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Old May 4th, 2010, 12:52 AM
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Jarkko Jarkko is offline
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Default Re: First time...Online...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Maerlande View Post
Personally, I prefer PBEM for large games that take a long time. It's especially helpful if you have iffy internet connections. Direct connect has one trouble. If your internet goes down you can't work on your turn.
Not true. As long as you have made contact with the host, you can take your turn off-line. Same as PBeM, but without the hassle of transfering files. In fact, doing direct contact requires a much less stable internet connection than PBeM, because you need to be connected to the net about 10 seconds at most (and that if you are sending your turns from a steam-powered lap-top using a wirelss modem that has an upload speed of about 100kb/sec; anything faster and you need to be connected for a much shorter time ) as there is no need to first connect to the E-mail service provider and then download/upload the turn.

Ie, connect to the host machine, after turn is downloaded you can exit the game. Get back to game when you have time, click Continue Game from main menu and select the game your are playing. Take your turn, click end turn when finished. Connect back to the host, you will see the message "2h file uploaded" (ie your turn was uploaded to the host), and you can again disconnect if you so wish.

Personally I have an old (Bah, steampower, what modern humbug is that? Mice on a cartwheel was enough to power machines in my youth, and they should be enough now!) computer running in the garage as a Dominions3 host for the games run on the Paradox forums. It can handle two games at a time (a third game freezes it up, and the machine is streamlined to only host Dominions3 ) so nothing stellar. I am pretty certain there are quite a few such "garage machines" hosting Dominions3 all over the world, not to mention Gandalf Parkers excellent service , so I would dare to say *most* MP games actually are played as direct connect games. However, here on this forum, PBeM is the standard for longer lasting games, and that is due to the excellent service provided by Llamabeast and his Llamaserver

I like Llamaserver PBeM games (especially the reminder e-mails Llamaserver is sending me when I am about to stall are golden ), but non-Llamaserver PBeM games are not that hot IMO. Direct connect games are just so fast and hassle-free to handle compared to PBeM games in general.
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