Labeling Your Turn Input Email and Submit Just Once

[Ry Vor]

Folks,

Please submit your Order Input attachment for each game with only the following in the subject line:
Game# Kingdom Abb. Turn#

So for example, the email to activegames@alamaze.co might have a subject line of "Game 100 GN T3".

If you need to include any notes, please put them in the body of the email, other than a one word "Revised" at the end of the subject line if you are submitting revised orders.

Also, PLEASE just wait until you have your final commands to submit. We are not finding in general all 15 players in a game to be ready early, although we often have already had 13 or 14. Meanwhile, we have many players submitting multiple sets of commands which "multiplies" the work the GM has to do, and also very much increases the chance of error. At this point, rather than incur a price charge for a revision, we'll just say that if a player submits multiple order sets for the same turn, and an error occurs because an order was changed and not caught, the player has to bear responsibility. In this way, we don't have to produce new turn revisions which are always tricky and very time consuming. Some players have submitted as many as four sets of orders for a single turn. If we can get to the point where we have exactly 15 emails with the same game number and turn number at activegames@alamaze.co for a given turn, we will be in a much better position to run games ahead of the deadline.

We are hoping in the near future we will be able to have players submit turns through the Alamaze website and they can go in and modify that set themselves up until the turn is run.

[Wulfgar]

Damn. I just sent my orders in, and literally seconds later got a message notification from a player I had been waiting to hear from, which forced me to send an e-mail requestion revision of one order.
I then logged in and saw this thread.....

[Lord Diamond]

I just sent a 3rd version of my orders in. I'll try to get a lot better at it, but I really screwed up the last version. I think we need to expect some of that early on. We are rusty and/or learning the game.

[unclemike]

I don't know how you setup your processing procedure but it's not that difficult to automate the collection of orders.

Having a standardized email subject line will enable you to write code for the mailer-daemon to store the attachment (a player's orders for a given turn) in a specific directory. So all the orders for the game are stored together whenever they are received and updated for you. This can be done automatically and without human intervention.

This way, players can submit an unlimited number of corrections if necessary and do so without you charging them a fee (which is a bit rough btw). I would provide sample code for you to do this (like I did with the random map generator a while back) but I'm too busy at work and such.

[Lord Diamond]

Or the Game Master could simply wait until he's heard from everyone and just process the last orders received from each. No extra work involved.

I would not be willing to pay a fee to revise my orders.

[Ry Vor]

Or the Game Master could simply wait until he's heard from everyone and just process the last orders received from each. No extra work involved.

I would not be willing to pay a fee to revise my orders.

We will be seeking to add game masters as Alamaze expands. Then those game masters can judge how easy it is to deal with four sets of orders from a single position in a single game, when players are very eager to get their results asap. If the game master waits until the order deadline to start inputting, then all the players in the game will be waiting until the game master gets around to it. No one should under-estimate the commitment required and the patience to deal with how it is with a non-automated system.

Again, if everyone submitted one set of orders to one email address, it would be what we hoped for. Otherwise, lets not marginalize the commitment of other people's work.

[Lord Diamond]

I am anxious to take some of that burden from Cipher. I may indeed change my mind about what a pain it is. I still won't advocate charging extra. Rather, I will likely nag even more about implementing the online order site.

As I mentioned in another thread, I will stop sending my orders in before the 72-hour mark. There is no reason to rush them in and that should prevent extra work for the Game Master when late diplomacy forces me to change my intent. That's probably good advice for everyone. We can just accept that this is a 48-hour game nd stop making people feel guilty for taking time to do their turns correctly. For myself, I will no longer allow the impatience of other's to affect me in this regard.

[Ry Vor]

It's posted elsewhere, but PLEASE, send your emails as follows:

1. Send your turn submissions ONLY to activegames@alamaze.co. If we can just get 15 emails per turn per game there, it will make a big difference. Don't send any questions there, and please try not to send revised orders - just wait until you are sure you have them like you want them, before the deadline of course.

2. Send any questions to support@alamaze.co, but please understand, the game master cannot check your orders for you, give you advice, or send you info not published for all players. Players are expected to get their understanding from reading the rules and the forum postings, and of course are invited to ask questions of other players on the forum, or post your own strategic and tactical advice there.

3. Use the signup@alamaze.co box to request a position in a game that has not yet started. Be sure you are using only one email address that you check regularly when you send messages there so you can learn the status. We also request new players to register for the forum, post on the thread for the open game, and post a note in The Players forum thread.

Have fun! Let's try to make it easier for your hard working game master.