New problem?

[Dancing Bear]

Hi all
Playing 1.06.03, I have am experiencing two problems with the game in both PBEM games I am playing. First, when I load the game, I only get three of the "buttons" along the top of the screen (send email to one player, send email to all players and load game file), none of the other buttons are present. Second, I can't load a new file, because we are in the diplomacy phase and the game is asking for a move file.
These problems occur in the 2 PBEM games, and in the solo play when I tried to start a solo game as a test.
Everything else seems to work fine, except, that the game is not playing the music in the background. I suspect some parts of the program are not fully opening.

What may be unique, is that I recently started a new 1.06.03 PBEM, and as GB, I did my set up this morning. This was the last time I interacted with the game before preparing to load PBEM files from other players (they do not seem to be experiencing this problem and have sent me their game files).
I have asked the host for a backup, which I hope will fix the problem, but will send the Marshall my save file so he can take a look (unfortanately I am not the phasing player at the moment).
I'll keep you posted on the back up. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

[Dancing Bear]

Save file attached. Although, maybe be careful opening it.

[Dancing Bear]

Ok, I re-installed the game, and it is mostly fixed (I think the save file is fine, and it was just my game).

The game now works with all the buttons, however there are now only two small problems: 1) there is no music when the game starts, and 2) the font size of some of the text (for instance the white "version 1.06" text on the start up screen and the white "France playing..." text in the box that appears in the centre of the screen as you load PBEM files is about 5 sizes too big. I suspect that somehow the new game is interacting poorly with my graphics and sound card.

I should add that on re-installation I also lose my short-cut to start the game, even though I opt to have one.

[Dancing Bear]

By the way, another player in our game has reported the same problem, so what ever it is gets passed on with the game file. Be very careful opening the save game.

ORIGINAL: Dancing Bear

Save file attached. Although, maybe be careful opening it.

[Marshall Ellis]

DB:

It sounds like a font did not install properly??? This can cause all kinds of button screen issues if the font does not register properly BUT a reboot does tend to fix this???? The new game screen is a good indicator if the fonts installed OK. Take a look and let me know...

[Dancing Bear]

You might be right about the font. Rebooting did not help, and reinstallation got the buttons and game back functioning again, but three minor, but annoying problems remain: 1) the font size for some text is about 5x too large, 2) the game sound does not work, even when the sound option is enabled (the matrix theme at the start of the game does work), and 3) re-installation did not create the short cut to start the game.

Not sure what the source of the error is, but the Spainish player in our game has also reported the same issue, although no one else has. His error occured during the last phase (Dec 1806 GB economic phase), while mine became apparent in between the Prussian and GB diplomacy phases in January 1807.

Our Spainish player is going to reinstall his game on another computer and see if that fixes things for him.

It would be very odd that the same error has happened to 2 players in the same game. I think this rules out that the errror is restricted just to my machine.

If the error is game related, it might be with the final few lines of code that activate the fonts and sounds, but why the error is occuring now and not some time ago is a mystery to me.

[RJCowan]

I'm the Spanish player.  I moved my .sav files for the game mentioned above to my laptop, where I was playing two other games.  I have had no problem at all on the laptop, so it does not seem to be something virus-like, transmitting from one player to the next via game files.  I have not had time to tear out and reinstall 1.06 on my desktop to see if that solves the issue there.
 
Meanwhile, in those two other games, we have had two other players develop the exact same symptoms since I moved to the laptop.  Both had to reinstall the game.  The other players have not had any problems using the same game files that seemed to have triggered the problem for these two.
 
 

[Marshall Ellis]

I'm slightly confused here...?????????????????????
So the save game files seem to be the issue?
Send me those saves and I'll look at them!

[Dancing Bear]

Hi Marshall
no, the save game file is fine. Bob tried it and when he found the problem with the game on his first machine, he loaded the save file onto a second machine, and it worked without a hitch on that second machine only.

As the problem is appearing independently on the machines of several different players, some of which are not involved in the same game, the problem seems to be independent of the game save file and the individual machines.

This strongly suggests the problem is related to the game code, but we don't know what has triggered it. Perhaps microsoft have recently upgraded their fonts, or at some point there is a change and the game looks up the wrong font. becoming stuck (if this happens, it must be late in the routine as the the rest of the game, except the music and the shortcut coding work fine).

It is weird that re-installation does not completely fix this problem.

[Marshall Ellis]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm?
Well it certainly has me perplexed!?!?!?!?!?!
I have looked at the above save and all looks fine???
Keep an eye on this and if it becomes easy to dupe then let me know guys!