The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by aiken:
I'm still confused a bit: how can I manually download new game turn from pbw? Need an advice.

If you set up your PBW username and password, check the pop-up alert and then press the PBW scan button, you will get a question to download, the first time it scans undownloaded turns.
If you don't accept to downöoad then it won't alert again, unless you in the settings screen press the "Clear downloaded list" button.

Will make it more clear in the future.

[ June 15, 2004, 05:19: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Aiken]

Thanks Ruatha, I'll try again later.

[bearclaw]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
Could youy please post the manual command line from the Favorites screen?
Du you have the setting checked to close the event screen when se4 closes?

What error did you get before? What error do you get now?

The manual command line is:
C:\Space Empires IV Gold\Savegame\Starscape VI.gam" "PASSWORD" "5

The game is using a mod which is in:
Space Empires IV Gold\Starscape folder.

I'm not getting any error message. It just keeps kicking back to the main screen. I can still attempt to enter my games but it still does the same thing. It will keep opening multiple copies of the external files though, so that works well.

[geoschmo]

Are you certain you have the password correct? If you try to open a turn from the command line and the player password is incorrect, nothing happens. Se4.exe quits with no error. Actually, I think it does have an exit code that Ruatha might be able to tap and have his companion program put up an error. But se4 wont display the error box on it's own.

[dogscoff]

Is it possible to open sinle player games with this doohickey? It keeps insisting that I'm player 0, and even if I change the command line manually, it won't load the game.
EDIT: No sooner had I typed that than Itried again and it seems to be working now.

Also, is there any danger of me stupidly opening a PBW turn I've already played, hitting quit straiht away and then the companion overwriting my uploaded turn on the server with a blank one?

[ June 15, 2004, 21:28: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[bearclaw]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Are you certain you have the password correct? If you try to open a turn from the command line and the player password is incorrect, nothing happens. Se4.exe quits with no error. Actually, I think it does have an exit code that Ruatha might be able to tap and have his companion program put up an error. But se4 wont display the error box on it's own.

Checked for that. Everything appears correct.

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by bearclaw:


The manual command line is:
C:\Space Empires IV Gold\Savegame\Starscape VI.gam" "PASSWORD" "5

The game is using a mod which is in:
Space Empires IV Gold\Starscape folder.

I'm not getting any error message. It just keeps kicking back to the main screen. I can still attempt to enter my games but it still does the same thing. It will keep opening multiple copies of the external files though, so that works well.

Hi.
THANKS for posting this info!

I see your problem right away.
It will be fixed in the next Version that is far away..
But I belive you can make it work, but you'll have to locate the mod manually, and I can't guarantee that it'll work. Haven't tried it yet.

The problem is that you are using a savegame in the default savegame folder but a mod in another directory, try to locate the mod directory by using the "BROWSE" button beside the mod text box in the favorite window, that should work, I belive.

Right now it's trying to run it with standard files and it's gettin a "Data files is wrong" error.
Don't type in the mod manually, use the browse button, much better!

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
Is it possible to open sinle player games with this doohickey? It keeps insisting that I'm player 0, and even if I change the command line manually, it won't load the game.
EDIT: No sooner had I typed that than Itried again and it seems to be working now.

Also, is there any danger of me stupidly opening a PBW turn I've already played, hitting quit straiht away and then the companion overwriting my uploaded turn on the server with a blank one?

It depends on you, the companion can open a played PBW turn, if you then hit end turn it overwrites the old on, but not if you choose "Quit" in the SE4 game.
It shouldn't say that you are player 0, uncheck the "Autoload" checkbox in the first page and try to choose the correct player, 0 stands for host, in single player you should choose player 1.

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Are you certain you have the password correct? If you try to open a turn from the command line and the player password is incorrect, nothing happens. Se4.exe quits with no error. Actually, I think it does have an exit code that Ruatha might be able to tap and have his companion program put up an error. But se4 wont display the error box on it's own.

Yes, so far I've only trapped the error code if it ends with an error, and it nearly never signals an error.
So I'll trap the error code for normal end in the future, as it seems to signal normal end even when quitting with error....

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by geoschmo:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ruatha:
The problem is that you are using a savegame in the default savegame folder but a mod in another directory, try to locate the mod directory by using the "BROWSE" button beside the mod text box in the favorite window, that should work, I belive.

I'd venture a guess and say Bearclaw has been using RTC prior to this. Since RTC doesn't actually support mods the workaround is to to use the default savegame folder and modify the path.txt manually or by using the mod picker before you start the game in RTC. If the Companion gets off the ground those of us that use RTC now could go back to using savegame folders in the mod folders like Se4 is designed to work.

Geoschmo

---

Next Version will have support for both ways, but it'll take some time before I release that as the deadline scanning required major rework of the code, gotta think ahead in the future.
But it means it'll be a better program in next Version, and somewhat different, still the same features but easier to use I hope.

Right now, all ver 0.8 does is to scan PBW, grab all games, turn status, deadline, news date and news text, turn type and turnlengths (in hours), players left to upload, PBW identity, game name and short file name, turnnumber. Saves all data and compare with internal database.
No GUI sofar, doing it the other way around this time, functions first and UI later.
Cutting code from v 0.76 and pasting it into 0.8 and improving it and streamlining it.
Making error handling, debug functions and log from beginning.

This is what i'm thinking right now:

I hope to make the UI more like the modpicker, but different(!), it won't look like 0.76 anyway.
It will hopefully not force you to open the event editor to autorun turns, the event editor will be an option like the rest of the external autostart options;
-Event editor.
-Music List play.
-Sidenotes.
-External File/App.

Favorites will disappear and those settings will merge into one screen with settings and PBW settings, but sectionalized. (Current Favorite settings will be settable for each game individual, so no Favorites are needed).
There will be something similar though, an easy way to pick a game and player with minimum (1-2) clicks.

It'll be easier to pick games, start new games etc.

We'll see what it becomes, but don't expect any new functions, only changes to the existing ones.
I won't delete any functions either though..

[ June 16, 2004, 13:38: Message edited by: Ruatha ]