Dear all,
I really want to play this game in a good PBEM mode, it shouldn´t be not so much difficult to program this, or I am wrong?
We are a group of six friends, all older than forty, some even in the fifties and we all have our work, familiy, sport and other hobbies. All this activities needed time, so it is difficult for my friends and me to be online at the same time for the length of a game.
Since month, we still play the fantasy game "Age of Wonders 3" via PBEM, but we all more like 4X SF strategy games (preferrable with modern technology/graphic/interface) and that is the reason why we would REALLY appreciate if you could make a PbEM multiplayer option available for this fine game!
And yes, I know there are e.g. "STARS!" and even the "Space Empires" series, but these games are very old with antique graphics/interfaces and it is not GalCiv...
Best regards
Andreas
Germany
My self and other wanted it ever since beta. I see it as a dream.
If we could not get one then being able to put passwords on in the set-up screen would allow us to make a round-robin of the save game.
What's pbem
Well, you might look here: 'pbem'
Play by Email
I think they said no to this back in Alpha. I may be wrong but pretty sure we are not going to get Play by email.
It would be really sad, if Stardock ignore this kind request.
In my opinion, it could be a real asset, if they would add this PbEM mode. I am pretty much sure, that some other gamers too would appreciate, if this multiplayer mode would be available. Currently not very much games have this option but especially for this kind of strategic games with a long term gaming time it would be very helpful.
I guess, even the multiplayer aspect in general could be pushed: Imagine, it would be possible to play games with players everywhere around the world in different time zones respectively different countries. An exiting idea - at least this is my humble opinion.
I remember that this was a topic in a dev stream and the point was that Stardock thinks the number of people who would use a feature like this is to small to justify valuable development time ... so if you are able to show that there are a lot of people who want this, you may change their minds.
However, as far as I know you can save multiplayer games - and a saved game is just a file somewhere. So I guess even if there is no button in GalCiv 3 you can work out a way to play by mail.
Also the question arises if you really need to be online at the same time? If you can save and restore a multiplayer game, maybe it is possible to play a turn and save it and than just inform the others?
I think you can put up a password to protect a multiplayer game. At least it was possible when I just tried it.
Man... STARS!
Now that was a game that I really followed close when STARS! Supernova Genesis was being developed. Was really disappointed when Empire dropped them. In todays age of kickstarter I'm sorta shocked that they have not tried to reboot the game...
This exactly is the reason I rise this topic in the forum! I hope, some gamer more read this request and show their interest respectively give support for this kind game mode too.
Nevertheless coming back to your proposal to "save and send", I can give it a try. But of course it would be much more comfortable, if this would be an official game feature. I am not a programmer, but I couldn´t imagine, that this addition needs soooo much developer time and capacity - but maybe I am wrong with this.
Yeah, still on my list of favorite 4X games. Followed discussions for a while but 2 Jeffs seemed to quit. There was a rumor that one of them silently continued Supernova on a seperate route, but never seen any proof. There is an open source clone project 'Stars! Nova' which ported it to Win 7, but unfortunately there is no progress after 2013. Since Stars! was allways (90%) multiplayer with PbEM there is no base for singleplayer. Game was no real eyecatcher, but it had one of the best engines for competetive PbEM play.
One of the best things about civilization was hotseat. I have friends who wouldn't buy games, but would play it on the same computer with me. I would like to be able to play multiple people on the same computer. Please incorporate hotseat mode.
@Westmark
Another option would be to use the savegame-folder as a cloud-folder (dropbox, onedrive etc.) - so the cloud would synchronize the savegame between you and your friends. If this works you don't need to send the file by email but just inform (by whatever means) your friends who is next to play.
I think for a game like this its honestly overrated, because game length can be in the hundreds of turns. Each turn wont take very long, and often very little to do in a turn. Imagine waiting on a friend to complete his turn, and his turn consists of "next turn" button.
