Load error counter

[Weasel]

I have noticed the following occurring twice now. My opponent sent me a PBEM turn but he forgot to update his zip. I unzipped the files into the PBEM folder and opened the turn to realize that this was a previous turn. My opponent updated his zip and sent it along and things were fine except that my turn counter read 5 loads, 4 quit, 1 fail. This is fine. But now each turn the fail counter continues to climb by 1 and my opponent (player 2) is now registering failed loads.

I think the game is picking up on the overwriting of the previous turn and bringing that forward each turn. Either way, the failed loads do not mean much if the game just keeps increasing the counter by 1 after every turn once you have a screw up.

Is this a bug?

[Mobhack]

Weasel said:
I have noticed the following occurring twice now. My opponent sent me a PBEM turn but he forgot to update his zip. I unzipped the files into the PBEM folder and opened the turn to realize that this was a previous turn. My opponent updated his zip and sent it along and things were fine except that my turn counter read 5 loads, 4 quit, 1 fail. This is fine. But now each turn the fail counter continues to climb by 1 and my opponent (player 2) is now registering failed loads.

I think the game is picking up on the overwriting of the previous turn and bringing that forward each turn. Either way, the failed loads do not mean much if the game just keeps increasing the counter by 1 after every turn once you have a screw up.

Is this a bug?

1) "this was a previous turn" - yours or his?

2) "My opponent updated his zip and sent it along" - he replayed the turn and zipped it? or he sent the correct turn's zip this time?

My guess is that you tried to play a previous (wrong) turn sent by the other player.

At what point did you abort your play of this wrong turn?. Did you save to play later and exit (then overwrite with the zip) or did you play the turn through, then overwrite it?

I also presume you were therefore not each saving each turn to a numbered zip as recommended in the "playing by email" section of the manual, and were using the same zip file name, thus leaving yourselves open to such confusion?.

n case of crashes, it is a very good idea to keep all your zipped up moves for the entire game until it is completed, in case you find you require to retransmit a move to an opponent who has corrupted his move. Therefore, for each game it is useful to use a standardised zip file naming convention. I tend to use gamenameNNN.zip, where NNN is the move number, so DonUSAGE194400.zip would be my setup initial move, DonUSAGE194401.zip would be move number 1 after deployment and setup (the 0 move, remember!). I tend to put who I am playing, the 2 nations (player 1 on the left) and date in the name bit, to help tell the zips apart. I keep all the moves sent to me by my opponent as well to aid in any disaster recovery, as if I keep his then should he make a mistake (say he deleted one on his PC), I have the backup on mine. Once you have finished the game, then delete the zips.

The suggested procedure helps to avoid mistakes - as the zip file sent will have the turn number as part of the file name, it is less easy to make the mistake (when sending the file) of forgetting to zip the files, and when recieving a file you can check the file name against those already sent, and ensure it is the correct turn in the sequence before trying to unzip the contents to the save games folder.

It is not a good idea to just exchange a file called "mygame.zip" or to re-use it, as then you can forget to zip to it, and send the file to your opponent with old data in it - which seems to have been the case here for your opponent?. By appending a turn number to the zip file's name, you have to have done the zip operation into a new file first !

Cheers
Andy

[Weasel]

He played the correct turn but forgot to update his zip. I unzipped the file he sent me, placed it into the PBEM folder and noticed it was an old turn and told him to update his zip which he did. However, we are now getting counter errors each turn. The counter continues to increase each turn by 1 although no further mistakes have been made. At most it should read something like:
P1 10 load 9 quit 1 failed
P2 9 load 9 quit 0 failed

but instead it is reading

P1 10 load, 9 quit, 3 failed (if we played 3 turns since the error)

P2 9 load 9 quit 2 failed.

[Weasel]

Correction to this, I just played another turn from my opponent and this is what the counter reads:

We are on turn 8, I am player 1.

P1: 9 load, 8 quit, 4 failed
P2: 5 load, 5 quit, 2 failed (????? HUH)

As stated we have only had 1 failed load due to a non updated zip.