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RE: 1.07

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 5:18 pm
by pzgndr
I have looked at this BUT I still do not have a way to allow the change to migrate to existing games so even if I added it today it could only be flipped to new games! Not much good to you guys with ongoing games.

What about an offline conversion, where the pbem game host emails you an ongoing game file and you convert it to the updated game version?

RE: 1.07

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:29 pm
by DCWhitworth
ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis
In fact, I am hearing about this more and more since more games are getting deeper (A good thing) but I still have no way to implement this yet :-0 and preseve existing games.

Marshall. Please forgive me for labouring at this, but I can't see the issue here.

Database changes have been made in the past I believe and yes this means saved games are no longer backwardly compatible with older version of the software, but is this an issue ?

Or are you saying that the conversion process is just too major to package into the main program ? In which case is there an issue with producing a one-off conversion utility ? It might not be elegant but if there is no other way what can you do ?

RE: 1.07

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 10:43 am
by Marshall Ellis
David:

The changes in the past have been data formatting and not data amounts. I need to extend the limit and I just do not have a graceful way to do this yet. I'm not saying that it cannot be done just that I haven't figured it out yet! I'm not giving up yet.

RE: 1.07

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:56 pm
by Jimmer
ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

ORIGINAL: Dancing Bear
ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

Well it will not be 1.07 for sure because she's almost locked down. BUT I am doing a small feasibility study ;-)

Hi Marshall
If you are looking at this, keep in mind that you might be able to trick the game into being simultaneous without a large re-coding effort. Previously discussed was the idea of simply changing the order of file loading for each player.

So, with one exception, no matter which player you are, as soon as you receive/complete the last land (or eco) phase, the game tells you that you are first in the diplomacy turn. However, when you save your diplomacy turn, the game saves it as it would appear in the regular sequence for other nations (i.e. 2nd, 3rd, etc). You send your file to the other players.

The exception is the last player in the diplomacy phase, who can not load his turn until he has everyone else’s. (This is done so that there is resolution of the diplomacy phase in the diplomacy phase). He loads up all the other players files in the regular sequence, and then does his diplomacy. Diplomacy is resolved on his machine and he sends out the resolved diplomacy phase.

All the other 6 players only need load the final resolved diplomacy phase, so they can see the results. They do not get to load the files from any other player (neatly reducing the number of file exchanges required; two birds, one stone).

Pretty much the same principle applies for economics, however, there no resolution of the eco phase, and you won’t need to hold back the last players turn or, for that matter, any file exchanges between players for eco. This could allow a player to go from loading the last land phase to economics to diplomacy in back to back turns. Very fast, and very few file exchanges.

Alternatively, you might consider moving all the economic functions into the diplomacy phase, since the game board/nation incomes do not change until the end of the diplomacy phase anyways, so there is no need for a separate eco phase.

Yea, I remember this. I think I will be playing around with this sometime this week. I am going to create a new build and see what I can do...
I would do this in two phases:

First, break apart the powers, but leave them in the same order.

Second, change the ordering/simultanaity.

This will most likely save you headaches over doing both phases at once.

RE: 1.07

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:58 pm
by Jimmer
ORIGINAL: Dancing Bear
Alternatively, you might consider moving all the economic functions into the diplomacy phase, since the game board/nation incomes do not change until the end of the diplomacy phase anyways, so there is no need for a separate eco phase.
This isn't quite right. Economics depends on whether GB is trading with a person or not. But, that can change in the diplomacy phase. It would be a very tricky exercise in coding to get this correct. In fact, it would be impossible, unless I miss my guess, with the current structure of the game.

RE: 1.07

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:01 pm
by Jimmer
ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

In fact, I am hearing about this more and more since more games are getting deeper (A good thing) but I still have no way to implement this yet :-0 and preseve existing games.
Then don't. Implement it only for new games. Then, players can decide whether they want to start over (without the limit) or keep going (but be broken).

RE: 1.07

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:05 pm
by Marshall Ellis
I wish it were that easy Jimmer but I must pay attention to those games in progress! It may have to be this way but it would be a little early to decide that now.