Guide to PBEM’s

St Leo · October 29, 2002, 16:07

Guide to PBEM’s

V1.1.1
By
Henrik Lohmander and R.A. Prucknicki

Introduction:

As the name implies, this is a guide describing how to play and start Civ II PBEM’s, it also tries to cover the basic rules of conduct and ethics of PBEM’s.
PBEM stands for “Play By Email”, and is basically a way of playing long games of Civ II multiplayer without all the players having to be online several hours at the same time.
To play a Civilization II PBEM you are going to need the “MGE”, or “Multiplayer Gold Edition” of Civilization II, as well as a good scenario for multiplayer games (it is possible to play normal games of Civ II in PBEM’s but generally a scenario is used), a scenario is suitable for Multiplayer games if it has several playable civs, the reason for this is simple: as many playable civs as there is in the scenario, there can be human players.
Thus Red Front is not a good scenario for PBEM as the only playable civ is the Russians, while Hellas, with 6 Playable, rather balanced, Greek city-states, is very suitable.

Getting Started:

First of all you should start Civ II. ;-)
Then chose: "Multiplayer Game" in the first dialogue box and "TCP/IP Game" when the game asks for the type of game. In the next dialogue box you should pick either "Load a Saved Multiplayer Game", "Start a New Multiplayer Game" or "Begin Scenario" depending on if you are starting a new game or loading a saved game to play your turn.
If you are going to start a new PBEM game, select "Begin Scenario" or "Start a New Multiplayer Game" (depending on if you are going to play a Scenario PBEM or a Normal Civilization Game PBEM). After this you select the scenario you want to play and/or the settings you prefer, PBEMs are generally played on the "Prince" difficulty level since it wont give bonuses to the civs which are controlled by AI (this means that units belonging to other civs wont get bonuses when one of the human players is playing his turn). The next dialogue box should be titled: "Select Multiplayer Features",
as long as the "Kill Civilization on Retirement" option isn’t toggled, you can do pretty much whatever you want here (as long as all players agree to these features).
Now you should pick the turn Time Limit, which obviously should be set to "Unlimited".
You can then enter your Net Name, the Game Name and your IP, anything will do here, as this wont affect the game in any way at all (it wont be visible to the other players).
Don’t wait for anyone to join when the game asks you to do so, as you will in effect be hosting a game by yourself, so just hit the "Start Game" button. You should then select your civ which must be the one that moves first in the scenario, in the WW2 scenario that comes with Civ 2, that would mean that the Axis player would be the one starting the game).

If you are going to play your turn in a PBEM already started you should select "Load a Saved Multiplayer Game" in the third dialogue box and then load the game that you received from the player moving before you (note: It is imperative that everyone plays their turns in the order their Civ appears in the Civ list! Otherwise players will loose their turn to the AI), as when starting a new PBEM game you fill in the "Net Name", "Game Name" and "IP" as you please, as they have no impact whatsoever on the game. When waiting for other players, you should just Start the game, just as when you are starting a new PBEM. Then you select your Civ and play your turn, making sure to keep in mind the things that follow. Generally the file (which must be a ‘.net’ file by the way, this is especially important for Mac users who need to add this manually to the save name, as Macs don’t need abbreviations to determine which file type a file is) is then zipped up using a program such as WinZip (for PC users) or ZipIt (for Mac users), and then BOTH posted to a forum (usually along with a small report or communiqué about your actions during this turn) as well as sent to the next player’s email address. This helps to avoid problems with people’s email accounts, which can slow down the game.

Diplomacy:

In the foreign minister dialogue there is now also an option to set your attitude towards other players, if you want to enter an alliance for example, both you and the player you want to ally with will have to change your attitudes towards each other to ‘Worshipful’ otherwise the AI will not accept an alliance. Sometimes it still won’t, due to your Civs reputation (The AI think you will backstab it later on) or because of the current power balance in the game (due to some unknown reason the AI is programmed to almost always refuse alliances suggested by the strongest or stronger human civs), but as long as you have an agreement with the actual player that wont matter very much.

Diplomacy is carried out in the game only after you have come to an agreement with the player you want to negotiate with outside of the game, via email, PM, or the like. Conducting negotiations with the AI controlling a player’s nation when it isn't his turn and he hasn’t agreed is considered cheating and will generally result in a declaration of war from that player.

