multiplayer games - practical?

[Bella Hella]

i'm not sure if i should be directing this particular dumb question here or to the multiplayer board, but i'll try here.

how practical is it to get involved in a play-by-email game? i have a very busy and varied schedule and really wouldn't be able to do a real-time game on a regular basis. at the same time, i think i'd really enjoy and be able to learn from a multi-player game. so....

what are the mechanics involved in starting a game by e-mail?
what do i gotta do, and how does it work?
how often do you take a turn?
is it literally by e-mail, as in you get an e-mail when it's your turn?
would it even make any sense to turn on the computer, check my e-mail, start up the game, load it up, etc. just to take one turn?
since i'm not the greatest player, would i just have to kind of play a couple turns before getting crushed by some expert player, and that would be the whole game (gee, fun)? or could i find others more on my level to play against (actually WOULD be fun)?

my schedule is work & after work stuff, usually turn on the computer and play for a couple hours before bed (around midnight, sometimes later if i'm really into a game). usually no time on the weekends. oh, and i have alien crossfire.

can anybody help with these questions? i'm pretty sure i'm overlooking other stuff since i've never played a MP game before, so any other comments or help would be great! thank you!

p.s. i'm not apologizing for being a newbie!

[WhiteElephants]

I think most folks expect to see a turn at least every other day, I'm of the ilk how lean toward having a new turn every 24 hours, high hopes? Maybe.

The turns come to you usually as a zipped attachment to an email. You unzip, take your turn, zip it, and email it to the next player.

As far as what level you want to play that can be worked out with whoever signs up to play with you. There is an unformal tournament being played as we speak. Look for the sign up thread in the multiplayer section for more info.

Be forewarned that a single game can take several months to finish. If you don't have that kind of fortitude and patience I wouldn't sign up.

Good luck, maybe we'll bump into each other on Planet one of these days.

[mark13]

Yeah - a turn a day is desirable, a turn every other day is just about manageable. However, I can strongly recommend the tournament in the MP forum - there's no knockout basis, it's very informal, and also very flexible. I'm sure if you advertise for a newbie game, or respond to one of the many advertisements around the place, you'll be in a game in no time.

However, it does have to be said that whilst most games are quick in turning, some will grind to a halt after a while, with a player retiring/disappearig etc. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you get a CMN for your game. The CMN would hold the passwords, and adjudicate on any contentious points within the game. However, the games that do turn on a regular basis are a huge amount of fun to play.

As to the practicalities of it - you simply receive your mail, unzip the turn, load it up, play it, zip it back up and send it along. Doesn't take more than a few minutes to play a turn in the early stages (though later on, it might take a bit longer depending on how meticulous you are (*cough* Misotu *cough* ))

All said, the PBEM tournament in the MP forum is well worth a look. DirectPlay with SMAC is *extremely* unreliable, which is why many players prefer PBEM.

[Darius]

I love playing by email. I'm in ten games right now. In some of them with only myself and one other player we can get through several turns a day. Others, with 4 or 5 players, can take a few days between turns. It's ideal for fitting into your schedule, since you can take a few minutes to play a turn at any time of day without coordinating with the other players. It's also good for playing with people in other time zones, for the same reason. (I am currently in or have recently been in games with people from 9 countries.)

You can answer one of the frequent posts for Newbie games in the Multiplayer forum, or post your own. You won't get blown away that way, and can gain some experience. Later on, you can join the tournament if you wish.

[Jeem]

I've also been considering this Hella and was thinking in much the same way. I'm particularly concerned with the early turns where moving a scout and sending in my 'results' would seem a bit mental. I think the best way to do it would be to enter several games (7 is a good number because that way you can play all the factions) and do a turn of each every night. That way you will get vastly different games and it won't seem quite so silly booting the game up just to do a single turn. The problem is you might eventually find yourself spending ages on it when the games get into the latter stages, so if you don't think you can handle that sort of time {wasting} then I'd avoid this method.

I personally am on the web most nights, and have time to burn! I'm not sure what mark13 meant by direct play being unreliable because I've never tried it over the web (LAN is good though). Is it the system or the players you mean Mark?

[Flubber]

7 games is easy in the early days when the zip and send and game boot--up take longer than the turn. But if you started that many at the same time you would be likely to have at least 5 or more getting to that intense stage where turns take an hour each -- at around the same time that one of the human players gets eliminated and the turns start returning within hours of sending them out.

If you can survive the boredom of the first 10-15 turns where the turns are important but routine and SHORT, you can get into the diplomacy and play that makes MP worthwhile and fun. Many players step in as replacement players in games to avoid those first turns. You might end up with a bad starting position but there should be some stuff to do.

I am planning to stagger the starts of my games from now on. Five or 6 games is not too bad for about the first 40-50 turns but if you end up playing them into the 2170s and 80s around the same time, you could be looking at a major time committment each day.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Jeem
Is it the system or the players you mean Mark?

As one who has played in maybe ten web IP games, I can vouch for mark13's comments. The system is unreliable - will frequently boot you out (or lose a player, then it's restart from the last saved turn, everyone dial back in, etc)

When it works, it's great - you'll get 50 turns in the first hour, 25 in the second, then it drags to around a turn every five minutes or so (longer with micromanagers). I have been in one memorable all-nighter (PST time) with players in the USA, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Australia. We never did finish the game, though - logistics just too onerous.

G.

[Flubber]

Direct connection games do have benefits.

In axt 042 we switched from PBEM to direct connect and after about 20 minutes of set-up and connection issues, we got rolling. We whipped through something like 20 turns in just over an hour and then went back to PBEM. WE tried it again a couple of weeks later but one of the players kept getting disconnected so we aborted after about 40 minutes of futile attempts. So my experience with real-time SMAX is mixed. When it worked it was great and probably cut weeks off our game-- but it can't be counted on to work all the time.

[mark13]

Agreed - if you can get direct connection games to work, they're fantastic for the early turns of a PBEM. The unreliability of these games is notorious, of course. The fact that I haven't managed to get any sort of direct game to work at all the last six months doesn't help, though