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Age of Wonders seriesAge of Wonders 1 PBEM: Best way?(12 posts)(12 posts)
(12 posts)
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Posted December 16, 2017
I have the wrapper installed and set up. My friend and I are just looking to test it out to see if PBEM works. What's the best way to get a multiplayer game going for this? I tried Tunngle but AOW1 doesn't seem to be listed as a supported title.

Also, what do we do once we're in the game? I went to 'Scenario', picked the 'Play By Email' option, chose a map and clicked start, but it says two human players are required. Does this mean we both have to start up by using one of those LAN tunneling services first?

I haven't done PBEM before so I don't quite get how all of this works.
Post edited December 16, 2017 by s3rialthrill3r
Posted December 16, 2017
Test by creating a game against yourself. :)

Create a new multiplayer game and make a couple of Wizards human. Have the email wrapper installed and "turned on" aka active. Make sure your email address is shown for both Wizards. Start the game. When it goes to send the email, the wrapper will magically do it for you. And it will reach into your email via a regular "polling" to grab unread game files and put them in the "Email In" folder for you to play.

If you're using a one-off gmail account like most of us are, then you'll need to lower it to the lowest security settings.

Btw, the email wrapper comes with pretty good instructions on how to enable the system.

2nd btw, PBEM is super old school and lots of fun. Both AoW:1 and AoW:SM are good vehicles for this play style.
Posted December 17, 2017
The only problem you had was that you didn't set a computer wizard to be human instead.
Posted December 17, 2017
Also, be advised that hotmail accounts won't work with the wrapper any more.
Posted December 17, 2017
Okay, so I've been trying it out with my friend again. The save has been sent to my friend's folder here: 'C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\AowEmailWrapper\CheckEmail'. The problem is that he has to manually copy and paste that to '...\Age of Wonders\EmailIn', where the game is installed. Is the wrapper supposed to put it there automatically?

I also noticed that in my friend's game, under 'Play by Email' and then 'Settings', all of the fields were blank after installing the wrapper and he had to input all of the details relating to his email address, SMTP server and stuff manually. In my case, the details in those fields were put in automatically by what I assume is the wrapper.

After putting the details in Settings manually, he managed to find the save and load it. He played his turn and tried sending the save to me. Immediately after, he got the message 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object (AOWEmailWrapper)'.
Posted December 17, 2017
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s3rialthrill3r: Okay, so I've been trying it out with my friend again. The save has been sent to my friend's folder here: 'C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\AowEmailWrapper\CheckEmail'. The problem is that he has to manually copy and paste that to '...\Age of Wonders\EmailIn', where the game is installed. Is the wrapper supposed to put it there automatically?

I also noticed that in my friend's game, under 'Play by Email' and then 'Settings', all of the fields were blank after installing the wrapper and he had to input all of the details relating to his email address, SMTP server and stuff manually. In my case, the details in those fields were put in automatically by what I assume is the wrapper.

After putting the details in Settings manually, he managed to find the save and load it. He played his turn and tried sending the save to me. Immediately after, he got the message 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object (AOWEmailWrapper)'.
What is his email provider? Gmail?

Also, did he follow the install instructions that came with the wrapper? There are settings for changing where the saves are placed, and the wrapper should be able to send the game save when the turn is finished.
Posted December 17, 2017
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s3rialthrill3r: Okay, so I've been trying it out with my friend again. The save has been sent to my friend's folder here: 'C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\AowEmailWrapper\CheckEmail'. The problem is that he has to manually copy and paste that to '...\Age of Wonders\EmailIn', where the game is installed. Is the wrapper supposed to put it there automatically?

I also noticed that in my friend's game, under 'Play by Email' and then 'Settings', all of the fields were blank after installing the wrapper and he had to input all of the details relating to his email address, SMTP server and stuff manually. In my case, the details in those fields were put in automatically by what I assume is the wrapper.

After putting the details in Settings manually, he managed to find the save and load it. He played his turn and tried sending the save to me. Immediately after, he got the message 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object (AOWEmailWrapper)'.
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Bookwyrm627: What is his email provider? Gmail?

Also, did he follow the install instructions that came with the wrapper? There are settings for changing where the saves are placed, and the wrapper should be able to send the game save when the turn is finished.
Yes, it's Gmail for both of us. In terms of install instructions, are you talking about the prompts that come up when running the wrapper for the first time? If so, then I believe they did follow them. Our entries under 'Preferences', 'Incoming' and 'Outgoing' email are more or less the same if you exclude the authentication details. And yet, they still had to manually put in those details I mentioned under the PBEM settings in the game itself, while I didn't need to because they were already there.

My friend is able to send the game save, despite the 'object reference' error message popping up each time. The problem at the moment is that whenever they receive the save from me, they need to manually copy it from one folder (relating to the wrapper) to another (the Emailin folder where AoW is installed). I just have to click 'Load' under 'Play by Email' within AoW itself.
Post edited December 17, 2017 by s3rialthrill3r
Posted December 17, 2017
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Bookwyrm627: What is his email provider? Gmail?

