|
Diplomacy SIG
|
You can get this file by sending a message to usef@igo.org with the body of "get press"
This Diplomacy Adjudicator sponsored by David Kovar.
Report JUDGE Problems to usef-request@igo.org
Report problems with individual games to your GM.
***********************************************************
Any unmoderated games on this judge will be removed.
(I.e., if you don't have a master, the game is in jeopardy.
if in doubt, send a list )
***********************************************************
Greetings from the Diplomacy* Adjudicator!! 06 April 1994.
Press.
There are various types of press in a game of Diplomacy. White press
refers to messages sent to other players which indicates who it is
from. Grey press is sent out anonymously and black press refers to
messages that are sent from one person but forged to appear as though
they came from another person. The adjudicator provides the mechanism
to set a game as allowing either or both of white or grey press. The
press messages can be sent to individual players or can be broadcast
to all players, depending upon the parameters set for the game. Black
press is really the same as grey press with another player's signiture
in the message, so no distinction is made by the adjudicator, however,
press sent to individual people can be faked to appear as a broadcast
message to all people or to an alternate set of people if the particular
game allows such a thing.
The types of press allowed in a particular game are shown by the list
command. The keywords are:
None:
No press at all is allowed, except press to the Master only.
White:
Only white press is allowed in this game.
Grey:
Only grey press is allowed in this game (however, press to the
Master will always be sent as white press).
White/Grey:
Both white and grey press are allowed, by default press will be
white (however, press to the Master will always be sent as white press).
Grey/White:
Both white and grey press are allowed, by default press will be
grey (however, press to the Master will always be sent as white press).
-------
Observer any:
Observers can post press with the same restrictions as regular
players. This is the default and does not show up on list output.
Observer white:
Observers cannot post grey press. In a game that only allows grey
press from players, press from observers will show up as white press.
Observer none:
Observers cannot post press at all, except press to the Master only.
-------
No Partial:
Only broadcast messages to all players can be sent, press to
individual players is disallowed, except press to the Master only.
This option is only useful in Gunboat variants where the identities of
the other players are unknown.
No Fake Broadcast:
Messages sent to individuals cannot appear as broadcast messages
or vice versa, nor can messages sent to one group of individuals
appear as though it was sent to an alternate group.
Partial may be Faked
Messages sent to individuals can appear as broadcast messages or
can appear as though they were sent to an alternate group.
Partial Fakes Broadcast by default
Messages sent to individuals will appear as broadcast messages to
all players unless otherwise specified.
Partial Fakes Broadcast
All messages whether broadcast or to individuals will appear as
though they were a broadcast message to all players.
Note: If fake press is allowed in a game, press to the Master will NOT be
faked, and you will get scolded if you try.
The "set" command can be used to establish which of these options is
allowed. In moderated games only the master can use the set press
command. By default games are "White, No Fake Broadcasts" for non-
gunboat games or "White, No Partial" for gunboat games. For example:
set grey, partial fakes broadcast
To send messages to other players you can use the "broadcast" or "press"
commands which are almost synonymous:
broadcast [options] -or- press options
If no options are specified *and the broadcast command was used* the
message will be sent to all players.
[In other words, using the command "press" without any options will result
in no message being sent. This is to prevent accidental broadcasts, which
can result in your secret attack plans being sent to the entire game.]
The message can be terminated in one of four ways: the commands "signoff",
"endpress", or "endbroadcast" appearing alone on a line, or by the end of
the mail input. Note that "endpress" and "endbroadcast" are interchange-
able (that is, a "press" command can be terminated by "endbroadcast" and
vice versa); also that no space can appear after "end" in either case.
If "signoff", "endpress", or "endbroadcast" appear at the beginning of a
line with other text, they are *not* considered to be commands, and the
message is *not* terminated.
