VDP E-Game #4

[kirkh]

Are we just gonna declare this game dead and try something else?

[Orion]

We could always consider the players who can't continue as escaped and finish the fight.

[kirkh]

That would be far easier than starting from scratch. I second the recommendation.

[kirkh]

Unfortunately there are three Germans against two Allies and it would be one of the Allies that would be "escaping". Since we're only in turn one I don't know if the sole remaining Ally would want to go up against three enemies. We may have to start again from scratch, or I can do the flip-flop I was gonna originally do, become an Ally, and we can restart the current game since we were only in the middle of turn one anyway.

[bergovoy]

Let's do that Kirk, and get it going, hopefully Vassal will be come compatable with Vista someday

[kirkh]

That would be fine by me. We just need the games coordinator (Andy) to decide that's what he wants to do.

[kirkh]

Is this game dead? With Andy's concurrence (he's the games coordinator) I say we declare it so. On a personal note I'd really like to partake of another e-game as a player so in that light - is there anyone out there that might like to run an e-game?

[AP]

My email got wiped completely a few weeks back, so I dont have any of the data. I would be happy to run it if all 4 players still wanted to play it, otherwise it may be best to just start a new game.

[kirkh]

Currently the four remaining players consist of one Ally and three Germans. I'd recommend either I switch sides (as was the case when we were first organizing the game) or we just start over again.

[hdrestr]

Hello all,

I would like to play in the e-game if it gets restarted. I'd just need to know what the S.O.P. is for e-games. Thanks!

-herm

[kirkh]

Herm - There are just a couple things to know regarding e-games. The first is that a coordinator does all the dice rolling. Each player provides their moves and then the coordinator (who does not play in the game himself) rolls for shooting, damage, etc. The way the players provide their moves is a feature of VASSAL that's pretty nice. When it's your turn you click the "begin logfile" button and what that does is esentially start recording everything you do after that point. You name the file and then perform your move. The logfile also remembers anything you type into the text box. Then, once you're done with your move you hit "end logfile" and then e-mail the move to everyone involved in the game.

Here's a brief example of a typical e-game turn. Let's say there are four players (players A, B, C, and D) and the coordinator. The coordinator sends out an e-mail with the gamefile attached as well as the turn sequence. Let's say in this case you're player A and your numbers roll has you moving third. The first two players do their moves according to the above procedure and mail everyone their moves. Then when it's your turn you open the save game file and then click on "load continuation" and open the file of the player who moves first. As you click through it'll show his plane move. Eventually his move will end and you hit "load continuation" again and do the second players move. Then when it's your turn you do your move per what I mentioned above and send it out to everybody. Then once everybody has moved the coordinator rolls all the firing, damage, pilot chances, crits, etc. and sends each player an individual e-mail telling them what they did ("You hit Player A and did 6 hits worth of damage") or what damage they got ("you took four hits in the side: E, T, LW, LW but had no critical hits"). As a player the only e-mails you'll send solely to the coordinator for the most part are what bursts you're using for your guns and which tailing cards you choose.

That's about it really. Once you get the system down it's fairly quick. In one of the e-games we've been doing roughly a turn a day which is pretty quick.

The only issue with e-games is that they're more long term. Sometimes people have business trips or go on vacation and may not be near a computer for a while so they can sometimes bog down. The beauty of them though is that we all don't have to be sitting at our computers at the same time and one can perform their moves at their leisure. In that way people from all over the world can participate in e-games because what time zone you're in no longer is an issue.

I hope I haven't scared you off with this long winded diatribe. I'm really hoping e-games catch on so that at any one time there could be a number of games going on at the same time, while at the same time we continue our online games Thursday nights. There's really no limit to the number of e-games we could be playing if people are willing to be coordinators. It's a bit taxing to try to manage more than a couple games at a time as the coordinator, but as a player it's fairly simple.

[Orion]

Kirk - If you have no objections I am going to re-post some this on ww1aircombat.com.

[kirkh]

No objections here. Feel free.