasty.exe -D %1 -N %2 -SOCKET %3
GalacticDynasty.exe maintenance
cd\mystic
fidopoll 21:1/10
goto done

:done

8)

Set up regular event to process incoming game packets from the 21:1/10
You may want to have a timed event to run this processing a few times
a day. Or you might like to have a batch file that runs each time
any packets etc. arrive in your inbound directory.

e.g. galmaint.bat

c:
cd\doors\galatic
GalacticDynasty.exe maintenance
goto done

:done


9)

Review the Galactic Dynasty Readme file that ships with the game
files. It contains a good overview of the setup of the game and also
details of how to customise your score files if displaying them on
your BBS.

10)

Got further questions? Be sure to post them in fsxNet and someone
who is already running this game will be able to help you :)

=============================================================================

APPENDIX 1

Below is a script supplied by
Va7aqd at VA7AQD's Tavern in Kamloops, BC! - bbs.isurf.ca (21:4/150)

This is helpful if you are running BinkIT as your mailer with
a Synchronet BBS. The file is saved as gd-maintenance.sh

[snip]

#!/bin/bash

# Galactic Dynasty helper script for Synchronet Sysops
# Version 0.1

# This script helps prepare the mailer when GD needs to send it's InterBBS file # and updates the game when it has received appropriate files.
# Specifically, it will:
# - Replace GD's GAL-IBBS.CFG if a new one has arrived.
# - Check if we've got outbound GAL files - if so, check on or generate the
# FLO and poll the games HUB. Quit at this point if this was true.
# - Run GD maintenance to pull inbound GAL files, and possibly generate outboun # - Checks /sbbs/fido/outbound/fsxgames for *.GAL files. If it
# finds files there, it creates a .FLO file in /sbbs/fido/outbound
# for BinkIT to use, and then asks BinkIT to poll the hub.

# This script should be very easy to replace the variables or "hard"-coded
# paths to fit your own system to get similar results.

# Old ideas:
# - Checks /sbbs/fido/inbound for *.GAL files. If so, it runs
# Galactic Empire's maintenance. This section is all commented out
# at the bottom of this file.

# Replace HUB, the 1 in NET and the 10 in NODE if applicable:
HUB="21:1/10"
NET=`printf "%04x\n" 1`
NODE=`printf "%04x\n" 10`
FILENAME="$NET$NODE.FLO"

# Adjust the paths as necessary for your BBS:
FLO=/sbbs/fido/outbound/$FILENAME
BBSCFG=/sbbs/fido/inbound/GAL-IBBS.CFG
GDPATH=/sbbs/xtrn/galactic-dynasty

# First order of business - if a new GAL-IBBS.CFG file has arrived,
# replace the current one with it.

if [ -f $BBSCFG ]; then
cp "$GDPATH"/GAL-IBBS.CFG "$GDPATH"/GAL-IBBS.CFG.BAK
mv "$BBSCFG" "$GDPATH"/
fi

# Check if there's .GAL files already. If so, try and push them to the HUB and # the script, just in case there's a problem delivering we don't want to contin # to be on the safe side.

# Adjust these paths as necessary for your BBS:
set -- /sbbs/fido/outbound/fsxgames/*.GAL
case $1 in
('/sbbs/fido/outbound/fsxgames/*.GAL') ;;
(*)
if [ ! -f $FLO ]; then
# I have GD putting the files in to this path below,
# it's "Default Outbox setting".
for i in /sbbs/fido/outbound/fsxgames/* ; do
echo "^$i" >>$FLO
done
fi
# FLO file should exist here one way or the other, so poll.
/sbbs/exec/jsexec -c /sbbs/ctrl binkit -l $HUB
# This shouldn't really be the normal case, so exit with error code
exit 1
;;
esac

# This will pull in all the fido/inbound *.GAL files and generate
# the outbound *.GAL files as necessary. If it generates any, build
# the .FLO file and push to the hub.

cd "$GDPATH"
./GalacticDynasty maintenance

set -- /sbbs/fido/outbound/fsxgames/*.GAL
case $1 in
('/sbbs/fido/outbound/fsxgames/*.GAL') ;;
(*)
if [ ! -f $FLO ]; then
for i in /sbbs/fido/outbound/fsxgames/* ; do
echo "^$i" >>$FLO
done
fi
# FLO file should exist here one way or the other, so poll.
/sbbs/exec/jsexec -c /sbbs/ctrl binkit -l $HUB
;;
esac

# Inbound check stuff - disabled.
#set -- /sbbs/fido/inbound/*.GAL

#case $1 in
# ('/sbbs/fido/inbound/*.GAL') break;;
# (*)
# cd "$GDPATH"
# ./GalacticDynasty maintenance
# ;;
#esac

[snip]



--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 (Windows/32)
* Origin: (21:1/100)