Questions about pbem procedure

[Hermjard]

Hello SEIV players!

We plan to start a pbem game soon and today took a testrun for the file-exchange procedure, which was unfamiliar to us till now. Principally everything went well, but some questions arose from our testrun, which we weren't able to solve:

1) We want to start the game in a way thats possible for interested people to join the game later. We assume, that's not possible to plant additional empires into a running game on an empty system. But we thought about the possibility to take over a computer controlled empire by a human. We found a submenu "player" in the game menu which can be accessed only by the host in which you can switch off the computer-controlled-property of an empire. And if you try to resolve the turn, then there is indeed a warning which says that the corresponding orders-file is missing, indicating, that this empire needs human orders now. But if you try to login into the "new human" empire, it's password protected. It seems that unknown passwords are to be generated at the time of game creation for all computer players. How can you circumvent this or deactivate them? Another way seems to apply several placeholder empires in the beginning of the game and the host creates passwords for them. But then you get always warnings when hosting, that the orders are missing and furthermore we dont know if the computer plays these empires with the same difficulty level we choose for the "pure" computer players. Another way seems to be to edit every placeholder empire and activate the "computer controlled" mark. But what happens with the password then? Is it still choosable? In which difficulty level are these empires played by the computer and if we choose "number of computer players" to "high", are these placeholder empires already included into this number or additional to it?

2) I am not sure about the files with the prefixes .trn, .cmb, _events.txt and _stats.txt. For example, the manual says that the .trn file is necessary for the movement replay, but according to my tests, you can replay the movement also without this file. Or the stats: we play with visible scores for all players and it seems that you can see the scores even without the stats whereas the "comparisons" are not visible in the third turn even WITH the _stats.txt for the appropriate player. Are all these files really necessary for complete information of the players?

Thanks in advance,

Hermjard

[primitive]

1:
When you are logged on as the host, there is a reset password button available under "options - players". The new password will be usable the next turn, so you will miss one turn.

2:
Let Play By Web do the hosting for you. Saves all the hassle and everything is more or less selfexplanatory.

[Hermjard]

Hello!

ad 1: I found the reset button. I press it, choose the right empire and confirm. After that I get a message which says that the password is reset to a number with six digits which is displayed. Then I select the game menu once more and save the game. But in the next turn the new password is not accepted. And neither in the turn there after. What's wrong?

ad 2: I know of this generous offer, but we have the ambition to keep it running on our own

Regards,

Hermjard

Originally posted by primitive:
1:
When you are logged on as the host, there is a reset password button available under "options - players". The new password will be usable the next turn, so you will miss one turn.

2:
Let Play By Web do the hosting for you. Saves all the hassle and everything is more or less selfexplanatory.

[primitive]

Hi again,
1: Dunno, It has always worked for me. I think you are supposed to process the turn after you have changed the passwords, not save.

2: PBW sends out: xxx.gam, xxx_Combat.cmb and xxx_Log.trn to all the players after processing the turn. Guess the other files are just needed for the host.

BTW:
Nice nick. Got a very Vikingish clang to it, even if its not quite right (I believe ). So, what is it ?

[Hermjard]

Hello!

ad 1: Of course I processed the turn after I have reset the password and saved the game. Still with the warning that the "new" players order-file is missing (player 9 in my test-game). I assumed the necessity of saving the game, because the time stamp of the .gam file didn't change right after the password reset and I saw now other place where this information could be stored.

Regarding "Hermjard", I have to disappoint you, the nick its purely invented It originates from a Multi User Dungeon in which I was active years ago. I had a character there (a gnomish, white mage) which I named Hermjard (that term just came to my mind when I generated the character and wondered about gnomic sounding names). Because I played him so often, I took over that name as nick for myself later on. But you are not alone with your assumption; I got several questions about the nordic origin of my nick. Some even state, that Hermjard is the name of a minor entity of the nordic pantheon. But I was never able to verify that and if it's true, then it's a big random event.

Regards,

Hermjard

Originally posted by primitive:
Hi again,
1: Dunno, It has always worked for me. I think you are supposed to process the turn after you have changed the passwords, not save.

2: PBW sends out: xxx.gam, xxx_Combat.cmb and xxx_Log.trn to all the players after processing the turn. Guess the other files are just needed for the host.

BTW:
Nice nick. Got a very Vikingish clang to it, even if its not quite right (I believe ). So, what is it ?

[primitive]

Just tested this again to be sure. The error message of missing order file for the new player will always be there as there are no uploaded turn for the new player. The game will use the default AI file instead for the turn so it should not have much impact on the game.

As for Hermjard: Don't think its any entities in Viking mythology with that name, at least not using Norwegian translations of the old names. Don't know, but other than us have claims to the Vikings, so translation may differ.

The reason I bugged you is the name has sort of a Syntax error (again using Norwegian Vikings and Translation).
The most common Viking names consist of a prefix a suffix which could be mixed almost indefinitely. While some names like Tor (Thor) and Bjørn (Bear) can be used both as prefix and suffix, Jard is a very typical prefix