A few notes for PBEM play (1.08+)

[MarshallEllis]

Hey guys:

We have run into an issue that we do not have an answer for yet and that is for PBEM games only!

Please do not set Spain or France as AI players in your PBEM games for now. As you know, we have set the diplomacy and eco phases as simultaneous executions. This is a good thing BUT these phases both end and execute when the last player in those phases ends his/her turn thus moving the game to the next phase. Well this is fine as long as Spain and France are human players. The AI doesn't collect turn files as a human does so the game would stall here! We're scratching our heads a little bit here but we will figure something out BUT for now ...

Spain and France should NOT be set up as AI players in your PBEM games!

[gazfun]

ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

Hey guys:

We have run into an issue that we do not have an answer for yet and that is for PBEM games only!

Please do not set Spain or France as AI players in your PBEM games for now. As you know, we have set the diplomacy and eco phases as simultaneous executions. This is a good thing BUT these phases both end and execute when the last player in those phases ends his/her turn thus moving the game to the next phase. Well this is fine as long as Spain and France are human players. The AI doesn't collect turn files as a human does so the game would stall here! We're scratching our heads a little bit here but we will figure something out BUT for now ...

Spain and France should NOT be set up as AI players in your PBEM games!

Oh drat!
we have done this with spain, and we are at the Land Phase now, have to work around this before we get to the Dip Phase

[Dancing Bear]

I imagine that the same problem will appear in the eco phase if GB is being played by the AI, as GB appears first in that phase.

The problem with the dip phase does not sound insurmountable. Although I can't think of a good solution just yet. A few ideas to throw out for consideration:

1) Maybe have all the AI players go first, and then execute the sim dip at the first and last human players who did not skip (i.e. have the execution of the dip phase move depending on who is an AI and which human players are not skipping)?

2) Or since 99% of games have a human GB and France, can we re-order tha nations in this phase to move these two nations to the start and end of the diplomacy phase (instead of Spain at the start which may often be run by an AI), and having all other games where neither GB nor France are human players be run without any sim dip or sim eco?

3) Or, on start up of a game, have the game re-order the diplomacy phase so that is always starts with a human player and ends with a human player. For instance, in a game were the only human players are Russia and Turkey, on game start, the game re-orders the diplomacy phase so that Russia is first in the phase, Turkey is last, and the AI's are in the middle?

Not sure what would happn if either Turkey or Russia tried to skip diplomacy in this last scenario (or GB or France in the scenario before). Maybe skipping would not be permitted for these players? Not ideal. My preference is for (1).

Anybody got any other ideas?

[Yearworld]

This might not be right but I think as long as the last human player in a Dip phase goes last then the AI will play turns like normal. For example: If human players are FR-RU-AU-GB then on Dip phase FR-RU-AU can go whenever they want as long as GB goes LAST. Then the AI files are created. If GB goes before any of the human players then there is a problem. Players then just need to figure out who should go last on Dip and Econ. At least that is what seemed to happen in our 1.08 test game. Of course I could be 100% wrong about this!

Yearworld

[NeverMan]

Why not just have the AI do his dip last? AFTER the last human as done their turn and load it in with their file?

[MarshallEllis]

Possiblity for sure but just not done yet.

ORIGINAL: NeverMan

Why not just have the AI do his dip last? AFTER the last human as done their turn and load it in with their file?

[gazfun]

Marshall would it be wise to wait for the 1.08.03 patch before we get going again? If you saw my last post, in regards to spain not being Human player, which happened in our game which caused a problem that you indicated, would happen.
So what should we do now?

[MarshallEllis]

Gaz:

YES! Hang until I work through the simul issues!

[Dancing Bear]

Any idea when the sim issues might be fixed and we will see the 1.08.03 BETA? Any progresss on other items to report?

[MarshallEllis]

DB:

We ran a series of fixes partially through a test game last night. Not all players have done it yet so we're making progress but I'm going to let all of the players process the turn. Will keep you posted...