PBEM is at least in right?

[smellymummy]

right?

[Wexu]

Re: PBEM is at least in right?

Originally posted by smellymummy
PBEM is at least in right?

right?

You're joking?

Right?

[smellymummy]

should I be?

[drake]

Sorry but that is a funny f*ckin name......

As far as the answer...beats me!

[Provost Harrison]

Well I am sure that PBEM would not require the same fancy code that other multiplayer stuff does, it would be a matter of just saving it ready for the next person.

How hard can that be?

[smellymummy]

Not hard at all assuming both players know how to manage files and e-mails.

However, if the game code doesn't provide basic support for it we won't really be able to play by e-mail now will we? I'm hoping firaxis will include this MP feature at the very least; but like a lot of the stuff, looks like it remains unknown

[Wexu]

But, who on earth would play Civ as PBEM??! That would be kinda sloooooooooooow...

[drake]

Some people have this thing called "P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E" Wexu

[PN]

Firaxis wrote SMAC
SMAC has PBEM
Therefore Civ III has PBEM??

[Akron]

Originally posted by PN
Firaxis wrote SMAC
SMAC has PBEM
Therefore Civ III has PBEM??

I would sure hope so.

Not having it in would be a step backwards. If it was patched into SMAC, it couldn't be that hard to put in.

[Crouchback]

PBEM and Hotseat are my two favorite MP methods. Playing civ online is just too time consuming, I like being able to make moves at my leisure when I have the time.

But it was these two that baffled Activision's team in CTP2. It was the necessity of getting both sides to diplomatic talks to respond before they could move on from the bargaining process that kept crashing the whole system.

I fear the lack of an MP announcement from Firaxis means they haven't found a solution to the problem either. I'd really like to know before I buy the game.

David

[Bill3000]

Pardon my stupidity, but what's PBEM? I know what Hotseat is.

[hetairoi22]

PBEM = Play By E-Mail

Dunno how exactly you play it though, never played MP...

[PN]

Crash course in PBEM using Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri as an example

At the start the first player sets up the game and specifies every player's email address.
First player takes their turn and gets prompted for a password.
At the end of their turn, the game gets automatically saved and the first person is told the email address to send it.
Second player gets the turn and specifies a password...etc.
After everybody has their frst turn it's impossible to cheat because when you take your turn, the saved game that you must send to the next player is protected by their password.

Disadvantage is that you can wait days for your turn to arrive. Best way to mitigate it is to get yourself involved in loads of different games so that you take a few turns per day in different games. Games can take literally years to complete!
Advantage is that you don't sit on-line waiting for everybody else to take their turn. And because the PBEM players can be literally all over the world (which is difficult with on-line multiplayer because of time zones), it's culturally more rewarding as you play against a wider variety of nationalities.

PBEM does need a lot of careful planning. For example, you need to devise an order of play so that the players are all west of each other to maximise turn rate. A good play order might be UK, US East Coast, US West Coast, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Germany, France for example. Most games use a moderator who knows all the passwords and receives copies of all the turns so that 'bottlenecks' can be avioded during players' holidays for example.

[Ironwood]

There are ways of getting around the lack of PBEM support. IIRC, it was technically feasable to play Master of Magic PBEM, or at least hotseat... with a third party hack program.