Gamestopper: Missing battle file in diplomacy phase

[eske]

(Running 1.02K)

This is an oldie - at least for me.

Spain is unable to complete diplomacy phase, because of popup stating:
"Waiting file from Russia for the Battle of Tangier"

History is:
Siege battle at Tangier (Morrocco, right), Russia controls.
Corps of Morrocco in city. Spain siege gives breach.
1.round: Spain sends battlefile. Russia returns.
2.round: Spain sends bettlefile. Russia returns. Spain is broken.
There is no 3rd. round and the battle ends.

The returned battlefile is deleted by the spanish program.
Spain has no other battles.
Spain does 'End current phase'. Games creates spanish combat file and sends to all.
Russia load spanish combatfile, and game moves on to next player.

All fine so far - perhaps ??

Now Russia, who is the host, creates backups and distributes.
Spain loads game from backup. Loads turns from other players.
Start his own first turn after backup.

But he is not allowed to finish turn, because of popup as decribed above.

Why is this a gamestopper?
Because Spain had no problems before the backup and could finish his phases. And obviously so could Russia.
(I know this from an earlier game, which was abandoned)
When recieving the backup Spain overwrites his own game, and runs into the popup.
So any new backup does not solve the problem, only repeat it.

I believe this comes from Russias program, which does not finish the battle properly,
but still allows loading of spanish combatfile, and then moves on.

When - at some later time Russia creates backups - this hidden unfinished battle comes to Spain and stops the game!

I have more files on this and can e-mail if requested.

/eske

[MarshallEllis]

Eske:
 
I'm looking at this...
 
 

[eske]

Thx Ellis would appriciate it.
 
FYI I got a tip to get the game moving in a dirty way (involving a hex-editor). Definitely not advisable.
But my game is running (first concern of a host [;)]).
 
I'm still worried as to how this situation got started, and how to avoid it start again.
 
As I see it you should look for two things:
Why does the non-phasing player's program not accept no more battlefiles are to be exchanged?
Why does same program accept the combatfile, when it expects exchange of battlefiles?
 
Checking the last question would catch the problem right away. Not letting it sleep and then blow up, when next backup is made - maybe months later...
 
Plz ask, if you need more info.
 
/eske

[MarshallEllis]

Eske:
 
Can you tell me more about the battle of Tangier? Chits, what happened, etc?
 

[eske]

Hi

I've sent files to your matrix mail-address (found it in another posting).

They should make it possible for you to rerun the battle from the russian side, which I believe is where things went wrong.
Mind tho' this all happened in 1.02 J, before we upgraded to 1.02 K. But I don't think that really matters.

What happened is the Morroccan corps + garrison + russian leader is inside Tangier.
Spain lands with Castanos and 2 corps. Spain besieges, gets breach. No chits are chosen.
Spain begins siege battle. Sends first battle file to Russia. Spain breaks after two rounds and Russia is the unlikely winner.

I imagine the reason battlefiles are exchanged is because the city garrison is considered a second corps and prevents Spain from running all of the battle.

As you might gather I have encountered this problem in another game (1.02 G), where I had no useful backup and had to abandon the game. That's hard to swallow as a host, mind you. And I have it at least one other host now of this as well.

When you have run the battle and is in 1805, feb, diplomacy try click the Tangier area. Not sure if something comes up, or it first happens in the spanish diplo phase...

Good luck with this

/eske

[MarshallEllis]

eske:
 
Thanks for the help! I was able to find and fix this problem! It should be in 1.03