Overview
Llamaserver is a great PBEM service, but it can be a chore to wade through emails, especially when you’re just playing in a small, private game. Yet, a live session can be impractical for many reasons as well; timezones, real-life commitments, etc.Here, I’ll describe an alternative way to play multiplayer, via Dropbox and some creative tinkering. It allows for the convenience of PBEM, without the hassle of wading through emails.Note: This is NOT recommended for public games, as this is more akin to a live Hotseat game, with all the pitfalls of such.
Setup
This section assumes that you’re running Windows Vista and newer, and have the NTFS file system. (Most newer systems would have this by default, so for most, this shouldn’t be a problem.)
1. Install Dropbox, if you haven’t already. You can sign up for an account here[www.dropbox.com], and download the desktop client there. Once installed, you should have a Dropbox folder.
2. Navigate to this site[schinagl.priv.at] and download the Link Shell Extension. Install the LSE. (Installation instructions can be found there, so will not be covered here. For most users, it should install without a problem). Everyone who wants to play should install this.
3. Once installed, you’d notice your right-click context menu would have a new option called “Pick Link Source”. This will be important later.
4. The next step is of course, to create a new game. Make sure all potential players agree on the settings they want. Have your potential players all send all their pretender files (usually named <age>_<nation>_<no>_0.2h, and can be found in the newlords folder) to the designated host, either via email or whatever method of convenience you prefer.
For the Host
5. The host will then create a new game as per usual, with all the pretender files that was sent earlier.
6. Once the game is created, navigate to the game’s datafiles (usually stored at AppData/Roaming/dom4/) and find the save game folder. Find the newly created game folder, and move the entire folder to Dropbox.
7. Once in Dropbox, right-click the save folder and click Pick Link Source.
8. Go back to the original save game folder and right-click. This time, you should see three options: Cancel Link Creation, Drop As and Include in library. Select Drop As -> Symbolic Link.
9. A folder with the shortcut symbol should appear. Verify that the contents of the folder are there by clicking on it. You should also verify that the game is able to read the contents of the folder. (Easily done by opening up the game, then just checking to see if all playable nations are available.)
10. The last step is to share the save folder to the other players of the game. (Dropbox allows you to do this via email). Make sure everyone could access the folder.
For the Players
11. Once the save folder is created and shared, you should be able to see it in your Dropbox folder. Right-click to select it as Link Source.
12. Navigate to the Dominions 4 savegame folder and right-click to Drop As -> Symbolic Link.
13. Verify that that you can access the contents, and that the game is able to read the save game. (It should and it’ll show up like a normal game.)
14. Start playing! You don’t need to handle anything else, as Dropbox will sync the .2h files automatically once you end your turn. Once the host processes the turn, the .trn files will be updated and you can start the next turn.
Note:
a. It is best to designate that only one player host/process the game at any one time, but technically everyone who is in the game can do the same. The rest of the game should be like a standard PBEM, except without the email notifications. You get Dropbox notifications instead. 😉
b. Once a game is done, you may just reuse the game folder to start a new game. Simply start a new game with the same save name. As a precaution, you should manually clear the files, instead of trusting the game to do so for you.
c. It is recommended that players should set passwords for their nations, especially in a competitive game. In this case, the host should also remember to set a master password for the just in case scenario.
I hope this little guide proves helpful. Credits to SeanMirrsen and Random from #ponythread for initial idea and testing.