Restore Saved Netplay game

[davidachamberlain]

I was using 2.2.8 and in the interest of trying to verify that it was possible to save and restart a game, saved an in-progress game (in the first phase) and then tried to restore the saved game.

I tried this both in the current session and after a reboot (in case there was anything persisted).

0) Internet mode (Netplay) game started, setup and played for a short time; Game saved (both players did this to check who could restore) and Closed
1) "Restore a Saved Game"
2) Selected saved game
3) WIF Netplay Forum launched and notifies other player of the game.
4) Player clicks on OK (only option)
5) Status message continues to state waiting for other player.

* it never progresses any further

I assume that this should either be known or known to be resolved as I can not imagine many Netplay games that were not saved.

We repeated this several times and it occurred every time.

If there is a known workaround, please let me know.

If this was not tested, you should add that to your list of test cases. It is pretty elementary for Netplay IMHO.

Dave

[Centuur]

A netplay game can be saved using autosaves, or when one of the players saves the game manually. If the latter one is done, the other player also receives a gamesave on his computer (and gets a message that the game was saved by his opponent).

To restore a netplay saved game, both players have to restore the same gamefile. Both players will have to log into the netplay server.

It isn't possible to restore a netplay gamesave, if only one of the players is online...

[davidachamberlain]

ORIGINAL: Centuur

A netplay game can be saved using autosaves, or when one of the players saves the game manually. If the latter one is done, the other player also receives a gamesave on his computer (and gets a message that the game was saved by his opponent).

To restore a netplay saved game, both players have to restore the same gamefile. Both players will have to log into the netplay server.

It isn't possible to restore a netplay gamesave, if only one of the players is online...

There is no problem with the save. It is what happens with the restore.

This was the standard case with both players active and involved. The restore process went back to the Netplay forum (as it should), but after the other player clicked on OK to resume the game, it just hung there.

My question is whether or not anyone has used the restore with a Netplay game with 2.2.8.

What we did should have resulted in the game being restored and continued.

Dave

[Centuur]

The only two things I can think about is that both players are not using the same version of MWIF or that the players are not restoring the same game.

The "next entry number" of the game both players want to restore has to be the same when you restore the game. It's in the description of the game you want to restore.

That's a mistake which can be made quite easily...

[davidachamberlain]

ORIGINAL: Centuur

The only two things I can think about is that both players are not using the same version of MWIF or that the players are not restoring the same game.

The "next entry number" of the game both players want to restore has to be the same when you restore the game. It's in the description of the game you want to restore.

That's a mistake which can be made quite easily...

>
Both were using 2.2.8 Public Beta.

Not sure where you got "both players want to restore". I only see the option for one player to restore (the one who started the game) and that appears to result in the Netplay login and trigger the other player. There was not any other action that appeared possible.

Are you able to restore an ongoing Netplay game? Which version are you using? What workflow happens when you initiate and the other player responds to continue the game?

Dave

[Centuur]

Yes, I am able to restore any netplay game, provided my opponent restores the same gamefile too.

So the sequence is: you restore gamefile y and your opponent restores gamefile y individually with their own computers and from their own harddisk.

Both players log into the netplay forums individually. If one player doesn't restore his gamesave, the game doesn't start. The netplay server waits until both players are logged in and than starts the game automatically on both machines (provided the next entry number of the saved games from both players is the same).

So you restore and your opponent restores (individually) the same game file. Both players have the same gamefiles on their machines.

I'm using a higher version, since I'm member of the beta test team. The version however is irrelevant in this case, since we have been restoring netplay games for a long time now (for lower and higher version numbers).

[davidachamberlain]

Thanks, I will give that a try.

Dave

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Just a couple of clarifications to what Peter said:

1 - The program doesn't start 'automatically' once both players restore the game. There is one more prompt to one of the players saying something to the effect that the other player has "logged in". Basically that prompt is there to let the first player who logged in know that the game is about to start.

2 - The two game files are not identical. For instance, the Axis player will not be able to see the US Entry chits.

3 - What the program is looking for is identical "Next Entry #" values in the two saved games. If those numbers are off by even 1, then the program believes the saved games didn't happen at the same point in the game.

---

But I have been restoring saved NetPlay games for years now with no trouble. I even use games from the beta testers - after running the GAM files through a little utility program I wrote to edit the players names to match the ones I use when playing NetPlay games against myself (two computers).

