PBEM -- CRASH

[doombat2000]

I am playing 1st Manassas 2 Player with Ironclad. The PBEM file is Iron(C)_v_Doom(U)_(1stManassas_2-Player_Only)_S) crashed when I tried to end my turn. Both players are running 1.06B.

I tried to replayed the turn 3 times and when hitting end of turn, the system crashed.

Any suggests to work around the crash?

[Yogi the Great]

You can try (if you haven't already) shutting everything down including your computer and then reboot all back up. But that very well won't work either.

In a recent game we played (different scenario & version 1.05) I had quite a few crashes at end turn and once it took me a 6th try to have it accepted. Not sure what causes the issue but it would seem that it is the Slitherine pbem system itself rather than the game or something else on your end.

[Yogi the Great]

Then again come to think of it I also had a game with Ironclad that we almost finished but never could. You don't happen to be winning do you?

[doombat2000]

Tried a restart and reboot of my system, no joy.

[ericbabe]

I'm back from my business trip and from a few days of illness. Looking into the few PBEM problems will be my top priority. Would you mind sending me your login name, password, and game serial number by email to ericbabe@west-civ.com? If I have that information I can try to reproduce the problem and see what might be going wrong. Thank you.

[Yogi the Great]

ORIGINAL: ericbabe

I'm back from my business trip and from a few days of illness. Looking into the few PBEM problems will be my top priority. Would you mind sending me your login name, password, and game serial number by email to ericbabe@west-civ.com? If I have that information I can try to reproduce the problem and see what might be going wrong. Thank you.

In my case the games is over, we did get through it I just often had to redo the turns after hitting end turn. One exception see other thread "Game crashed on turn 30" game with Ironclad is currently listed as active and his turn to play.

[ericbabe]

I was able to use your login information to play your turn, end turn, and upload the game successfully. The file on the server looks OK, and it's reporting that it's now Ironclad's turn. So, unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce the crash you were seeing. If Ironclad gets a chance, ask him please to look at the game to see whether it download alright for him.

Of the few PBEM issues that have been reported lately, I've been unable to reproduce the problems on my end. This makes me wonder there is something system specific about these issues, or whether the problem occurs only after playing several games without exiting and re-entering. Though it sounds like in your case, since you say you tried it 3 times, that at least 2 of the times you probably went straight to the game and tried to play it.

Yogi's description of having to try six times before the game uploaded alright makes me think that maybe there is some sort of network timeout that is causing issues sometimes, though if you're mostly able to play PBEM but then occasionally have a turn which you have problems uploading over a period of several days, then I'm not sure this hypothesis holds up. Network issues shouldn't happen with some files and not others; BAB save files are all roughly the same size. Hmmmm...

Which operating system are you using?

[doombat2000]

The PBEM file is Iron(C)_v_Doom(U)_(1stManassas_2-Player_Only)_S) is at an early stage. I recall that I moved all of the Union troops during the turn each time the game crashed. Not sure when you tested the file, how many units or time you let pass before the turn end button was pushed.

The PBEM system showed it was my turn. Not sure what happened for the game to state that its Ironclad's turn.

I am running Windows 8.1

[ericbabe]

I didn't move all the units, but maybe 20 or so. I spent about 10 minutes at it.

I only meant that it showed Ironclad's turn after I finished playing your turn. [:)]

[Yogi the Great]

I'm not an expert for sure, but I do think there are some problems in the Slitherine email system. Time out or something else I don't know but my guess is something else. Why, because in some of the failures I made the moves very quickly and hit end turn still getting the problem.

Another reason I feel it may be in the system is that you can go to Slitherine forums and see "complaints" about the system on other games. That also kind of suggests that perhaps at least some of the issues with BAB pbem may actually be a system problem rather than a BAB problem.

Reference what operating system I have it would be windows 7.

[ericbabe]

I talked with the technical guys at Slitherine this morning. We couldn't find your game instance number in the error logs, which means that the crash is happening before the upload attempt actually occurs. This helps narrow down where the crash is happening in the code. If this happens to you again, please contact me right away by email or PM and send me the file PBEM/ThisTurn.sve. This is the file that the game attempts to upload to the server. It would be good to know whether the crash happens before or after the game is written to your computer as a local file. Thanks, and sorry we haven't had better results yet sorting out this issue.

[Blind Sniper]

Same error while playing Wilsons Creek, when I hit End Turn the game crashed. It happened twice in a row.

[Blind Sniper]

Tried a second time and we got the map but no units, the turn after only two units on the map.
Tried a third time and the game crashed again.

[Yogi the Great]

Blind Sniper it seems there was a major server problem, you might want to try BlindYogi again.

[Blind Sniper]

They said since Friday and my problem was early. Anyhow we can try again even if I have a bad feeling (no devs answer after a week).

[Blind Sniper]

Unfortunately same error again, never had so many problems playing a MP.

[ericbabe]

Would you mind emailing me (ericbabe@west-civ.com) the PBEM/ThisTurn.sve file from immediately after you had the problem uploading your turn? Also please make a note of the time on your system at which you attempted to upload the game. Thanks.