POLL: What is your email client?
Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:56 pm
Ok, I wanted to do something to automate the multiplayer side of PCK
At the moment TCP/IP isn't supported by the game.
My first thought was to provided external tools to provide TCP/IP file transfer, but because you would still need to simulate emails for the game itself, that seemed like a lot lot of work for not much benefit.
My next though was to use an email client to automate the whole process. The advantage of this is that you don't need to fiddle around with installing new server software, TCP/IP settings, firewalls, ports, etc. All you need to know is the other players email address. With automation and frequent email checking I could make it as close to a TCP/IP as possible anyway. It would also work wonders for email games as well [;)]
The problem is the only email client I know which allows script automation is outlook. Now I have and use outlook and have already started work on automatiting it to basically do the following:
Play EMAIL game. Give orders, press the end turn button in the game, the email will be auomatically sent (no need to exit the game). All you need to do is to then wait for the return file to appear which it will automatically in the game menu as a script is running in the background checking for the appropriate game turn to arrive. If the two players are online at the same time that will be a close to TCP/IP for a turn based game as one can get without modding the game code.
It is a neat idea which will help PBEM greatly as you won't need to phaff about with opening your email client and locating and copying files around.
The issue is how many people use outlook (note: *not* express)?
If there are many and many want this PBEM feature I will continue to develop it. If the majority don't use outlook or the majority are not going to PBEM, then I won't bother.
Cheers
S.
At the moment TCP/IP isn't supported by the game.
My first thought was to provided external tools to provide TCP/IP file transfer, but because you would still need to simulate emails for the game itself, that seemed like a lot lot of work for not much benefit.
My next though was to use an email client to automate the whole process. The advantage of this is that you don't need to fiddle around with installing new server software, TCP/IP settings, firewalls, ports, etc. All you need to know is the other players email address. With automation and frequent email checking I could make it as close to a TCP/IP as possible anyway. It would also work wonders for email games as well [;)]
The problem is the only email client I know which allows script automation is outlook. Now I have and use outlook and have already started work on automatiting it to basically do the following:
Play EMAIL game. Give orders, press the end turn button in the game, the email will be auomatically sent (no need to exit the game). All you need to do is to then wait for the return file to appear which it will automatically in the game menu as a script is running in the background checking for the appropriate game turn to arrive. If the two players are online at the same time that will be a close to TCP/IP for a turn based game as one can get without modding the game code.
It is a neat idea which will help PBEM greatly as you won't need to phaff about with opening your email client and locating and copying files around.
The issue is how many people use outlook (note: *not* express)?
If there are many and many want this PBEM feature I will continue to develop it. If the majority don't use outlook or the majority are not going to PBEM, then I won't bother.
Cheers
S.