CivDOS Play by Email - Multiplayer Experience

[hannurabi]

I've tried to set up civ1 pbem in the past before, but for some reason it never occurred...

But I think it's possible to play civDOS by e-mail and it'd be worth trying.

How does it work?

First player plays his/her turn, saves game, and uploads the savegame files to this thread. Next player uses for example JCivEdit program to change human civilization to next civ and does the same as first player. And so on.

Rules
1.Viewing map and save game files with some editor is allowed.
However, editing anything is strictly forbidden.
This creates a chess like game play, and makes cheating harder.

2. No reloading save game after losing battle or popping barbarians from hut. This cheat is impossible to track, but this game is not about to win, but to have fun.

3. No using of cheats and exploits. I consider settler cheat forbidden, but this can be discussed.

4. Not allowed to enter diplomacy screen with another human player.

5. Trying to play turn every day, or at least every week. If you go for a vacation or quit, inform other players so game can be put on small pause or AI can take over you.

I thought about playing this Europe map created by Gowron. We could play random map or any other map too.

There's room for 7 players including me. But I would be happy to get even 1 player to try this with me.

 

[Renergy]

I've pm-ed you hannurabi, would be willing to try this.

Not sure about the technical details.

I've created a duel on random map (by starting the game normally with 2 civilizations, possible thanks to darkpanda's patch), prince difficulty, played my turn (found a city), then changed civ to babylonians with Arun Bhalla's civedit.exe.

It is possible to load the game ok, but the (Babylonian) settler cannot be ordered to do anything in the same turn (i.e. year 3980BC).

I've tried also jcived, with the same result.

What is the way to do the player switch?

(save attached)

 

[kirkham7]

Two ideas, first you could use dropbox to have a folder online to keep the saved game. This way you could just open the saved game without having to upload here, might be easier. Second, once you change civs, you can try to edit the units to say whether or not they have been moved this turn. I can't remember how to do it, but I thought that it was possible.

 

[Mize]

Renergy, what civ were you, originally? The missed turn for the Babylonians might be because they'd already made their first move before you founded your capital.

Hannurabi, I've had similar ideas before, but even if all the issues you listed could be solved, one main problem crops up, it's going to be too slow to be enjoyable. One of the most beautiful things about civ is that, when you've got the hang of it, it plays like an arcade, or an RTS (even though there were none at the time).

If anything, the whole sending/editing/starting process should be automated. Which probably means that somebody has to code the software to do it and so on...

 

[hannurabi]

Ok, I see there's one big problem. Between turns when last player hits enter the game should update cities etc. Now this won't happen if player is switched back to first player. This would require some kind of hack of civ.exe to get the pbem be possible.

 

[darkpanda]

Sounds like what we need is a port of CivDOS to the 21st century, with multiplayer network support and all the rest...

 

[darkpanda]

Actually, without a full port, an embryo of multiplayer server system could still possible, dealing with the "between turns" logic, discarding an AI-related stuff, and hosting savegames to validate changes or detect some kinds of cheats... Some thoughts are emerging...

 

[Tenochtitlan]

How about a countdown timer:

10 seconds per turn for 4000 BC to 2000 BC
15 seconds 2000 bc to 0 ad
20 seconds 0 to 500
25 seconds from 500 to 1000
30 seconds from 1000 to 1500
45 seconds from 1500 to 1750
60 seconds from 1750 to end game

If the timer passes, you skip the turn

 

[hannurabi]

Ummm, what do you exactly mean tenochtitlan?
Countdown timer for e-mail game, would be kind of weird.

Actually, without a full port, an embryo of multiplayer server system could still possible, dealing with the "between turns" logic, discarding an AI-related stuff, and hosting savegames to validate changes or detect some kinds of cheats... Some thoughts are emerging...

That's interesting idea. Maybe just a bit too much work for little gain.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

I was thinking of automating the whole thing to be a semi-real-time game with time limits, rather than a play turn, save, e-mail

With hundreds of turns and several players 1 game may take years to complete