How does PBEM work - exactly?

[Suicide Junkie]

Originally Posted by Arralen

Which files are (to be) written/send where, and when, under the premise that hosting happens on a 3rd machine via command line.
How are those files named?

At the very minimum, you will need to be given the "gamename.GAM" file.
You will also want the "gamename.CMB" (combat replays) and some of the gamename_stats files, but they are optional.
You'll get all these files when you click "Download turn" on PBW2.

You load up that turn in SE, select your empire, put in the password, play. When you hit end turn, the game will write out a gamename_playernumber.PLR file for you.
Upload that PLR file to the host (AKA PBW2)


For starting a new game, you just need to start the game and hand out the GAM file to the players. EMP files from the players will provide you with their chosen race setups, and for SE5, you can save the game rules (Racial points, etc) in a GSU file to give out.
Be sure to select the Multiple Machines and Manual File Moving options in the game setup.

Turns do not have to be processed via the command line, but it is simpler once you have it working.
Letting PBW2 deal with the files, and using my autohost script to process the turns will keep you from having to worry about it