Re: Pbem programming

From: "Vince" <Vince@casema.net>

Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Client for fantasy Wargame PBEM called Gondor

Hi Lars (and others for maybe others are also interested in this stuff !)

We're building a Fantasy Wargame called Gondor (www.pbm.nl no
we are not professional and are still free.. in the future we'll probably
charge very small fees like 25$ for a full game! to cover expenses).

We've been developping for a real long time and we just started playtesting
again. The Server side works fine, we've got  extensive mail support
(even giving people special email adress services in the game and such)..
But
what we lack is a real important thing in which I hope you might be
interested.

We still need a client !

Right now we're making beautiful turn replies in text (HTML is on the way)
but these are static. We ofcourse want a nice client to have the people
generate their orders and view their results.
We do agree it's better to make a client in Java but who wants and can do
that.
With a windows client we can make a lot of people happy.

Yes this way you won't realy be able to create your own pbem but nontheless
I think you should consider this. The game is really gonna be interesting
and we have an awful lot of potential players hanging around (already 175+
while we didn't even spread the word around much (this is the first post on
PBM news).
Oh and there is enough room to contribute to the game itself if you like..
designing better battle algorithms, spell systems, creating dungeons etc
etc.
Also creating a whole PBEM is one hell of a lot of work. believe me this is
not a hollow statement. it's true and even thinking you'll need loadsa time
you'll be spending more than double, thrice or who knows how much and
finally it might even run into the horror of not ever completing. We've
been close to it once when we lacked the time but we picked it up again and
it's going strong now.
We're looking for an interfgace where you display part of the world map
with settlements  armies, monsters and Dungeons. (there are tile components
for Delphi which could be used for this) A player can retrieve information
with this interface and place new orders. Moving armies around buying goods
at settlements. Attacking armies.
Behind the scenes you can generate a text file with orders like
MOVE ARMY 1 N N N N
ATTACK ARMY A1 P2 A3
CAST HERO s1223 d123 CITY
The players are now typing such orders in texteditors which is far less
attractive than a client ofcourse. But we also offer the possibility to let
you create the orders in another way (binary perhaps) as goes for the files
you need to retrieve the turn data from the player. We'll adapt the game
output to what you would like. Special build text files, maybe some sort of
database format, a binary.. we'll figure it out.
And I have experience with Delphi 1 so I can also help you out if need be..
I just don't have the time to make a client. maybe you have

Check out the webpages www.pbm.nl to get an idea.. maybe even download the
manual. yeah I'm busy rearranging the web we sent out the first turn of the
current test game last week. If you think you might make an client we can
ofcourse arrange a position in the game.. no problem.

ofcourse everyone who is seriously thinking about helping us with clients
can react

and no currently we have no openings in the test game (except for those who
really can help us ;)
you can however react to the pages and you'll be placed on a waiting list
People that somehow contribute to the game are given higher priority to
play the test games to make it a better game for others to play next ;)))

Vince

References

Pbem programming
lars_w@slas.dk (Lars Wiberg)
Wed, 10 Jun 1998 00:00:00 +0000