comments on JOLLYGUYS remark re: PBEM

[disorder]

jollyguy said --

Would be nice in the future for SC 2 if pbem games could be downloaded from a Battlefront.com server, which would issue an impartial report on reloads, then pbem games could compete with z-league games.

this quote was hijacked by me from the "pbem bug thread"

i admit my ignorance regarding pbem stuff, but i did try it out(PBEM) with "allied generals" a long while back.

i was just wondering about the possibility of this. has anyone ever seen it done with other systems?

as for the uploading/downloading this is a breeze with a simple little program like FREEFTP. it is often faster than e-mail! the program remembers your password, and does everything for you except wipe your brow when the bad guys attack!

so my thoughts would be that if the battlefront.com did donate a little tiny space to PBEM in SC2, heres what you could do(and couldnt do)

name a file dis/jj 1939 (avoid real long descriptions, and no need to number your turn) disorder versus jerseyjohn 1939 scenario

open freeftp and hit connect. upload to a folder marked "public PBEM" or something similar on the domain. 5 secs your done.

if the site was viewed as a "typical" ftp site, it would have a TIME of upload next to it. this is a normal function on most sites.this is what you would check to see when you went there. if jj had uploaded his turn, the time would have changed. as you are simply overwriting the previous file, you never have to worry about naming/numbering.each succeeding turn takes the place of the old turn.zipping up files..forget it!also neither player would password protect their turn. just leave it blank.

then you can download from the site directly to your sc folder in just a few secs.

problem #1 unless this was a special or password protected area on the ftp site,(for all who were interested in PBEM for example) anyone who wanted to could download the same file. this would not be a problem for me, but without password protection from each player,someone could download your turn # 54 from a dis/jj 1939 game and it could be used for other nefarious purposes (i assume). on the positive side, any time someone wanted to comment on a pbem game, they could download the actual thing and look at it themselves. almost realtime.

another point of needing to password protect the ftp area would be someone uploading a file to the site and OVERWRITING your current game, although i wouldnt know why someone would want to do that.

problem #2 the "reloaded 0 times" would have to be an addition onto the existng software, or an add on at the ftp level.something that could descramble the line on the .sav file that tells # of times reloaded. not knowing the possibilities of this, i wouldnt even comment, except to say that this "appears" to be a small problem to a programmer.(notice the APPEARS ). this RELOADED 0 TIMES would be necessary of course to keep it automated and to have no "human judge" needed.

as regards the acceptance of the pbem tourney on the ladder.....i dont know (and personally i dont care) if this is accepted on the ladder.this may be a future benifit, but was not my goal in discussing this set-up. it would however add a check to the pbem system that isnt there now. it would also allow someone to download and view games in progress (with permission of course!).

and wo to the man that has a file uploaded and next to it it says "reloaded 2 times"

anyway, just a little hypothetical stuff here. comments or problems not forseen appreciated(especially regarding similar stuff (if any)already used by other games)

[ June 23, 2003, 07:15 PM: Message edited by: disorder ]