Armada 2526 Supernova PBEM campaigns

[OJsDad]

Pm also sent.

[W8taminute]

Hey guys,

In our 4 way game I seem to be having trouble.  I received my turn this morning but when I tried to load it via the game interface I got the 'No new email' message.  Is there a way to force the game to open an email turn?

[Staggerwing]

Is this a '1 turn a day' type game? If so I could manage that. How many factions can there be in one mp game?

[Martok]

Hey guys,

In our 4 way game I seem to be having trouble.  I received my turn this morning but when I tried to load it via the game interface I got the 'No new email' message.  Is there a way to force the game to open an email turn?

Now that you mention it, I think I've been experiencing similar problems in our 4-way game as well:  I receive the turn notification(s) from you three, but when I load up my PBEM games, it still says "Waiting" instead of "Ready".  However, if I then go back and start Armada again a few hours later, our game is there.  :o 

Is this a '1 turn a day' type game? If so I could manage that. How many factions can there be in one mp game?

Yeah, we average about a turn a day on most of our PBEM games.  It's not a hectic pace at all.  :) 

From a technical standpoint, the limit is high -- supposedly one could do a PBEM game with dozens of factions if one wanted to! 

[Yskonyn]

I am still awaiting Shelldrake and Jarhead's contact info.
Staggerwing, if you want to join in, drop me a note with your gmail account (in case you do not know, the game knows how to interact with the gmail servers built-in) for the game and a seperate 'normal' email where you would like to receive notifications of new turns.

[Grimnirsson]

Hi folks,

I'm very interested in this game and the Supernova expansion, but am not sure whether it will run properly on my notebook or not. Since there's no demo available and the Ntronium forum currently doesn't allow me to register (message says registration is disabled...very helpful) I'm asking over at the Matrix forums (not that lively it seems) and just to be sure here ;).

So, here are my notebook specs, will it work as it should?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A4-3305M-Notebook-Processor.67991.0.html

Samsung 2 core AMD A-Series A4-3305M / 1.9 - 2.5 GHz
AMD Radeon HD 6480G integrated gfx card/chip
8 Gb RAM
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit-Edition

And the other question is, I'm mainly interested in a scifi strategy wargame that will allow PbEM, so I can do my turn, send it over to my opponent and no need for being online with other players at the same time. From what I read so far this seems possible, but I'm not sure how the battle resolution actually works if one is playing via WEGO/PbEM. Is the battle resolution completely skipped, so that we only get a battle report with the written results or is it still possible to see the battle happening? I'm thinking about the way Combat Mission works.

Thanks :)

[Yskonyn]

I am just getting back again, so I am not entirely sure, but I recall that in MP all battles are autoresolved and not actually played in the 3D realtime battle mode.
Combat Mission has a turn based system, which Armada only has for the strategic part. I stand corrected if this is not true, but this is how I recall it to be for MP.
Indeed PBEm is possible, in fact I am currently in the process of starting a new game. If you want in you're welcome as far as I am concerned. :)

I think your systems specs are more than fine for Armada.

[Grimnirsson]

Hi Ys,

thanks for the quick reply :)

I am just getting back again, so I am not entirely sure, but I recall that in MP all battles are autoresolved and not actually played in the 3D realtime battle mode.

Does this mean I can't watch the battle? Is it just autoresolved and then I'm given a result? Or is it autoresolved in the manner I only can watch and then see the result? That's a big difference, watching a battle or be given a battle report with some numbers, you know? :)

Indeed PBEm is possible, in fact I am currently in the process of starting a new game. If you want in you're welcome as far as I am concerned.

Ah, thanks, but I will have to see for myself first how I do in this totally new genre. If the specs of my Nb are actually fine as you say (perhaps others can chime in and confirm about that? Just to be sure before shelling out my bucks) I will play this game first with my SO and after having some games under our belts we are perhaps open to be crushed by the vets out there :P

Another question if you don't mind. Say we want to set up a PbEM game with two players and some AI players, how is that done properly? Do we get an option to limit the universe so there's a chance to actually get involved with each other or is it always a given extent of the universe and we could end the game without ever getting in contact with each other?

Thanks again!

[Yskonyn]

Hi Ys,

thanks for the quick reply :)

I am just getting back again, so I am not entirely sure, but I recall that in MP all battles are autoresolved and not actually played in the 3D realtime battle mode.

