Please help me with problem on SE V PBW

[Dogboy]

I've created a new game for friends. Two players have so far signed up. We are playing SE V v 1.71 with the 1.14a Balance Mod.

I have three questions:

1) Once they upload their races, do I manually set up the game and upload a file? I imagine I must, else how could I set up all the game parameters. However, this was not clear from the FAQ.

2) For both of the players who have uploaded so far, when I choose "accept player" I get the error message below. One question: when players indicate empire name upon signing up, is that the file name they used when saving their race, or the name they selected in the game? Here is the error. Any advice would be appreciated!

3) As host, can I just sign up as I would if I were a normal player?) Thanks!

"Error: 500
Location: /GameAdmin
Internal Servlet Error:

java.lang.NullPointerException
at cc.dpf.pbw.servlet.seiv.GameAdmin.processRequest(G ameAdmin.java:877)
at cc.dpf.pbw.servlet.seiv.GameAdmin.doGet(GameAdmin. java:968)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet .java:740)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet .java:853)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ServletWrapper.doService(Se rvletWrapper.java:405)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.Handler.service(Handler.jav a:287)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ServletWrapper.service(Serv letWrapper.java:372)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.internalServ ice(ContextManager.java:797)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.service(Cont extManager.java:743)
at org.apache.tomcat.service.connector.Ajp13Connectio nHandler.processConnection(Ajp13ConnectionHandler. java:160)
at org.apache.tomcat.service.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(Po olTcpEndpoint.java:416)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable. run(ThreadPool.java:501)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:484)
"

[Ed Kolis]

1. Yes, you set up the game, and upload the .gam file you create as the first turn file from the admin page.

2. Are you using the graphics UI? You might have to switch to the text UI temporarily; there are some bugs in the PBW code...

3. Yes, the host can join the game as a player.

[Dogboy]

Thanks. Still encountering a problem:

When I try to join my own game, I am asked to enter
"Empire password" and "Empire name". For the first, I enter the password I used to password protect the empire I made. For "Empire Name" I enter the name of my empire as entered when creating the game. Then, I get a text message downloaded to my desktop that says:

"Cannot execute player command: Empire name is invalid"

Do I need to enter the file name of the file I created for my empire, and if so, with or without extension?

Thanks!

[Dogboy]

Look, I hate to sound like a total idiot, but I am stuck. I want to upload my .emp file, but I can't find the file on my new PC with Vista! (grrrrr) When I look in the subdirectory "Saved Empires" it is empty, and Vista's search function comes up empty when I try to find *.emp. I did specify c:\temp as the subdirectory when I first created my race and play tested it in multiplayer mode. I do see other files with my race name (a [myracename].gam file) but no [myracename].emp.
Thanks for helping me muddle through setting up a new game on a new Vista-infected machine.

You'd think my race would be saved in the "Saved Empires" subdirectory, but it isn't. I know it exists because I can "load from file".

[Ed Kolis]

I think Vista has this option somewhere called "show legacy files" or something... unfortunately I can't remember what exactly it's called or where to get to it...

As for the invalid empire name, that seems really strange... you don't have any sort of punctuation or other funky characters in your empire name, do you? Or is the name really long? You shouldn't have to enter the name of the file; the empire name you enter should be Empire Name Empire Type (e.g. "Phong Confederacy"), but it really shouldn't even matter what you enter there, since it's only used for display on PBW... you could put "Fred Astaire" for all PBW cares

[Dogboy]

I found a fix. You can disable "stupid search" mode (as I
think it should be called) by going to control panel, selecting "Administrative tools", then and "Services". Select "Windows Search" and click "stop". You can also then select "Disabled".

When I did this, it works more like XP's search function, and I was able to use it to find my .emp file (a file that Vista's search function concluded does not exist).

[capnq]

The "Error: 500" message is discussed in the PBW FAQ, section 1.16.

capnq
PBW admin