Hardcore Gamer Resource Kit/Hardcore Gamer Resource Kit - Disc 2.iso/Pc/A_C/CNW110I.ZIP/PBEM_ENG.TXT

Text File | 1996-07-30 | 13KB | 288 lines

Conquest of the New World
 Version 1.10
 Play By E-Mail Instructions

 July 22, 1996


 INTRODUCTION

 These instructions accompany the version 1.10 release of Conquest of the New
 World. This file will provide you with a detailed description of how to play
 the game via electronic mail or any other off-line means of data transfer.
 This is known as Play By E-Mail, or PBEM for short.

 Conquest of the New World can be played by up to six people at once on any
 number of machines. Multiple players can use a single machine, if desired --
 this is known as "hot seat" play.

 This is a turn-based game. Each player makes moves, initiates combat, handles
 diplomacy, and does whatever else is desired. When all players are done, the
 turn can be "processed," and the new turn begins. Each computer independently
 computes the results of these moves and determines the results of combat;
 special synchronization code ensures that all machines produce identical
 results. This process minimizes the amount of data which must be sent for
 each turn, making modem transmissions as brief as practical.

 Players make moves one at a time, passing a data file around just like taking
 turns in a board game. Imagine yourself sitting around a table with each of
 the other players, passing the file to the player on your left each time
 you're finished with your turn. This file is known as a ".PBM" file.

 When there are only two players, you actually play two turns before passing
 the game on to the other player. This gets twice as much done for each time
 you need to pass the file back and forth. The starting procedure is also a
 little faster.

 Also, when there are more than two players, one player gets to play twice in
 a row. Each turn, a different player will get to play twice.

 PBEM play is identical to network play in all respects, except that combat is
 not head-to-head, for obvious reasons. The computer will play out each battle
 for you and determine the results. Since you can't battle other people
 head-to-head, you also cannot battle the Natives or the computer players head
 to head (it has to be this way to keep all machines in sync with one
 another).


 OVERVIEW - A TYPICAL TURN

 Playing a turn using E-Mail is easy. Here's a summary of the steps:

 1. Get a ".PBM" file from the previous player.

 2. Launch the program, then go to the Play By E-Mail window. Click the
 Process button.

 3. Play your turn.

 4. Go to the Play By E-Mail window again. Click the Create button and save
 the file to disk.

 5. Send the file to the next player.


 REMINDER - GETTING HELP

 If you're unsure of what to do next, Conquest of the New World includes
 detailed on-line help, Just right-click on any button in a window to get a
 brief explanation of its purpose. You can also click anywhere in a window to
 get an overview of the contents of that window.


 STARTING A NEW GAME

 To start a new Play By E-Mail game, one person needs to create the game and
 then pass the file around to each of the other players, who set up their
 player settings, give themselves names, and pass it on. This is known as
 "turn zero".

 When the last player is added to the game, the world will be created and that
 player can start the first turn. Each subsequent player will go through the
 same process. Even though the world is created separately on each machine, it
 will be identical. This saves a great deal of file transfer time, since the
 turn 0 files are very small.

 Here is the detailed sequence for the first player:

 1. Start up the game and select Multiplayer Create New Game from the main
 game screen.

 2. Just like a network game, choose the number of players, the victory
 conditions, the difficulty levels, and so on. Be sure to put a check mark in
 the Play By E-Mail check box at the bottom of the list of options.

 3. Click the Register Game button. This creates turn zero of the game, ready
 for each player to join.

 4. The next window which appears will be the Add Player window. The first
 player (you) should then choose a name, select victory point bonuses and
 abilities, and click the Add button.

 5. Now the game is ready to send to the next player. The "Current Game"
 window will be visible, showing a list of buttons with one button for the
 first human player and grayed-out buttons for each computer player. The game
 name will be in red at the top of the window. At the bottom will be a button
 labeled Play By E-Mail. Click it now.

 6. The Play By E-Mail window has two choices plus a Cancel button: "Create a
 .PBM File for Sending" and "Load and Process a Received .PBM file." Click the
 Create button.

 7. Now you'll see a window with the default file name, SAVEME.PBM. You can
 change the name if you want to, but there's no need, so just leave it alone.
 Click Create .PBM File to write this file to your hard disk.

 8. Now quit the game by hitting Cancel until you get all the way back to the
 main game screen. Then click Quit Game.

 9. You'll find a file called SAVEME.PBM in your Conquest of the New World
 directory. Send this to the next player using whatever means are appropriate.
 You can compress the file if you'd like, or UUENCODE or BINHEX it. It's
 always a good idea to use a file format that performs CRC checking on the
 file at the recipient's location, just to be sure that there were no
 transmission errors. PKWare's popular PKZIP program does this automatically,
 for example.


 JOINING A NEW GAME

 Now that you have a new game, each player needs to join. Since one player's
 victory point selections and Abilities are not known to the other players,
 each person must join the game individually. The turn zero file is passed all
 the way around the circle just like every subsequent turn. When it reaches
 the final player, the world will be created and the gameplay can begin.

 Here's what each player will do:

 1. Get the SAVEME.PBM file from the previous player. Decompress or decode the
 file and place it in the Conquest of the New World directory.

