reload

[bevilacqua]

I'm playing my first PBEM game and my opponent notified me (very politely, I must say) that he got a reload message.

My concern is that I don't have the time to play the game in one sitting and most of the time, when playing against the AI, I'll save the game multiple times, even if I leave it open, just in case I need to reboot my computer. In PBEM, when saving, the game quits and I need to reload. I'll probably do it more than once every turn.

The what's new states:

Note that this guarantees that reloading can’t tamper with PBEM interturn calculation results via the reloading cheat.
It will also make it more difficult to change PBEM combat results via the reloading cheat (but not render it
impossible, of course).

So, it's not impossible and even if it was, players would have to be aware of this fact, because it is natural that getting any message of the kind raises suspicion, indicating, at least, that the fact has some importance and that he should be aware of it.

After all, is there any problem reloading? If so, how can I play the game in multiple sittings while saving my progress?

Thanks

[Panama]

The reload cheat and saving then resuming at the save are not the same thing.

Reload cheat: You have some combats but one doesn't provide the result you want. You start the turn from scratch and do the combats again. All the results are to your satisfaction the second time and you save this. You do another combat round. Some combats didn't provide the results you wanted. You reload the game from the last time everything went as you wanted. You do the second combat round and reload from the first save until the second round is to your liking. You do this umpteen zillion times until the turn is aver and how you want it to be cuz you have no life and a real need to see a shrink.

I ignore reload messages. If you get alot of them in at the beginning of the turn and your opponenet manages to fix every bridge and blows up everything in sight I might be conerned but it's only a game. If someone really has that big of a need to win let them win very fast and don't play them again.

I've not played a pbem game with the patches so I don't know how it affects the game but if Ralph says it works that way I'd go with that unless you think it's bugged.

[bevilacqua]

Thanks. I feel impelled to say that in no moment my opponent made any complaint. He was very polite, in fact. But I want to be sure he doesn't think I'm cheating. He and the others to come, since I don't want to lose human opponents on that account.
I agree with what you say about the need to win. I would just let such an opponent have his ecstasy, the poor soul.

[Obsolete]

...but it's only a game.

That`s true, but some people have an utter hatred for cheaters, most certainly if they take their ladder-club rankings as a serious hobby.

[ralphtricky]

You should be able to start the turn, save it, load it and keep playing as many times as you want without triggering a message.

ctrl-alt-delete or reloading any other save from that pbem scenario that you're playing with that person (I check by passwords, turn number, and actual scenario name) will cause an error.

Starting with 3.4, you can load an 'end of turn' file without triggering an error. Prior to 3.4, there was no way to look at earlier turns.

I've heard of occasional problems, but it's always worked on my machine, bet you've never heard that one before[:D], if you want to help troubleshoot this, drop me a line and i'll send you instructions on how to turn on more detailed logging. I'd rather not post them, since it would make it easier for someone to defeat the mechanism I'm using.

My goal is to keep honest people honest, I know there's no way to keep the bad guys out.

Ralph