help with pbem

[jcrohio]

I have been playing with the AI for a while and think I am ready to step up to PBEM. I understand how to set up a PBEM game but am not sure of the procedure to 1) save the game and 2) load a received game.

For saving a game - is it as simple as just saving the game under any name and then emailing this as an attachment? If I am playing the entire axis do I wait until after the Japanese turn to send. I ask this because I was experimenting with me being the entire axis and after the german turn it asked me for a password but did not after the Japanese turn.

For loading is it just a matter of taking a sved game and copying to the correct folder?

I apologize if this has been covered earlier but I could not find answers to these questions and I have never tried PBEM in any games.

Thanks in advance for any help

Jack

[Grotius]

Hi Jack,

PBEM is pretty simple, but there are a couple of twists. First, select PBEM when you start the game, and then assign "player numbers" to each player in the game. If you have two players, then both Germany and Japan should be #1, and the remaining 3 powers should be player #2. If you have three players, assign accordingly. You can change player assignments by clicking on the player number in the setup screen.

Second, you don't save the game at all until you're completely done with your turn, at which point you don't select save -- instead, you select "next phase" after your production phase. When you do this, then the savegame menu will automatically come up, and you can name it what you please. I find it helpful to increment each savegame name in case we develop a problem, but that's optional. The PBEM won't work right if you save before you hit that final "next phase" button, so use that instead of selecting "save game."

If you're playing two powers, say Germany/Japan, then make Germany's moves and do its production, then next phase will take you immediately to Japan's moves; do its moves and production, and when you select "next phase" at the end of Japan's production phase, the game will at that point ask you for the name of a new savegame.

Also, be aware that the anti-cheat program counts how many times you've loaded the game during your turn; best practice is to play start to finish without reloading.

Hope this helps.

[Grotius]

And yeah, once you've created the savegame, just e-mail it to the next person in your game. When you receive a file, save it into the SAVE folder of the DAT folder in the game folder. You should then see it under the list of PBEM (not single-player) savegames.

[aletoledo]

I find it helpful to increment each savegame name in case we develop a problem, but that's optional. The PBEM won't work right if you save before you hit that final "next phase" button, so use that instead of selecting "save game."

as far as naming I think there is two routes. one as grotius described is great if you have one game going and want to really ferret out any problems.

the other way, which I prefer, is to keep a simple name and overwrite the same name each time. this helps when you have 5 different games going at once, so you don't have to think about what to name the most recent turn save.

[jcrohio]

Thanks guys - I understand now

Jack