PBEM Help Please!

M

ManAgainstTime

Chieftain
Joined
Dec 13, 2014
Messages
22
Location
Canada
Hi forum. I am hoping someone can help us.

My brother and I have been trying to no avail to play a game of Civilizations 4: BTS together for several months now. We live in different parts of the country. As a last ditch effort I thought we would try the PBEM option but I am open to anything that will get us playing together. If you will bear with a long explanation I will tell you everything we've tried and maybe someone has either a workaround or another method.

First we tried playings a straight up IP game. I have a MacBook and he is playing a PC version (same update though) which after researching, shouldn't be a problem for this method. Of course we learn that the host, Gamespy, is now defunct. We contact 2Ķ Games, they say it still shouldn't be a problem, but I need to contact Aspyr. Which I do, and they tell me that the PC fix of moving to Steam isn't going to work for me because I have the Apple version which Steam doesn't support. They said they may in the future but I am not holding my breath.

So after letting it go for awhile, I learn about PBEM. I am hopeful and think maybe this will work!!! Start a game, follow all the instructions outlined somewhere else here on this forum, complete my first turn and kept getting the "Failed to send email" error. I confirmed all my smtp information, his email, my username and password and tried it probably a dozen more times with the same result. He has an msn email and I have a gmail. So I am putting in smtp.gmail.com as per Gmail's instructions.

I tried doing what I thought might be a 'manual override' and attached the game save to an email to my brother. When he tried opening the link directly from his email, it loads just to the main menu of the game. When he opens as a saved game it crashes the game itself. Perhaps he is not loading this from the correct folder? He can see it in game though but cannot find the pbem folder in his documents under saves. He is running Windows 8 and I have never used it so are there hidden folders or something?

I was also checking my versions and my save version is different than my actual version. My save version is 3.02 and overall version is 3.19. Is this normal?

I had him try to create the game but he was unable to sent in game either. And because he cannot see his pbem folder outside the game and despite searching for it cannot attach it to an email manually.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you if you have taken the time ti read and consider this!
 
On a sode note, can you set a hot seat saved game and play that like a pbem game? I am wondering if we might have more success with that.
 
ManAgainstTime said:
First we tried playings a straight up IP game. I have a MacBook and he is playing a PC version (same update though) which after researching, shouldn't be a problem for this method.
Click to expand...

That's your problem right there.

/PCMasterRace
 
ManAgainstTime said:
So was Gamespy somehow bridging the two systems?
Click to expand...

I don't think it would have worked with Gamespy either if you are having problems with PBEMs. Have you tried sending each other a singleplayer save and trying to open it? Maybe it's just that your versions aren't matching up. :dunno:
The most likely explanation I can think of is that the Mac variant just plain isn't compatible with the normal one. Upload a save in this here thread and I'll try opening it.
 
I never had a chance to try online with Gamespy as my brother didn't purchase the game until after they closed down. But from what i could tell from online forums and other tech support that it was possible to play PC and Mac multiplayer.

But here is a save file of a single player save game of mine that i just started.
 

Attachments

The save loaded for me. Both of you need to have BTS v3.19. Don't try to use the in-game PBEM emailer, that doesnt seem to work, never has for me. Just start it as a PBEM, ignore the in-game emailing crap. Make the settings so that you have to hit "enter" to finish the turn. WAIT for it to generate a message saying "The turn to player X has been saved in your PBEM folder." Sometimes, if you have a bunch of AI, it takes a while to go through all the AI turns before the save generates.

Once the save has been generated, exit the game, go to your save folders where your single player games are - there should be a new folder called "PBEM" in there. Send the generated turn to your opponent. He should be able to load it up into his turn, play it, hit enter, wait for save to generate, then exit and email it manually. Thats pretty much how we do it in here in its simplest form.

But you definitely need to have the save v3.19 downloaded and installed correctly, and need to make sure you get that message that the save has been generated.

And for gods sake... build a worker! ;)
 
Save for me loads as well, seconding everything Nighthawk said, especially the part about building a worker. In 90% of all cases that should be the very first thing you build.
 
Imp. Knoedel said:
Save for me loads as well, seconding everything Nighthawk said, especially the part about building a worker. In 90% of all cases that should be the very first thing you build.
Click to expand...

Point taken lol. I would still consider myself a very inexperienced player and always have grappled with whether the slower city growth or the worker is better, but after reading from here it would seem the worker is better. Thank you for the strategy as well as the tech support :)
 
Nighthawk419 said:
The save loaded for me. Both of you need to have BTS v3.19.
Click to expand...

So the question I have is: is there a way to change the save version to 3.19. Both my brother's and mine are save v3.02.

Don't try to use the in-game PBEM emailer, that doesnt seem to work, never has for me. Just start it as a PBEM, ignore the in-game emailing crap. Make the settings so that you have to hit "enter" to finish the turn. WAIT for it to generate a message saying "The turn to player X has been saved in your PBEM folder." Sometimes, if you have a bunch of AI, it takes a while to go through all the AI turns before the save generates.

