4.4: PBEM replay does not work

[Fuerte]

Bad news first: PBEM replay does not work in 4.4.

Then some good things:

1) Selecting a recon unit with N key displays the range correctly when Command & Control is on. Still selecting the unit by mouse does not display the range correctly, unless I select some other unit first and then the recon unit.

2) The idea of saving the replay in a separate file is wonderful. The replay file compresses over 97%. Thanks a lot!

Here is how I tested the PBEM replay. I started the Blenheim Blunder locally, entered passwords for both players. My settings were:

[*]Command & Control on
[*]Fast artillery OFF (Of course! Why the setup program deletes all preferences??)
[*]Message delay 40
[*]Live delay 10

I moved all units forward, and set the bombardment for Stukas. Next turn. Again set the objectives (still no good shortcut key for Finnish keyboard, should be "O") for British units, moved all units forward. Next turn.

I noticed that the replay file was quite large even if no shots have been fired.

I played the game, made a lot of shooting with Germans, and then viewed the replay with British: It showed only about 30% of the action.

At this point the file sizes were:
<code>
20.10.00 21.11 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 544 email3.aux
20.10.00 20.38 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 200 email3.cmt
20.10.00 21.11 &nbsp; 261 200 email3.dat
20.10.00 21.11 2 398 078 email3.rec
</code>

When compressed:
<code>
Updating .ZIP: d:/dn/email3.zip
Updating File: email3.dat Deflating ( 0.5%), done.
Updating File: email3.aux Deflating ( 5.9%), done.
Updating File: email3.cmt Deflating (84.0%), done.
Updating File: email3.rec Deflating (97.6%), done.
20.10.00 21.12 &nbsp; 320 624 email3.zip
</code>

WOW.


[This message has been edited by Fuerte (edited October 20, 2000).]

[Tom Proudfoot]

What exactly is it not showing?

For instance, are you shooting a dozen shots and in the replay only seven or eight are being seen?

Thanks,
Tom

[Fuerte]

The replay ended prematurely. I think that it showed all shots, until it stopped. The shots at the tank in the middle of the screen were not shown at all, only the shots in the beginning at the tank in the top.

I forgot to mention that in the previous turn I fired just once with British in the end of the turn after moving all units, and when viewing the replay as German, it showed nothing.

[This message has been edited by Fuerte (edited October 20, 2000).]

[Kharan]

I too tried secure PBEM playback on one computer on the Blenheim scenario and of about 20 firings (infantry and tanks, including assaults) it showed only the 2 first.

Another thing: has online autosave worked for anyone? It's always complaining that the client doesn't have the right save file, even in v4.4. At least now (after v4.1) the host can email the autosave to the client and it accepts that.

[Flashfyre]

I am having problems with online autosave as well. Here's the situation:

One friend and I, straight InterNet conn, me as host, random battle generated. Have tried the following:

1) Save game on my turn, exit game. Friend is prompted to save as well. However, restart wil not recognize his save file.
2) Exit game on my turn. Autosave reflects this. Friend's autosave has same name as mine, but system says "no-go".

Must try to email him autosave file, see if that works.

Any comments/advice/fixes welcome.

[Colonel Klink]

i've yet to install 4.4 as i'm waiting to end a game going of 4.2
does the replay only not work with that scenario or does it also happen with regular battle generated games

[Kharan]

The VCR file seems to be filling with everything BUT the actual firings:

Secure PBEM Blenheim scenario, Deploy phases. REC file stays at 80 bytes.

German turn 1. I move 2 armored car platoons and one motorcycle platoon. REC file goes to one megabyte even though the British units were not fired upon or saw the German units.

British turn 1. I do nothing. REC file goes to 1.33MB.

German turn 2. I move the same units, REC file goes to 1.86MB even though nothing has actually happened yet.

British turn 2. Do nothing, REC file goes to 1.50MB.

German turn 3. I move all units, none fire and none are on sight of British units. REC file goes to 2.3MB.

So the VCR file definitely gets filled with useless junk hogging up space from the actual firings.

[Fuerte2]

Heh, good job Kharan. I was just about to make the same tests!

[Kharan]

Any news, Tom? If you want someone to test if it has been fixed, just send a beta build to me or Fuerte .

[Kharan]

So the VCR problem is identical in secure and unsecure PBEM and hotseat games. The VCR gets filled up with junk data so that the firings don't fit in. The max file size for VCR is 2.28MB (2 398 078 bytes).

I buy 3 rifle companies for both sides on hotseat. On deploy phases the VCR file stays at the initial 80 bytes.

