PBEM 5 minute turns?

[Destraex1]

Hi Guys,

I just annoyed a poor player from this forums because I simply did not have the time to allocate to PBEM games that are 60 second turns. Its just too much administration for such a small window of gameplay.

Is there a setting I can use to change turns up to five minutes or so. This way battles will be over in 12 turns instead of 60.

Thats 60 emails a game for each person (120 emails) if the game timer runs for an hour.

For every 60 seconds of play you spend probably 10 minutes taking the turn, another 5 minutes mucking around with emails and then days to wait for a reply depending on the player.

I am fairly busy and time is scarce. When I thought of PBEM I though, great a god send. An easy way to be efficient with time. No waiting for other people. Boy was I wrong.

I find that it is better to set aside an hour to play a game to conclusion than to waste countless hours administering 1 minute turns.

Am I missing a setting? Is their a five or even 10 minute setting?

I know this would mean sacrificing some flexability, but at least the game would be finished before christmas.

[Gekkibi]

Funny, because I want to have 15 seconds turns. It annoys me that you can't order your infantry to halt the advance if enemy artillery shells start to hit the ground in front of them. "Once more unto the breach dear friends", I guess... Same goes with indirect assets: You spotted enemy fortification, but you must wait 43 seconds until your virtual FO realizes he has a radio and can call an airstrike to destroy the bunker...

Edit: But I agree with you. It should be possible to change the length of turn. I prefer shorter turns and you prefer longer turns.

[beatmasta]

Hi Guys,

I just annoyed a poor player from this forums because I simply did not have the time to allocate to PBEM games that are 60 second turns. Its just too much administration for such a small window of gameplay.

Is there a setting I can use to change turns up to five minutes or so. This way battles will be over in 12 turns instead of 60.

Thats 60 emails a game for each person (120 emails) if the game timer runs for an hour.

For every 60 seconds of play you spend probably 10 minutes taking the turn, another 5 minutes mucking around with emails and then days to wait for a reply depending on the player.

I am fairly busy and time is scarce. When I thought of PBEM I though, great a god send. An easy way to be efficient with time. No waiting for other people. Boy was I wrong.

I find that it is better to set aside an hour to play a game to conclusion than to waste countless hours administering 1 minute turns.

Am I missing a setting? Is their a five or even 10 minute setting?

I know this would mean sacrificing some flexability, but at least the game would be finished before christmas.

If you don't have it already you should start using the H2H Helper for PBEM games. Saves you countless of hours of unnecessary hassle with the emails.

[Sgt Schultz]

No. There is no way to play more or less than one minute at time in WEGO/PBEM.

If you would like to play CM but have limited time, then RealTime play may be a better option. A thirty minute battle takes ... thirty minutes. If you suffer from high blood pressure or hypertension, then this mode may not be for you, since you will find yourself scrambling to keep up with all your units.

H2H helper and Dropbox will speed up the actual transfer process, but PBEM play itself is more or less MADE for spending all the time you may need to take care of each and every unit.

Play smaller battles for faster turn generation.

One file in the morning, maybe one or two at night during the week.

As many files as you can cram in on weekends.

A thirty to forty five minute battle will go by in a couple weeks.

--

edit - The player with the least actual RL time to spend gaming should always play Defender in a QB. Less to do once you are set up, so turn files are generated much faster from your end.

Play the movie of the turn before the current one over and over before the next file arrives to stay up to speed. It is a nice 1 minute distraction at work.

[Gekkibi]

...It is a nice 1 minute distraction at work.

Ahem... Lucky you.

[YankeeDog]

While I understand the desire to decrease the file upload/download, bootup etc. overhead, I don't think 5 minute+ turns would really work for CM in its current state.

A lot can change in 5 minutes in a tactical battle. True, sometimes the opposite is true and not much happens for extended periods of time, but even in WEGO I have had entire firefights go from first contact, though establishing a firebase, and then to final assault and resolution in 5 minutes. If turns were this long, the AI would need to be much more complex and better at reacting to changing situations on the battlefield, and the player would need a much more comprehensive set of orders to allow things like conditionals, SOPs, etc.

Actually, playing turns this long would start to become significantly more like programming an AI plan for a scenario than it would the current gameplay style.

Interesting concept, actually. But definitely not where CMx2 gameplay is at the moment. This would be a fundamentally different game, IMHO.

[Wodin]

I don't commit to any games PBEM as I hate being committed to a game, I hate having to wait for a turn, I then don't like it when I really don't feel like playing but have to as someone is waiting on a turn..so I stay clear of PBEM...

It's also difficult in some games to get immersed and really into it when your just doing one turn everyday or longer..

So to stop people getting annoyed and letting them down and no matter how great I think the game is I will not PBEM.

[Destraex1]

I have also quit PBEM so that I do not annoy anybody further. I am so glad this game has realistic time mode. I am going to have to stick to that.

If I had nothing else to do but boot the computer every morning and hang around for a few turns every night then it would still be annoying

P.S. Still tempted to try the head to head helper though.