It was useful in a game like AoW III, because very often a turn there could take up to 30 minutes to complete, so it made a lot more sense in that environment.
I think you could get a lot more mileage just by scheduling time to play, even if only for an hour, you will likely get several turns in.
When I did some PBEM with Civilization, the technique was to schedule time to get together on chat and pass the file around, especially during the early rounds, which have much less micromanagement. As the turn time lengthened, we moved to strictly PBEM. It sped up the whole process immensely. With today's cloud file services, passing a file around becomes even easier during a chat session. When the game gets slower, you should be able to email one another the link to your completed turn and simulate PBEM nicely. Yeah, it's not as automagic as a real PBEM interface, but sending a quick email or even a "ur trn" text is not that terrible a burden if you are truly serious about asynchronous play.
First; In our group not all are so fast with their turns and like to check and countercheck twice, what they do.
Second: It is still necessary, that all players are logged in at the same time, even if the waiting time is maybe not soooo long, with five peoples to go before its your turn again it is still some wasted time.
But try to save the turn and send it around is maybe - even if it is not very comfortable - at least a solution! But I still would like that it is solved ingame and don´t want to have a "jury rig" way of play instead...
For those of us on tight schedules and one turn a night is all the time we have then pbem is great
Try this - old style PBEM, the game has been running since Jan 2015:
http://galaxy.magix.net/public/
***
For those whole ever played Galaxy* games (PBEM).For those, who like Master Of ORION-ish games...The game is turn based, i.e. the game server makes a turn, sends you a report, you analyse the report using an existing Report Viewer application, create your orders and send them back to the server. It reminds a chess game, but you play against many other players at the same time. The game server simulates an expanding universe with already thousands of star systems and a number of races. Some of the races are ruled by the real human players, some - by the server (AI nations). You may join as a new race (or nation). In this case you will be placed in some sector of an existing galaxy, having just one planet and some initial resources to start. Then you will try to research and occupy the nearby systems, design and build various ships, negotiate with your neighbours... You also may join to an existing race which has no owner. Your goal in the game is to dominate in your galaxy, become a Master or even an Emperor of the Galaxy. To achieve that you need to defeat your neighbours and expand colonizing more and more star systems. You need to build up a strong economy and powerful fleet. Even if you have succeeded in your goal and eliminated all the opponents in your galaxy, the game isn't over for you if you want to continue. You can explore the space, find another galaxy and invade it... The Universe is unlimited. Currently it has 3 galaxies and more than 4000 star systems. The Universe is expanded when necessary to fit new races. Every turn thousands of ships are being built, traveling in different destinations, clashing in hundreds battles and being destroyed. Every turn tens systems get colonized, or invaded or bombed out. It's always something going on... The main features:- unlimited number of players- unlimited Universe- possibility to design your own ships with different components (lasers, cannons, shield,...)- lots of automation to make your race manageable when it grows up- existing GUI to view reports and prepare orders- rich set of commands- never ends: players can join/quit any time- galaxy aristocracy - climb up to be a King- and lots more. Please visit http://galaxy.magix.net/public/ for details
Dear Dumas99999,
good point, thank you for your proposal of this game.
I will check it and maybe give it a try.
Years back I had a group of friends who would get together weekly for years. We would sit around a table and play Empire Deluxe in hotseat mode on a laptop for hours, drinking beer and yucking it up. Don't think we ever finished a game, but we didn't care. It was more about the social aspect of laughing and watching each other's faces when they'd lose their battleship.
I miss hotseat mode.
Me to. Mine was civilization 3 and 4.
I used it for Space Empires V.
I would love to see Hotseat for this game, looks like it would be simple enough to add.
If we could password protect our race then we could setup a round robin game emailing the save game around.
Alas I do not see this happening either.
At one time they said the Pbem and hotseat people were not enough to offset the cost of the development so I gave up. A shame for I would have liked to play others the pbem way.
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