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ORIGINAL: Dr. Foo

Bibbo,

Not sure, but PBEM might be impossible for this game, as your opponent can react to your moves during your turn. Therefore, it is not really a I-Go-U-Go type of game. If you send out bombers I can send out interceptors, or if you sortie some ships I can intercept them as well.

There would be too many stops in the middle of your turn just so your opponent can react to your moves and send the file back to you. Which is why they have introduced live Netplay.

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The trouble with just simply sending a saved game to your opponent is that World in Flames has dozens of places in the sequence of play where interactions between the two players take place. The decision maker switches back and forth again and again. The requisite number of emails is simply prohibitive. I'm sorry, but that is the nature of the game design. It was intended to be played face-to-face and so the designers wanted to keep both the players heavily engaged in the game, rather than falling asleep while their opponent ponders a move.

My intention to overcome this difficulty for PBEM is twofold:

1 - Create Standing Orders where a player enters how he wants to respond to a situation where he needs to make a decision in the middle of the other player's 'turn'. These would be hidden from his opponent. The computer would act on behalf of the other player (AI Assistant) following the standing orders. Furthermore the computer would immediately send out emails about the opponent's decisions and the execution of standing orders to prevent cheating.

2 - Enable switching between NetPlay and PBEM. The idea here is to enable the more intense interactions (e.g., combat situations) to be handled in NetPlay. Then land moves and production decisions that are typically done in batches could be handled as emails.