Major Additions - The Gameroom - Multiplayer gaming (follow up to Casino)

For vb 4.x: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=239817

This is a late-Beta, it has been tested fairly extensively and all the big kinks should be worked out. That said, once this hits more sites a couple other bugs are bound to work themself out. It works going back at least as far as the 3.6 branch of vBulletin, not sure about 3.5.

This is the free version of The Gameroom by http://vbgaming.org, the follow up / expansion of the Casino plugin for vBulletin. It improves the multiplayer gaming aspects by bringing in more games, and allowing users more options when starting and joining games. Included is a upgrade script for transfering your stats from the Casino to the Gameroom.

Multiplayer games are played live, with embedded chatrooms

Features include:

- Lobby
--- Chatroom for arranging games

- Solo Games
--- Blackjack
--- Let it Ride
--- Roulette
--- Video Poker
--- 3 different slot machines

- Texas Hold'em
--- Multiple tables
--- Customize blinds and rules when creating a game
--- Passwords for private games
--- vBulletin avatars in game
--- Alert sounds to notify to alert you when it is your turn

- 7-Card Stud
--- Multiple tables
--- Set Ante
--- Passwords for private games
--- vBulletin avatars in game
--- Alert sounds to notify to alert you when it is your turn

- Chess
--- Standard chess rules, with legal moves enforced.
--- Alert on Check and Checkmate
--- Tracking of the 50-move rule and Threefold repetition rule
--- Passwords for private games

- Reversi (aka Othello)
--- Legal moves enforced.
--- Passwords for private games

- Statistics
--- Redesigned offering graphs and sortable datagrids

- Betting
--- Module can be turned off if not in use
--- pool bets, where the bets are added together and dived amongst the winners

- Optional status bar
--- Choice of flash or html bar
--- Placed in main template
--- Shows current gameroom status (open multiplayer games, messages can be sent from within, # of open bets in betting module)

- Cash Bonuses for actions that benefit your site
--- Posting
--- Starting threads
--- Referalls
--- Daily sign in
--- Giving rep
--- Recieving Rep
--- Voting
--- Rating threads


August 1st - 0.9.8
- Added Settings to admin section
- Reversi board colours can now be changed
- Reset stats option
- Delete event option (event must be closed & settled first)
- Reduced cpu load of chess and reversi
- Blackjack - Added Surrender option
- poker - players with no money cannot continue
* Update -> upload & overwrite, import product file


0.9.9

- Added volume control
- Added "/buzz" chatroom function
- Added alert to user entering room
- Added audio alert to 'check' in chess
- Fixed bug with getting list of games when certain tabs are dissabled
- Fixed get games timer not shutting off properly when switching tabs
- Fixed decimals in poker when using different cash type
- Fixed names with certain characters messing up stats
- Fixed bug that caused "start game" box to uncheck if you entered a message
- Adjust cash can use userid / usergroupid as well as name
- Not logged in screen in language (can be translated / edited)
- The user that imports the product file is made a admin & mod, rather then using "1" as a default
- cash type to 64-bit value in flash component (for those with really high values)
- Poker time out is set up. You have 60 seconds to act, then forced fold. Warning buzzer and countdown starts at 20 seconds remaining
* Update -> upload & overwrite, import product file


August 3rd (0.9.9RC)
- Update cash in solo games and betting on enter & transfer
- Change event listener on colour selectors in settings, makes it stick properly.
- Theme colour updates on the fly when changed, so you can see what things will look like as you adjust it.
- Fixed a glitch in the board games that would bring text into the game chatroom from the Lobby chat room.
- Fixed a bug relating to the board games when other sections had been turned off
- Added payout chart to game screen for Slots, Video Poker & Let it ride
- Border changes with theme color

1.0.0
- Fixed up some language things
- Added a plugin to cache the html banner templates

1.0.1
- Bug: checkmate on promotion
- Bug: poker all in led to dropping player early
- Bug: foreign language fixes
- Bug: Double posts in chatrooms
- Bug: Update betting cash on tab click
- Bug: Poker Blinds go into pot, even if player can't make them
- Status bar colour updates with Theme
- Possible outcomes in betting up from 8 to 18

Note: There is a 2mb upload limit, so the flash banner came out of the main .zip which finally pushed itself over 2mb.



1.1.1


1.1.1
- Bug: Double entries on betting resolved
- Bug: Fixed error when two players tie with full house
- Bug: Top Poker Players stats displays properly
- Bug: User name colours in lobby now 'stick'
- Edit language is now a tree view, default phrase displays properly
- in game & add game phrases for poker are now in language
- "Players" phrase in Flash Banner reacts to changes in language
- Default Cash is now editable
- Disabled Hooks on XML calls, may improve speed slightly, decrease chances of conflict
- Can override general usertype permissions for each group of games
kjack push when both player & dealer have a blackjack
- Chatroom 'flicker' on new message
- castle through check
- Add users in gameroom count to link
- Seperated framework, Flash caches this once, and only once. Resulting in a smaller file size everytime after the first. It is cached across sites as well, so there is a good chance most people already have it
- Roulette history was showing '37' when it landed on '0'
- Chess - Optional grid labels / moves in chat box

Updating:
1) Upload the framework files, they should go into the main forum folder with the .swf files folder. You will only need to do this once, which is why they are in a seperate file.
2) Upload the files in the main package, make sure everything overwrites old copies.


*********************************
** Common Problems **
*********************************

Non-english letters are not working properly

This is a problem with flash player and has been in there bug tracker for a long time. The workaround is to edit the "gameroom" template, remove the line that ways "wmode='transparent'", the downside it your popup menus will come up behind the flash box, rather then in front of it.

