A New FFH PBEM

[Kredom]

Kredom, are you aware that Flauros's traits have been changed in EitB?

yup, money and culture am i right?

[Ellimist]

Kredom, are you aware that Flauros's traits have been changed in EitB?

yup, money and culture am i right?

Correct.

[Kredom]

as this is my first time on a pbem game, is there any game mechanic i should be aware of?

[DaveV]

If you overwrite a saved file, the next player will not be able to play the turn. This will happen when you play your second turn if you don't do something about it (either delete or rename the turn 0 file). Any time the game asks "do you want to overwrite the '10AD_to_DaveV' file", you must change something rather than say Yes.

All unit builds, culture pops, beakers, etc. are applied immediately at end of turn. That means units that will be in your popped borders when you're at 48/50 in culture are safe from spiders and griffons, that warrior who's at 15/16 hammers will help defend your city, you are guaranteed to grab any wonder that you complete during your turn, and other implications I haven't thought of.

The last player in turn order will see the barbarians move, and will be the only player to see where the Horsemen spawn. I think he is also the only player to see the famous historian popups that rank the civs by economy, power, etc.

You are not allowed to reload to fix bad combat results, explore in different directions, etc. Reloads to check out a diplo offer (especially a peace treaty), or fix a misclick, should probably be discussed.

Always load a saved file from the main menu screen. Loading a game on top of another game can produce very strange behavior (such as revolts to invalid civics). If you have "Minimize popups" enabled and save and reload during your turn, the next player will see some of your builds along the right hand side of his screen.

[Ellimist]

as this is my first time on a pbem game, is there any game mechanic i should be aware of?

If you try to overwrite an existing save, the result will be unplayable. There's a bug with the turn 0/1 saves where both will be given the same name, so you'll need to rename or delete the turn zero save before playing turn one.

If you turn on "bare map" and zoom out all the way, all signs(unique features) will be revealed, so be sure to avoid that.

You'll want to make sure "minimize notifications" is turned off. If you don't, you'll probably end up revealing that information to everyone at some point. (And maybe cause additional complications)

If you ever load a save and something weird instantly happens, such as adopting new civics, you should try loading it again to try and avoid it. If you don't, the game will usually find a way to (over)correct the error.

[DaveV]

If you turn on "bare map" and zoom out all the way, all signs(unique features) will be revealed, so be sure to avoid that.

Good point. Can we all agree not to use goto tricks and flying camera scouting to get information we wouldn't have otherwise?

[Kredom]

ok, thanks every1 for all the tips.

i want to play a smooth nice, trick/cheat free game, so its good to know what things i shouldnt do.

so to sum it up:
1) no reload to fix battles or exploration results.
2) no overwrite on saved game (get the mail, play my turn, save on other file and send the mail).
3) dont turn on bare map and zoom out.
4) set minimize notifications off
5) load the game from scratch, not with the client already running with a game.
6) reload the saved game only if something weird happened (loosing a fight when u had 99% chance of success isnt weird, its just bad luck).

are all this 6 things ok? or is there anything else to add?

[Bobchillingworth]

Good point. Can we all agree not to use goto tricks and flying camera scouting to get information we wouldn't have otherwise?

Aww, I'm going to miss Settler scouting. Yeah, I agree.

[Qgqqqqq]

The important thing is if you do reload, make the exact same desicions as before with regard to scouting or anything that would yield different results/information, and never reload if you have done combat. Personally, I occasionally reload if I've screwed up micro badly, but you need to make sure you never benefit from it.

Also the Minimize Notifications error mainly (only?) comes if you save halfway through a turn and then load said save again.

[Mardoc]

2) no overwrite on saved game (get the mail, play my turn, save on other file and send the mail).

Normally this is easy. When you end turn, the game will automatically save the file with a new name. The format will be something like pbem5z_BC-2560_to_Ruffhill.CivBeyondSwordSave . Since it updates the date and _to X fields automatically, you only ever have a problem on the second turn. And that's just because it doesn't know what to do with T0 and gives it the T1 name.

But you don't personally save the file, just hit end turn.