Slitherine

Never Miss Another Turn with this great new tool from Slitherine. We are pleased to announce the release of the PBEM SysTray tool. This useful little application notifies you when it is your turn in a game using the revolutionary Play By E-Mail server (PEBM). It means you don't have to watch for e-mails and worry about spam filters or keep checking back in game to see if it your turn.

This great little tool can be downloaded from http://www.slitherine.com/files/SysTray/SysTray.zip

How does it work? I've installed it and the little icon is there but it never seems to do anything even when I have turns waiting.

Deeter

It reacts to new turns arriving (or should provided your firewall is letting it talk to the server). If you left click it it should tell you how many turns you have waiting. There is a lag of about a minute or so between checks.

Cheers

Pip

I'm left clicking on it and nothing is happening. Is this because there are no turns waiting? If it's a firewalll thingy, I'm not sure what to do.

Deeter

Pip is this the same version that you posted in the other thread, that Ihave been enjoying for a while now. And for all you others if you don't have it, do yourself a favor and get it.

will this be in the next patch??...anyone any idea on when the patch will be out?

This is the same version as a few people helped develop, yes. So you don't need to upgrade.

I don't think we will be including this in the next patch. It's not a part of the game itself, but a seperate app. And we don't want to install it without people's permission.

Cheers

Pip

deeter wrote:I'm left clicking on it and nothing is happening. Is this because there are no turns waiting? If it's a firewalll thingy, I'm not sure what to do.

Deeter

If you are running a firewall you will need to tell it that the app is allowed to talk to the internet. If you didn't have to do anything for FoG it's possible that it automatically adds itself to the Windows firewall. If you are running the Windows firewall, you can access it through the Control Panel, then add the EXE in the Exceptions list.

Cheers

Pip

Thanks this is very useful.

Don't know if this helps re above query but I have to click it to log it on (with Slitherine user name/password) every time my computer is switched on.

It doesn't automatically install itself to run all the time (you might not want it to). But you can drop it into your Startup folder if you always want to have it checking.

Cheers

Pip

I went into my Norton firewall and changed it from auto to allow but it dosen't seem to have done anything. When you left click on the icon what happens if there are no moves pending? Nothing or does a box open. When I right click I get a short menu with about and exit. Otherwise, it's just the Slitherine logo. Does this do anything to alert you of moves?

Deeter

If it is connected then it will inform you even if there are no moves pending. If you have moves ready it will flash gently too.

One thing to note - it only works on machines with the game installed because it uses certain settings.

Cheers

Pip

Still no luck. It just sits there, inert. Maybe I need to install it somewhere specific?

Deeter

Nope - you can run it from anywhere. Are you also running the Windows Firewall? You may need to tell that to let it through.

Other than that, what OS are you running on? AFAIK we have tested it successfully on the full range, but one never knows.

Cheers

Pip

You might also want to try deleting the TrayTool directory in My Docs\My Games\Slitherine just in case it has somehow gotten bad login details stored.

Cheers

Pip

Maybe having the left click on the SysTray tool icon starting the FoG exe would be good (and the number of waiting/ready turns can be transferred to mouse over tooltip or to the right click popup menu).

That might work, although the plan is for it handle all PBEM games which we have going forward.

It might work to allow you to start it from the right-click menu, but that's not a ton simpler than using the desktop icon?

Cheers

Pip

You can have the left click use a configurable path+executable to launch.

I myself find strange that I can't use this flashing systray icon to start the program, as I'm hoovering the mouse over it anyway (as I do for any other flashing systray icon). Also, some users prefer to keep their desktop as clean as possible (without too many icons).

And, as always, the more options to customise, the better.

Its a minor bit of UI improvement, but one I support, just to save a few seconds getting to the desktop/start menu and locating the icon. Your mouse is already there as you want to see how many turns are in the queue, so a right click producing a selectable list of each game and how many turns would be great.

and maybe directly launching the game, logging into multiplayer and starting the selected turn from the systray icon's right menu available turns to play