Images are working in IE, but not in Firefox

You likely have some form of image hot linking turned on, it is causing the requests for the images to be blocked.

Locked self out of admin panel

In the tools folder there is a file called 'makemeadmin.php', upload this and go to that page. It will make you admin, don't leave it on your server when you are done.

Updated and it is acting funny

Make sure all of your files are up to date. When you update ensure that all files are overwritten. Having mix matched files will cause funny behaviour. You may also have to clear your cache and reload the page after uploading a new gameroom.swf file.

*********************************
** Uninstall **
*********************************

If you want to uninstall the following procedure will get you through it without tossing any DB errors:

1) Dissable the product, this shuts down all the plugins. If the files are removed and plugins are still active you may see errors on your site.

2) Undo the template changes, changes where made to the navbar template and the postbit / postbit legacy template.

3) Delete all files. If the files are still present and you remove the database entries by uninstalling the product anyone that attempts to access one of them will cause a error. The Flash Banner could cause many as it could still be making calls after the template changes are undone.

gameroom.php
gameroom.swf
gameroomBanner.swf
gameroom/*
includes/cron/gameroom_nightly.php


4) Uninstall the product file, which removes all database entries, that means the following are removed:

tables with 'gameroom_' as a prefix
gameroom_cash field within the user table

[leeman]

A little request in roulette...

A "Repeat bet" button .....

Since many play same numbers over and over again ...

[Andrew Green]

Originally Posted by cad2go

We all left because the deal button disappeared. There were 5 at the table when it happened. It only reappeared when 4 of us left.

Anyway I'll do the bug reports over at vbgaming in future. Have you ever tried a 6+ player game of poker there btw? why not arrange one sometime for proper testing if you don't believe my bug reports.

I believe your report, but I've not been able to reproduce the problem so I am looking for clues as too what happened in your game that hasn't happened in any of mine

[imported_silkroad]

Andrew!

Why can't other users observe a Chess game between two players??

We have a Chess game on our site between two other players, but no one else can observe!!!!

(this is getting annoying!!)

[cad2go]

Originally Posted by Andrew Green

I believe your report, but I've not been able to reproduce the problem so I am looking for clues as too what happened in your game that hasn't happened in any of mine

Next big game we have I'm going to take screenshots every 30 secs or so or maybe make a movie.

I'll report over on vbgaming:up:

[cad2go]

Originally Posted by imported_silkroad

Andrew!

Why can't other users observe a Chess game between two players??

We have a Chess game on our site between two other players, but no one else can observe!!!!

(this is getting annoying!!)

screenshots please

[imported_silkroad]

Originally Posted by cad2go

screenshots please

This is a basic feature. You don't need a screen shot to answer this question.

Get a life, cad2go !

[cad2go]

Originally Posted by imported_silkroad

This is a basic feature. You don't need a screen shot to answer this question.

Get a life, cad2go !

Should be a paid feature imo. Oh and screenshots of the life you'd like me to get please!

[imported_silkroad]

Reserved for more user comments from our installation test and eval ....

[imported_silkroad]

Hey Andrew,

Here is some feedback from our users of the Chess game (the only part we use at our forums):

There doesn't seem to be an efficient way to know if it is your move. You have to go all the way and load the game in order to find out. if you could shortcut the game or even the game list it would help, but it seems to be one big php/flash program with no way to link to a separate game.

Something is broken because we cannot see other games. Maybe the "paid version" is better?

It seems we should not move forward this chess program because there seems no way to watch others play or even look at their end position. Lame.

Andrew, are these issues fixed in the paid version?

[imported_silkroad]

Based on the test results and comments on the the Chess feature of The Gameroom, we plan to uninstall this add-on feature next weekend.

We will keep an eye out for the next releases of Chess add-ons for vBulletin and hopefully, a future release will be more playable for our users. We don't mind to pay for an enjoyable, really playable add-on, but even the paid version is not "enjoyable and playable" because it simply does not have the basic features required for forum users who are professionals and also want to play Chess with other forum members when time permits.

I worked extensively with this add-on, going thru just about every line of the PHP code for the game board and chess games (we are not interested in the other games). Even after fixing so many broken features, our users commented:

(1) The flash interface for Chess was "clunky" and did not let them return directly to a game in progress. It took far too long to re-enter a game (I changed the code so this was possible because without hacking the code, it was not even possible to return to a game!!)

(2) The game is not fun or interesting because others, not even admins, can observe anothers game. Not even Admins!

(3) We had to hack the Chess board mod extensively just so users could actually leave the gameroom and do something else without the computer deleting the game!

(4) The PHP code base is an absolute mess. There are database fields and PHP var conflicts that are very hard to debug. I don't think I have ever seen such disorganized and unstructured PHP code on any vB mod.

As mentioned, we look forward to a future release that is more playable. The developer's comments back to me and our users to is basically to (1) discount the opinions of our users and (2) make an excuse that the Chess program is only one of many programs. (I am not sure how that is relevant to anything, because none of the programs are very good either, and our users are professionals and are only interested in Chess, not low resolution gambling, slots, poker, etc - plus we honor all Terms of Service (TOS) and gambling sites of any form violate Google's TOS).

In closing, it is sad that there is still no decent "really enjoyable" (playable) Chess add-on for vBulletin. We hope a future release is "playable" by professionals, not merely a type of toy that is more of a novelty (direct user comments), than a useful add-on to a forum.