jshandorf Posted October 11, 2000 Share Posted October 11, 2000 Hey Steve, Here is a pretty cool thing you could add to CM and it doesn't have to do with graphics, AI, modeling, or any of that other crap that rubs your fur the wrong way. What would be cool to have would be a configuration for saving your files for each PBEM game you start. For example, when you select a PBEM game it would ask you for the directory of where you want to save all furture files for this game and all the pertinent information. Therefore when you go to load a PBEM game all CM asks you for is which PBEM game you wish to load. You choose it from a list and then CM loads the most current file, which can be determined from the naming schema you configured when you created the game. Something like this would be REALLY slick and as far as code complexity it is not that hard to implement, but of coarse there is always that question of time, right? Heck, if ya want, I code write up a design doc on something like this. Whaddaya think? Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chupacabra Posted October 11, 2000 Share Posted October 11, 2000 One point - How would CM "know" which game you were playing? I'd imagine that, to CM, one PBEM file is the same as any other. Input file, make orders/watch movie, output file. I think a standard Windows "save as" dialog box would fit the bill nicely. ------------------ Soy super bien, soy super super bien, soy bien bien super bien bien bien super super. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshandorf Posted October 11, 2000 Author Share Posted October 11, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chupacabra: One point - How would CM "know" which game you were playing? I'd imagine that, to CM, one PBEM file is the same as any other. Input file, make orders/watch movie, output file. I think a standard Windows "save as" dialog box would fit the bill nicely. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The only part you couldn't auto-mate would be putting the file in the right directory but when you get the e-mail you can just "save as" into the correct directory. Then load CM and select your game. Heck, we could go even one further and let you choose the option of e-mailing the file right from inside CM. It would be a simple matter of keeping the information on each computer of where each game is and where to load the files from for each individual game. Heck, now that I think about it you could make a centralized folder where you put ALL your PBEM turns. Then keep in each turn file a key that CM uses to index an internal table to determine what game this file is for and where to move it. So, when you load that game CM looks for all the files associated to the game you just loaded. It then moves that file to a directory where all of the files for that game are, or not! Since you could configure the PBEM game to only keep the last turn and delete the rest. The system could be real dynamic and versatile. But I suppose to keep the hordes for rebelling you could make this an OPTION feature, right? Jeff [This message has been edited by jshandorf (edited 10-11-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralsaw Posted October 11, 2000 Share Posted October 11, 2000 It is always good practice to use windows boxes for file ops, wonder if BTS kept to proprietary boxes to keep the atmosphere going or to avert compatibility problems with mac vs pc (any lights here BTS? ). The issue of autoloading the last version etc, IMO you can overwrite the pbem file if you want to, or keep the naming structure to something that makes sense, eg Scenariox-Allies-Round1. All this sort of pseudo-features and unnecessary smartness would not add much, would it? Regards the lot ------------------ My soldiers are regular, must be the fibre in the musli... [This message has been edited by coralsaw (edited 10-11-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshandorf Posted October 11, 2000 Author Share Posted October 11, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by coralsaw: It is always good practice to use windows boxes for file ops, wonder if BTS kept to proprietary boxes to keep the atmosphere going or to avert compatibility problems with mac vs pc (any lights here BTS? ). The issue of autoloading the last version etc, IMO you can overwrite the pbem file if you want to, or keep the naming structure to something that makes sense, eg Scenariox-Allies-Round1. All this sort of pseudo-features and unnecessary smartness would not add much, would it? Regards the lot <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The whole point would be automating the process and keeping it invisable to the user. So as long as you do this there is no reason to not add naming conventions and other features. Things like this, while not neccessary, add to the ease of use factor which can go a long way when you are talking about computer user newbies. Jeff [This message has been edited by jshandorf (edited 10-11-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralsaw Posted October 11, 2000 Share Posted October 11, 2000 Good point taken. ------------------ My soldiers are regular, must be the fibre in the musli... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshandorf Posted October 11, 2000 Author Share Posted October 11, 2000 I would really love some feedback on this so..... Bump. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMan Posted October 11, 2000 Share Posted October 11, 2000 I've suggested this before, errrr...so I'll suggest it again: The easiest thing for BTS to do (I think) would be to accept command line parameters to launch an e-mail game and to save the output. This seems like very little work for BTS (all suggestions seem easy to the suggester!). There are many people out there (here?) who would jump on this and write shells to run CM under which would do the automation that is being requested. -Kyle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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