---

There is a button on the opening screen that lets you review NetPlay games. That feature is not in the documentation. You can use it to examine the map, but you can't make any decisions.

[davidachamberlain]

Thanks, Steve. I appreciate that. We will give it another try. However, the process makes more sense as you two describe.

I found the restart details on page 109 of the guide.

As a suggestion, it might be worth a subsection heading (that is indexed) and a more thorough explanation as you provided in your email if there is an opportunity to update the online documentation.

Dave

[eschefo]

David
We have version 2.3.0 Beta and after a unsucessfull start we can play and restarts game. Both player need to restore saved game as Steve said. Netplay seems slow but when playing is ok. We have now problem for playing with another friend.......[&:]

By

[davidachamberlain]

ORIGINAL: eschefo

David
We have version 2.3.0 Beta and after a unsucessfull start we can play and restarts game. Both player need to restore saved game as Steve said. Netplay seems slow but when playing is ok. We have now problem for playing with another friend.......[&:]

By

That is a different problem.

Netplay expects that the same players are involved.

If you want to have a game that can be played with different players, you should instead use either Solitaire or HotSeat with TeamViewer.

I expect that as part of enhancing to support more than 2 players, that requirement might change to allow you to substitute other players.

Just a dream at this point.

Dave

[Centuur]

I've never thought about transferring a netplay game from one player to another. I don't know if it would be very difficult to have that feature build in sometimes...

[davidachamberlain]

I think it would not be so easy. It goes beyond the game and to the Netplay database. When you restore, you don't enter in any login credentials. The game has saved who the last players were, so will require that restore from both players to connect them at Netplay.

You would need to be able to update who the player is before the restore. The user interface does not give you that opportunity.

Because of the considerations for supporting more than 2 players and the chance that a player might not be available for every session, it will need to change somewhat. Steve already knows that.

For now, short of taking the files from the missing player to another machine. Probably not a good idea.

I think for longer games when you want to have the flexibility to change players, you would need to skip Netplay and use Hotseat or Solitaire and something like Teamviewer.

Addition:
Also, as mentioned by Steve in his earlier post:

"But I have been restoring saved NetPlay games for years now with no trouble. I even use games from the beta testers - after running the GAM files through a little utility program I wrote to edit the players names to match the ones I use when playing NetPlay games against myself (two computers). "

I assume that means that the functionality DOES exist, but is not available in the games as published. It might not be hard at all to substitute if Steve makes that functionality available.



Dave

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: davidachamberlain

I think it would not be so easy. It goes beyond the game and to the Netplay database. When you restore, you don't enter in any login credentials. The game has saved who the last players were, so will require that restore from both players to connect them at Netplay.

You would need to be able to update who the player is before the restore. The user interface does not give you that opportunity.

Because of the considerations for supporting more than 2 players and the chance that a player might not be available for every session, it will need to change somewhat. Steve already knows that.

For now, short of taking the files from the missing player to another machine. Probably not a good idea.

I think for longer games when you want to have the flexibility to change players, you would need to skip Netplay and use Hotseat or Solitaire and something like Teamviewer.

Addition:
Also, as mentioned by Steve in his earlier post:

"But I have been restoring saved NetPlay games for years now with no trouble. I even use games from the beta testers - after running the GAM files through a little utility program I wrote to edit the players names to match the ones I use when playing NetPlay games against myself (two computers). "

I assume that means that the functionality DOES exist, but is not available in the games as published. It might not be hard at all to substitute if Steve makes that functionality available.



Dave

There's a moral dilemma here. If a player can edit saved NetPlay games to change who is playing which major powers, then it would be easy to cheat and see the US Entry chits (for instance).

[davidachamberlain]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

There's a moral dilemma here. If a player can edit saved NetPlay games to change who is playing which major powers, then it would be easy to cheat and see the US Entry chits (for instance).

Not a simple solution. I suggest that it is something to think about when getting into support for more than 2 players. There will be times when the player who has US will need to be replaced by another member of the same team. There will also be times when there are complete replacements of players. Since a Global War game will take many months, things will change.

For a 2 player version, there might be such a need, but more likely, a new game with a new player might make more sense or simply using a HotSeat version instead.

Regarding the moral consideration, I would hope that players would be honest enough to be fair about how they play. Those who are not will not be playing for all that long. People do make mistakes that can be easily forgiven, but systemic cheating won't last long.

Dave