FFH II PBEM V Tech Thread

[Irgy]

Test it out, but from what I've seen in other maps, take out *all* the goblins and brigits on the final edit, as the game will still add another when it starts up for real.

And watch out for tiles that are revealed to players but shouldn't be.

[WarriorKnight]

I'd like a lurker, but who to have!

Only one way to decide! FORUM FIGHT!

Woohoo!

Kidding, I'll wait and see what the picks are like before choosing someone to lurk.

[haphazard1]

Test it out, but from what I've seen in other maps, take out *all* the goblins and brigits on the final edit, as the game will still add another when it starts up for real.

And watch out for tiles that are revealed to players but shouldn't be.

I agree with Irgy on the extras -- I checked everything in the final edit of the FFH2 PBEM3 map and it looked OK, but it appears that duplicates were added anyway when the game started. Or maybe in the creation of the actual game save from the WB file, I am not sure.

[Bobchillingworth]

First post has been updated to reflect the final game settings, which I PMed to uberfish.


I asked that vassals be enabled; my rationales are that A: they're (usually mostly) fun, B: they're flavorful, and most importantly C: they're the only way to get mana from an AI controlled civ. If people are ready to revolt over vassals we can disable them, but I think we can trust each other to not utterly abuse the mechanic (and to punish anyone who does =) )


We need to decide on screenshot exchanges- allowed at any point, or only after cartography / trade? Map trading techs come early enough that I think we should wait until we have them, but I'll go with whatever the majority says.



Final bit, please post your times of play availability. I'm going to ask that this thread be moved to our subforum once it's set up, and have it renamed to be the tech thread, so I'll add them to the first post. By the way, do we want to use Mist's tracker? I'd almost rather we not, since the two games presently using it seem to suffer from periodic technical difficulties. It really doesn't take that long to just email the saves yourself and post a quick message on the boards if you haven't received it in a while. If whoever players last in the turn order posts a message whenever the turn cycle completes, it would be much appreciated- Sareln did that for PBEM 1.


I'm around from a broad range of time approx 2 PM - 2 AM GMT. Of course I'm not always available to play during that period, but generally speaking I have very flexible hours.

[Sareln]

We need to decide on screenshot exchanges- allowed at any point, or only after cartography / trade? Map trading techs come early enough that I think we should wait until we have them, but I'll go with whatever the majority says.

I would vote in favor of always allowing screenshot exchanges.

I am in PST, so -8 GMT iirc. I play in the afternoons/evenings, so between 00:00 GMT and 08:00 GMT would probably be best for me. That said, I am a poor grad student, so I have some flexibility in my hours.

[Mardoc]

By the way, do we want to use Mist's tracker? I'd almost rather we not, since the two games presently using it seem to suffer from periodic technical difficulties. It really doesn't take that long to just email the saves yourself and post a quick message on the boards if you haven't received it in a while. If whoever players last in the turn order posts a message whenever the turn cycle completes, it would be much appreciated- Sareln did that for PBEM 1.

Honestly, I think Mist's tracker is awesome. There were some teething difficulties at first, but in the last month, PBEM 3 has had only one difficulty that might have been due to the tracker, the rest were all human error or Civ error like sending the wrong save (or the game's overwriting turn 1 again), which would happen regardless. And it really helps my motivation to see 'Mardoc has had the save for 6 hours' Or, for that matter, it's nice to see that it's on the other end of the rotation and I can go to bed without fear of missing my turn. That said, if people don't want to use it or Mist doesn't want to set it up yet a fourth time, we can go without.

I will be on Tredje's team, but as a dedicated lurker/backstop - I'll only pick up the save when it's late arriving to him, so my playing availability doesn't really matter for setting the order. Mist's tracker would make our logistics easier, though; we wouldn't have to create a shared account, but I could still download the turn and play if it misses Tredje's window.

[Irgy]

I'd almost rather we not, since the two games presently using it seem to suffer from periodic technical difficulties.

In defense of the tracker, most of the technical difficulties we've been having in FFHPBEM3 at least have been due to email problems not tracker problems. Using the tracker sends twice as many emails, so there's potentially twice as many email problems. However they're a lot easier to fix. The person sending can tell if it hasn't arrived because the tracker isn't updated, and if the email from the tracker is lost the save can be downloaded easily. Compare that to a lost email normally where one person doesn't know it's been sent and the other doesn't know it's been lost.

There were a few minor issues setting it up but since then I think it's been helping rather than hindering. Posting every turn that you've passed the save (for instance) would only be more reliable if you could rely on people to do it.

Also, Mist has been very responsive when there's been issues, whatever they are. I don't know whether other games have had bigger difficulties though.

EDIT - oops, crossposted with Mardoc, good to see we shared similar opinions though anyway.

[Serdoa]

I'm all for using Mist's tracker. It does work well with FFH2PBEM2 as well as PBEM8.

As for screenshot-trading: I side with Sareln, I would also rather have it allowed always.

[Square Leg]

Choices sent to uberfish.

I am GMT and can play after 8pm usually.

[Mist]

That said, if people don't want to use it or Mist doesn't want to set it up yet a fourth time, we can go without.

I don't mind. It's about 15 minutes of actual work and 48 hours of looking if everything is ticking along nicely. There might be early teething problems ( I'm still undecided on an elegant and foolproof solution for handling the initial save ) but once you're past turn 1, everything should be moving smoothly. Unless you do something that wouldn't work anyhow or MSN decides not to pass the message to Google again like in case of the last PBEM3 hiccup. So whatever you decide let me know and I'll go along with that.