TOS Tournament Server (idea)

[Fornax]

I have an idea for a piece of software called the "TOS Tournament Server" (aka TOSTS).

TOSTS is a console program that would run on a Tournament Host Computer. The role of the TOSTS is to provide each tournament player with their own separate squad and titan design files and to keep them secure on the Tournament Host Computer so as not to be hacked by any of the participants.

All tournament players would need to install a "Tournament Pack" patch that would allow their copies of TOS to communicate with the TOSTS. The patched game would observe the following fields in tcc.cfg:

tournament_mode = 1
tournament_host = a.b.c.d
tournament_team = Club Mech
tournament_password = password

When the CC starts up it looks for these fields and if tournament_mode is enabled it goes into Tournament Mode (TM). Otherwise it runs normally with no changes.

Tournament Mode:

CC attempts to contact the TOSTS at IP a.b.c.d. If no contact is made then a message "Unabled to connect to Tournament Host" is displayed and CC exits.

Once the contact is made CC passes tournament_team and tournament_password to TOSTS. TOSTS looks to see if it has a folder corresponding to the tournament_team (in this case TOSTS\Club Mech\). If it doesn't exist then it is created and populated with template squad and titan design files, also password.txt is set to tournament_password. There's a separate folder for each tournament player. The contents of each player folder are as follows:

TOSTS\tournament_team\password.txt
TOSTS\tournament_team\squad.dat
TOSTS\tournament_team\1-5.tos

TOSTS now validates tournament_password with the contents of password.txt. If they don't match then "Invalid password" is displayed and CC exits.

At this point the player can click on HQ, Factory, or Battle.

HQ:

If TM is enabled then the game obtains squad data from the TOSTS and loads it. When the player logs out and chooses to update the remote databases the game sends the squad data back to TOSTS and TOSTS updates its squad.dat file.

Factory:

If TM is enabled then the game obtains titan design data (contents of 1-5.tos) from the TOSTS and loads it. When the player saves a design the game sends the updated titan design data back to TOSTS and TOSTS updates its 1-5.tos files.

Battle:

If TM is enabled then the game prompts the player for the team name of their opponent. The game waits until the opponent player reciprocates. The game obtains squad data from the TOSTS and loads it. Both players assign their titans and both must click Accept for the match to begin. When the match ends, the game sends the updated squad data for both teams back to TOSTS and TOSTS updates both squad.dat files on the Tournament Host Computer. All tournament matches would be played on a predetermined map spec (like Large Terran).

[Ghstbear]

Sounds nice - but who would make it materialize?