Once the save has been generated, exit the game, go to your save folders where your single player games are - there should be a new folder called "PBEM" in there. Send the generated turn to your opponent. He should be able to load it up into his turn, play it, hit enter, wait for save to generate, then exit and email it manually. Thats pretty much how we do it in here in its simplest form.
Click to expand...

Do you know how to do this on Windows 8? I am a Mac user and my brother cannot seem to find the save folder. Is there hidden folders with Windows 8 or something?

But you definitely need to have the save v3.19 downloaded and installed correctly, and need to make sure you get that message that the save has been generated.
Click to expand...

Do you know where I can download this for Mac (and Windows 8 for my brother)?

And for gods sake... build a worker! ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks :lol:. After reading your comment here I did a brief search and the consensus seems to be worker first, city growth later (at an expedited rate).
 
The 3.19 update is the same file for both Mac and Windows. I have both a Mac and a Windows 7 installation. I downloaded the one 3.19 patch and applied it to both versions. You can download the patch from the "Patch and Update" area here on the forums. The link is in the Civ4 drop down menu at the top of every page. Saves in either Mac or Windows can be loaded fine in the other system. The only exception would be if you are playing a mod. Many mods use a custom dll. Due to the way the conversion to Mac was done, there is no dll in the Mac version. They put everything from the dll into the main program instead. Therefore, anything with a custom dll won't work on a Mac. If you are using unmodified BTS, there should be no problem if you are manually emailing the save. If it is not working it is most likely that he is doing something wrong when he tries to load it or has saved it in the wrong place.

The save folder should be in the CIV folder in the Documents (or My Documents - I don't know which terminology Win8 uses) folder.
 
Your save loads fine in both my Mac and Windows versions of BtS. I run the Windows version in a Parallels Windows 7 virtual machine on my Mac.

Have you tried doing this the other way around, and getting your brother to start a game? I suspect there may be a problem with your brother's installation. Perhaps you could get him to create a save using it, and post that save here for testing?
 
Hi again. I would like to thank everyone for the help so far. We have gotten past the hurdle of being abke to find and properly load the games we have sent to one another. The issue now seems to be that when I end my turn it seems to be perpetually "Saving Game..." and it says I have paused the game. My brother tried sending me a game and it said it was paused by him and i am unable to do anything (but it does load!). Does anyone know how to make this work?

Thanks again!
 
Post a save that does this and we can have a look at it.
 
ManAgainstTime said:
Hi again. I would like to thank everyone for the help so far. We have gotten past the hurdle of being abke to find and properly load the games we have sent to one another. The issue now seems to be that when I end my turn it seems to be perpetually "Saving Game..." and it says I have paused the game. My brother tried sending me a game and it said it was paused by him and i am unable to do anything (but it does load!). Does anyone know how to make this work?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Once you hit "enter" to end your turn, it will generate the save, and a message will pop up saying the save has been generated. Once you hit "ok" it will in fact look like it is paused on your turn. That doesn't matter. At that point, you just send him the file and he should be open it normally. Everytime a player hits "enter" and ends the turn generating the save, it will look like its paused... but the next turn generated will in fact load normally for the next player.

There is a known bug that is a problem for saving over files with the same name. For example, if you play a turn that generates a save for the next player, but then realized you did something wrong and went back to replay your last turn, when you go to generate the next save, it will ask you to overwrite the file with the same name. However, when you do that, it causes an error. When the next player attempts to load his turn with the overwritten file (the second version) it will say the game is paused and won't let him do anything.

The simple (and only) solution to this problem is... before you replay your turn, you need to go into your PBEM saves folder and delete the file that was generated by the last time you played it. Then you can replay as normally and the new file that generates will work.

Hope this makes sense... :goodjob:
 
Nighthawk419 said:
Once you hit "enter" to end your turn, it will generate the save, and a message will pop up saying the save has been generated. Once you hit "ok" it will in fact look like it is paused on your turn. That doesn't matter. At that point, you just send him the file and he should be open it normally. Everytime a player hits "enter" and ends the turn generating the save, it will look like its paused... but the next turn generated will in fact load normally for the next player.

There is a known bug that is a problem for saving over files with the same name. For example, if you play a turn that generates a save for the next player, but then realized you did something wrong and went back to replay your last turn, when you go to generate the next save, it will ask you to overwrite the file with the same name. However, when you do that, it causes an error. When the next player attempts to load his turn with the overwritten file (the second version) it will say the game is paused and won't let him do anything.

The simple (and only) solution to this problem is... before you replay your turn, you need to go into your PBEM saves folder and delete the file that was generated by the last time you played it. Then you can replay as normally and the new file that generates will work.

Hope this makes sense... :goodjob:
Click to expand...

That may very well be the issue where we have been trying multiple times with the same game name. I will try this.
 
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