OOB and MAP Weirdness

[sithlord_shag]

Anyone finding difficulty on the steam version in the last few days loading their custom maps or OOB files? Mine refuse to load in the editor.

Update: I tried slitherine support and they referred me back here because its a modding/gameplay issue. I'm not sure whether it is one of those issues because I've been playing around with the editor since 99' and I've never seen this problem before. They just flatout fail to load. Custom scenarios created are not effected at all and a map I created after I realised I had a problem load fine.

It would be appreciated if someone could test my files on their own rig just to eliminate my own machine as the problem. If someone could PM to volunteer that would be great. Thanks

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: sithlord_shag

Anyone finding difficulty on the steam version in the last few days loading their custom maps or OOB files? Mine refuse to load in the editor.

Update: I tried slitherine support and they referred me back here because its a modding/gameplay issue. I'm not sure whether it is one of those issues because I've been playing around with the editor since 99' and I've never seen this problem before. They just flatout fail to load. Custom scenarios created are not effected at all and a map I created after I realised I had a problem load fine.

It would be appreciated if someone could test my files on their own rig just to eliminate my own machine as the problem. If someone could PM to volunteer that would be great. Thanks

Legacy scenario files are supported. Most other legacy file types probably not. Put your map and oob in a scenario under the older version you're using. Then you can load that scenario file into TOAWIV.

[sithlord_shag]

Thanks for taking the time to reply dear Curtis. Let me clarify: when I refer to my previous fiddling I am not actually using any of that older stuff. The maps and OOB I am using have been developed exclusively under TOAW IV. Thats why I am in state of confusion. I have never encountered this problem in TOAW I, II or ACOW. So it works like this; I go into the editor try to open a map and nothing happens. I've been working on 3 or 4 maps for he last 8-12 weeks and never had a problem. So I did a reinstallation and the problem repeated itself. I created a test map and saved it, shut down and restarted it and tried to open it in the editor. It ran fine. Its like the files have been corrupted or something. However, the maps I haven't worked on recently going back to early August and haven't been saved for awhile don't load either. Basically every map or OOB I have created before 1st October is unloadable. Its really quite frustrating since much work seems lost.

[Lobster]

Save and load using the xml choice. Save Map As and Open Map have not worked for some time if I recall correctly.

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: sithlord_shag

Thanks for taking the time to reply dear Curtis. Let me clarify: when I refer to my previous fiddling I am not actually using any of that older stuff. The maps and OOB I am using have been developed exclusively under TOAW IV. Thats why I am in state of confusion. I have never encountered this problem in TOAW I, II or ACOW. So it works like this; I go into the editor try to open a map and nothing happens. I've been working on 3 or 4 maps for he last 8-12 weeks and never had a problem. So I did a reinstallation and the problem repeated itself. I created a test map and saved it, shut down and restarted it and tried to open it in the editor. It ran fine. Its like the files have been corrupted or something. However, the maps I haven't worked on recently going back to early August and haven't been saved for awhile don't load either. Basically every map or OOB I have created before 1st October is unloadable. Its really quite frustrating since much work seems lost.

By legacy, I even mean earlier versions of TOAW-IV. Hard to go back to earlier versions of IV via Steam, of course, since it automatically updates. You don't have a Matrix installation?

In the future, think of oob and map files as temporary, and save them as scenarios.

[sithlord_shag]

Yeah that doesn't work because they were not saved as mml files to start. Renaming them as mml instead of mal files just causes the game to crash.

[sithlord_shag]

Yes in retrospect Curtis that would seem correct especially saving them as scenarios. However these map/oob files were created with the latest version of TOAW 4.10.40 thats not changed since 2019. I also checked with slitherine whether there were any steam updates that could have interfered and they said no.

[Lobster]

ORIGINAL: sithlord_shag

Yeah that doesn't work because they were not saved as mml files to start. Renaming them as mml instead of mal files just causes the game to crash.

When you use the Save Map As... you get a .mal file. When you use Save Map(XML) As... you get a .mml file. As I said, Save Map As and Open Map no longer work. Those are the functions that use the .mal format. The last .mal files I have are from August 2018 and no, they won't load. Now you have to use the .mml format which requires the XML format.

