Combine PBEM/VISTA-64 Bit

[MorningDew]

When I click "Combine PBEM" on my Vista-64 system, it keeps crashing-to-desktop on me. Is this the OS the manual says isn't supported?

[IronWarrior]

Hey Andrew I found this from the manual on p. 191

Note: Due to an incompatibility with certain operating systems, some players may not be able to use the “Combine PBEM Files” button. If it is the case that the individual playing the last human-controlled nation in the list of eight nations has this problem it will be necessary instead for each player to take his turn and then send the files he has generated to the next player.

So it sounds like you would send the files to the next player (me) and I try to combine them?

[ericbabe]

We discovered that some OS's had problems opening this standard Windows file dialog shortly before release.  We only found the problem on one machine (Windows XP) and since it worked fine on other versions of XP we just weren't sure how widespread this problem would be.  We'd tested on ~20 different machines and only saw the problem on one laptop, so I'd been hoping it was something idiosyncratic to that computer.  (We've since had one beta tester report this problem as well.)

Since release we've had about three more reports of this issue.  I still haven't figured out what it is that these machines might have in common that would make this file dialog fail, and I may end up having to look for a work-around to this if we cannot figure out how to fix it on these computers.

[MorningDew]

Be glad to help try to figure out the issue. I have two machines with CoGEE installed. One has CTD when I click Combine PBEM and the other doesn't.
 
But I have another issue. The one that lets me pick the files pops up with an error message: "Incompatible Save Game File or Version"
 
Thoughts?

[Mus]

In our other PBEM game Matto was having some crash issues combining turns.  Maybe he can share what he did to fix/work around this?

PS I believe he was getting the incompatible message as well, or somebody in our game was.

[MorningDew]

ORIGINAL: Mus

In our other PBEM game Matto was having some crash issues combining turns.  Maybe he can share what he did to fix/work around this?

PS I believe he was getting the incompatible message as well, or somebody in our game was.

I'd love to hear the solution...

[MorningDew]

ORIGINAL: IronWarrior

Hey Andrew I found this from the manual on p. 191

Note: Due to an incompatibility with certain operating systems, some players may not be able to use the “Combine PBEM Files” button. If it is the case that the individual playing the last human-controlled nation in the list of eight nations has this problem it will be necessary instead for each player to take his turn and then send the files he has generated to the next player.

So it sounds like you would send the files to the next player (me) and I try to combine them?

BTW, I don't read it that way. Sounds to me like, if we can;t get combine to work, then each player needs to make orders in sequence, which will take much, much longer. Either that or we start over with another last player.

[IronWarrior]

Hey Andrew,

Could very well be... I have a very hard time comprehending WCS's manuals (love their games though). [:D]

I've asked Matto to explain what he did to get it to work for him, hopefully that will help us get rolling.

[Gil R.]

BTW, I don't read it that way. Sounds to me like, if we can;t get combine to work, then each player needs to make orders in sequence, which will take much, much longer. Either that or we start over with another last player.

I wrote that warning note in the manual, since I myself was experiencing the problem (as I guess now two others have). Your interpretation is correct.

It's true that this takes longer, but this is how PBEM worked in the original COG. So all this means is that some people won't be able to take advantage of the new, streamlined PBEM system, for reasons that still remain a mystery.

[Mus]

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

BTW, I don't read it that way. Sounds to me like, if we can;t get combine to work, then each player needs to make orders in sequence, which will take much, much longer. Either that or we start over with another last player.

I wrote that warning note in the manual, since I myself was experiencing the problem (as I guess now two others have). Your interpretation is correct.

It's true that this takes longer, but this is how PBEM worked in the original COG. So all this means is that some people won't be able to take advantage of the new, streamlined PBEM system, for reasons that still remain a mystery.

Matto made it sound like his work around for this problem is just a quick reboot and he combines the turn first thing on startup.

I dunno... Gremlins. Cant give them time to do their evil magic.

[:D]