loading every file

[borner]

I know this was asked somewhere before, but why exactly does the game not allow you to go forward from the most recent file if you choose not to load each one before that?

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: borner

I know this was asked somewhere before, but why exactly does the game not allow you to go forward from the most recent file if you choose not to load each one before that?

I believe due to file sizes being so large, I'm pretty sure this was the excuse.

[borner]

still nothing like having to load 14 files to get to your turn!!   LOL

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: borner

still nothing like having to load 14 files to get to your turn!!   LOL

I agree. Considering every game I play uses compression to upload and download the files, this really shouldn't be an issue.

[Marshall Ellis]

ORIGINAL: borner

I know this was asked somewhere before, but why exactly does the game not allow you to go forward from the most recent file if you choose not to load each one before that?

Huh? What do you mean here? You mean why doesn't the game auto-load all turns files up to current? Give me a few specifics so that I can craft my "excuse", please LOL?

[Skanvak]

Well, I think a more pertinent question is why send every file to every player each time? why not send the file to the next player only.

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: Skanvak

Well, I think a more pertinent question is why send every file to every player each time? why not send the file to the next player only.

This is what borner means.

You should really only have to load one file when its' your turn. That file contains everyone's turn from your last one to your next one.

I can see how some people might not like this idea, but it wouldn't bother me one bit. In fact, having to download so many files from the Google Group site is one reason why I don't use the skipping feature that much... if I skip a lot then I have to download like 20+ files in a row... wow, what a disaster!!

[Skanvak]

Yes, and this will resolve the problem of the size of the file give away other people plan as you won't know whose players files is big when every files are merge into only one.

[Marshall Ellis]

Ah OK, I think I understand now. Would you guys be OK not seeing anything until it was your turn (i.e. not being able to watch reinforcements being placed, etc)?

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

Ah OK, I think I understand now. Would you guys be OK not seeing anything until it was your turn (i.e. not being able to watch reinforcements being placed, etc)?

I am perfectly fine with having to statically analyze the board. JMO.

[Dancing Bear]

ORIGINAL: NeverMan

ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

Ah OK, I think I understand now. Would you guys be OK not seeing anything until it was your turn (i.e. not being able to watch reinforcements being placed, etc)?

I am perfectly fine with having to statically analyze the board. JMO.

The easy solution to this would be to enable players to load any file that they wanted, not just the one directly before their turn. So if you are France and you wanted to see what the Russians placed during the reinforcment phase, you could load that file and look at it while you wait for the other players to do their turns. But if you didn't care what the Russians did, then you could just wait until the player before you completed his turn before loading.

Also, with ARR mode, you get to see what everyone is up to anyways.

[borner]

i very much would be willing to accept that. If I wanted to see everything I can always load each file, but for a month where nothing is happening, it's 15 minutes of wasted time. It takes a lot away from the game at some points.

[Skanvak]

Yes, Marshall, we are (at least people here, another option [:(] ). That is PBEM, limited exchange is good. Besides there is an AAR as someone say. But I don't see why if loading only one file I don't see why it could show me an history of what happen of play the of the things that happened before I play? (too big may be?)

[Ashtar]

Indeed I sometimes found annoying to download and unzip several files before I can finally play my move...

On the other hand, it is sometimes useful to be able to check the situation outside your turn (like you are Prussia allied with Austria, France already did its land phase and you would like to check the situation before discussing strategy with Austria)...

A really big improvement would be to ad an automatic zipper/unzipper to the game engine:
Since turns could be moderately big, we tend to zip them before sending out, so that the receiving player has to unzip.

If the game in itself would produce zipped files and unzip them before attempting to load them it would be a great improvement
(if they are not meant to be manually read why don't always have them in a zipped binary format?).

Currently procedure:
Open every e-mail from your fellow player, launch the unzip, tell it to unzip the files to the commin folder.
Improved:
Just open every email and save the small zipped files in your commin folder. Then open EIA and load directly the zipped ones.

[Marshall Ellis]

The problem is that the turn files are only snapshots of a certain MP's turn?
EXAMPLE: Load France's reinf turn before Russia's would lose Russia's reinf. Load Russia's reinf then you would lose France's reinf. the order you load is important! The cumulative effect happens when all players load in order.

I'm not opposed to zipping and I will look into this...

I intend to lay off PBEM a bit after we have finished the die roll / combat security (1.07) and simul diplomacy / reinforcement (1.08).

[Jimmer]

There's a risk to this, though, that you guys haven't noted here: If the game blows up between one of your turns and the next, only the host can restart it. But, the host won't be receiving the files any more, so he'll have to go back to HIS last turn (not yours). So, on average, you'll lose a whole TURN (month), rather than just going one PHASE back.
 
This could be helped by having the players send out TWO files at each phase: One to the next player, as proposed above, and another to the game host. Thus, the host could keep a continually-updated copy of the game backup, rather than have to revert somewhere between 1 and 13 phases back (depending on who the host is and the timing of the phase which experienced the failure).

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: Jimmer

There's a risk to this, though, that you guys haven't noted here: If the game blows up between one of your turns and the next, only the host can restart it. But, the host won't be receiving the files any more, so he'll have to go back to HIS last turn (not yours). So, on average, you'll lose a whole TURN (month), rather than just going one PHASE back.

This could be helped by having the players send out TWO files at each phase: One to the next player, as proposed above, and another to the game host. Thus, the host could keep a continually-updated copy of the game backup, rather than have to revert somewhere between 1 and 13 phases back (depending on who the host is and the timing of the phase which experienced the failure).

When I play all the files are uploaded to the game site every turn, so I'm not sure what you mean here. The system above would just be a sliding window instead of how it is now.

[Skanvak]

Neverman,

Some of us don't use a game site and simply mail the turn to the player. Jimmer remark and suggestion seem a good one for me.

[Marshall Ellis]

ORIGINAL: Jimmer

There's a risk to this, though, that you guys haven't noted here: If the game blows up between one of your turns and the next, only the host can restart it. But, the host won't be receiving the files any more, so he'll have to go back to HIS last turn (not yours). So, on average, you'll lose a whole TURN (month), rather than just going one PHASE back.

This could be helped by having the players send out TWO files at each phase: One to the next player, as proposed above, and another to the game host. Thus, the host could keep a continually-updated copy of the game backup, rather than have to revert somewhere between 1 and 13 phases back (depending on who the host is and the timing of the phase which experienced the failure).

Jimmer has a great point here! Recovery could be problematic!

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: Skanvak

Neverman,

Some of us don't use a game site and simply mail the turn to the player. Jimmer remark and suggestion seem a good one for me.

Then you could just get the file from the last guy, it's still a "sliding window" (or "queue" if you prefer)

... Marshall, I disagree with you and Jimmer, I don't see how this is "problematic", you are STILL only putting one turn at a time into the queue and the queue size is a whole game turn, so I'm not sure I'm seeing the problem.