So What Is This Fileshare Play I am Hearing About?

So late last month I wanted to announce that “Fileshare Play” was going to be introduced in build 16. Since that time it has been undergoing testing both internally with me and with a couple of 3 player games (which include a mod) with an independent group. I am quite excited about this as I continue to look for ways to facilitate PvP play in a reasonable, economic way.

“Fileshare Play” is very much like play by email, with a game file being placed between players.

With email, a file has to be sent via the email, meaning either the game program needs to be configured to talk with your SMTP server so a file can be sent, and you receive the game file in your email program as an attachment and you have to add it in a specific directory for the game to digest and play it.

With fileshare play, the game file is sent to a file server via http. and a registry is updated indicating who last played and who's turn it is. The next player can automatically download that file within the program and play it. On completion of the turn, it is then uploaded back to the file server and on it goes round and round.

The advantages of this are not having to deal with the email configurations or file management needed in email play. As long as you have a 'normal' Internet connection (http/https capable), you can participate in fileshare play. It is much faster for turn around times as well. It lets you know who played the last turn, and whether or not the other player has downloaded the turn for play.

All is not perfect though. Fileshare play is dependent on being able to communicate with the file server and then with the registry. This is technically a two step process, and if there is a failure in uploading/downloading the file or updating the registry, players will need to coordinate and recover the game, with the last person to have played resend the file. Since a file of possible a decent size is being transferred, the threat of hiccups in the Internet is very real. Fortunately, the file is saved for you by the game program to resend if something goes wrong.

The test has been going very well, and most of the patches/updates through the testing have to do with recovery situations when something gets out of turn and the game must be resent. One of the games being sent was “switched” from email play and is now in fileshare. This particular game is quite large, and so it has vetted out some issue with longer downloads and players receiving multiple games to play at once..

I am quite pleased with how it has worked out and hopefully within a few weeks it will be ready for everyone else to give it a try with B16. It should give you a faster, more effective way to PvP. I would encourage you and a friend or more to give it a try. I would think that this type of play would definitely accelerate PvP play. As veterans know, even in the smallest games there comes a point where you want to take a little time and examine your situation and defeat the enemy. That's why PBEM has always been a great way to play. I believe Fileshare will be even greater!