PBW, First Impressions.. (Multiplayer discussion)

[David E. Gervais]

Ok, I did it, I fell victim to the perils (and joys) of PBW. And my first experience started out with a bang. (aka: a PBW-Athon) lots of fun to be had for sure but there were some bitter-sweet leftover feeling about this method of play.

BTW: Last night's PBW-Athon is now being continued as a 'regular' PBW game.

I can't help but feel that the way the game handles this PBW multi-player feature needs some work. (and I'm going to let Aaron know a few ideas I have concerning this.) Having the game 'Close' each time the player 'Ends-turn' forcing me to relaunch the game at every turn does not sit well with me.

I think there needs to be some work done here.

1) The game should not close at the end of each turn. (this way the player could overview his/her empire while waiting for the next PBW turn to be available.)
2) It would be nice to have a 'send PBW Info' button within the game. (of course the player would need to configure the required info like server name, email addresses etc.)
3) The player sould be notified in the game when the next turn is ready and have a 'Get next PBW turn' button/indicator.
4) A better method than feeding/compiling/distributing 'save games' is needed. (there must be a way to only send the 'changed' data and not the whole save game each time for processing.) If the 'packet' size was small enough, then many, many more turns could be played in a relitively short time.
5) It would also be very nice if 'encounters' were handled in real-time.

I'm sure I'll think of more stuff, but these points were IMHO the major issues I had with the PBW gaming system.

Now don't think that I would prefer that SE be real-time, because I don't, but when playing a PBW-Athon and it sometimes takes longer to send/recieve info than to actually play your turn, some speed improvements will go a long way to making this a more enjoyable game experience.

So, what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Have a few suggestions of your own? (Please keep your ideas/suggestions targeted on the PBW/Multiplayer aspect of the game. Who knows perhaps some stuff will make it's way into SE5.)

Cheers!

[ January 18, 2004, 18:59: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]

[Captain Kwok]

One thing to keep in mind was that the system in SE:IV was really developed for PBEM and not the PBW system.

But I have no problems for lobbying Aaron to make the changes you listed below!

[primitive]

Congrats on loosing your virginity

Although all your suggestions would be nice to have for SEV, just stick with PBW a little longer and you will see these are not major issues
Most games does a turn a day (or every other day), and with a decent connection Receiving/Sending turns is fast enough, and with a good unzipper its only a few cliks to get the game launced. You could also use the RTC to save a few more clicks when all players are Online at the same time.

Anyway, when will we see you in KOTH ? Always good with some fresh meat

[TerranC]

1) The game should not close at the end of each turn. (this way the player could overview his/her empire while waiting for the next PBW turn to be available.)

You can survey your empire during your turn. If you pressed End Turn prematurely, you can always load the game again. And You can always load the game again after you send in your player data.

2) It would be nice to have a 'send PBW Info' button within the game. (of course the player would need to configure the required info like server name, email addresses etc.)

I don't understand what you're asking for here. PBW info as in what?

3) The player sould be notified in the game when the next turn is ready and have a 'Get next PBW turn' button/indicator.

No. It is your responsibility to check up on your PBW games, and it is your responsibility to inform yourself when the new turns are due. Plus, I certainly do not want SE4 make annoying pop ups each time new turns are generated, nor I would want it connected to the internet.

4) A better method than feeding/compiling/distributing 'save games' is needed. (there must be a way to only send the 'changed' data and not the whole save game each time for processing.) If the 'packet' size was small enough, then many, many more turns could be played in a relitively short time.

You don't send the save game to PBW; you only send Player Information files to PBW.

5) It would also be very nice if 'encounters' were handled in real-time.

Get the PBW Real Time client. It's in your SE4 Gold CD.

[ January 18, 2004, 15:54: Message edited by: TerranC ]

[DavidG]

It sounds to me that what you'd really like is improvments to TCP/IP. The only reason to use PBW vs TCP/IP for games were everyone is Online is that TCP/IP is slower for larger games.

Idealy what would be nice is to have improved TCP/IP for the start of the game and then when the turns start to take longer put in on PBW.

Edit: IF you find opening and closing the game after each PBW turn a pain try what I do. I have a .bat file on my desktop that will get me right into my turn for the game. Saves a lot of clicking and typing in of passwords.

[ January 18, 2004, 16:55: Message edited by: DavidG ]

[DavidG]

Originally posted by TerranC:
5) It would also be very nice if 'encounters' were handled in real-time.

Get the PBW Real Time client. It's in your SE4 Gold CD. [/QB]

??? Is he not talking about SE4 tactical combat here?