Hello All,



I would like start a game with some friends who literally span the globe. 3 on the East coast, 1 on the West coast, 1 in Europe and one in Australia. Cleraly it is going to be very difficult for us to be online at the same time.



At the moment it seems that one of us (probably the host) will need to have his computer on 24/7 running the game while others log in and do their turns. Once a day, the host will finish his turn at which time the game turn will end with any player not manually completing their turn having their turn completed by the AI.



Question, is there a better way of doing this?



Any help is apreciated,



VonTragg

Doesn't the AI take over when people leave? This could cause problems as the AI does perform some actions even before the host ends his turn. AFAIK you will just have to try to set up some time when you can all be online at the same time. Besides, even a pretty short 80 turn game is going to take almost 3 months at one turn per day, and I imagine you can find even a couple of hours together in that amount of time.

Personally I think the method you just outlined will be disadvantageous to players not "live" at the time battles occur. What about picking a time that all are able to be on for an hour or so and do turns live and then save for next day or whatever. perhaps either early morning US west coast time or Late night West coast time.

But otherwise you the best not live option outlined.

Milaha wrote:
AFAIK you will just have to try to set up some time when you can all be online at the same time, and I imagine you can find even a couple of hours together in that amount of time.

I agree with this, yeah it may take a significant amount of planning and someone might have to be up at 6am but its totally doable if one really want to play one big game together... The other option is separate games with subsets of your group.

Thanks for the suggestions guys,



However most of us are family men with kids and find it difficult to commit to a certain time of the day on a regular basis, this is percisely why we've chosen a turn-based strategy game. We admit the fact that the space battles will need to be resolved via AI does give advantage to the player who is online. However it just means that this aspect will need to be incorporated into the play strategy. We also feel that if a player is unable to complete a turn within 24 hours then regretfully his turn will be completed by the AI with potential consequences. Lastly, we may be able to get online at the same time some Saturday night (EST) to complete the first 20 or so turns. The fact that a turn takes whole day to complete is not a deterrent, I've been playing strategy games with these guys for 30+ years (probably before you guys were born ), and most of them will spend a good hour or more contemplating their turn which precludes online gaming...



Thanks again,



VonTragg

I dont think you understood the problem with your approach. if a person is not conected at the moment you hit the end turn button, the AI is going to ignore whatever build queue they have set up, it is also going to immediately begin moving their fleets. If I connect 1 hour after you hit the end turn button I am going to find all of my fleets already moved by the ai, and none of the build queues I set up last turn still working. I have almost 0 control over my faction if I am not connected when the end turn button is pressed. Also, as to the hour per turn, seriously? This game is not *that* deep.

I wish you and your friends the best with this and if it proves acceptable please report back.

I do have a question though - it seems with 30 years of experiance at PBEM and similar types of games - have you tried other alternatives such as Aurora (a game spun off from Starfire) which is much more robust than this when you have the time and the desire for it. My only complaint with it is that it is the micro manager haters nightmare at times. But then some of the best overall games are...



Or using something like Vassel engine that has conversions for many boardgames.



I do admit that if it could be workable this game has a good balance of strategy (with cards, fleet builds etc) easy combat that does not eek your life away if not directly involved, and little micromanagement.



Again good luck and enjoy.

Milaha wrote:
If a person is not conected at the moment you hit the end turn button, the AI is going to ignore whatever build queue they have set up, it is also going to immediately begin moving their fleets. If I connect 1 hour after you hit the end turn button I am going to find all of my fleets already moved by the ai, and none of the build queues I set up last turn still working.

That totally sucks! I need to verify this as this would be a show stopper. I'm beggining to believe that I bought into the hype (and the $150 to buy 5 copies), just to find out the product does not satisfy our needs... It is turning out to be like a Science Fiction movie with great special effects but no script, to quote someone on the forums wishing new features "no PBEM, really? It's 2012 for pete's sake!". Dissapointing

Milaha wrote:
Also, as to the hour per turn, seriously? This game is not *that* deep.

One man's tea cup is another man's ocean... I admit that the turn should not take that long, however this style of play would afford each individual as long as they need to complete their turn without being rushed.

nosavynada wrote:
have you tried other alternatives such as Aurora (a game spun off from Starfire) which is much more robust than this when you have the time and the desire for it. My only complaint with it is that it is the micro manager haters nightmare at times. But then some of the best overall games are...

Thanks, I'll check it out

nosavynada wrote:


Or using something like Vassel engine that has conversions for many boardgames.

I've used Vassal before, I wasn't aware that it had a PBEM or a off-line option. It seemed that you had to connect to the server and play in real time. I'll need to check it out again.

nosavynada wrote:


I do admit that if it could be workable this game has a good balance of strategy (with cards, fleet builds etc) easy combat that does not eek your life away if not directly involved, and little micromanagement.

Agreed, this is why this game seemed so promisiong at first.

Just verified that Vassel supports email play. Would also recommend in that scenario perhaps Eclipse is a newer 4x space boardgame and has a Vassel module. In anycase, good luck.