Also, did he follow the install instructions that came with the wrapper? There are settings for changing where the saves are placed, and the wrapper should be able to send the game save when the turn is finished.
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s3rialthrill3r: Yes, it's Gmail for both of us. In terms of install instructions, are you talking about the prompts that come up when running the wrapper for the first time? If so, then I believe they did follow them. Our entries under 'Preferences', 'Incoming' and 'Outgoing' email are more or less the same if you exclude the authentication details. And yet, they still had to manually put in those details I mentioned under the PBEM settings in the game itself, while I didn't need to because they were already there.

My friend is able to send the game save, despite the 'object reference' error message popping up each time. The problem at the moment is that whenever they receive the save from me, they need to manually copy it from one folder (relating to the wrapper) to another (the Emailin folder where AoW is installed). I just have to click 'Load' under 'Play by Email' within AoW itself.
There is a PDF with instructions and help that is included in the download for the wrapper. That holds the install instructions I am referring to.

There should be an option somewhere to set the file path for where to save downloads email games. I'd be more specific, but I'm not at my computer at the moment, so I can't click around to try and find it.
Posted December 17, 2017
Okay, I've done a little poking around.

1) Open the wrapper, go to the "Preferences" tab, and check what option is set for "Download Folder". I have mine set to 'Save', so the save shows up when I hit "Load Game" on the main menu screen of AOW1.

If it is set to 'EmailIn", then from the game's main menu, try hitting "Scenario", then "Play By Email", then "Load Game" and see if the save is in that list.

This probably won't fix your 'Object Reference' error, but it might get the save in a folder that takes fewer clicks to access

2) Look in the folder where the wrapper is installed. There are two PDFs there, "Quick Start Guide" and "Wrapper Documentation".

Start with the Quick Start Guide first, follow it, and see if that solves your problem.

If not, then try going through the Wrapper Documentation. That provides more details; maybe you can work out the problem with that.

-----

It just occurred to me to ask: what is your OS? I'm running Windows 7.
Posted December 17, 2017
I also found the wrapper confusing at first, but I believe it should work if you just try to use all the automated options it has. It found my email using its 4th method and i didn't have to do anything manually
Posted December 18, 2017
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Bookwyrm627: Okay, I've done a little poking around.

1) Open the wrapper, go to the "Preferences" tab, and check what option is set for "Download Folder". I have mine set to 'Save', so the save shows up when I hit "Load Game" on the main menu screen of AOW1.

If it is set to 'EmailIn", then from the game's main menu, try hitting "Scenario", then "Play By Email", then "Load Game" and see if the save is in that list.

This probably won't fix your 'Object Reference' error, but it might get the save in a folder that takes fewer clicks to access

2) Look in the folder where the wrapper is installed. There are two PDFs there, "Quick Start Guide" and "Wrapper Documentation".

Start with the Quick Start Guide first, follow it, and see if that solves your problem.

If not, then try going through the Wrapper Documentation. That provides more details; maybe you can work out the problem with that.

-----

It just occurred to me to ask: what is your OS? I'm running Windows 7.
I'm not the one that is having trouble seeing saves, so I'll have to tell me friend to change those settings whenever possible. I am also not the one getting the 'Object Reference' errors.

That's interesting. The downloads of the wrapper that my friend and I acquired didn't come with any PDFs. We only got two setup files, one that is .exe and another that is .msi.

My friend and I are both using Windows 7.
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southern: I also found the wrapper confusing at first, but I believe it should work if you just try to use all the automated options it has. It found my email using its 4th method and i didn't have to do anything manually
We're keeping it as automated as we possibly can. We didn't have too much trouble with the wrapper finding our email addresses. I believe it was the second or third method that worked.
Post edited December 18, 2017 by s3rialthrill3r
Posted December 18, 2017
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s3rialthrill3r: I'm not the one that is having trouble seeing saves, so I'll have to tell me friend to change those settings whenever possible. I am also not the one getting the 'Object Reference' errors.
I meant generic 'you', not you specifically. I actually thought about going back and specifying, but then I was like "eh, he'll figure it out". :)

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s3rialthrill3r: That's interesting. The downloads of the wrapper that my friend and I acquired didn't come with any PDFs. We only got two setup files, one that is .exe and another that is .msi.
The download just has the installer, which is what you described. After you run the installer, a folder is created for the program files. Look in that folder for the pdfs.

If, like me, you don't remember where you installed the wrapper, then search for the program icon in the start menu, right click on it, select "Properties", and check the file path. Please forgive me if you already had a good method for looking up the installation location; I just wanted to short-cut past this step in the event that you weren't sure.
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Age of Wonders seriesAge of Wonders 1 PBEM: Best way?(12 posts)(12 posts)
(12 posts)