PBEM game: Advice and/or recommendations?

[Avocet]

I would like to start a PBEM game in the near future. By necessity it will be of a slower nature (i.e. hopefully 1 turn/24 hours but maybe 1 turn/48 hours - I have a 2.5 day old daughter now, which just might cut into my gaming time )

Does anyone have any advice or reccomendations for making a successful PBEM game?

Thanks.

[Alneyan]

My own advice would be to have backup mail addresses to get the turns, as some servers (either when receiving or sending mails) have the annoying tendency of losing some mails. Even if your own server is reliable at 100%, the servers of your players could be more likely to have problems.

Two or three mail servers can do the trick, or perhaps having an automated reply when you receive their turns, or any other similar system. If you want to go with a heavy-duty solution, a FTP server is always available, though it would probably be able to stand on its own then.

Another idea would be to determine a standard procedure for away players, or players leaving the game while it is going on. Likewise, agreeing on what to do when a player will stale the turn may be a good idea. It is something I have failed to do in my own "Not Stupid Just Slow" game, and it is always annoying to have to take a decision in an "emergency".

A Last suggestion would be to have a fixed hour for your deadlines, for example 1600 (your own time). It has the advantages of setting a routine, and players can email you when they have not received their turns, two or three hours after the usual deadline. And if you receive all your turn files before the deadline, you can always run the turn in advance, while keeping the same deadline hour. The use of this kind of hosting is mostly for players with a strict schedule, and not having much time to play their turns everyday.

[Rowlff]

Thanks for the good advice, Alneyan. Sounds very reasonable...

I am currently thinking along the same lines as Avocet, with the difference of wanting to host a 'demo' game, to help myself and all the other interested players with their buying decision towards "Dominions II".
Has an 'unregistered' game ever been played before here? And does that make sense at all?

[Gandalf Parker]

Yep there were many in the first days of its release. It will definetly do what you want as far as sparking their interest. Especially when the game comes to a stop at turn 40.

Did you notice that there is a Halloween Sale going on right now at GamersFront.com (Shrapnels sale shop).

[PashaDawg]

Here's my 3 cents.

One possible way around the problem of lost emails is this:

1. At a certain time, all .2h files are due (let's say 7:30 am).

2. If some are missing, the host will send a general email to all players that so-and-so's game files are missing. The host then will wait a specific amount of time (e.g. until 6:00 pm) for the problem to be resolved. (A second special targeted email also could be sent to the missing player.)

This system would require 3 emails to be lost before someone's turn staled.

(I am trying to figure out a way that I, for example, could host and deal with such problems and still go to work during the day.)

I am concerned that requiring everyone to have backup email servers would be overly burdensome.

PASHA

[Rowlff]

@Gandalf: Thanks for the tip! I guess I'll take that opportunity, even before I get this demo game running (^_^)

@PashaDawg: You identified the problem... not many hosts would like to go after late players manually. After all, it quickly becomes a lot of work (and let's be honest - only very few mails get lost at all. The ones that do, are of course the important ones, but still I think the risk is negligible).
On the other hand, setting up an automatic PBEM host would be a fun project for me - rather than using email, people would log into a website to upload turns and get their results. Validation of turns could be automatic, there could be a little forum for diplomacy and trash talk, Users could start new games themselves, ...

Stay tuned! (^_^)

[deccan]

I've been toying with the idea of making a website for facilitating PBEM play. Basically modelled on SEIV's PBW system, it should allow the host to upload the current turn file to the website, and after correctly identifying themselves, players would be able to download their relevant turn files, and after doing their turns, upload the .2h file to the website. This means that all players can know who has or hasn't played which helps to create some peer pressure to speed up games a bit.

I was planning to do it with PHP / MySQL. Any one think this would be useful? I wonder how hard this would be. I already have a modded phpBB forum running on my website that allows photo uploads/downloads.

Edit: Sheesh, Rowlff beat me to it. Great minds think alike. Yeah, that's my excuse.