AGEOD Forums

We're trying to start a PBEM-game in NCP. After some initial trying and thinking, where I must say the manual did little to help, it seems we're finally on the go.

My only question this far regards the possibility to save your order-files. Is it possible to give a number of orders, save and shut the game down, only to return to it later and continue? Some of the more intricate planning and ordering might take a while and there's always the danger of wifes and kids cutting your turns short for want of using the computer. We dare not try this for fear of halting a campaign that now seem to be rolling fine.

The manual needs to be updated regarding the PBEM. I'm sure it all reads well when you already know what it is all about, but for a newbie it's a bit messy. Me and my friend are both grown up men with long experience of games, but this one took a while to decipher.

In any case, it seems to me a wonderful game. Turns the players into generals, not proffessional mouse-clickers.

Yes, you can save your orders and you'll retrieve them when you'll reload your turn later on. This works for PBEM and games against Athena the AI.

I'll try to reword the manual on this aspect. Please explain which aspect you found specially obscure.

Best regards,

Korrigan

Now, when I know what's going on, it doesn't seem so unclear anymore, but I'll give it a try.

First, remove all references to the ACW. I didn't have any problem with this, but refering to USA and CSA might throw some readers off the track.

Secondly, I would scratch the sentences in the headings and replace them with "Step 1", "Step 2" and so on. The point where I went wrong was heading number 3. (Host sends ORD file to Host). For some reason I took this to be some kind of prompting: "Do this now!" All right, I thought, and read on. The next sentence was "Each player know loads the game and gives the order for the upcoming turn." Thinking that this was going to happen after I sent him the "first" ORD-file, it didn't really make any sense to me, and this is where I began to suspect that we hade to send two files forth and back for each turn played. Well, I read it, re-read it, forgot about it for a while and then returned reading it again. After a while I suddenly realized that heading 3 was just that, a heading. Then the puzzle solved itself.

When we where finally ready to start playing it dawned upon me, though, that my opponent had a rather different idea of how to do it, still struggling with his manual. Whatever was the problem at his end, I won't speculate about, but mainly he was confused about when to send the different files and what was their role.

Maybe this isn't so big a deal. Seems other, apparantly more clever people, have figered it out without much trouble. The main reason why I posted regarded the possibility to save mid-order phase, a question now being answered. Great! Now one can start a phase without having to fear OKF (Oberkommando Die Frau), lurking in the background and suddenly shouting "Get off the computer, I have to do some Internet-shopping!"

That's the good thing with Athena, she is always available and ready to play....