Don't Hit That Esc Key!!! - Big Problem

wie201 · Post by **wie201** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 1:32 pm

Sorry, I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

I don't even let my wife view my computer screen when I am on it. Well, for that reason and a few more!

Just go to the Battlefields forum. One thing I can say, it looks great!

PBYPilot · Post by **PBYPilot** » Sat Feb 01, 2003 12:46 pm

OK. here's the deal, as if it needed further description:

I sent wie201 my US orders for 6/2/42 in Sc #17. He was able to send me back three (3) different sets of files each containing a combat replay and the file so I could do the US orders for 6/3/42.

Not only was each replay different (though with similarities), each of the US order files (where there is no FOW re: ALlied ships) had a different situation, specifically differences in the fate of an S-boat near Rabaul, and an AV and AP at Renell Island.

And as stated above, the weather in those US order files was partly cloudy twice and clear once.

So it looks like the Japoanese player, using the Esc key, gets a best of three choice of results.

If the replay was generated on the Allied players computer and then sent to the Japanese player (i.e. if BOTH players watched a replay), instead of the Japanese player wathing the turn as it was created, it would eliminate the chance for a change in the outcome of the turn.

Hope this clarifies and helps.

PBYPilot
"Slow airplanes and fast women."

Cap Mandrake · Post by **Cap Mandrake** » Sat Feb 01, 2003 8:02 pm

PBY and Wie...I am now wondering if this phenomenon might be affecting a PBEM "Four Weeks of Hell" scenario I am playing. We seem to be having some synch problems that started when I converted from 2.11 to 2.20. Did this funny business affect SUBSEQUENT turns? Even when I seem to get things right and send an end turn file asking for the proper password, he is unable to open. Did you run into anything like this?

wie201 · Post by **wie201** » Sun Feb 02, 2003 9:21 pm

Cap Mandrake,

Well, we started in 2.20, so our situation might be different. That notwithstanding, honestly we haven't gone forward after I stumbled onto this problem. We have now gone through at least 5 re-starts of games, and don't want to put any more time into the game until we have some indication that it will be fixed.

The only problem we ever had loading a game was when one player (um, me) re-named a file, and the new file did not write over the older file. For example, I named a file MikevDave002.uvs, which loaded normally. After several turns, I re-named it (for no apparent reason) MikevDaveJapOrders002.uvs, and when PBYPilot saved it, it would not write over MikevDave002.uvs so that UV would recognize it.

What happened was PBYPilot would keep loading the old file, not the new one. Once he realized what was happening, he renamed the file MikevDaveJapOrders002.uvs to MikevDave002.uvs, and everything worked fine.

Cap Mandrake · Post by **Cap Mandrake** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 1:48 am

Thx..I'll check that

XPav · Post by **XPav** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 2:41 am

<getting out my dead horse>

The save and replay system needs to be fixed. Its hard to use, gives too much (all sides spotting reports), and too little (forces players to look at their own attacked TFs to see what actually happened), imposes a completely unneeded restriction on file names, and has erratic problems with the replay.

In comparison, I've never had a replay problem with The Operational Art of War and I'm allowed to name the files whatever I want and put them in whatever folder I want.

Joel Billings · Post by **Joel Billings** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 2:24 pm

Originally posted by HawaiiFive-O
Ugghhh...

Perhaps we can get an official answer from Matrix/2by3 regarding this bug? I realize it's all hands on deck for WiTP at this point, but this bug has to be killed.

We are working on a patch this week and this Esc key problem as well as the replay not matching problem are both on our list. I've confirmed that the Esc key causes problems in reloading saves and resoloving them in non-PBEM games (they resolve differently if you hit the Esc key during resolution, they don't otherwise as long as you exit the program before loading saves). Your experience shows the same problem happens in PBEM play.

We will try hard to fix this if we can. We have a few ideas on what might be causing it, I just hope it isn't as big a problem as the replays being out of sync as that bug has been impossible to date to find and fix. Hopefully since this is easy to duplicate it will be easier to fix. Thanks wie201 for taking so much time to understand and duplicate the problem. I'll let the forum know if we find the problem and when a patch might be published as soon as I can.

Joel

Feinder · Post by **Feinder** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 7:21 pm

Thanks for the response Joel. Just as a minor irritation, could you disable the Esc key at the main game menu screen? A problem that I've had in the past is escaping thru a long replay, only to hit the Esc key one too many times and go all the way out of the game. Disabling the Esc key at the menu screen, and thereby forcing the player to manually click the "Exit Game" button, would avoid this nuisance.

Thanks to your staff for all their hard work.
-F-

HawaiiFive-O · Post by **HawaiiFive-O** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 8:44 pm

Thanks for the response, Joel!

Your continued support for this game is unbelievable. I have every confidence that the team will do all that they can to track down this bug.

Don't Hit That Esc Key!!! - Big Problem

NDA

What he said