Network to PBEM?

[MarcinM]

I have a network game set up, and one of my players can't connect - I suspect his ports are blocked. I'm going to switch to port 80 and see if that works, but if not I'd still like him to be able to participate ...

So can I "fool" the game into thinking his turn occurred by copying his emailed .trn file into my savegame folder?

Any help appreciated.

[Ironhawk]

Pretty sure you can, yeah. Just drop it in there and see what happens. If you can arrange it, I would drop his turn in before you play your own turn via normal network play. That way you'll be sure to trigger a check like "turn submitted, are all the turns in now?", assuming something like that exists.

[Gandalf Parker]

That sounds reasonable.

You might also try ports 21 ftp, 22 ssh, and 23 telnet

[MarcinM]

Ok, turns out those won't work. You can setup the server, but you can't choose those in the connect screen.

Which makes sense, since ports < 1000 are reserved for system services http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif but I was hoping.

Back to the drawing board...

[MarcinM]

Ok, another question then. I don't want to delay this network game any longer, so I want to assign the player that can't connect to AI.

How do I do that?

I found this in the docs:
--closed X Nation closed X=nation number (0-79)
--easyai X Nation ai controlled X=nation number (0-79)
--normai X Nation ai controlled X=nation number (0-79)
--diffai X Nation ai controlled X=nation number (0-79)
--mightyai X Nation ai controlled X=nation number (0-79)
--impai X Nation ai controlled X=nation number (0-79)

But it requires a number ... how do I find this number?

[Gandalf Parker]

Once the game is started those wont work.
If you set a master password on the game then you can use it to go in as the player and use the options to set him to AI (or play him)

I havent tried assigning a master password AFTER the game has started. Ive been meaning to. If you try that then let me know if it works

[MarcinM]

Bugger.

Are you telling me there is NO way to boot someone from a network game once it's started?? That's ridiculous.

[Gandalf Parker]

There is if the game was started that way.
With a master password.

Whether it can be done after the fact, Im not sure. I could test a few ways. Or ask him for his password

[Graeme Dice]

MarcinM said:
Bugger.

Are you telling me there is NO way to boot someone from a network game once it's started?? That's ridiculous.



If you have the master password you can set them to AI, and they will no longer be able to view or play their turns.