The Legend of Cntrl-N:

Firstly, make sure that you have 'Wait at End of Turn' selected under the Game Options menu. This will allow you to manipulate your Civ after all your active pieces have moved. Of most concern here, is the inactive units.

When you leave units fortified inside cities (inactive units) during a PBEM and play your turn, you MUST use the 'Cntrl-N' (Command or Apple key+N for Mac users) command to cancel their remaining movement allowances (this command is also available in the “Orders” menu, where it is called “End Player Turn”). If Cntrl-N is not pressed, when the file is passed to the next player, the AI will take over your Civ and proceed to move all units with movement points left (i.e.: the fortified ones). They will generally move them outside cities and leave you quite undefended. The AI will also go into your production [queue] and change many of the things being built by your cities. To be sure, the AI will never make moves that would be remotely close to your intentions, so this must be avoided at all costs. It is a shame to have a game interrupted or altered because someone forgot to do this. It is of the utmost importance. If it is discovered that a player forgot to use this command, and more than one player has moved after him, it is the general custom to keep on playing anyway.

Password:

It is best to set a password for your Civ to ensure that attempts at subterfuge are thwarted.
The option to ‘Set Password’ can be found under the File Menu. The only thing to know here is that if one loses his/her password, there is simply NO WAY to return to controlling your Civ. You will therefore be forced to relinquish command of your Civ to the AI. This is a truly embarrassing thing to have happen to oneself, and it really hurts the game as well for the other players.

Punctuality:

While not really a part of the game, one should really not keep other players waiting without a good excuse and proper notice. Things come up, and Civ is not Real Life, but players enter into a PBEM wanting to move the game along, not to have it stagnate. This is a small, but important aspect and a matter of courtesy in PBEMS.
This applies especially if you decide to drop out of a PBEM, if you do so, you must tell the other players, so that they can get a substitute player or decide if the AI should be allowed to take over your civ. Dropping out without telling anyone is considered extremely bad form, as it will stagnate the game completely, sometimes even kill it, and players doing this will most likely be boycotted in future PBEMS.

Henrik · October 29, 2002, 16:43

Ehrm, could you replace that one with the text in this one?

There was an embarrising typo in the first version of this (which we corrected right away) which has been haunting us ever since (for some reason people keep posting the first version)

(see if you can find it)

St Leo · October 29, 2002, 20:50

CTRL+L? Tsk tsk tsk.

1.0: Of most concern here, are the inactive units.
1.1: Of most concern here, is the inactive units.

I've kept the 1.0 version of this sentence and corrected a misspelling of "queue".

Henrik · October 30, 2002, 03:10

MagyarCrusader · November 2, 2002, 16:45

Should that readme contain a link to download Xin's lazy civ?

Henrik · November 2, 2002, 16:50

Not necesarily, Lazy Civ has its drawbacks (negatively effects events (or atleast I'm told so), can change production for those not using lazyciv, mac players (I'm guessing I'm the only one but still) cannot use it at all).

MagyarCrusader · November 2, 2002, 17:53

Lazyciv has worked like a charm for me.

Xyvyr · January 4, 2003, 17:30

Hey Henrik! Being of the Mac minority, I was hoping you could help me with a problem with PBEM I'm having. I can DL the saved game of a PBEM (???.net), go into multiplayer, load it up and play it just fine. Then I finish my turn and choose to save the game. The suggested name is the title, name and year of my CIV, which I change to (???.net) and save. I upload this to the appropriate server, then my friend in Germany, a PC user, DL's it and attempts to load the game in the usual manner, but gets an error. We are able to play online with eachother, so it isn't a version problem. Oh, it's not a scenerio by the way - we're just in test mode as is! Any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Henrik · January 5, 2003, 05:57

Hmmm, hard to tell, could you upload the save for me to look at?

Xyvyr · January 5, 2003, 13:31

Ok, I'll attach it to this post. *staple staple* ok, there it is... thanks!

klesh · January 7, 2003, 18:37

I'm on a pc as well, and this is what I get as a message upon loading the game:

yaroslav · January 7, 2003, 18:48

Ummm

I've analyzed your file, and some program has added 128 bytes before the file game. Don't ask me why: I don't understand enoguh about MAC (have you any clue?)

Here I attached your file without the first 128 bytes. Please, try it

klesh · January 7, 2003, 18:59

Yup, it works now. Boy the Souix player is quite a comedian.

-FMK.

