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pbem helper, again!


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Hi,

Does anyone know when to change to trust/fast mode when in a QB? I started a QB with a friend and named the file "2-name_001". The "2-" is the same as trust mode as I understand it. I buy units, he buys units, I set up, he sets up, I plot. At this stage the file number is 005. I send it to my opponent, he hits "play" and gets a grey message box that says that if this is a QB, he should change to trust mode in turn 5. At the top of the message box it says "turn: 5" so he hits yes and everything seems to work until I get the file (006) from him. I do my view and plot alright but the program halts at "skip view". The program can´t find the files 010 and 011.

Now, are we changing to trust mode too early? should we change in turn 5 of the battle? I don´t understand what the program means by the word "turn".

I hope anyone understands my rather confused explanation.

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As I understand it, you've gone too early. Don't switch to F&T until one of you has viewed a movie AND plotted (I find it easiest just to "edit" the file by pressing F2 before sending it).

If I've followed your synopsis correctly, your playing partner has gone a turn too soon and you're the one who should make the jump to light speed.

While we're on PBEM Helper, has anyone else had a "malfunction" whereby they're invariably kicked back to the desktop (with a message that the resolution 0x0 is not supported) after their opponent's movie is greyed out? It's no big deal - I just fire up the file again and continue to the natural conclusion - but I'm intrigued to know what's causing it.

Cheers,

Teddy

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Pesevere Lord Calvert its worth it.

I am thinking of going over to PBEMH trusted mode only apart from some v. old sparring partners. The pleasure in actually knowing you are going to watch, move, watch, move, send beats handsdown the will I move or watch e-mail.

If i ever go into a league I suppose I would revert -- but then just another reason not to league play : )

BTW I often run a lttle scenario like "A Deadly Affair" to get people to see trusted mode in operation. You can send it when you first start choosing your serious game, without fancy playing, and by the time you have done set-up and everything else you will be watching Trusted mode on your little demo game.

[ April 16, 2004, 07:19 AM: Message edited by: dieseltaylor ]

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Hi,

Thanks for the help guys. I will not give up on this because it has great potential, as I´m sure Dieseltaylor would agree to. smile.gif

Windsor, I´m sure you´re right. My opponent switched too soon (I´m afraid I told him to tongue.gif ). In the readme of PBEMH there´s a description of the order of the phases (view, plot, view+plot) and of who sends which file to whom. It states: "A turn is generated when there is a separating horizontal line". I think this is what pbemh really means by "turn". It also states: "In Quick Battles there can be two extra unit selection turns in the beginning, if both players buy their units, so the fast mode starts in turn 5 instead of 3". So, in a QB, the switch would take place not in "turn 5 (= file 005)" (as you would be led to believe from the message boxes), not in "turn 5" of the game itself, but in "turn 5" of the "pbemh order". The switch will be made by whichever player recieves the 011 file.

I will test this next time. I´m hopeful it will work.

Another thing, both my opponent and I have recieved a message saying something like "The file is for a different version of CMAK". It seems that by simply extracting the .txt file from the .pbm file and saving it in My documents\Pbem\cmak and playing it again, it works (strange...)

While I´m at it, I always get "E-mail adress different than directory. Do you want to copy?" when recieving a new file. And then after hitting OK: "DO YOU REALLY WANT TO COPY?". I hit OK and it works just fine. I´m just curious, different than what directory?

Ok, thats all for now, stay cool,

/Henric

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Just learnt today that you can you use the trusted mode, 2-, with the text files only and do not use the PBM native file. Brilliant - this was to accomodate a Linux user who did not wish to change his email program!

LordCalvert

Yes I get the different email address comment on some of my players -- I will work up the energy to look into it!

No, it does take place on the 5th order but things can be confused in non-scenarios where you start the game as 000 or 001 which does bugger up converstion as to when to switch. Basically whenever you get a movie followed by a move.

>"Another thing, both my opponent and I have recieved a message saying something like "The file is for a different version of CMAK".

I wonder do you have your demo version still lurking and that has not been disabled in your top section so it tries to open that first CMAKgame it comes to?. When you are doing it manually you bypass this problem!

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No - I get this from time to time - it't not the demo. In my case, whenever I see that I look at the actual .txt file, and find that it is less thean 1kb big. IE it got corrupted/not written properly. It is not "in the wrong version" (as the message says). It is completely fubar.

It hasn't been reproducible for me... it's encouraging to hear other people have the problem: maybe we will get to the bottom of it?!

Lord, can you confirm that yours is like mine: cuased by fubar .txt files?

GaJ.

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Hi,

GreenAsJade, yes I can confirm that it´s not the demo causing this "different version" thing. And it has happened in normal secure mode games aswell as in a trusted mode game (a scenario, not a QB).

I got the tip from my partner to extract the .txt file from the .pbm file (with WinRAR), save it in the My documents\Pbem\cmak-folder and run it again. That solution has worked so far. Maybe the pbemh buggers the file up when it extracts it from the .pbm? I too saw that strange .txt file only containing one line of text.

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Another convert! Unsolicited testimonials time

"This is so much faster now. Thanks for insisting, I really didn't look

close enough at my first try at pbem helper.

Now I just need to start thinking about my turns more carefully, rather than just staring in awe at the speed...

A recent Linux user who wanted to keep his emailer ---some months persuading

Yippee!

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