American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

In PBEM do you like the file zipped or not? I used to want it all zipped but lately have found no problem with unzipped and it eliminates a step or 2 in going to the game. I used to think that campaigns had to be zipped but have found that the cpf file unzipped works fine. Any thoughts or errors in my way of thinking, any pitfalls I am not aware of?

Lt. Gen. D. Groce
Commander
V Corps AotP
"beyond our ideas of right and wrong there is a field, I will meet you there"

I prefer zipped files as it prevents any corruption of the file during transfer. Also with the files box checked, the files come up and you can go right into the game.

Maj.Gen. Drex Ringbloom,
AotS Chief-of -Staff,
2nd Division Cmdr, "Corcoran's Legion", VIII Corps
Army of the Shenandoah

I find that about 1/10 of the time someone sends me an unzipped turn, I have to ask them to resend... while the number of times I've had problems with a zipped turn is pretty close to 0. So, I much prefer Zipped for that.

Major General Gary McClellan
Reserve Artillery
2/XV AoT USA

I hardly ever zip files any more because after many hundreds, going into 1000s now, sending and receiving files with several multiplayer games past me, find that I rarely see problems, and they are usually due to player procedure error anyway.

Zipping is also another opportunity to make errors, at least doubling the chances.

I am not religious about my opinion and if the usual "save as" file failed a couple of times, would probably try or suggest "zip it before you attach." ... or attach both an unzipped and a zipped file and see whether that made a difference.
So far, it has not helped.

Best I find is to label each side's turn individually with turn identifiers and then you can pin point the file error and make a redo after a file that worked fine. ie:
ANV15vsAoP
followed by :
ANVvsAoP15

Caveat: If a player's computer has too little memory to handle a large file, then it may be absolutely necessary for them to zip it before attachment.

BG Ross McDaniel
2nd Bde, 3rd Div, III Corps, AoG, CSA

My habit has been zipped - vast majority of file errors for occurs when I forget to zip the current turn or attach the game file at all!


General Jeff Laub
Eastern Theater, Commanding

I always use zipped files, mainly so I can id the zip file with 01, 02 etc to show what move it is. In campagin games it is a good way to stop inadvertently opening the wrong turn.

Major General Cam McOmish
Commander Western Theater
Confederate States of America

I started out zipping the files but when my first opponent returned it unzipped, I never looked back - it works fine for me.

Lt. Simonitch
1st Brigade, 2nd Division
VI Corps, AoS

I'm a zip man myself. I always have a hard time trying to get an unzipped file to play. Of course I sometimes have trouble tying my own shoes in the morning.

BG Paul Brennan
XV/2/2 AoT
"The Shamrock Brigade"