New: PBeM-Engine - "The Panama Gambit" (Beta-Test) (free, closed-ended, email, www, computer, modern, historical, wargame, abstract)

From: donotreply@pbm.com (PBM List Autoposter)

Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 08:13:05 +0000

Name:		PBeM-Engine - "The Panama Gambit" (Beta-Test)
Costs:		Free
Contact:		maxstirner@t-online.de
URL:		http://de.geocities.com/pbemengine/
Frequency:		Every 2 days
Type:		Strategic / tactical war-game
EEmail:		PbemEngine-owner@yahoogroups.com
Last-Update:		2003Nov03
Keywords: free, closed-ended, email, www, computer, modern, historical,
wargame, abstract

Description:

The objective of this web site is to document and accompany the creation
of a PBeM-Engine for the use at Yahoo! and other web-space providers.
Therefore the ultimate goal is to provide all members with an application
that enables them to run their own PBeM games at their own sites with
their own scenarios, maps, terrain, units, ... .

For this purpose, a number of games will be run in an extended beta-test
in 2004 for which we require players. If you are interested, please visit
the web site and join the discussion group.

Details:
--------

About two years ago I began getting involved in PBeM games, from typical
war-games to more complex economic and historical simulations. Although I
found these much more interesting and challenging than the typical online
MMPG jump-and-runs or ego-shooters, I was never really content with
playing them, I wanted to create my own. Being a programmer by trade this
seemed doable but I realized that there are probably many fine players out
there who would make excellent admins but are unable to get started simply
because they happened to have studied history, accounting or law instead
of computer science. So the idea was born to write a PBeM engine, an
application which could be used by anyone with average computer-user
skills to create an online game. After some thought, the following
guidelines were adopted:

- The application (engine) must allow the user to design and run a
strategic / tactical multiplayer war game online.

- No programming, web-publishing or advanced computer skills should be
required from the admin.

- The player (not the admin) should not be required to install any
software on his local machine)

- The player should be able to participate in the game using nothing more
than email (although some online maps and instructions will probably be
needed or at least of great advantage)

- The engine should allow the design of both historical and current scenarios

- The user of the engine should be able to define his/her own map,
terrain, units, weapons, formations and rules within a menu-driven
framework

- The engine should run on a typical Windows machine (Win 95 or better)

- The web-components needed to manage the multi-player game should be
created by the application and should not require any server-side
components (no server-side scripting, ASP, PHP or other in order to be run
on any free web-site such as Yahoo!)

- The incoming and outgoing mails (orders) should be handled over any
MAPI-compliant mail-client (i.e. Outlook, Outlook Express) and/or thru
online forms

- All more or less current browser types (IE, Netscape, Opera, ...) should
be supported on the client side.

- Although there should be no limit to the number of players, resource
management and speed of the engine is laid out for 50 to 100 players per
scenario

- The engine should be able to handle multiple scenarios and multiple
concurrent games.

- And finally: the engine should be and remain freeware (but not [yet]
open-source).

PBeM-Admin
PbemEngine-owner@yahoogroups.com

[ This is a new entry for the PBM List. You can find the list
itself, and instructions for adding games or comments, at
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm_list/ -- greg ]