Can anyone explain exactly how diplomacy works in a PitBoss game? When both players are logged in at the same time I know it works fine. However, if Player1 is logged in and Player 2 is not, and Player1 makes an offer of a trade it will appear to Player2 the next time they log in. If Player2 accepts, I assume the trade then takes place immediately as they click the accept button.
Q1) If Player1 offers a trade and writes some text in the diplomacy window will Player2 see this text when they log in?
Q2) If Player1 writes some text in the diplomacy window but doesn't make an actual trade offer, will Player2 see the text? In fact, will the diplomacy window display at all to Player2 if a real trade offer hasn't been made? (I'm thinking in terms of humans could offer "you attack that barbarian and I'll attack the other one" but that isn't a 'real' trade from the game's point of view)
Q3) If Player1 makes two trade offers for the same thing to Players 2 and 3, and Player2 logs in before Player3 to accept the offer, will Player3 see the offer but not get the option of accepting? Or will he not even see the trade offer (in which case, what happens to any text messages which may have been sent when the trade offer was made?)
Q4) If Players 2 and 3 both make an offer to Player1 on the same turn, when Player 1 logs in he will presumably see the first offer (eg. from Player2). If he exits this diplomacy screen to see if there are any other offers (in this case from Player3), is it possible to get back to the offer made by Player2? Or has Player2's offer expired at this point so Player1 has to re-offer the same trade to Player2?
Q5) Depending on the answers to these questions, would players prefer diplomacy to be handled via email rather than through the game interface? If so, everyone already has everyone else's emails from the PitBoss notification emails. However, I don't know how to match everyone's email to their Civ/Leader. Perhaps the first post can be updated to show the first few characters of each player's email address so we can communicate that way? Of course, we can limit ourselves to only communicate to civs we've contacted in the game.