Henrik · January 8, 2003, 01:56

Incidently I also got the failed to load game message, did you try reloading from that file yourself?
I think something strange might've happened when you saved that game...

Xyvyr · January 8, 2003, 03:14

I can load that original file I attached and play it just fine. When I click on the one Yaroslav attached (thank you, very kind of you!) I get attachment.php, or I can drag and drop it to the desktop and it turns into go.php. I have Civ II MGE 1.1.1, running on a G3 with OS 8.6. I'm sorry, I haven't had a computer since I last built a 286 and it's probably just some stupid common sense thing I'm neglecting to do with this unfamiliar interface. I should apply the vast knowledge of the arpanet.. err internet.. to figure this out on my own as, I'm sure, many others have.

Henrik · January 8, 2003, 09:59

Ignore the name of the file he posted that's just a bug in the forums, load it as a save file and try it out (if necesary change filetype/creator so that civ will recognice it, it should be able to annyway though...) it should work.
As for your game I really cannot tell what it is you did wrong

I cannot load the file myself, Yaroslav seems to have found what was wrong with the file, but why I have no idea.

yaroslav · January 8, 2003, 14:55

Quote:

Originally posted by Xyvyr
I can load that original file I attached and play it just fine...

But have you try to download the file from here and play it?

Anyway, you file have a text like that:

..PBEMtest1.net................................... ...............Cv2NCiv2...................<...<.....mBIN.....................

[where .. means not printable character]

This text incluides both the name of the file and a 'Civ2' string. I don't how why you get this text before the file, but you must delete it in order to load it in a PC (and in a MAC, as Henrik told us).

Is Civ2 MGE 1.1 the last version avaliable for MAC?
Have you some antiviurs software (or something like a antivirus) that could include 'text' in the files only in order to 'vanacute' them?

I hope I could help you

Xyvyr · January 23, 2003, 19:56

Sorry, it's been a while but I broke free

Quote:

Originally posted by yaroslav

But have you try to download the file from here and play it?

Yes, I can play the original file I posted, and the one you posted with the same results.

Quote:

Is Civ2 MGE 1.1 the last version avaliable for MAC?

It's 1.1.1 - that's the latest patch available for mac, which works fine with IP games.

Quote:

Have you some antiviurs software (or something like a antivirus) that could include 'text' in the files only in order to 'vanacute' them?

No, no virus programs or anything.. the only thing I can guess is wrong is how the icon changes. The file you gave me has the icon of an Explorer text file, and is 44,544 bytes. The file I gave you has the icon of a civ net game, with a size of 44,455.. which doesn't seem right if you took off 128b. Huh - this is the info I get from using my mac's "get info" option on the file. I can play both the same.

Quote:

I hope I could help you

Thank you very much for the help you've given me. It's very kind of you all. I'll investigate this further with a friend who owns a mac also. Have a good day!

Henrik · January 24, 2003, 10:21

The icon thing is irrelevant, filetypes doesn't affect the contenst of the file (the reason it's different for the other file is becouse it's been edited on a PC and thus the filetype info has vanished and is replaced by the standard one (resulting in the icon changing)).

yaroslav · January 24, 2003, 20:54

Quote:

Originally posted by Xyvyr
Sorry, it's been a while but I broke free

Yes, I can play the original file I posted, and the one you posted with the same results.

You seem to be the only MAC player that can do that, I don't know why

Quote:

No, no virus programs or anything.. the only thing I can guess is wrong is how the icon changes. The file you gave me has the icon of an Explorer text file, and is 44,544 bytes. The file I gave you has the icon of a civ net game, with a size of 44,455.. which doesn't seem right if you took off 128b. Huh - this is the info I get from using my mac's "get info" option on the file. I can play both the same.

As Henrik explained, the icon has not influence.

Quote:

Thank you very much for the help you've given me. It's very kind of you all. I'll investigate this further with a friend who owns a mac also. Have a good day!

You're welcomed, as I'm concerned. Feel free to ask for help every time you need it

I suggest you one thing: download the file that I posted some days ago, load it on your civ2, without moving any unit, save it and repost it. Let's see if everytime you load a game in your Civ2 the text string is added.

Sorry, I could provide too much help as far as MAC are concerned. I hope we'll find the solution soon

Have a good day, as you said.

Xyvyr · January 25, 2003, 01:19

Quote:

Originally posted by yaroslav

I suggest you one thing: download the file that I posted some days ago, load it on your civ2, without moving any unit, save it and repost it. Let's see if everytime you load a game in your Civ2 the text string is added.