At the beginning of turn 1, VCR is at 96.9KB.
I press next and save again. It goes to 119KB.
I browse through all the units by pressing Next. 571KB!
I scroll the map right by moving the mouse. 618 KB.
I scroll it back . 665KB.
I move my HQ unit one hex. 678KB.
I move my HQ unit additional 3 hexes. 694 KB.
I move 3 rifle squads 4 hexes. 767 KB.
I set a new objective. 814KB.
I fire at a hex with a rifle squad. 852KB.
I move 10 squads. 1.06MB.
I move all the rest units (about 50 of them). 1.14MB, and doesn't rise no matter what I do. How did the max file size just get halved?


Another battle, this time unsecure PBEM. I buy 40 vehicles, a few arty batteries and at-guns, rifle, engineer, cavalry, motorcycle, FJ, AT and MG platoons and use the other side's points too.

Turn 1. VCR is at 143KB.
I move 4 vehicles. None can be sighted or fired upon. 760KB!
I scroll the map back and forth a few hexes. 924KB!
I save without doing anything. 928KB. So just saving isn't increasing it.
I scroll through the map. VCR file locks up again at 1.14MB. I don't get it.

There is something fishy going on, but anyway, summary: like I said, VCR file is soaking useless data, and on large battles it can get filled just by scrolling the map and moving a few units even when it is 2.28MB.

Hopefully the size cap will be hiked up to 10MB or so, if those things can't be fixed.

I tried to find the size cap in mech.exe (yes, I backed it up first ), but couldn't, only found the VCR package types.

[This message has been edited by Kharan (edited October 30, 2000).]

[Fuerte2]

I guess that the VCR size depends on the map size, and that it gets filled with the map information (which unit is in which position).

[Kharan]

All maps were small btw. I believe you can fill the vcr even if you only have a HQ unit and scroll through the map enough times. Not that the scrolling is the worst offender. The unit position data should be only in the .dat file.

I still can't figure why the max size dropped to 1.14MB. I even reinstalled.

[This message has been edited by Kharan (edited October 31, 2000).]

[Fuerte]

Perhaps the Blenheim Blunder recording gets bigger because it has a bigger map size (or has it?).

[garry]

I am currently into the 7th turn of a 6000 point generated battle and saw no replay at all for the first 3 turns then I got half a replay and now i have been getting the full replay. Not sure on what my opponent sees though.

[Kharan]

Oh you of course meant that the max size varies on map size. Yes, that would be sensible, but even my Blenheim VCR stops now at 1.14MB (moving 11 platoons eats that up). I'm beginning to suspect alien influence.

But that doesn't really matter (if I'm the only one)... what matters is that on larger battles, 2.28MB doesn't even begin to suffice and gets cluttered up just by scrolling and moving a few units.

[This message has been edited by Kharan (edited October 31, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Kharan (edited October 31, 2000).]

[SlowHand]

Has anybody from Matrix said anything elsewhere about tending to 4.x PBEM problems?

There's a group of 6 of us madly doing PBEMs with version 2.3, which works fine for PBEM. We'd like to get the game features that 4.x brought along, but won't want to update until we hear that most PBEM bugs are fixed, especially VCR playback.

It sounds like the new approach (writing the VCR playback to a separate file) is promising.

Apologies in advance if I've missed a post --- I check about twice a week, and had followed the PBEM problems in previous threads since August.

[Kerg]

Just want to say it is really rough playing without the CVR. I have several PBEM games going and it is sometime a complte mystery what happen to my units (destroyed by what...!)

Kerg

[Windo von Paene]

Just ask that until the VCR is fixed, your opponent send you a brief summary along with the files describing losses that occur. It's not perfect, as your opponent might convieniently omit certain key information...

[Paul Vebber]

Its a tough problem, for now, hard core pbems will probably do best sticking to version 2.3 for now until we can get a fix out. We have a lot going on, both personally and Matrix-wise right now, so it will be several weeks before we can get a fix out.

We will fix it, its going to be a bit...

[Kharan]

That 1.14MB seems to be max size on Blenheim German turn 1. On second German turn, VCR goes to 2.28MB. My confusion was caused because even on gerry turn 1 it previously maxed out at 2.28MB and I thought I had somehow messed it up (no such luck).

It would be interesting to know where the VCR size cap is in mech.exe though. If you can't heal the disease, deal with the symptons. I would guess (and would like to experiment) that with this kind of cloggage rate, on your average moderate sized battle, on a turn where you move and fire a lot, it would take about 5 megs for the VCR not to overflow. 10 megs should be enough for giant battles like Steel Shield.

[This message has been edited by Kharan (edited November 09, 2000).]