PBEM, OnLine & FAQ Tips wanted

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PBEM, OnLine & FAQ Tips wanted

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PBEM, OnLine & FAQ Tips wanted - 11/8/2001 9:38:00 PM

Larry Holt

Posts: 1969
Joined: 3/31/2000
From: Atlanta, GA 30068
Status: offline

Ahh, soccer season is over here (thats football to the rest of the world & yes we do play it here) and I have finished compiling WB's scenario design document so I have the time to work on updating my tactics guide. I have already done improvements (ran a spell checker added some graphics to illustrate tactical drills) as well as added new sections on C&C, FAQ, game & game engine mechanics, etc.) I would like to add in tips on PBEM and Online. Primarily I would like to focus on the mechanics, how do you resync online games, PBEM with different OOBs, etc. I do not think the tactics are really that much different with these two means but the mechanics certainly are. Please provide me with your tips that will help make the game more enjoyable to play and help newbies overcome the hicups that you already know how to. Secondly I am adding a FAQ, how do I load two units onto a truck, etc. Again this is primarily a mechanics of the game play thing. I have searched the threads for keyword "How" for the last 6 months so I have those. Does anyone have something else that they would like to share? If all goes well this will be out in a week or two. My dryer died so I have to be home to wait for the repairman and I can do a lot then. Question though, the dryer is Swedish and its been broken for 2 weeks waiting for parts from Sweden. What do you Swedes have against me?

I was up to 2AM last night recreating half a page of lost FAQs

but its really fun doing this. If anyone has any other ideas on what to include or if anyone wants to write a section & see you name in lights (or at least HTML) let me know.

_____________________________

Never take counsel of your fears.

Post #: 1

- 11/8/2001 10:24:00 PM

Mikimoto

Posts: 511
Joined: 11/6/2000
From: Barcelona, Catalunya
Status: offline

Hi Larry. Perhaps the most important thing playing PBEM is that you must buy more recon assets than normally, because you can't check enemy movement (in the replay VCR) and you want to track where are enemy troops. Uh, well, perhaps most important thing is to agree with your opponent about force composition to buy and type of battle to fight...

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Desperta ferro!
Miquel Guasch Aparicio

(in reply to Larry Holt)

Post #: 2

- 11/9/2001 12:43:00 AM

skukko

Posts: 1928
Joined: 10/24/2000
From: Finland
Status: offline

Onliner: send your OOBs to starter, or he sends to you. Otherwise game can crash to desktop at the first handshake. And for saved game: Host sends savve-file to other, otherwise can cause crash to desktop. Played, saved in 7.11beta. mosh

_____________________________

salute

mosh

If its not rotten, shoot again

(in reply to Larry Holt)

Post #: 3

- 11/9/2001 12:57:00 AM

Redleg

Posts: 1805
Joined: 5/23/2000
Status: offline

There has been much written on these topics in the Combat Command forum from a while back that may be useful. IMO, strategy and tactics in pbem and on-line are very different than playing v the so-called AI. As Stukko says, OOBs are critical. When people mess with their OOBs, they no longer work pbem or on-line unless you can find someone who is willing to change OOBs for a battle. Both players must have exactly the same scenario in order to play on-line. Critical or you get crashes. Now that Combat Net is workable again, it is far easier to set up an on-line game from there than attempting to do this via email, telephone, ICQ. Online is very tough without reliable, high speed transmission. Online plays much more smoothly and quickly with opfire turned off. It will often take 2-3 hours to play even a small battle online so players must plan for it. 3-4 player battles online is, without a doubt, the most fun (and difficult to set up) form of SPWAW play I have ever experienced. Coordinating between team members is just great! Finally. If scenarios are to be used, they should be selected with care. The typical AI scenario will not work well online because of balancing issues. Player coordination should include looking at these battles beforehand to see if they are amenable to online play. We need lots of scenarios designed expressly for on-line play.

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(in reply to Larry Holt)

Post #: 4

- 11/9/2001 1:26:00 AM

ruxius

Posts: 909
Joined: 5/5/2000
From: ITALY
Status: offline

When playing SECURE GAMES ...
-Especially within tournaments-
A master who set a human vs human battle and send the game's files to player1 for him to play them against player2 (the master is meant to be out of the competition he is a third fellow) often causes a PLAYER's installation OOB corruption..
this may bring to one player unable to load
game files during a PBEM session...from which turn this happens is unpredictable..
but that battle is over...
The only way to handle this problem is (as Paul Vebber suggested to me )
a) to choose to save the game and exit...
b) ALT+TAB to look for the game-files'
timestamp..if it differs for at least one minute (file .cmt is out from this checking)
the files are ok ! go back to SPWAW and press the end of turn..now you can proceed your PBEM session as usual.. c) If something is wrong you have to go back , reload SPWAW and try it again..Paul said you will not need more than one times to repeat it ..

_____________________________

Italian Soldier,German Discipline!

(in reply to Larry Holt)

Post #: 5

- 11/9/2001 1:47:00 AM

sebagonzalez

Posts: 156
Joined: 9/11/2001
From: Uruguay
Status: offline

As in most turn based games, with a 56K conn you have more than suficient speed to aford an online game. I have been playing tyurn based games online since 4 years ago and 56K can deal with them without problems.
In fact, u dont need more than 56k to play this game online. I can tell by my experience when we played a 4 way, being in diferent continents, (Europe, North America and south America), all with 56k and with not problem at all in the 18 turns.
Of course, the faster the conn is, the less lag u will have, but 56K, is more than enough, and from this speed over, is over, over, over enough.
This is just to make people leave the prejudices that with their 56K conn they cant play this game, maybe cause ther experience they had playing other kind of games, specialy real time ones where u need a fast conn or the game can become the personification of Lag.
Now a Tip:
In my experience, i used Combat Net for launching the games, and it has many problems that make some times people lost conn in middle of a game, though you can save the game, is very annoying.
So after i started to use Combat Net as just a meeting point where we share IP�s, then i had no problems since then with disconections.
Thats all by now, i will post anything more as long as i remember.

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Mierda....y ahora...que corno hago?

(in reply to Larry Holt)

Post #: 6

- 11/9/2001 2:49:00 AM

tracer

Posts: 1865
Joined: 11/22/2000
From: New Smyrna Beach, FL USA
Status: offline

Learned this tip from Skukko: If its a non-league/ladder game, don't forget about the 'reinforcements' button on the headquarters screen. You get 20% of your original buy points, but 1/2 of these points are added to your opponents score (not a big problem in a win/lose single battle, but may affect league standings). Also remember these units appear at the map edge, so make sure that they can either fight from there (arty), or they're speedy enough to reach the front lines in time.
These units will have 'AUX' in their on-screen descriptions.

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Jim NSB