PBEM utility - ideas needed!!!!

I am thinking of writing a program that helps manage your PBEM games. I forsee it being useful to people in more than 1 PBEM game.

One of my biggest problems is getting home form work and having 4 or 5 PBEM games in my inbox. I save each to their sub-directories, and start playing. What I often find is that there is a game that I saved to the hard drive, but forgot to play and send, or one that I played, but still forgot to send.

Another problem I have is that I use hotmail for outgoing mail, and so I use outlook express as my email client. I can never save sent messages as my 2mb limit would fill up very quickly (I would have to empty it a couple of times a night), and so there is no record of whether or not I have sent the save.

For this reason, I want to write a PBEM handler. For it to be really useful it has to integrate in to outlook express for me, and consequently it is fairly trivial to also get it to integrate with outlook as well (not 100% sure, but I think so).

As I see it, a PBEM handler should do the following:

1) Configure the save game directory location
2) Add each new PBEM, and store the (sub)-directory name, and the email to send games on to.
3) Automatically check the save directories for new saves, tell you that they need to be played.
4) Tell you when you have played games that need to be emailed on to the next person
5) Keep a record on what turn number you are on.

the next points are a possibility, but I need feeback on the most commonly used email programs
4) Pulg in to MS Outlook or MS Outlook Exress (both possible)
5) Automatically copy new saves to the correct locaion when you recieve them (based on subject name)
6) Email on the saves after they have been played, although I would want this to be conrolled through the UI.

Maybe ultimately it could look in the .sav files to determine which game/turn number it is, but for the moment I will control it through the naming of the saves to the hard drive (such as 001.<mygamename>.<before/after>.sav , or something like that).

So, please take part in my poll. I would like to know if you would use such a program. If you have comments or suggestions for features then all the better.

You bet.

I use Outlook Express exclusively. I've taken to marking incoming pbems with a prioirity symbol. I copy the save file to the appopriate directory for that game. I play the turn and save the new file back into the same directory with a new name. I send off the game then go back and unmark the email.

I'm sure I'm not alone in missing an email because it arrived on a day when I got a lot of mail. 50 emails a day are not that unusual for me!

Its easy to miss one.

Another plea. Can people put in the title of the email which pbem game it is. "Save" isnt very helpful. Can they also use a sensible name for the save file. "Slavs 3000BC" doesnt help me much either. I prefer "Mel v Col Cols turn 3000BC" as a title and filename.

There is a lot of basic housekeeping needed and I'm sure we are all going down the same road here. Anything that would help manage that process would be good.

There was a prog advertised somewhere that offered to do much of this but it was only for Win 2000/XP. I run Win 98 so I guess there are also OS issues.

What would be cool, and needed in some cases, would be to have a chatfunction to the program. Maybe used during the early parts of the game, you chat with each other, send the file, get the file, play, chat, send back the file, he playes, chat, retrieve, play... etc...

Col, there are reasons that the other program is not appropriate, such as the lack of information regarding how it is sending the emails.

You need either a built in SMTP server, or it could be using an SMTP server on the internet to sent the emails. The first way limits severely who could use it, and also requires the correct configuration of the PC. The second way opens your PC to anything they want to send from it. There is the added problem of needing the .NET framework, a fairly big chunk of very low-level stuff from microsoft.

I think it also only deals with 1 PBEM config, so you can only use it for 1 PBEM game.

I may be wrong, but that is the impression I get.

I will write this in either VB6 or C++6, depending on what I need to do. VB may be the easy option for intergration with email programs, as C++ is a bit of a nightmare to integrate with anything else. The upshot of this is that you will need relatively little to get it working, certainly not a huge MS download, and the only communication it will be doing is with your email program, not the internet.

GF - I use msm to chat during my play sessions.

I could look at integrating chat in to it, although I would be forced to use someone else's core code.

MSM integration is certainly possible as I know you can get the core libraries for that. Maybe others publish their core libraries too, but in the end I would still be routing through their systems. You would still need an account with whatever system I implement, and you would still appear online in that system (unless I can frig it so you are invisible).

Would this be appropriate for you, or were you thinking of a system independant of others? I am not sure how I could do that, as without static IP's you would need an online server to host it and maintain user information.

VB would be preferable for me- I teach it so would find it easier to tinker with the source (if I could my hands on it...)

I am in six PBEM's and don't really see a problem here. I do the same: get the saves out of the emails, put them in the subdirectory play, remember the person to sent it to, put them in an email and there you are. Heavy alt-tabbing is a must but everybody is able to do that nowadays.

One note: I dont have internet mail with low MB capacity.

We use MSN very often for chatting and file transferring in our anarres vs. ERIKK PBEM game.

Originally posted by ERIKK
I am in six PBEM's and don't really see a problem here. I do the same: get the saves out of the emails, put them in the subdirectory play, remember the person to sent it to, put them in an email and there you are. Heavy alt-tabbing is a must but everybody is able to do that nowadays.

One note: I dont have internet mail with low MB capacity.

We use MSN very often for chatting and file transferring in our anarres vs. ERIKK PBEM game.

Click to expand...

Firstly, we use MicroSoft Network Messenger, or MSN Messenger for short.

MSM is a shorter abbreviation, for MicroSoft Messenger.

MSN is just short for MicroSoft Network, of which Messenger is just a tiny part

But back to buisiness, you obviously have a better memory than most ERIKK, or at least me. When I have several saves I always find myself missing one, or just as bad, forgetting to email after I play.

My stupid ISP has free email facilities, but they have heavy anti-spamming rules that mean they only accept email if you use their dial-in account. For this reason I have to use crappy internet mail, and I can't record what I've sent.

Grey Fox, feedback on the chat functionality would be very much appreciated. I am very much open to suggestions, and MSM integration should be possible at least.

Also, for everyone who voted 'Yes', please say what email programs you use. If you can change to either Outlook or Outlook Express then please state that too.

Thanks

I use Outlook Express...

And the chat would be to make it easier to chat, instead of using MSN (which I don't like the interface of anyways, I use MSN, ICQ and IRC in trillian), it would be better to use the PBEM program, maybe even include Auto messages when you send the File to the other person.

GF, I will do my best to include it. Nice idea, I wouldn't have thought of it. I will definately add the 'auto message' functionality in as well.

One thing is that I can't see a way of doing the chat without using the MSM libraries. If anyone has ideas on how this can be done without using 3rd party software I am open to ideas...

I will probably leave the chat out of the first version as it is likely to take the longest to implement.

Note that this is still at the proto-proto-proto-type stage (i.e. I haven't started it yet). Version 1 will not be around for a little while...

Chat is not a priority for me - there are lots of good chat programs that could be used.

Useful also would be an auto email to say a file has been received going to the organiser of the pbem and to the sender. Keeps Meli happy anyway

OK, it's in col. Optional of course

Originally posted by col
Chat is not a priority for me - there are lots of good chat programs that could be used.

Click to expand...

I agree, it's not super important, but if you can implement it in a way that makes PBEM smoother. It would be nice.