American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Is it best to never change the file name

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COL. R.T Coyne
7th Brigade 4th Division" Coyne's Cavalry Rangers"
1st Corp Army of Northern Virginia

I change the file name every turn.

The name is usually something simple so if you and I were playing (and you went first) it would be RCvsPS. However, I usually number all my turns such as: RCvsPS(1); RCvsPS(2) RCvsPS(3); etc. The opponent may return them with the original name but in the emails, and in the game, I know exactly what is what. I mainly do that so I know where I'm at in a game and how much longer until the end.

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

Spoken like a true Aussie sir, organised to the last Although I have to agree with you about naming conventions. Nothing, and I mean Nothing ! drives me crazier than a lazy couldn't be bothered attitude to correctly naming a file, turn on turn.

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Karl McEntegart
Lieutenant General
Officer Commanding
Army of Tennessee





Make my enemy brave and strong, so that if defeated, I will not be ashamed.

Bunch of Rebs! Probably haven't cleaned the coils on their still or changed their drawers in a year.

I keep the file name the same and name the turns in the subject line of the email. That way I keep my file choices limited when I am opening a game. I eventually would have to delete the email anyway so creating separate files in my Saved Games folder is just creating extra work having to delete them as well. Having the turns in the subject line of the email lets me find the turns quicker and lets me know what was being said at the time. If necessary, I change the file name of the turn that I received while it is in the download folder.

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Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

Maybe I am one of the lazy ones, but I try to name it with the scenario name (abbreiviated) and both players name. I don't change it each turn, others that I play with do, but I keep a directory of each PBEM game going with 4 sub directories under the first and keep the last 4 files from the game. That way I have them as I received them and as I sent them back by directory and by date. But really it just adds up to whatever helps you most keep up with the games. Those that add the turn number each turn I understand it completely and may end up doing that too.

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Major Kent Scarbrough
5th Brigade
Swanson's 1st Division
Isgro's 1st Corp
Army of Northern Virginia

Love many, trust few, do harm to none.

Back when I first found pbem gaming email had limited storage so you had to keep the number of saved emails down.
With the large capacity providers give you today that habit has gone.
Now I create a folder when I start a new game and store all the emails there and when the game is done I can delete them.
This has saved me a number of times when the game file got corrupted allowing us to back up a turn and try again.

Adding the turn to the email subject is a good idea making it easier to check back.
Changing the file name can be a problem, not only does it make it easier for you to send the wrong file it requires you to eliminate the old files periodically.
With a desktop and 2 laptops in the family I have enough pc maintenance to do between updates, backups etc, don't need to make more work for myself.

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Gen. Ken Miller



The McKeesport Union Guard

1/1/I
AotP

Thanks for the responses. Actually my thinking is if you change the file name of a campaign game does leader losses ect carry over or does it confuse the game

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COL. R.T Coyne
7th Brigade 4th Division" Coyne's Cavalry Rangers"
1st Corp Army of Northern Virginia

It seems that you are specifically asking about the campaigns in the games (which I should have guessed from the title of the post). My earlier advice, and I think most of the advice from others, was more general in nature.
However, changing the name of a file should have no effect on any existing scenario or campaign game you are playing. Do whatever pleases your own desires.

[Note: Changing the names of files in the editor can be problematic if you are intending to play an existing scenario with someone else. Others in the Club are far more knowledgeable than me in regards to the Editor and creating scenarios.]

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

Sorry I misunderstood the question.
NO changing the game file name will not mess up a Campaign.
When the game goes to the battle phase the information for the scenario is stored in the filename.cpf file.
That looks like this
Groveton_sub.map
2nd Bull Run.oob
Antietam.pdt

The campaign engine also saves the current position, strength and condition of the units in this file and in the filename.btc file it creates.
This .btc is the file that is used to carry over the losses.
If you change the name of the campaign file before doing your turn, when it is opened if a filename.btc file exists the data from the .cpf file is copied to it.
If it doesn't exist a new btc file is created using the name of the filename.cpf and the data from the cpf file is copied to it.
If you change it after your turn when your opponent opens the file the same process occurs.

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Gen. Ken Miller



The McKeesport Union Guard

1/1/I
AotP