 2. Start up the game and select Multiplayer Join New Game from the main game
 screen.

 3. You'll see an empty list of games with a Play By E-Mail button at the
 bottom and the title "Forming Network Games". Click the Play By E-Mail
 button.

 4. You'll see a Play By E-Mail window with the top button grayed out. Click
 the second button, labeled Load and Process a Received .PBM file.

 5. This opens up a window with three buttons and the name of the .PBM file at
 the top. The buttons should be labeled Process, Find Another, and Cancel. You
 won't need the Find Another button unless the file name is wrong. Click the
 Process button.

 Note: If you see a message indicating that no .PBM files were found,
 double-check to be sure that you put the SAVEME.PBM file in the same
 directory as the game. Then check to see if it's the right time and date.
 Since every file you receive will have the same name, maybe there's an old
 leftover from a previous game. The window will only show .PBM files whose
 current turn is turn zero.

 6. When you've done this, you will be returned to the main game window. Click
 on the Multiplayer Join New Game button.

 7. Now you should be back at the Multiplayer Join New Game window, and you
 should see a game with a few players listed. Click the button with the game
 name on it.

 8. This brings up the Add Player window. Choose your victory point modifiers
 and your Abilities, then click the Add button. If you are the last player,
 the world will be created and you can play your first turn immediately. If
 that's the case, click End Turn when you're done making your moves.

 9. Either way, you'll end up back at the Current Game window, with a list of
 buttons for each player and a Play By E-Mail button at the bottom. Click the
 Play By E-Mail button.

 10. Choose Create a .PBM File for Sending, then click Create .PBM File.

 11. Now quit the game by hitting Cancel until you get all the way back to the
 main game screen. Then click Quit Game.

 12. You'll find a file called SAVEME.PBM in your Conquest of the New World
 directory. Send this to the next player.


 CONTINUING THE GAME

 Once all players have joined the game, they use the Continue Existing
 Multiplayer Game option from the main game screen. The process is the same as
 before: each player takes a turn and passes the .PBM file on to the next. In
 some situations, a player will be able to play two turns back to back.

 In detail:

 1. Get the SAVEME.PBM file from the previous player. Decompress or decode the
 file and place it in the Conquest of the New World directory.

 2. Start up the game and select Continue Existing Multiplayer Game from the
 main game screen.

 3. You should see a list of buttons with game names on them and all of the
 players listed. Click the button with your game name on it.

 4. Now you're back at the Current Game window, which lists the names of all
 of the players. Click the button with your name on it. Play through your
 turn, and click End Turn when you're done.

 5. In a two-player game, you'll get to play two turns in a row before you
 need to send the file back to your opponent. The game will automatically
 process your turn and put you back into the game.

 In a three- or more player game, you'll play one turn and be back at the
 Current Game window. But, if you're the last player to complete your moves
 for this turn, the game will process the turn and take you back into the game
 for another round. Go ahead and play both turns before sending a file to the
 next player.

 Click the Play By E-Mail button.

 6. Choose Create a .PBM File for Sending, then click Create .PBM File.

 7. Now quit the game by hitting Cancel until you get all the way back to the
 main game screen. Then click Quit Game.

 8. You'll see the SAVEME.PBM file in your Conquest of the New World
 directory. Send this to the next player.


 WATCH OUT

 Because E-Mail play offers so many options, there is also the potential for
 setting the game up incorrectly if you are not careful. Here are a few
 pointers.

 Each player should click Add Player on the machine that will be used to play
 the game. If two or more players want to play on one machine, they should
 both add themselves before passing the file on to the next player. But you
 should not try to add all players when on a single machine. This will prevent
 the other machines from setting up the world properly.

 It's possible for one player to make a mistake and click a button belonging
 to another player when playing any given turn. If this happens, don't click
 End Turn or Save and Exit. Instead, use the emergency exit key sequence: hold
 down the Shift key and hit the Esc key. This will take you out to DOS or
 Windows immediately, and will not save any unsaved information to the hard
 disk.

 If you get into a situation in which you cannot get all players back into
 synchronization using email, you can send the entire set of game files to
 each player. To do this:

 1. Find out the name of the current game file. Look in your Conquest of the
 New World game directory for all files whose extension is either .TE2 or
 .GE2. Look at the time and date of the file. The most recent files are the
 ones you want. Alternatively, you can go to the main Continue Existing
 Multiplayer Game window and click the Delete button. Click the name of the
 game. The confirmation window that appears will show the file name. Now, be
 sure to click the Cancel button so the file does not get deleted.

 2. Every game consists of a pair of files with the same name and the
 extensions .TE2 and .GE2. Encode or compress both files from the machine
 which still has a correct copy of the game state, and send the files to all
 other players.

 3. All other players should decode the received data and place the new .TE2
 and .GE2 files into the Conquest of the New World directory, overwriting the
 old files.


 POWER USER TIPS

 You can also play Conquest of the New World using a "star" configuration:
  everyone sends their turn files to a single player, who processes the turn
 and then sends out new SAVEME.PBM files to everyone each turn.

 The only added complexity is that the one player at the hub of the star must
 process a series of PBM files using the Find Another and Process buttons.
 Also, each player must name the saved PBM file differently when sending it.
 At the start of the game, the members of the team should agree on a system of
 naming files so that no files are overwritten inadvertently.



 Copyright (c) 1996 Interplay Productions.  All rights reserved.