Heres a possible bug

[adam]

During a network game with 2 human players, my human opponent accidentally went into the LAND bin and marked a plot of land to be sold. He meant to test it for Zirconium, so instead of going back to the LAND bin to complete the transaction, he went into the LAB and then proceeded to test the plot and went back to the LAB to see the results. After that he went into the pub. The rest of the month went fine, but after the land grant phase of the next month, his plot of land went up for auction. I bought it, and after the auction my game reported "Waiting for players" and never continued. I saw him in the chat window saying hello anyone there, but he never received my replies. At that point, we had to quit the game and start over. We tried re-loading from auto-save, but the same thing happened again.

[ August 12, 2002, 18:57: Message edited by: Gillissie ]

[Gillissie]

The game definitely shouldn't hang like that (I will look into it immediately), but I have some questions...

When you say "LAND bin", do you mean the LAND office in the store?

What do you mean by "complete the transaction"? After a plot of land has been listed for sale, it cannot be unlisted, but the seller doesn't have to sell it during the next auction - just set the starting big to a VERY high price. After that land auction, then the transaction is complete, whether it was sold or not.

[adam]

>When you say "LAND bin", do you mean the LAND
>office in the store?

Yes!

>What do you mean by "complete the transaction"?

Well, in the original M.U.L.E., when you went into the "Land" office, the game actually PAUSED. Then you had to mark the land that you wanted to sell, and go back to the "Land" office. If you didn't go back to the land office, you were free to go into any other office and the land was not put up for auction.

>After a plot of land has been listed for sale,
>it cannot be unlisted, but the seller doesn't
>have to sell it during the next auction - just
>set the starting big to a VERY high price. After
>that land auction, then the transaction is
>complete, whether it was sold or not.

Easier said than done. If the game says "Waiting for players" indefinitely... then... well... heheh.

[ August 12, 2002, 04:50: Message edited by: adam ]

[Gillissie]

Ohhh. Now I understand what you mean by "complete the transaction".

Because of the point-and-click interface in Space HoRSE, you don't actually run out to the land you want to sell - you just click on it. There is no need to run back into the store a second time. If you decide you don't want to list a land for sale, you click on the warehouse to cancel. The on-screen instructions help you with that process.

I am looking into the "Waiting for players" hanging. Are you, by any chance, running your PC from behind a firewall? What is the ping to your friend? Press F6 to see the ping rate when in a game. Who is hosting, you or him? Please e-mail me at todd@gilligames.com if you don't mind, so I can ask you more technical details of the problem.

[ August 12, 2002, 05:14: Message edited by: Gillissie ]

[Gillissie]

Update: I found out that one of the players (Joiner) is using a firewall that isn't configured for Space HoRSE's port. If any player in a game is using a firewall, it must be configured properly for Space HoRSE to work reliably...this applies to the Host AND to the Joiners.