problem with mod games

[a511]

hi, Jan!

new problem, this time with Franco Alliance 2.1.

i have a 2x2 game on the way b4 the v1.07 release using Franco Alliance 2.1. the game went smoothly until we start to insall the v1.07.

all 4 players involved have installed the v1.07 in a clean copy of the game and keep another copy of v1.04 Franco mod.

but when i play the turn today, i cant play the turn as all areas turn grey and i even got the video telling me that JP has surrender!!

when i patched the v1.04 Franco mod copy with v1.07 and run the new v1.07 Franco mod game i got the following message "Fatal Error Code#774". [X(]

while my v1.07 unmodded game still works fine, when i copy and paste the v1.07 unmodded game to another folder and reinstall Franco, same fatal error occurs. [X(]

any clue? [&:]

AN

[JanSorensen]

Thank you for the feedback.

I will pass the problem on to the programmer - unfortunately I dont have a qualified guess as to what the problem might.

Avatar had the same problem in a game he and I were playing - while it was working fine for me - so I am not entirely certain its related to the mod.

I will try making a 1.070 install + Franco's v2.1. Does the problem happen right away if you start a new game using the mod or only when you load the old save? If its the latter - would you mind sending me the save game in question, please.

My mail remains janbs@stofanet.dk

[a511]

thx Jan!

its the latter and i have sent u the save game file.
but my problem is, it looks like the patch has memory such that it only works in my unmodded version and denys my attempts to patch in the modded version and doesnt work even when i copy and paste the v1.07 game into another folder ...

AN

[JanSorensen]

Something is odd.

I loaded your save file in my new v1.070 folder which does not have Franco's install without a problem (ofcourse it lacked the extra territories but that aside)
I loaded your save file in my clean v1.040 folder which does not have Franco's install without a problem. (ofcourse it lacked the extra territories but that aside)

I modded the v1.040 folder with Franco's mod and loaded your save without a problem (now it had the extra territories)
I modded the v1.070 folder with Franco's mod and loaded your save without a problem (now it had the extra territories)

I finally applied the v1.070 patch to the modded v1.040 folder - and loaded your save without a problem.

So there is something else thats causing the problem it seems. Avatar had a similar problem with our game also suddenly just showing everything in white without units - but right now I cannot figure out what the common denominator may be.

[Lebatron]

Hmm... I'm not having an problem. It must be what you did. Sounds like copying and pasting the game to another folder might be the problem. You see any time you do that to a program it will no longer work since the Windows registry will be messed up by this. But if all you did was copy and paste the Dat folder to an existing copy then I think it would be fine. If thats what you did then the problem must be in the order you did things. Or maybe the problem is were you installed the two copies of the game.
My installs are like this
c\games\Gary Grigsby's World at War
c\games\Modded World at War

If your installed copy of Franco's Alliance is inside the regular copy that could be the problem
c\games\Gary Grigsby's World at War\modded WAW

If nothing works maybe placing my mod on another hard drive might work. Do you have a second drive or second partition?

This problem could have been avoided if the patch only patched the copy you tell it to. Thats how it should work. After all, it does ask for an install path to patch to (c\games\Gary Grigsby's World at War). Why does it install the patch to all copies? It shouldn't be doing that. If they fixed the patch installer then it would be possible to have different patch versions of WAW on your hard drive.

[JanSorensen]

Lebatron

You can copy a GGWaW folder and the two folders will work independently - I have done that many times. There does not appear to be any registry dependencies.

Also, when you patch - it will only patch the folder you tell it to. I have done that a couple of times too already.

[Lebatron]

Thats odd, because guggy and I both only ran the patch for our unmodded copy by specifing the proper path to it and when I started up Franco's Alliance it was now at 1.070. How did that happen?

Well when I got time to reinstall 2 copies I will try and reduplicate this.

[JanSorensen]

I think I know the answer to that one - though I admit its a guess. I guess the patcher puts the version number into the registry - so when you play any of your installed copies it will show that version number regardless of what version you actually loaded. As such none of the files are modified - only the number shown is "wrong".

Edit: I just found and changed the version number in the registry - and all my different copies of WaW now show the new number when I open them. So I would say that one is proven.

[Lebatron]

Ok I guess that answers it. But before I read this I was testing some things out. I might as well tell you what happened. I have a total of 3 WAW's on my computer. One for v2.0 since I still got a game going there. V2.1 which I using to play a511 in that 4 player game and lastly the unmodded version. Here's what just happened as I tried to duplicate the patch problem.
First I uninstalled my v2.1 copy. When I did that 2 copies of the game got wiped. That shouldn't happen. The v2.1 that I intended and the unmodded copy with it. I reasoned that since the unmodded copy was in the default directory(c\games\Gary Grigsby's World at War) it looked there by default in addition to the path I specified to uninstall v2.1 which was under games\Franco's Alliance 2.1 So there is a problem with this game ignoring path input.