Does this mean I can't watch the battle? Is it just autoresolved and then I'm given a result? Or is it autoresolved in the manner I only can watch and then see the result? That's a big difference, watching a battle or be given a battle report with some numbers, you know? :)

Here is what the manual says about it:
Game Play
All players do their turn at the same time, and then send their orders back to the host.

If there are battles between human players, then they are resolved by the attacker. The defender will receive a message describing what happened.

An important difference between PBEM games and normal games is that you must declare war in advance using the button on the Diplomacy Screen. You cannot declare war during the battle resolution phase. This is designed to keep the game moving faster by removing the need to ask players what they want to do every time they encounter a neutral.


I am not really sure how this actually translates into the game. It's been a while. :S Others might chime in here.

Indeed PBEm is possible, in fact I am currently in the process of starting a new game. If you want in you're welcome as far as I am concerned.

Ah, thanks, but I will have to see for myself first how I do in this totally new genre. If the specs of my Nb are actually fine as you say (perhaps others can chime in and confirm about that? Just to be sure before shelling out my bucks) I will play this game first with my SO and after having some games under our belts we are perhaps open to be crushed by the vets out there :P

Here are the specs from the Matrix games site. Yours are way better.
Product Requirements :
OS: XP, Vista, 7
CPU: 1 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
Graphics: DirectX 9 Compatible 3D Video Card with 128 MB RAM
Sound DirectX 9 Compatible
Disk Space: 2 GB Free
DirectX9.0c+, .NET Framework 2.0+, Visual C Runtimes (all included in installer)

Another question if you don't mind. Say we want to set up a PbEM game with two players and some AI players, how is that done properly? Do we get an option to limit the universe so there's a chance to actually get involved with each other or is it always a given extent of the universe and we could end the game without ever getting in contact with each other?

Thanks again!

You can setup a custom game where you can choose how big or small the map is going to be. Wether its a randomly generated map or a fixed one. How many opponents there will be, which races those will have, etc.
You can play a mixed game with AI and Humans. :)

Hope this helps!

[W8taminute]

Ok I'm a little worried now.  I received our 3 way game today and it too is not loading.  I've tried several times now.  I'm wondering if I need to uninstall and reinstall the game?

[Grimnirsson]

Here are the specs from the Matrix games site. Yours are way better.

I was a bit unsure about it because I have an integrated card/chip and sometimes games don't like that ;)

One question for you PbEM'ers out there. If you have a MP game, say 3 or 4 players what would happen if one or two of them bail out, don't send over their turns? Do the other player have to wait for the turns of the opponents or could they play on and the idle players just don't have any progress anymore. I'm asking because sometimes players just lose interest in the middle of a game and don't do their turns anymore. How's that handled in the game?

[Martok]

Hey Grimnirsson!  Good to see you taking an interest in this game.  :)  I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability: 



First off, your notebook will run Armada easily.  Having an integrated card shouldn't be a problem. 

In regards to combat in PBEM, battles against AI players can be auto-resolved or fought manually if you wish.  Battles against other human players are auto-resolved.  Auto-resolved battles simply show you a combat report with the results; there's (unfortunately) no option to watch them. 

Another question if you don't mind. Say we want to set up a PbEM game with two players and some AI players, how is that done properly? Do we get an option to limit the universe so there's a chance to actually get involved with each other or is it always a given extent of the universe and we could end the game without ever getting in contact with each other?

Oh yes, there's a good amount of customization options for a new game, including galaxy size.  So it's not a problem to set up a small map that will virtually guarantee you run into the other human player(s).  8) 

One question for you PbEM'ers out there. If you have a MP game, say 3 or 4 players what would happen if one or two of them bail out, don't send over their turns? Do the other player have to wait for the turns of the opponents or could they play on and the idle players just don't have any progress anymore. I'm asking because sometimes players just lose interest in the middle of a game and don't do their turns anymore. How's that handled in the game?

I believe you can just skip a player's turn if they end up dropping out.  I don't speak from personal experience, however, so you may want to take my statement on that subject with a couple grains of salt. 

[Grimnirsson]

Thanks Martok,

downloading... :)

[Yskonyn]

Have fun!
And once you feel you are ready you're always welcome to join in. :)

[Martok]

^  What he said.  :D  Enjoy!