pbem game password problem

[PopskiPPA]

Using different compressing programs or sending the files uncompressed did not solve the problem.

But delaying the arrival of paradrops and glider landings by one turn made the problem appear one turn later. So I started a new pbem against myself on the same map. The turn after the paradrop/glider landings the password of player 2 was no longer accepted. The paras/gliders were russian. It didn't matter if the russians were played by player 1 or player 2, the password of player 2 was rejected.

So the problem seems to be associated with paras/gliders and/or the map.

Just ran a quick test:

August 1946, visibility 30, USSR vs USA, meeting engagement, random map 150*150

I bought in this order for Russia:

3* unit 200 G-11 Glider
1* formation 161 Para Company [A], last section deleted
8* unit 200 G-11 Glider
2* formation 43, unit 70 Guards Platoon
2* formation 100, unit 139 Horsa (Poland allied)
1* formation 4, unit 127 Guards Tank Co, last two sections deleted
1* formation 4, unit 294 Guards Tank Co, last two sections deleted

The first three glider stay empty to soak up AAA, the tanks go into the Horsas. All are plotted to land after turn 1 on the left side of the map. Entry top left corner, exit bottom left corner.
The turn after the landing player2s password is rejected.
Just repeated the test with the landings after turn 2, same result, password rejected after the landing.

I repeated this multiple times, every time the same result.

So it seems there is a problem with paras/gliders. I don't think it is faulty RAM or the harddisk because I can reproduce the problem.
How likely is it for faulty hardware to always affect the password of player2 and only after the landing of paras/gliders?
There was no transfer in the test game, so no corruption possible.

I'm attaching the turns of the test game.
password player1 russia
player2 usausausa
path in both cases D:\WinSPWW2

Popski

[Mobhack]

interesting. it sounds as if it may be an array overrun, one of C/C++ little 'oddities' (sane languages like Pascal would throw an exeption at any attempt to address ouside an array's bounds).

I will look into this.

Andy

[Mobhack]

OK - it was array addressing, but due to a typo I must have made some time ago.

It was in the glider landing routine, and results in data overwriting the password block. Now fixed (MBT and WW2).

Very good catch - it was a subtle little thing, which needed careful step-through on the debugger to find.

Until the newest EXEs come out - passworded PBEM games with gliders should not be played.

Cheers
Andy

[PopskiPPA]

Thank you for taking my observation seriously.

One little request: would it be possible to change the scrambled password of player2 back to what it was before the gliders landed? It was tobispiel. I'm attaching the turn (played for the first time, not the repeatedly played turn during testing).

It would be nice to finish this game before we change the sides.

Thank you very much!

PopskiPPA

[Mobhack]

Sorry, but no.

A PBEM game is difficult enough to debug - one often has to go into the code and comment out lines for things the game is objecting to, and so on just to get the debug info. So actually changing that data - and getting it back on disk in a playable state (on the other players installation) from a game that has technically failed security, is decidedly non trivial. A PBEM game can really only be "debugged" by breaking it and the actual programme code.


Cheers
Andy