How does PBEM work - exactly?

[dumbluck]

Have you checked out PBW2? It handles all the file transfers for you, and SJ has created an auto-hosting program that will automatically run the turn once they've been uploaded to PBW2 (sorry, no link for that one). Also, keep in mind that PBW2 is still in beta, so there may still be a few minor hiccups. Fyron has been good at jumping on those, though.

[Arralen]

Sadly, PBW2 does not work within a LAN (without accessing internet), and TCP/IP game doesn't as well, so a friend of mine is bugging me to make some script to automate the file transfer & turn generation ...

[Suicide Junkie]

PBW2 is independent of the LAN.

But in the case of a LAN and scripting:
Host:
- Make a shared folder for transfers.
- Script:
1) Wait for all PLR files to appear in the shared folder
2) Copy files to SE5 savegame folder (and archive old PLRs before deleting them from the save folder)
3) Run SE5 (with command line parameters as explained here
4) Copy results to shared folder
5) goto 1

Clients:
- Script:
1) Wait for new files in the shared folder
2) Copy files to SE5 savegame folder
3) Wait for PLR in savegame folder
4) Move PLR to shared folder
5) Wait for PLR to disappear from shared folder
6) Goto 1


You may want to use some dummy files to indicate when the copied files are finished so that the clients don't try and grab them before you've finished writing a big CMB or something.



OR


You can not worry about writing all that and make use of the existing infrastructure