PBEM setup and file format

[THH149]

My opponent has sent me 003.ema and I've partially setup my forces and saved the file as 004.ema 

However, after a while I've returned to my setup to continue the workand saved the new file as the 004 replacing the old, but each time I return to 004 it seems to have reverted back to the setup I saw in 003 seemingly asking me to do the set-up over again, and is beginning to be quite tiresome.

A workaround I've tried is to save he 004 as "....Setup" but the file reverts to a BTS format not EMA.

Or is the only way forward to setup my forces in one (long) sitting to get a good 004.ema or is there another way around this?

I appreciate any thoughts on the situation here.

Best

THH

[THH149]

Update to a solution for this issue:

- work on the file and save as you go. This generates a BTS file

- when youre/I'm finished wrestling with the setup/order etc, then hit the red button, this generates an EMA file which should be named as the next in the sequence for the opposing player to use in their incoming folder

Problem sorted.

[THH149]

Actually problem not sorted. I was able to create the ema file and send it to my colleague but when I received the file back to run the turn, half my orders were missing.

To anyone reading this, I would recommend doing the file orders in one session (however long it takes) and then send the file back after hitting the turn button. 

 

[Erwin]

I have found that if one saves a game while still issuing orders things can go wrong if on overwrites the same saved file name.  It seems very important to rename a repeatedly saved game.  Just adding a "1", "2"... suffix etc should solve this problem.

[Howler]

8 hours ago, THH149 said:

To anyone reading this, I would recommend doing the file orders in one session (however long it takes) and then send the file back after hitting the turn button.

I've not noticed this being an issue before. What I normally do is save as a normal saved game (non-PBEM aka .bts) which will increment the numbering as you've stated. Then work from this saved game (not the PBEM file aka .ema) in subsequent sessions keeping an eye out to reusing the same file number as the original saved game every time I save my progress. This way, it doesn't matter how often I'v saved, when ready to send back - it's easy to decrement the file number by one.

It's also been my experience that it doesn't matter what the file number is. So, you can skip numbers if you forget to decrement the number in the above situation.

I'll keep an eye for this as games in the series get patched to use the new PBEM+++ mechanism.