OK, I DL'd your file (pbemtest2.net), loaded it in multiplayer game mode as S*itting Bull, got the old game just as I left it at 4000BC at the end of turn. Didn't do anything but save it as pbemtest3.net, which is attached below.

yaroslav · January 28, 2003, 19:34

The has recovered the text, so I wonder if your civ2 introduces the text.... Try to download the file and upload it before loading in Civ2. I want to know whether is MAC OS or Civ2 which introduces the 128 bytes text...

Xyvyr · January 29, 2003, 00:00

I see what you're saying. Ok, so I'll go get the pbemtest2.net file you posted, that works for you, DL it, the UL it right back.

One thing first.

Much better ok..
I'll rename it to pbemtest4.net:

yaroslav · January 30, 2003, 17:58

Quote:

Originally posted by Xyvyr
I see what you're saying. Ok, so I'll go get the pbemtest2.net file you posted, that works for you, DL it, the UL it right back.

One thing first.

Much better ok..
I'll rename it to pbemtest4.net:

pbemtest4.net hasn't the text string... Ok, I don't know what it is happening to your file. It seems that Civ2 adds this string, but no other Civ2 for MAC is reported to have shwon a behaivour like that...

beingofone · May 9, 2003, 15:39

In the world of high stakes politics everyone ALWAYS answers communications, otherwise they would not be in a position of government.It may seem a trivial thing,to simply ignore messages sent by other players,but I dont think the full impact of sending multiple messages unanswered has been given the proper attention.That is with regards to the dynamic of the game. Some players always answer the messages they get.And it seems that some never do.
For example-you have been attacked by a ruthless enemy

.You dont know if you should negotiate terms or counterattack?BECAUSE YOUR LAST 5 MESSAGES HAVE BEEN IGNORED BY YOUR ALLY.

In the real world even countries at war communicate.If you have nothing to negotiate about with the other player then simply send a quick note to that effect.
If you were negotiating in Japan,say during the 16th century.And did not respond to the words spoken by a warlord-well you would be lucky to die quick.If you are in the same room with someone,and they ask you a question.do you just pretend the other person doesnt exist?
I find that I cannot enjoy a game where that communication doesnt exist especially when the platform of diplomacy is critical.
So please-IF YOU ARE CHECKING YOUR THREADS ,ANSWER YOUR MESSAGES.

ok-I am done ranting-lol

Cyrion · May 9, 2003, 17:33

I fully agree with beingofone: even if the answer is short, it is important that it is done!

BUT sometimes, you just want to check something on the file before answering, and then you forget to answer... I know it happened to me...

Henrik · May 27, 2003, 02:07

Quote:

Originally posted by yaroslav
..PBEMtest1.net................................... ...............Cv2NCiv2...................<...<.....mBIN.....................

[where .. means not printable character]

This text incluides both the name of the file and a 'Civ2' string. I don't how why you get this text before the file, but you must delete it in order to load it in a PC (and in a MAC, as Henrik told us).

Having looked at this again I know where it's comming from!

I have no idea why it shows up in the file though...

Cv2N and Civ2 is the filetype and creator code for civ 2 .net saves on macs, I have no idea why it shows up here though so maybe this isn't of much help.

I have still been able to use .sav and .net files and PC users have been able to use mine

yaroslav · May 28, 2003, 16:54

Well, I don't know why the Xyvyr's OS add these lines to the files... I don't know too much about MAC

, but I believe that it is not the standar behaviour

Henrik · May 29, 2003, 11:28

Hey also yaroslav, could you send me the source code for civdip, becouse I think I know someone who might be able to have a look at it and try to macify it?

If you don't want to part with it I'll understand though

Lonello · June 24, 2003, 16:15

Well, I've found 1 spelling error (getting back to the start of this thread

). 'but as long as you have an agreement whit the actual player that wont matter very much.' The 'h' has gone walking in 'with'. Do a get a prize now, Henrik

?

As for the guide, after "Multiplayer Game" I do not get "TCP/IP Game". I have the Ultimate Civ II collection... is that OK? I normally choose 'Hot Seat' and sent over the saved game to my friends. Bad side is, the one you sent it to can see into all your affairs. But it works. There's also Network and Internet Game and Dial Up. With Network, you can later choose TCP/IP.