Clairfying multiplayer

[Sardia]

What's the best way to play turned based multiplayer? I'm looking at it right now and it seems very complicated. Or just multiplayer in general.

[Fyron]

http://www.pbw.cc takes most of the hassle out of the system.

[Suicide Junkie]

Click to upload your orders (PLR), click to download your games (.GAM), automagic processing when all players are in, and the option to do all of the above via email.

[Sardia]

I'm sorry, I wasn't being specific. Space empires V, it has disabled tactical combat for all multiplayer modes except for hotseat.

[Suicide Junkie]

SE4 and 5 are both supported by PBW.

Just choose "SE5 + modname" from the list when you set up your game.

[Fyron]

Tactical combat is only viable in a real hotseat game, where everyone is at the same computer. Its very bad for gameplay if you try to turn it into a different machine style game, since only one player or the other can control combat between players. Even player vs. AI combat is dodgy, since only one player will be able to watch the savegame process AI turns. The other player(s) won't be able to take control of any combats that occur with his empire. For any sort of distant multiplayer, strategic combat (and sequential movement mode) is the way to go.

[Sardia]

Grrr, I just tried both tcp and ipx connection. How do I set it up properly? And please, no play by web links.

[Fyron]

PBW really is the best way to do multiplayer... TCP/IP is very fickle. It will work if noone is behind a router, or if you use hackery like Hamachi to create a virtual LAN to fool SE5. For whatever reason, the game's TCP/IP code has trouble with ports forwarded through routers.

[capnq]

Here's a set of TCP/IP instructions that was posted at spaceempires5.com . (Ignore the section header; the OP accidentally put it in the forums for SE IV rather than for SE V.)