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This Game Needs PBEM! Please Tell Me It's in It!

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This Game Needs PBEM! Please Tell Me It's in It!

from Elemental Forums

Hi friends, this is my first post.

I have been curious about the development of this game since I read a loooong time ago that Stardock was planning a sort of MOM sequel. I have also been a Age of Wonders fan for a very long time an I had a certain influence in their forum while they were developing Shadow Magic (something Triumph has in common with Stardock apparently if the enthusiastic participation of the developers\staff in their forums).

My question is very simple but comes from a long experience: I know for a fact that PBEM would do a lot for a game like this to improve its longevity and success. Single player as good as it certainly will be, after a while will become previsible... and lonely. LAN or online Multiplayer on huge maps will become impossible due to its lenght and a Quickie multiplayer (as the one that is probably planned, from what I understand) is certainly fun but will spoil the immersive dimension of a game designed to be epic!

The best way to play multiplayer in this kind of game can only be PBEM. Believe me Age of Wonders Shadow Magic came out in 2003 and its forum is still as crowded as ever, mostly because of the BPEM community. Hopefully the game mechanics in Elemental will allow PBEM for this version or future expansion. Of course we all know that in PBEM the battle resolution between human players is automatic, but an epic map will still allow to fight plenty of battles against the AI to develop one's army before those confrontations take place, and the size and depth of the game will be preserved. Whoever tried PBEM in Age of Wonders, knows that playing one turn a day for months and months with friends is an incredible and unique  way to live an epic game.

:beer:

 

 

elemental
16,487 views 33 replies
Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

I am not familiar with PBEM, but from what you have written it's:

  • Multi-player system
  • Ability to play when you have time (no time restrictions)
  • Ability to save the game and restore it whenever you like
  • Combat is resolved automatically (no tactics)

Please enlighten me: why isn't it better than a saved multi-player game? You can set some reasonably long time for player to make his turn (of make the turns parallel), play whenever you both have time and then (when the game is quite long) save it.

I understand that having such option as ability to play whenever any of you have time is great, but no tactical fight...

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

You can fight tactical battles against the AI, but not against other humans.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting red1939, reply 26
I am not familiar with PBEM, but from what you have written it's:


Multi-player system
Ability to play when you have time (no time restrictions)
Ability to save the game and restore it whenever you like
Combat is resolved automatically (no tactics)
Please enlighten me: why isn't it better than a saved multi-player game? You can set some reasonably long time for player to make his turn (of make the turns parallel), play whenever you both have time and then (when the game is quite long) save it.

I understand that having such option as ability to play whenever any of you have time is great, but no tactical fight...

The other person doesn't have to be online at the same time as you to play with PBEM. They don't even have to be awake. As soon as you say "play whenever you both have the time", you've missed the point. The people who want it care more about being able to play on a schedule that simply doesn't allow for simultaneous online multiplayer then they do about tactical combat.

It's actually a very old style of gameplay, people have done chess through snail mail for a very long time. In a lot of ways its a great system. You can play your turn while having your morning coffee, then go about your day. The other player six timezones away can do the same thing, or play on lunch break, or in the airport, or whatever happens to work for them. There is a ton of freedom in PBEM to play when you want against another human that standard synchronous online multiplayer will never match.

Reply #29 from Elemental Forums Top

I prefer tick based PBEM hosts. By that I mean there is a central server which could simply be any one of the players. All players send in their turns and when they are all there the host automatically calculates the turn. You can also set these to automatically do a turn every X minutes/hours so that one person doesn't slow up a game for days.

Reply #30 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting red1939, reply 26
I am not familiar with PBEM, but from what you have written it's:


Multi-player system
Ability to play when you have time (no time restrictions)
Ability to save the game and restore it whenever you like
Combat is resolved automatically (no tactics)

Please enlighten me: why isn't it better than a saved multi-player game? You can set some reasonably long time for player to make his turn (of make the turns parallel), play whenever you both have time and then (when the game is quite long) save it.

I understand that having such option as ability to play whenever any of you have time is great, but no tactical fight...

You missed the point by saying "both", meaning two players! The main reason actually is that you can have LOTS of people playing the same game without anybody having to wait every time two other playes are fighting (and one single fight believe me can be long in this kind of games especially in huge epic maps like those tha PBEM allows to play in all comfort). It is a system that works very well as long as everybody is serious enough to at least try playing one turn every day. I had the same perplexity the first time I realized that, by email, one loses Player Vs Player battles, but in the end if the auto fight is well programmed like in Age of Wonders, I personally experienced it as a great solution.

Reply #31 from Elemental Forums Top

I think we can have a system that has all the requirements of a PBEM game without the need to actually PBEM.  With saved games stored on stardocks server it could send a notice through your impulse account when your turn has arrived.  You play your turn, it saves the game to the server and notifies the next impulse account.

Reply #32 from Elemental Forums Top

I think we can have a system that has all the requirements of a PBEM game without the need to actually PBEM.  With saved games stored on stardocks server it could send a notice through your impulse account when your turn has arrived.  You play your turn, it saves the game to the server and notifies the next impulse account.

R2P could have such a feature too.   This is exactly what I want, hopefully better than PBEM.    But turns are at the same time, so technically it notifies all accounts at the same time that the turn is over, and they can do their next turn.

 

I've said before, and I'll say it again.   We should have some sort of decent quality automation (see "governor" thread)  so that you can have the option set the big strategy pieces in motion, and then  you might not really NEED to be there every turn.  Because for some part your kingdom manages itself.  You should be able to queue up actions and all that as well.

 

Whats more, it would be awesome if the notification was able to pull the weekly status report from the game.   So when you were notified, it literally had the recent events listed, as well as perhaps a review of enemy movement or other issues the player may need addressing.    So like if a monster appears on your land, or a plague hits one of your cities, you're notified so you don't let your kingdom go to waste because you thought the automation could cover the bland research, production, and economy choices of the day.

Reply #33 from Elemental Forums Top

OOOh something through Ready2Play would be cool