[sithlord_shag]

Lobster I'm not sure why the mal format does not work for you but I've been using it regularly for about 3 months. Thats interesting if its disabled on your copy. Are you using the steam or matrix version?

[Lobster]

Go into your documents/mygames/The Operational Art of War IV/Scenarios folder. Scroll to the bottom of the scenarios folder and see if there are any .mal files there. They might have the name of the folder you attempted to save them in and then the scenario name added after that.

BTW, I can load old .mal files just fine if they were created before a certain date. I just can't create any usable ones. I might have been wrong about them intentionally being disabled. But I am not wrong about them no longer able to be saved and reopened. Is it a bug? Don't know. I'll post it in the test forum and find out.

Then again I might be delusional and I really live on Mars in a big glass dome. [:D]

Also it would be nice if others could verify this. Not the Mars thing, the other one. [;)]

[sithlord_shag]

Lol, I thought I was living on Mars when the frikkin files wouldnt work. Thats interesting what you say. I've always found the mal and ool files to be very stable. I've never had an issue. Before I bought TOAW 4 I started up an old machine with win98 and toaw I running and loaded up some old mal and ool files that had been sitting on a 3.5 floppy since 2000. They worked fine. Tonight I went back and did another installation stripping out all the files that remain on the computer after you uninstall it. The results were strange. Other than fixing a sound problem that I had complained a couple of months ago the map file that I created to test things stopped working as well. The background this was that after my files would not load I created a test map mal file. I saved it and than reloaded it. Worked fine. Did reinstallation number 1 and it still worked fine. When I did the more radical reinstallation number 2 it would not work anymore. Unfortunately I could not see any saves in the scenario file.

[sithlord_shag]

SO A FURTHER UPDATE:

I took the plunge and bought the matrix version of TOAW and tested the files with that. I stripped out the steam version and initially used the unpatched version. I also tested the files on separate machine and the files would still not open.

At this point I am struggling to understand how a logical explanation could explain what occurred. It really makes no sense.

The only hypothesis that is consistent with what I have observed is as follows:

1. Sometime between September 20 and 1st October all mal and ool files created before October 1 were modified by some unknown mechanism to make them inoperative. This is kind of problematic though because some of the files were last modified before sept 20. They are as ineffective as the ones created later on.

I would make the following observations:

A. The platform used is irrelevant (steam or matrix).
B. The configuration of my computer is irrelevant.
C. The patch version is irrelevant.
D. Bob's advice to save maps and oobs as scenarios is sound since the sce file save sequence seems stable at times.
E. I am not sure if the operation of onedrive on my computer has effected the files somehow.

PM me if anyone wants to receive the files to crack the mystery but I'm not holding out much hope for a solution.

[larryfulkerson]

PM sent.

[sithlord_shag]

A short update: Larry was kind enough to to have a look at the files but had no luck getting them to work. And a big thanks to the others who have contributed as well. In the meanwhile I did a bit more searching and the problem appears to have been previously recorded. The following links is some of the history [WHICH UNFORTUNATELY I CANNOT POST WHICH KIND OF DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF A FORUM TO SHARE INFORMATION BUT CAN PM IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED].

I note that Lobster's experience with the feature being disabled would also be important to clarify. It would be good to have an official response about all this so if you are reading Matrix perhaps drawing it to Ralph's attention might be of assistance. I might see if I can contact some of the others posting in the past and see if they got a resolution. Once again thanks guys for contributing.

[Lobster]

I think once you get past your tenth post you can link. Not sure, it's been awhile.

[sithlord_shag]

ORIGINAL: Lobster

I think once you get past your tenth post you can link. Not sure, it's been awhile.

LOL

[sithlord_shag]

I guess that was message 10! But "You are not allowed to post links, emails or phone numbers for 7 days from the date of your tenth post."

[Lobster]

Anti spam stuff can really suck.

[Zovs]

ORIGINAL: sithlord_shag

I guess that was message 10! But "You are not allowed to post links, emails or phone numbers for 7 days from the date of your tenth post."

Look for von Paulus or zakblood they can hook you up. It post in general they’ll hook ya up