October Update!

[Marshall Ellis]

Great idea!

I'm not sure if I can put it in V1.00 BUT that is definitely an idea that I've written down (credits to you Peskpesk).

Thank you

[Endur]

I agree with the other comments. I've played at least half a dozen email games of EIA over the past ten years.

Some comments. Definitely have a feature so that a live player or a computer player can be replaced with a new live player. And that includes the Host as well, as there is no reason to believe the Host is any less likely to drop out of the game.

For 2a, where a computer player runs his turn right after a human player, that sounds good, but in that case, I would not send out seperate turn files, but instead bundle them some how (i.e. zip them up) as one file and let the game unzip them and read them in on the other player's computers.

Hey all:

Sorry for the late update but we're very busy with the PBEM features right now so things are a bit chaotic. As far as where we are? Well, PBEM is all we lack guys (Minus playtesting bugs and improvements). I wish I could say something definitive but again as a developer, I'm hesitant to do so.

We're creating a PBEM feature set that will work like this:

1. Host starts the game.
He also selects the options for the game and whether or not he will have GA powers. The GA powers will allow the host to kick people out of the game or allow the computer to play their nation for a phase BUT the powers are optional. Some players may not want to play with a host that has these powers which are revealed to each player before play. The host must also have the email addresses and the nations of each player for him to enter once then the start game file is emailed to all players.

2. Next player in sequence.
The next player then plays and when his turn ends, a file will be created for him to email to all other players. Some actions create message files to be sent to other players (To create alliances, etc.) for their responses. If you are waiting for your turn then the game will go into VIEW mode only allowing you to view items on the map but not change anything.

2a. Computer Players
If a computer player is right after a human player then typically it will play the computer and save its turn as well. This creates the need for the human player to send out a couple of turn files at the same time BUT the game will not allow the loading of a turn file out of sequence so it should be fine for a player to receive multiple turn files.

This is a high level overview of the PBEM flow. Let us know your thoughts...
Hang in ther guys...

Thank you

[Camile Desmoulins]

I think that is very interesting the idea that peskpesk proposes about an automatic resolution system that the AI activates. I'm sure that the work with AI is excellent, but, however, I have been referee many years of EiA PBEM games and there are two ideas that it is necessary don´t lose of view, seemingly contradictory:

a) The problem of a bad player is not for that player, but for the other ones six, because the game is of a very subtle balance: if fall one of the pieces, collapses all the game. It is sometimes better to wait a little more and to maintain a good player or to avoid a movement AI that destroys an entire strategy that to throw for the time, because it is not a short time game, and a game of months can fail for a precipitation.

b) the worst illness in a PBEM game is the delay, if there is not tension there is not game. It is better a simply good player at time than the greatest player delaying every turn

How we conjugate both ideas?. I think that any serious group of players that tries to play EiA should have a referee and/or a web as reference, that organizes the players and substitute those that are delayed; the human hand is the only one able to solve this problem and it should not be to the judgment of a machine of inflexible approach. This is better than causing mistaken movementsthat harm to the group of players. Even it´s better that the game condemns to not moving that to cause a movement AI, let us don't say a movement AI diplomat.

[shane]

Should the AI be able to perform certain actions when a player misses his turn? Maybe it should have limited powers: no declaring war, no breaking/forming alliances. If the country's not at war, the AI plays status quo. If it's at war, the AI plays the war.
The flipside, how is the player gonna feel when he returns to the game after missing a week and finds that four of his neighbors went to war with his computer proxy!

[Windfire]

I am still not going to target a release date, but I will say this. We have completed almost 95% of the game to this point and we are about to test the PbeM features of the game, which was the last Major coding feature. We are now into test/tweak mode. We are doing all we can to put out the best game possible.

Carry on,
Bart

Excellent philosophy. I have seen to many good games ruined because the publisher rushed to get them out the door instead of extending the testing and correcting the problems.

Windfire

[Chiteng]

It is my unsolicited opinion(no one has asked me) that the length of time to play
a turn is the #1 danger with the game. Not all turns need a players attention.
If a player is in enforced peace, he has nothing to do on ordinary turns in any case.

If you postulate 10 min turns that is 70 min per turn for all players.
That is extreme optimisim. 70 * 120 is a great many hours of play.

I would in all modesty, suggest a player have a 'flag' that allows his country
to essencially 'sit' and do nothing while waiting for options.
Rather than force him to send in empty turns.

These would of course be keyed to the production cycles where of course all
players must pay attention.

Just a comment. Nothing polemical.

[Le Tondu]

Well, I certainly hope that this year's November Update is better than last year's.