Pbem security

[Pyros]

Hi,

One of the worst problems with the Pbem battles is when you find out that your opponent is somehow "cheating" .

The good news is that you don't have to be afraid of this issue anymore, since special care has been taken to that specific field. A lot of work and a lot of cheating by the PTs and the developers has resulted in the creation of a very good Pbem security protection!

The bad side of this improved security is that if you eventually lose a pbem game you won't be able to accuse your opponent for cheating...

cheers,
Pyros

[Double_Deuce]

Pyros said:One of the worst problems with the Pbem battles is when you find out that your opponent is somehow "cheating" .

The good news is that you don't have to be afraid of this issue anymore, since special care has been taken to that specific field. A lot of work and a lot of cheating by the PTs and the developers has resulted in the creation of a very good Pbem security protection!

Do the new security feature(s) prevent a PBEM game from being saved, emailed to another PC, opened up and then have the tuen finished.

For example lets say I want to pass the PBeM game files through 3 seperate players (all on Side 1), each moving a couple units, saving then passing it to the next player on the team with the last player actually ending the turn to send to Side 2?

Anyone tried it with WinSPMBT yet? I know it worked OK in 3.01.

[Pyros]

Hi DD,

This is the game manual...

PBEM Tournaments

NB: This feature is only available in the CD extended edition of the game.

The PBEM tournament feature supplied with the extended CD version game is intended to allow a tournament organiser to set up a scenario for competitive play amongst a group of players. The scenario is encrypted, and a password is set for the second player. Therefore, neither player can open the tournament scenario in the scenario editor to see the setup, and the password provided for player 2 prevents player 1 from continuing the scenario as player 2 and thus seeing his deployment.

Tournament scenario games are also useful for any situation where 2 players want to play a PBEM game which a third party has set up, and which they have no editor access to - a "blind" game.

The tournament organiser creates a tournament scenario by following the following procedure

Open the scenario editor and Load the scenario you have created for your tournament just as if you were going to edit it
Once the scenario is loaded into the editor you will see the "Map Size" SWAP button has changed to TOURNEY.


Click on the TOURNEY button and you will be brought to the "Tournament Scenario Save List". Enter the scenario into any empty slot and press ENTER on your keyboard. This initiates the encryption process.
You will then be brought to a screen titled " Setting P2 Initial Password" and asked for an initial password (IP) for player 2. The save game process will abort if this is not supplied (Hit the Escape key to abort the initial Password screen). It is the TOURNAMENT ORGANIZERS RESPONSIBILITY TO ENTER THIS PASSWORD AND PASS IT ON TO PLAYER 2!!! Once the password has been entered press CONTINUE . Once the game is saved to a slot, the tournament organiser should exit the scenario editor, as this process may affect some scenario global variables. If he wishes to edit scenarios, once he has used the tournament game set up process, he should quit the game and restart for safety.
Tournament game scenarios are saved in the \tournaments folder under the game main folder. The organiser can use the TOURNAMENT GAMES button on the UTILITIES tab of GameOptions to zip up the DAT and CMT files for the tournament game and send it to all player ones in the tournament. To all his player twos, he will send an email which details the initial password they will be using when they receive their first turn from their opposing player one. Player twos should not get the tournament scenario, or they will be able to see player one's set-up as the player one set up is not password protected as for player 2.
This completes the Tournament Organizers section. The game is now in the hands of Player 1

On receiving the fileset for the tournament game, the player ones should unzip to their own \tournaments folder. They should then contact their respective player 2 opponents and negotiate which PBEM game save game slot to use in the forthcoming competition battle, if not already done so. Once he has this information, each player one can start the tournament scenario. Each player one should ensure that his preferences are set to those detailed by the competition organiser (if he has done so) or to that agreed with his player 2 opponent. To find the game, press the saved games button to cycle to the tournament scenarios folder, then locate the appropriate scenario. Select it and press start. Player one will enter the password of his choice (tournament scenarios must be password protected secure PBEM games), and when the opportunity to save comes, he saves it in the agreed secure PBEM game slot. (He has no further use for the tournament scenario at this point, unless he is playing against multiple opponents etc.). Player one now sends the secure PBEM game DAT and CMT file set to his opposing player two for him to continue. As the game is now a normal secure PBEM, he will find the files in the \PBEM Games folder under the main game folder.

Player 2 now gets the files from his opposing player 1. He unzips the files to the \PBEM Games folder and loads the game from the EMAIL GAMES page (press save games button to cycle to this page as usual). he should have the initial password supplied by the tournament organiser to hand, as it is required to pass the forthcoming stage!. Player 2 now loads the game. He will be prompted for the IP which the tournament organiser entered when he set up the secured tournament scenario. Once he has successfully entered this, he is then prompted for his OWN new password of his OWN choice. What follows is very important to remember >>> Player 2's ONLY use the password supplied by the Tournament organizer to open this ONE screen so they can set THEIR OWN PASSWORD. Player 2's DO NOT use the initial password for anything else. On pressing continue, the game will be automatically saved to the proper PBEM game save slot. Player 2 now passes the files back to Player 1 for the next stage of the process . From here the game proceeds exactly as for a normal game scenario being played PBEM.

Note to tournament organisers: As there are plenty of save slots for tournament scenarios, each organisation should probably mark off a block as theirs. (Say 50-75 is bigwargamers.com's traditional set of slots). It'll make it easier for players to find the scenarios, for one thing!. Remember that secured tournament scenarios cannot be reloaded back into the scenario editor (they are encrypted), so don't lose the original scenario!. Remember to ensure that all prospective players have the full CD extended version of the game, as those with only the free download will not be able to participate in the competition.

Note to players: The only fixed slot is the one that the original "template" tournament scenario as dispatched to you by the tournament organiser. Player one can save the game to any secure PBEM slot of the 250 on hand on setting up the game. The scenario is encrypted, so will not load into your scenario editor - there is no point in taking a peek!

[Double_Deuce]

Pyros said:
Hi DD,

This is the game manual...

PBEM Tournaments

NB: This feature is only available in the CD extended edition of the game.

Thanks Pyros. I did read that section BUT it does not really apply to what I was trying to do. My question is more about having multiple players in a single scenario. It would essentially be 3 people controlling units on the same side in a single PBeM Game. It wouls utilize a standard PBeM slot so all could participate.

We are setting up a test game to see what kind of obstcales difficulties we might come across to prevent this type of game. I'll keep everyone posted.

[danstudentvcc]

Hello Double D.
I started a game with an opp.
We had some trouble with the file and could not get a deploy on the first attempt.
However when I sent my opp the password for my turn; he was unable to get the P-1 file to open.
This would apply to a batt-gen game which differs obviously from a scenario start but, it does highlight that in this instance two differing computers were not able to open the file despite having the PwD's for both players.

I tested recently, what would happen if I started a pbem game on the same computer. That is, saving to the pbem slots and not the save files. I was able to complete the entire set of turns without a hitch. I also out of curiosity checked the process of a secure pbem save scen game on the same comp.; the save slots were straigh forward and did not cause me any trouble either.

Oh, don't forget while testing, to restart your computer.
I've noticed that in the manual the warning about Windows just simply working better from a fresh boot was retained despite it's harking back to DOS lineage of how not to start your DOS version MBT-WW2 games!

Gus
danstudentvcc