PBEM - Question and suggestion

[Uxbridge]

Just added the patch and tried a PBEM against myself. Immediately noted some problems.

1. After starting a game, choosing PBEM and giving player 1 (P1) Germany and Italy, P2 GB and France and P3 USSR, I started Germany's turn. So far it was all as expected. Then I ended the German turn and was prompted to press "escape" and send the file to player 2. This is where the problem started. Taking the role of player 2, I tried to start, but that wouldn't do. The game only appears under "PBEM" (not "load game"), but trying as I might, I can't get any further from that. I'm sure that there's something I don't understand and feel the need for some clarification on this behalf.

2. Since I couldn't get very far due to the patrol encountered in point 1 above, I may be wrong here, but it seems to me that the game will choose turns in the same order in PBEM as it does in normal games; i.e. Germany first, followed in standard order by the other nations on the list. I take it this means that if 3 players play 6 nations between them, the file has to be sent 6 times (unless one player's nations comes after one another in the cue) before one complete turn can be made. If this is true, is there a possibility to re-program the order of nations, so that player 1 can accomplish all his nations before sending the file to player 2? What I mean here is that the game logic will understand the player/nations settings choosen and adjust the order of nations accordingly. It would be good, as an example, if player 1 could finish Germany and Italy before sending the file to player 2. We were planning to have most nations, majors as minors, played by human players, and as I see it now, it will turn into a mailing nightmare with weeks to complete each turn.

[comrade]

ORIGINAL: Uxbridge

Just added the patch and tried a PBEM against myself. Immediately noted some problems.

1. After starting a game, choosing PBEM and giving player 1 (P1) Germany and Italy, P2 GB and France and P3 USSR, I started Germany's turn. So far it was all as expected. Then I ended the German turn and was prompted to press "escape" and send the file to player 2. This is where the problem started. Taking the role of player 2, I tried to start, but that wouldn't do. The game only appears under "PBEM" (not "load game"), but trying as I might, I can't get any further from that. I'm sure that there's something I don't understand and feel the need for some clarification on this behalf.

2. Since I couldn't get very far due to the patrol encountered in point 1 above, I may be wrong here, but it seems to me that the game will choose turns in the same order in PBEM as it does in normal games; i.e. Germany first, followed in standard order by the other nations on the list. I take it this means that if 3 players play 6 nations between them, the file has to be sent 6 times (unless one player's nations comes after one another in the cue) before one complete turn can be made. If this is true, is there a possibility to re-program the order of nations, so that player 1 can accomplish all his nations before sending the file to player 2? What I mean here is that the game logic will understand the player/nations settings choosen and adjust the order of nations accordingly. It would be good, as an example, if player 1 could finish Germany and Italy before sending the file to player 2. We were planning to have most nations, majors as minors, played by human players, and as I see it now, it will turn into a mailing nightmare with weeks to complete each turn.

PBEM wasn't meant to be played by one player, this is why it prevents you from continuing your turn. If you want to play against yourself, use single player and select more countries as Human-controlled.

As for the second question - you're right: if 3 players play 6 nations between them, the file has to be sent 6 times (unless one player's nations comes after one another in the queue) before one complete turn can be made. There's no other possible solution here, and it's just common sense - I assume that the player will control countries from one alliance.

[Uxbridge]

Thanks for this quick answer. We just have to limit our aim.
 
In a 4-player game Germany; UK/France/USA; USSR and finally Italy will be all right i 1 round of mail sendings?
 
And Germany/Italy could be played by the same player in a 3-player game?
 

[comrade]

Ger/Ita of course can be played by the same player, but until Italy enters the war, there'll be an extra step in the PBEM round-trip, because as a neutral they will play after Russia. So I recommend leaving Italy AI controlled in PBEM game and assuming control by axis player after it enters the war. This will save you one step.

[Vypuero]

In PBEM you can use the F1 key to change control from AI same as in a normal game?

[comrade]

You can, but to make everything right you'll also need to go to countries.csv and manually edit last column, which is PBEM player ID, and set this ID to corresponding player: 1 for Player1, 2 for Player2 and so on. Setting country as human-controlled in PBEM game without setting this PlayerID may result in some strange game behaviour.