PBEM helper now available

[Fuerte]

The PBEM helper supports now SE4 (among many other PBEM games).



From the readme:

"Both Turn Based and Simultaneous modes are supported, and in Simultaneous both Host and Player modes. If you are running Host, leave the e-mail address empty, and set the host (and player) password in Edit F2. When all the player files have been received, the game status will change to Host. If you then execute Play F9, the turn will be generated automatically, and the status will change to Send (after pressing F3 or F5)."

Readme: http://www.sci.fi/~fuerte/pbem.htm http://www.nic.fi/~fuerte/pbem.htm

Download: http://www.sci.fi/~fuerte/pbem.zip http://www.nic.fi/~fuerte/pbem.zip

Warning: The SE4 support has not been tested thoroughly. Please send me bug reports and feature wishes.

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PBEM

[Puke]

sounds good, but i have not tried it yet. can some one tell me, can you run an unattended server with it that will generate a turn on a daily basis? if someone writes the code for a turn generator that will run unattended that people can just drop their files to, i will gladly throw up a server to run public PBEM games.

[Fuerte]

You can't use this program for unattended server, at least not yet. Unattended operation would require two things:

1) Do the Host routine automatically (generate a turn in Simultaneous mode). Now the program won't do it until all the files have been received.

2) Do the e-mail sending automatically when the turn has been generated.

Both of these are quite easy to implement. I will do it if someone requires it. But of course the full unattended operation requires some other things as well:

3) Process the incoming turn from e-mail automatically to the SAVEGAME directory (PBEM helper will do it, but not completely automatically, you have to Open the attachment).

[greghacke]

Actually, for those using OUTLOOK 2000, you can auto-save the attachments into a specified directory. It's an advanced rules option. The key is to insure the e-mails are subjected the same. For instance, if the outbound is Galactica24011, use this as the subject and have everyone reply as Re: Galactica24011 This can be matched and the files saved properly. I'll post the technique here once i get back to my Office2K machine

[Fuerte]

This is how PBEM helper works:

1) If the .PBM format is used, then the e-mail subject is always "PBEM file", and there is only one attachment called PBEM.PBM.

2) If the .ZIP format is used, then the subject is "SE4 file" and there is one attachment called SE4.ZIP.

3) If the file is sent as it is, then the subject is "SE4 file" and the attachment name is something.PLR.

In the first case, when the attachment is opened in PBEM, then it will automatically decompress it into the correct SAVEGAME directory. So the Outlook rule should just open the attachment in PBEM. There should be an option in PBEM to quit after the file has been decompressed into correct directory.

In the other cases, the Outlook rules should be used to decompress or copy the attachment into correct directory.

After that the PBEM could then be executed at regular intervals to generate the turn and send the e-mails. Yes, it could be done... the hosting and sending of ready games could be done at one hour intervals, for example, and the forced turn generation once a day, even if some client file is still missing.

The only tools that would be needed are Outlook, task scheduler and PBEM, with some added features.

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PBEM

[geoschmo]

If I understand this correctly you really only need outlook on the server that is hosting the game right? The players would run and execute their turns manually as always so they could use whatever email program they have.

The outlook is just needed on the server to automate the host portion?

I think this has the potential to make PBEM a LOT more common if the process can be worked out to automate the hosting portion.

Geo

[greghacke]

Geschmo:
Deda on correct. By establishing the rules in Outlook 2000, only the "server" would need outlook. When the file is recieved, a SaveAsFile custom command is run to save the attachment into a defined directory (which can be dynamic, so one host could support multiple games...) From there, the PBEM helper takes over. You could establish a Task Manager to catch it daily, but you'd get buggy if everything was received and the turn was processed early.

This will function for ALL pbem games that the PBEM Helper supports by the way...

Fuerte-
Don't know what you're coding with, but you can quickly establish a task manager feature directly into C/Perl/VBA as they stand now. Also, as the outgoing file is zipped and it's mailed through PBEM Helper, we have no dificulties there. The incoming files need to be recieved uncompressed for fasted support. Once they're saved into the appropriate directory, again PBEM takes over and you're set.

All:
I'm clarifying the SaveAsFile() for outlook 2K as I just got home. Once I can post it in text format, I will!

[Fuerte]

There is a new Version (1.0.112) available! It fixes many bugs in the previous one. I was too quick to release it I guess. I think that it works now correctly. It even has support for the forthcoming 1.33 Version, it can now start the game directly in the correct player (I have not tested it because I don't have the beta Version).

From the readme:

"Both Turn Based and Simultaneous modes are supported, and in Simultaneous both Host and Player modes.

If you are running Host, set the e-mail address empty, and set the host (and player) password in Edit F2. When all the player files have been received, the game status will change to Host. If you then execute Play F9, the turn will be generated automatically, and the status will change to Send (after pressing F3 or F5).

If you are running Player in a Simultaneous mode, then you must have the host e-mail address in the game settings. You should get it automatically when you receive the first .gam file from the host."

[Fuerte]

Anybody using this?

[Master Belisarius]

I would like to test it!
Hey Fuerte, do you want a SE4 game? We could use your program!

[This message has been edited by Master Belisarius (edited 04 April 2001).]