If you submit your thoroughly checked orders using the following format:
#GALAXY game race password COMMIT [your sure orders] #ENDand all the players in your game have done this, too, the pending turn will be processed at once. The next regular deadline will be skipped automatically. Note that by committing your orders more often you will force more than one turn to be processed before the now irrelevant next regular deadline comes.
If you feel like "Oops", and the turn you've committed your orders for hasn't been processed yet, you can cancel your commitment and opt for the next regular deadline by sending the following request:
#GALAXY game race password CANCELNo #END statement is necessary in this case.
By submitting your orders so
#GALAXY game race password FORECAST [your tentative orders] #ENDyou will get a usual turn forecast without disturbing the orders already stored in the engine directories. This way you can experiment with fine tuning or risky variants right up to the turn processing deadline.
If you want to leave this exciting world for a boring vacation somewhere else, you can still be active here by using the following request format to submit orders for the future turns:
#GALAXY game race password turn_number [your orders for the indicated future turn] #ENDYour orders will be processed in due time quite as if you've been there. Note that it's impossible to commit advance orders: being away, one's usually longing for the game to have been stopped altogether, not running mad.
If your ISP's gone south or you've changed your address overnight and didn't take your game archives with you, there is now a way to extract the earlier turn orders and reports from any email address using the following requests, respectively:
#GALAXY game race password ORDERS [turn_number]and
#GALAXY game race password REPORT [turn_number]No #END statement is necessary in this case.
The optional [turn_number] parameter may indicate the turn you wish the corresponding data to be retrieved for. In case it's absent, the natural defaults apply: the most recently submitted orders for the pending turn, and the report for the latest processed turn will be returned, respectively.
Please note that the use of a password is necessary both syntactically and (alas) semantically, unless you wish to trust those nasty aliens just so much, that is. The usual rule - one request per message - is still valid.