[geoschmo]

Yes Saxon, this can be done. (I could have sworn it was covered in the FAQ, but I just looked and couldn't find it. We will have to correct that.)

Step 1. Create a game on PBW, it doesn't matter what you give it for a Game Name, but you have to make sure the base save filename and password are the same as when you setup the PBEM game. If you did not use a password when setting up the PBEM game, just put something in there, and you will have to contact an admin later. PBW will only let an admin set a game password to blank. You will want to put something in the Game Name or Game Description to let people know it's a preexsisting game so they don't try to join. Also you will need to set the game to the number of players that were in the game at startup, even if some of them are dead now. This includes any AI races that you manually added, but NOT randomly placed AI or neutrals.

Step 2. Have the players join, or assign them to join IN THE ORDER THEY ARE IN THE GAME. If there are spots in the game that had players at one point that are now dead, you are going to need admin assistance on this step. The players have to be in the same order, including spots for dead empires so that PBW handles the .plr files properly.

Step 3. Have the players upload empire files. It doesn't matter what .emp file they upload here. It doesn't have to be the one they used at game startup. But PBW wont allow you to upload the first turn without everybody upploading .emp files first.

Step 4. When it says to upload the first turn, upload the CURRENT game turn that you would normally send to the players. At that point PBW will email it to all the players, and start accepting their .plr files and handling the processing on it's own. The PBW turn number will be out of sync with the game turn number. It doesn't really matter, but if it bothers you we can adjust the PBW game turn number to match.

Let me know if you need any help beyond that.

Geoschmo