Civ4 PBEM Emailer

[ruff_hi]

I have a new version which includes the following:

• PBEM games are now sorted by the last save date, thus putting the game you just played at the top of the list
• games that you haven't forwarded the save for are color coded blue
• You have the optional ability to add small messages to everyone getting the emails (both save and GPS)
• possible to mark a game as 'over' by 'archiving' it - it will not appear on the list of games and the game will not scan the disk for the latest save - thus speeding up load time
• splash screen added

Is there any interest in an updated version?

 

[unkle]

Yes !
And thanks again

 

[ruff_hi]

I've just uploaded v1.6. New features ...

• PBEM games are now sorted by the last save date, thus putting the game you just played at the top of the list
• games that you haven't forwarded the save for are color coded blue
• You have the optional ability to add small messages to everyone getting the emails (both save and GPS)
• possible to mark a game as 'over' by 'archiving' it - it will not appear on the list of games and the game will not scan the disk for the latest save - thus speeding up load time
• splash screen added

The new version requires some additional information the XML data file and it is set up to automatically add this to your existing data file. However, I cannot guarantee that it will work. Thus, I strongly recommend that you back up or copy your current PBEM xml data file before running v1.6.

 

[infinitey]

Thank you for this wonderful tool.

 

[Dan76pl]

After selecting save and clicking send the programme crashed. I ran the tool as administrator under Vista Home Premium 64-bit. Any ideas how to solve the problem?

 

[ruff_hi]

I'm assuming you set it up with your gmail password and all that? Any sort of error message? Did it ask to confirm that you want to send the save?

 

[GarretSidzaka]

hey ruff this is going into the modcast for tomarow

 

[Dan76pl]

Your tool is working OK !! I found the problem. The reason program crashed was that I've chosen option Gets saves under Player options but I did not save changes to the XML file. As a result during sending save there was not available player in the tool to which it can send the save. Now it works perfect even w/o admin priviliges. PERFECT TOOL GUYS !! Thank you very much for your efforts !! Kind regards

 

[ruff_hi]

Your tool is working OK !! I found the problem. The reason program crashed was that I've chosen option Gets saves under Player options but I did not save changes to the XML file. As a result during sending save there was not available player in the tool to which it can send the save.

I've done that too - updated it but forgotten to actually push the update to the xml. I guess I am being a little lazy - I could use one of the 'changed' properties to update the XML ... maybe next release

Now it works perfect even w/o admin priviliges. PERFECT TOOL GUYS !! Thank you very much for your efforts !! Kind regards

Thanks.

 

[Somian]

ok but i cant delete this one

 

[ruff_hi]

ok but i cant delete this one

lol - you edited the wrong post

o nice, its pretty handy, but id like to see another feature: to export game lists that can easily copied and pasted. So all of the information necessary to join a game should be pasted into the tool with one CTRL+V-press instead of every player creating the list himself the input is also a lil fiddling.

(since ure using .net, im pretty sure theres a serialize-function like in php for arrays etc. that could be used for that)

besides that i like the idea and it works well hm.. well it would also be cool to be able to download emails from a server so ull need only the tool but i think that'll bee too complicated.

The underlying data file is xml. If you edit this with a text editor (ie notepad) then you can pretty easily copy whole games. Just be careful to change the number of games item. You can also swap players in and out.

Actually - you are asking for a slightly different feature - import / export complete games. This would only be beneficial if a bunch of players were all using the tool to email on the game. Honestly, I haven't seen many people using it, let alone a whole bunch of players in the same game.

 

[Somian]

lol - you edited the wrong post

oops

lol
The underlying data file is xml.

hm it's also pretty hard to find the data file using vista. a "show plain XML" function would be nice for the purpose of just copying the data.

 

[ruff_hi]

hm it's also pretty hard to find the data file using vista. a "show plain XML" function would be nice for the purpose of just copying the data.

I know. I have vista too and this 'hidden file trick' is royal pain in the butt.

I have some ideas about all of this - will post later.

 

[ruff_hi]

I have some ideas about all of this - will post later.

Here are my thoughts ...

• add a button to open the folder where the xml lives (I should be able to do this)
• split each game out into a separate xml file, in this way you can ...
  • create a new game
  • go to the xml folder and copy over an existing game, then edit it in notepad or in the emailer itself
  • upload the edited xml game file to your PBEM thread

I just don't want to handle the whole import / export stuff so this should provide the flexibility that you are looking for and should be too difficult for me to code up.

 

[ruff_hi]

well - I didn't go with the splitting out of the game files - much too hard. Instead, I included the following in v1.7 ...

New for v1.7

• program does not terminate after 'send' - it use to
• 'refresh' button included to refresh the game status
• 'Open' XML folder now opens the fold where the XML is stored - doesn't work very well for Vista due to the virtual storage and I am not going to put the time into fixing it
• Can now export individual game settings to a text file

To export a game, click on 'edit info', select the game you want to export, then right click the game. It is important that you left click to select and then right click it. In the screenshot below, you can export 'Dummy Game 1' in this way.



Importing a game involves editing the underlying XML file. I don't have time to make sure that you have created the XML correctly so you will just have to be careful when importing it. Make a backup of your XML data file first!!!

 

[mc-red]

Looks like a good utility. I am just starting out in PBEM but this looks really useful.
I downloaded from the link in 1st post and when I run the program says v1.6.1 and not v1.7 in the top line.
Am I running correct version?

 

[ruff_hi]

yeah - you are - I just missed that version number. It should say 1.7 on the splash screen.

 

[GWItheUltimate]

I tried to edit Game/Player info but the program shut down as soon as I click OK, and for no reason.

Any clues of what the problem is ? I'm using Vista Home Premium.

Thanks alot.

 

[GWItheUltimate]

I tried to update the Game/Player options and when I enter my path, the program shut down as soon as I click OK. Any clues of what the problem is ?

I'm using Vista Home Premium.

Thanks alot.

 

[ruff_hi]

hmmn - this is the second report of a problem with this. I'll take a look and see if I can see anything.

I just did what you did and it worked fine. My newly created xml file has a few double enteries but it seemed to handle that. Is it creating an xml file in your virtual storage folder?

'C:\Users\<win-user>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Civ4PBEM_Emailer'