More then 2 players in a PBEM Game

[HAL]

I while back (a long while I had asked Steve if they could allow for more then 2 player multiplayer. He explained that the coding involved would be quite extensive (which I should have known, but a man can hope can't he . Lately I was thinking that though it isn't possible at this time to increase the number of players in a Hot-seat game without a lot of work, what about in PBEM?

I think it could work without a lot of extra coding you would need a small amount of interface coding (one to add a way for the overall General to assign troops and of course changes to the way the text file is created). When a game begun the Commanding General from both sides would assign troops (with a password similar to the way it works currently in PBEM games) for the other Generals in the game (say up to 3 others). The commanding General would then email the file with the appropriate password to the other Generals whom would load the turn. When they entered the password they would be able to issue orders to only the troops that the commander assigned to that password. Once completed they would email the turn back to the commanding General who would run the turn to process it in the normal way a PBEM turn is processed and send it to the opposing force.

I know that they are holes, but I wanted to spit it out to see what everyone else thought. I also know that it would me a lot emailing back and forth to complete one turn, but I think it would be worth it. I as mentioned before I think one of the biggest things in a game like Combat Mission is need to coordinate with subordinate commanders to accomplish a battle plan.

Now mind you I know that this feature probably wouldn't make it into the game at this point, but maybe as an add-on.

Hal

[Compassion]

I think that's a pretty cool idea but if it's too difficult to do coding wise for the game, I do't thikn it really makes a difference between mail and hotseat play. It's not the interface that would be the problem. You are talking about making multiple teams, but some are advisarial and some aren't...

[EScurlock]

There may be a work around for this. Assign units to each team member. The team member plots the movement for units assigned to him only. I realy think this much should be manageable by agreement, and no coding should be required. He then saves the game (alt-s) and e-mails the game to the next player. The last team member finishes the turn and ships it to the opposing team.

This is not a fool proof work around under the CM method of handling PBEM games. The game saves as a "cmb" file when you use the (alt-s) function, not as an email text file. This opens a big loophole for cheating, but if you really want to do team play this will get the job done.

Speaking of loopholes did BTS fix the settings cheat for PMEM? I hope people will not be able to turn FOW on and off at will for e-mail games.

------------------

He who gets there the fastest with the mostest wins.