Matrix Games Forums

Couple questions about PBEM in this game.

I'm playing the CSA in the Coming Fury scenario against a guy over at The Blitz ladder site, named "Rockin-Ron." He is pretty new to FoF.

First, are their not passwords for each side to view the files?

Second, I got my first turn from him last night, and opened it. Dont' remember it prompting me for a password, but then I had had two bourbons and it was about 11PM [:D]. I didn't play it last night, just opened it and had a look then closed down the game. This morning, I opened it up, and played my turn one, and then hit save. It never did prompt me for a password or to name any files or decide where to put them or anything.

It put the file under the Matrix/FoF/PBEM directory and named it something like:

matthew_REPLAY_.sve (also the teh .rep files was there with the same name structure).

I renamed both the .sve and the .rep

Anthropoid_1_CSA.sve and Anthropoid_1_CSA.rep

I have no idea where this "matthew" came from, that is not my name, and I doubt it is the other guys name either. Is there no way to make the program use a default naming structure for PBEM files? And is there no passwords, or does the app know which machine is opening which file or what?

Third question: so after I attached and sent it, I reopened FoF and using the Load PBEM button, opened up the sve file I had just sent my opponent. It prompted me to open as either Union or CSA viewer, I chose CSA. It showed replayed all the moves I had just made and showed me the battle that was "about to happen" (First Bull Run, which thankfully the CSA won! just barely .

My question here is: it seems like if I wanted to cheat, I could have just opened up the sve file I just sent to my opponent, chosen view it as his side, and see all his moves! Is this not the case? Do we need to reset some settings somewhere or something?

Fourth: Since he is an FoF noob, I offered for him to set Union to have Power +1 but I'm not seeing any reference to this in the Prefs or Options. Is it not possible to handicap one side in PBEMs? If so, where do I see the setting?

Fifth: is PBEM by default "Always Quick Combat?"

As the Union player starts he gets to choose the game name, so he must have chosen Matthew and thats the game name that will apply for both sides. He also enters the set up options. There is a password facility - press P - to ensure you alone can access your side. Once the password is operative you can't convert it to a saved normal game (so no play testing possibilities!).

Each player is on an equal basis so the power buttons aren't necessary. AI difficulty bonuses shouldn't affect human on human play but to be safe I enter Sergeant level (if setting up as the Union).

PBEM battles are always quick combat with automatic unit placement.

HiHi

I only learned this last week, but yes you can Password protect, with the game open press the Shift key & P then follow instructions that will prevent any accidental openings of opponents files.

Don’t mess with the PBEM naming structure, it’s confusing enough as it is especially for Newbies.

If you wish to save a file for your records for AAR or just to look at later, what I so is before pressing the 'End turn' button, 'Save as' for eg vFred click OK and it will be saved in your FoF PBEM folder below the game files.

Re returned files, you do not need to return all 4 files generated at turns end, Alasdair did some experimenting and in our game it works like this he as the Fed player sends me 1 file the last turns CSA.sve file (eg from last turn King_v_Cill_14_CSA.sve (1264KB) ), after doing the turn I return to him again from eg King_v_Cill_15_USA.sve (1276KB), King_v_Cill_Replay_14.sve (1270KB) (to make sure hover mouse screen pointer over the file it will give you a date & time the file was generated); the game on your computer will generate whats needed and you both will be able to see 'Replays' and play the turns, ... well it’s worked so far!

Think the Shift P will cover your security Q’s sorry dunno re Forth & Fifth is regrettably “Yes” ie no ‘Detailed battle’ in PBEM.

Hope that helps.

All the Best
Peter

Playing the Union I prefer to receive all 4 files from the CSA so that I have the option of playing the replay ed turn and then separately entering orders for the new turn. If the Union only has the replay files he has to play out the replayed turn (with often very lengthy QC battles) in full every time before he can reach the point for entering his orders.

Actually the game chose Matthew as the save game name. This by the way was my password for the game. Which it prompted me to do after the game first started. I thought this was kinda of funny. So I renamed it. But I do not want to rename it as it seems a bit strange that it chooses the password as a name. Or maybe it actually was just prompting me to call it that not as a password. May have read the pop up screen wrong.

Thanks

Ah I see now, I need to send all four files to Rekm

Correction to an earlier comment - power buttons do appear on the setup screen for PBEM games.