After reinstalling a new copy I decided to check thing out before patching. The copy of Franco v2.0 which was version 1.070 just before I did all this was now back to 1.005. And after I installed patch 1.040 for my Franco mods it did the same thing again. All versions were saying 1.040 now. And again when I did the lastest patch they all said 1.070. After reading what you said above I would have to agree with you. The registry is the place the version number gets stored. But what I find odd is why isn't there 3 separate registry areas for each copy of the game? In this way only the copy with the path you specify would have its registry area rewritten.

[JanSorensen]

I guess it was never intended to have multiple copies installed. Its a very minor thing though - but personally I would just have avoided the registry entirely with respect to showing version number and just used the one from the exe.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. Are you experiencing any problems loading files in any configuration similarly to what a511 is seeing?

[Lebatron]

Anyway if what Jan is saying is true then our copy of Franco's Alliance is really at version 1.040 even though it will say 1.070 if you installed the patch for the unmodded copy.

a511, to get the game working again just install patch 1.040 for my mod only by selecting the aproprate path then reinstall my mod files back in. Then install patch 1.070 for your unmodded copy selecting the proper path. Then just ignore the version number inside of Franco's Alliance because its wrong. Hope this works.

[Lebatron]

I have no problem yet. Cross my fingers.

[JanSorensen]

That could be the problem.

If a511 is trying to load a v1.070 save game with a v1.040 exe I reckon that might lead to errors. Do let us know if that could be it a511.

[Lebatron]

I just thought of a way to chech your version number apart from looking at the in-game number. Just goto the start menu and select readme for the apropraite version of your game. The readme will display the proper version. Its a good way to double chech the actual version.

Edit: I just realized an even easier way to tell what version your running. I you see the old PBEM check box and the version number says 1.070 your really using 1.040 just like the readme would confirm.

[a511]

thx for paying so much attention in my problem.

in fact i got two problems:

1) as Jan said, my modded game is in v1.04 exe. and i believe guggy (one of the players) has patched up his modded game to v1.07 b4 he played the turn so when he saved the turn and sent the save file to me, the file is in v1.07. the "all grey regions with no unit" thing as experienced by avator, wise01 (in another game) and me, are most likely due to loading a v1.07 save with v1.04 exe.

i believe it can be solved if i modded the v1.07 game. but it turns out to be a little bit more complicated....

2) some background info: i have saved both version of the game under C:\matrix, with unmodded v1.07 under C:\matrix\WAW and modded v1.04 under C:\matrix\Franco.

what i first did last night was created a new folder C:\matrix\Franco 1.07 and copy the content of the modded v1.04 to the Franco 1.07 folder and then patch with the new patch.
but when i loaded the game, i got the following message "Fatal Error Code#774" [X(].

then i tried to copy the unmodded v1.07 game to the clean Franco 1.07 folder (i have deleted all contents in the folder) but i found the same "Fatal Error Code#774" appeared when i loaded the copied v1.07 exe (even b4 i modded the game with Franco v2.1).

is that normal? but i will try to copy the unmodded v1.07 game to another folder not under C:\matrix tonight ... but i doubt whether it will make any different ...

im no IT ppl but i guess theres sth to do with the registry such that my patch can only work once in my computer so that once i patch my game (the unmodded v1.07) i cant use the same downloaded patch file to patch other games. i even tried to download the patch again but the connection died down when its 80% done ...

is that intended so that each player can only have one copy of v1.07 in his computer?? but it sounds like its not the case with Jan and Lebatron ... what's happening? and what could be done??

AN

[Lebatron]

Well I still got my last Russian turn saved so I could resend it to Guggy. Then he could try replaying his turn using v1.040 instead of 1.070. This may eliminate the problem with the game file getting saved under the new patch. When I passed the save onto guggy it was still a v1.040 save. I wasn't really at version 1.070 with my copy of Franco's Alliance. I was fooled by the version number displaying incorrectly. Since I have the old PBEM check box on the left side I now know its the old version. If guggy can confirm his version for us by looking at his PBEM check box instead of the version number, we will then know for sure what patch version his copy of Franco is running. What guggy should do if his copy of Franco has really been patched to v1.070 is delete it and make a new one with v1.040. Then redo his turn.

[a511]

thx Lebatron, i think its probably the best way to do it. as it not only solve my problem, but also prevent any potential issue btn franco v2.1 and v1.07 patch, such as the WA and RUS multiplier changes.

AN

[JanSorensen]

Sounds good guys - do let us know if it all works out.

I will suggest to the Devs that the version number shown be the one from the exe rather than the registry to avoid this sort of confusion in the future for people with multiple installs.

Unless I hear more I wont do anything further about the matter.

[a511]

hi guys!

believe it or not, when i copy the unmodded v1.07 game to another folder not under C:\matrix but c:\franco, the copy version of v1.07 exe works!!

and after i modded the game with franco v2.1, it works fine, except there's still some display problem with the replay.

hope the game can carry on ...

AN

[JanSorensen]

I am glad it worked out, thanks for the update a511