If the message is terminated by "signoff", then all other text in the mail
input is ignored. If the message is terminated by "endpress" or "endbroad-
cast", then the next line is treated as a normal command line, thus allowing
normal commands to be mixed with press messages in any order, as well as
allowing for multiple press messages in a single mail input.
The optional options are:
white -or- unanonymous -or- unanonymously
The message is sent out with your power and return address
specified. This is only necessary if white and grey press
are both allowed and grey is the default.
grey -or- anonymous -or- anonymously
The message is sent out with no indication as to the originator.
This is only necessary if white and grey press are both allowed
and white is the default.
to list -or- +list
The message will be sent just to the list of powers specified.
The list consists of the single character identifier for the
powers concatenated as a single word. Thus "press to FRG"
would send the message to France, Russia and Germany in a
standard variant game. In most variants the first letter of
the power is usually the character (cf: India in the Youngstown
variant is N rather than I since the latter is used to represent
Italy). The special characters OM are interpreted Observer and
Master respectively in all variants.
to all but list -or- -list
As above except the message is sent to the complement of the
list specified. Note that since all press that can be read by
Observers is archived in the game's history file, a message sent
'press to all but r' (for example) will be available to Russia by
means of the History command. Use 'press to all but ro%' to be
sure that the message isn't archived.
[no]fake [broadcast]
The message is faked (or not) as a broadcast message to all
players.
fake [partial] to [all but] list -or- fake [+/-]list
The message is faked as going to the set of people specified
even though it may be a broadcast message or be a message sent
to an alternate set of people.
Note that "press fake to FRG" will be interpreted as a broadcast message
to everyone that is faked as going to France, Russia and Germany rather
than a message going to France, Russia and Germany that is faked as a
broadcast. If the latter was intended the keyword "fake" can be placed
at the end as in "press to FRG fake" or the keyword "broadcast" must be
specified as in "press fake broadcast to FRG".
As an example in a grey press game allowing fake broadcasts, Italy might
start off the game by posting the following press message:
press to all but G fake broadcast
This is Germany and I think you all are wimps. I bet I can win even
if you all gang up against me.
-Kaiser Bill
endpress
Everyone but Germany would get a Diplomacy Notice message with a header
that read "Broadcast message in game xxxx:". [Remember, however, that if
Germany thinks to issue a 'history' command, he can see this in the history
archive. If this is undesirable, the command here should read 'press to
all but GO% fake broadcast'.] Then in the same (or a separate) message to
the adjudicator (since there can now be more than one press message per mail
message) Italy could issue:
press to R
This is Austria, boy that Germany sure is obnoxious. Let's go all out
against him!
-Ferdinand
signoff
Russia would get the message with a header of "Message to Russia in xxxx:".
Of course this trick wouldn't work if the game was White press since Italy's
name would be in the header. If it was White/Grey Italy would have to
throw in the "grey" keyword to get the effect, but even then (or if the
game was Grey/White) it wouldn't quite be the same since if Germany
really meant to be so obnoxious why wouldn't he just send the messages
out as white press?
Press to the Master only is always allowed, no matter what the press settings
are, so that requests for deadline extensions, or any other message needing
the Master's attention, can be sent without having to resort to direct eMail
outside of the game. This can be very useful if a player and the Game Master
are on nodes that cannot communicate directly, although both can communicate
with the Judge. Likewise, the Master can always issue press commands, to
facilitate communicating with the players (to announce that he's going to be
unavailable for a while, to respond to a player's message to him, or to ask
a player a question).
There are some commands that cause Diplomacy Notices to be sent out to
all the players (eg: changing your return address in a non-gunboat game).
If one of these commands has been processed and a partial, faked partial
or grey press message is attempted, the adjudicator will send out the
notice(s) as separate messages, to all players, and the partial, faked,
or grey press will be sent as designated.
-----
* Diplomacy is a trademark of the Avalon Hill Game Company, Baltimore,
Maryland, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
Judge Info
Return to Main SIG Page
lshea@earthling.net 1.25.99