Matrix Games Forums

There are several changes for PBEM play, these are to add additional security. It is in no way possible to totally prevent cheating without requiring a continuous internet connection, but I tried to stop the casual cheaters.

The biggest change is that you cannot quit a PBEM game without saving.

Like the Steel Panthers mega-campaigns, you cannot quit without saving. The idea is that you will load a turn and can move several units, quit and save, then load it later, move several more units, then end the turn (and save.) This can be initally confusing, but it's intended to prevent cheating.

When you save a PBEM game, you are automatically exited. Since you can assign .sal files to be automatically run by TOAW, this shouldn't be a big deal.

You won't see cheat warnings, but will see piracy warnings while playing PBEM against yourself. The same thing will happen if you're playing a pirated copy. This is to prevent people from easily figuring out how to cheat.

You can load previous turns to see what happened in them.

You also do not have to play a PBEM game against yourself to test PBEM. HotSeat now plays the same turn order as PBEM does, and is the preferred method of testing.

I'm not sure what's possible and what isn't. I have only small pieces of free time for playing and I'm never able to make a full turn during single session. I MUST save and open my PBEM turns. I'll never use TOAW-ME if it's impossible. Please, write it again - I'm stongly confused.

ORIGINAL: Legun

I'm not sure what's possible and what isn't. I have only small pieces of free time for playing and I'm never able to make a full turn during single session. I MUST save and open my PBEM turns. I'll never use TOAW-ME if it's impossible. Please, write it again - I'm stongly confused.

Saving a PBEM turn in a .SAL file and reopening it to resume and continue the turn is perfectly possible, as it always has been.

Exiting the game and ending the turn are two different things. The difference with TOAW CoW is that when you exit the game while playing a pbem turn, you'll be forced to save your current pbem turn in a .SAL file, and in reverse, when saving a pbem game in the middle of a session, you'll exit the game.

ORIGINAL: ralphtrick

When you save a PBEM game, you are automatically exited.

A little annoying. I like to review the situation after saving my .pbl file, especially if I'm writing an AAR, but....

You can load previous turns to see what happened in them.

Does this negate the above objection?

You also do not have to play a PBEM game against yourself to test PBEM. HotSeat now plays the same turn order as PBEM does, and is the preferred method of testing.

Good change.

ORIGINAL: golden delicious

ORIGINAL: ralphtrick

When you save a PBEM game, you are automatically exited.

A little annoying. I like to review the situation after saving my .pbl file, especially if I'm writing an AAR, but....

It co-writes an end of turn SAL file, with the same file name that you just got through giving to your PBL file. That allows you to look at the end of turn situation.

ORIGINAL: Nemo69
Saving a PBEM turn in a .SAL file and reopening it to resume and continue the turn is perfectly possible, as it always has been.

Exiting the game and ending the turn are two different things. The difference with TOAW CoW is that when you exit the game while playing a pbem turn, you'll be forced to save your current pbem turn in a .SAL file, and in reverse, when saving a pbem game in the middle of a session, you'll exit the game.

OK. I'm not worrying anymore. However, I don't see where is an obstacle for cheating. It need a little more time and attention, but the possibility of reloading a turn if attacks failed still exists. I would like to see an limit like this one used in "Colonisation" - the game has a set of random numbers generated in advance. If you save your turn, the values are saved and next reloaded, too. This way a number of attacks and other random events is always exactly repeated when a save file is reloaded. This isn't absolute obstacle, but it could make cheating by reloading a very time-consuming procedure.

ORIGINAL: Legun

OK. I'm not worrying anymore. However, I don't see where is an obstacle for cheating. It need a little more time and attention, but the possibility of reloading a turn if attacks failed still exists.

And then, when your opponent emails you back saying "Hey Jarek, you *#$@!, why the *$^@ am I getting this message that you reloaded the game 18 times?!?!?" you can give it a little more time and attention, while you're looking for a new opponent...[;)]

The forced save file could work as an obstacle, if you can't change the name of saved file. Anyway, I would like to see an own name, once set at the first turn with the number of present turn added.

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

ORIGINAL: Legun

OK. I'm not worrying anymore. However, I don't see where is an obstacle for cheating. It need a little more time and attention, but the possibility of reloading a turn if attacks failed still exists.

And then, when your opponent emails you back saying "Hey Jarek, you *#$@!, why the *$^@ am I getting this message that you reloaded the game 18 times?!?!?" you can give it a little more time and attention, while you're looking for a new opponent...[;)]

So, the playback informs how many times the turn were saved and reloaded, doesn't it? But does it means, that it knows how many attempts to go foward were made from one point?

ORIGINAL: Legun

So, the playback informs how many times the turn were saved and reloaded, doesn't it? But does it means, that it knows how many attempts to go foward were made from one point?

I hope you understand that it simply doesn't make much sense to discuss methods and means of attempting to circumvent the cheat prevention here in an open forum. Let's just say that the less we tell people, the harder they're going to have to work at figuring out how to cheat. That means less time playing the game, which in my opinion, is a stupendous waste of gaming time, especially at the risk of ostracization from the community for being caught...

Is PBEM turn replay improved in the new version? Or is it still the same little screen where you do not see much at all?

If it is the same, are there any plans to improve PBEM replay in a patch?

What these games need is a continous autosave feature that writes to your PBEM save file that you are using to play, thus if you try some sneaky tactics like starting over or better yet just turning off your computer if you don't like how the turn turned out the autosave feature would have all your moves already saved in that PBEM file. Be pretty hard to circumvent that I think. It would also flag this PBEM file so that if you tried the ole backup the PBEM file and use it if you didn't like how the turn turned out when you tried to load the old fresh PBEM file it would flag both files as suspicious and let their opponent know this is what they did. Trying to use anything, but, the origional flagged PBEM file would alert ones opponent and that would be the end of that cheater.

A file can also created called 'SitRep.txt.' if the option is set. One thought that I had was that players might agree to pass it back and forth along with the .sal file. It contains a truncated description of the battles.

You can also save 'movies' (actually just individual BMPs) and view them to get a better idea of your strategic situation.

I don't know about the patch, but the next version will definitely have an overhaul of the graphics system to add things like resizing the VCR window, etc.

Ralph