PBEM playback or lack thereof

robdam1 · Post by **robdam1** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 4:44 am

Will the problem, as I see it, of not being able to view the opposing players turn as the Allies W/O 1st loading the REPLAY turn be addressed in a patch in the near future. I hope it will, because if it isn't, I'm shelving UV.

XPav · Post by **XPav** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 5:18 am

That's a shelf-worthy problem?

The fact you have to click twice more to view a replay?

robdam1 · Post by **robdam1** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 6:35 am

Ummm, yes, when you are playing 2 or 3 scenarios @ a time, it forces you to load each combat replay 1 @ a time. Then you must exit the game, reload the next combat replay. Keeping in mind you'll be playing the actual turn in between all of this bouncing around. It makes it especially worse becaus UV takes ~ 1 minute to load and start/play.

XPav · Post by **XPav** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 6:49 am

Don't exit the game, just Alt-Tab out of it. Extract the next game, and off you go. You don't have to sit there.

Yes, the whole PBEM interface could be more friendly, but there are ways around the annoying parts.

robdam1 · Post by **robdam1** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 6:51 am

Thanks for the tip. I will try that in the future. Back to my original post, are there any plans to eliminate this bug?

Drex · Post by **Drex** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 7:02 am

I have asked about this previously more than once. However it is not a bug. My problem is that it is not compatible with the pbem helper. Still I enjoy this game and perhaps the pbem play can be streamlined in the future. It is not a gamekiller.

Caltone · Post by **Caltone** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 7:25 am

This has got to be one of the most alt-tab friendly games ever. I keep my email, browser, winzip, and UV open when I play. When I first got it, I kept the manual open as well.

Multi-tasking is your friend.

Raverdave · Post by **Raverdave** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 1:12 pm

You can also REM the file marked "Video" to skip all the intro junk....makes for a faster load.

robdam1 · Post by **robdam1** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 4:29 pm

What do you mean by, "REM" please? Thank you!

John Carney · Post by **John Carney** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 4:37 pm

REM prior to a line of code is an old term. REM is for remark and the computer will skip that line of code.

mikel · Post by **mikel** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 4:57 pm

I changed the names of the 3 files in c:\Matrix games\UV\Video by putting an x in front of each filename. It now loads faster by skipping the intros.

robdam1 · Post by **robdam1** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 5:31 pm

Thank you Mikel.

Erik Rutins · Post by **Erik Rutins** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 6:29 pm

Rob,

It's definitely not a bug and I wish folks wouldn't use that word so lightly. Having PBEM'ed a lot of UV, I agree with the other posters that the inconvenience is quite minor once you get used to Alt-Tab. I also keep a shortcut to my UV Saves folder on my desktop and I have my Outlook running while playing UV. This saves a lot of loading/unloading time.

With all that said, there are no plans on the schedule that I've seen to do any major overhauls to the PBEM system. I think that if any changes are seen in this department, they will come after WitP is nearly finished or released. There are plans to improve UV with some of the WitP improvements and that's far enough off that an improved PBEM save handling system may be considered.

Regards,

- Erik

robdam1 · Post by **robdam1** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 6:40 pm

I disagree. No other PBEM capable game that I've played, and I've played them all, has this problem. It's really ludicrous to debate this, "is it a bug or isn't it a bug". It's at the very least, an annoyance and a detriment to this wondeful game.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 7:03 pm

Originally posted by robdam1
I disagree. No other PBEM capable game that I've played, and I've played them all, has this problem. It's really ludicrous to debate this, "is it a bug or isn't it a bug". It's at the very least, an annoyance and a detriment to this wondeful game.

What is your problem

Just use Alt-tab while keeping open your mail client and your files explorer (to zip/unzip the files) ...

Spooky - an happy PBEM player

Erik Rutins · Post by **Erik Rutins** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 7:18 pm

Rob,

While I have definitely played games with more seamless PBEM interfaces, I've always had to deal with getting the e-mail from my opponent, unzipping it and sticking it in the right directory. From there, all that UV requires is that you load Save001 (if Allies) to view the replay, then the normal save to enter orders. That's really just one additional step.

After you're done, as with other games, you have to zip up the files and e-mail them. No difference here, though because of UV's Alt-Tab friendliness I find it easier to do multiple games since I don't have to exit completely between them.

Regards,

- Erik

XPav · Post by **XPav** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 11:34 pm

Originally posted by robdam1
I disagree. No other PBEM capable game that I've played, and I've played them all, has this problem. It's really ludicrous to debate this, "is it a bug or isn't it a bug". It's at the very least, an annoyance and a detriment to this wondeful game.

It is an annoyance and detriment to the wonderful game, but its not a bug.

FWIW, I never understand why we have to zip up the games... I bought a zip component for windows for my software at work for $80 bucks, and I can redistribute it as much as I want. To zip files, I make a few function calls, and poof, the file is zipped.

Drex · Post by **Drex** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 11:59 pm

That's all I needed was an easier way to navigate. thank you Erik and Spooky.

robdam1 · Post by **robdam1** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 6:36 am

Umm, no problem Spook. Just want my moneys worth. Is that a problem for you? Keeping you up @ night? I can see you're really spooked......spook. LIGHTEN UP.

Reiryc · Post by **Reiryc** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 10:09 am

Originally posted by robdam1
Umm, no problem Spook. Just want my moneys worth. Is that a problem for you? Keeping you up @ night? I can see you're really spooked......spook. LIGHTEN UP.

Lighten up?

You're kidding right? You're posting about shelving a game because you have to *gasp* load a file before you get to the actual game?

Pot...kettle...black...

Take your own advice and uh...lighten up francis...

Reiryc

ps...are you related to capt.cliff?

PBEM playback or lack thereof

PBEM playback or lack thereof

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