Simultaneous game issue

[Fyron]

I bet MB can come up with something to save and recall existing turns in a basic Simu Game though

That would require hacking the executable.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
I suppose it's possible someone could design a method of doing this involving somehow capturing the current contents of the PC memory and saving that to be reopened later. I am not sure how that would be done though other than just a basic theoretical idea. It might be kind of close to hacking the game though.

Geoschmo

Well you can dump the content of your memory to your hard disk, then restore it later. The laptop PCs do that when you 'emergency close' the screen. Now I dont know if a utility can do the same thing for a specific task, eg SE IV, and not the entire system.
My point is that, even if I'm totally far from being able to code such an utility, it is surely feasible, and that it dont involve hacking, as you dont have to understand the memory structure of a task/process to dump it to hard disk.

Well, my rant is all theorical, seems that no one here master enough the windows environment do to such a wonderful tool

Anyway, back to topic, and I will speak again of my stars! experience: stars! which fitted on a single floppy, enabled you to save and continue a simul turn. A shame that Malfador never did that. I climb to 3 hours a turn in big PBEM games (stars, dominions), and I'm now unsure that I will PBEM/PBW SE IV because this feature lack.

[JLS]

Originally posted by Ruatha:

BUT, you cannot in any known way at the present time save your current turn in simultaneous, quit the game, restart and pick up where you left off.
I'm quite certain of this

Hi, Ruatha

In regards to Simultaneous game play only. Also works with LAN.
Never played PBW or PBEM, so I would not know.

If you copy and Back up these folders before ending a turn 100;
Savegame Folder – If playing a Mod then within MODS directory; otherwise se4 Directory’s Savegame folder.

Backup Folder – In se4 Directory
History Folder – In se4 Directory
Temp Folder – In se4 Directory

Play 10 Turns and then End game at 110.

Paste and overwrite the older Four above Folders containing turn 100 over the existing folders containing turn 110.
When turn 110 was overwriten, now there is no way the game would ever see turn 110 like it never existed.

The Game now Resumes at 100 and only can see turn 100, including all orders, history, Stats, Log, Combat reports AI everything from turn 100. Right were you left off at turn 100.

Please test it, how is it possible to be untrue?

[ May 06, 2003, 21:38: Message edited by: JLS ]

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by JLS:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ruatha:

BUT, you cannot in any known way at the present time save your current turn in simultaneous, quit the game, restart and pick up where you left off.
I'm quite certain of this

Hi, Ruatha

In regards to Simultaneous game play only. Also works with LAN.
Never played PBW or PBEM, so I would not know.

If you copy and Back up these folders before ending a turn 100;...
.
.
.
Please test it, how is it possible to be untrue?

---

JLS, you are still confusing two totally different things. Ruatha is talking about saving during a turn and contuning that turn later. You are talking about saving at the end of a turn, and reloading a previous turn later. Two totally different things. One is possible and easily done, the other is impossible short of a hardcode change by Malfador or some memory storing trick like we talked about earlier.

Geoschmo

[JLS]

Originally posted by geoschmo:

JLS, you are still confusing two totally different things. Ruatha is talking about saving during a turn and contuning that turn later.

Geo

If I can save turn 100; during the turn, as I explained.

And then latter restore turn 100; to it full glory.

Then how is this different from your above quote?


~~~

short of a hardcode change by Malfador or some memory storing trick like we talked about earlier.

In regards to mem storing, as soon as you shut down...puff.

I believe it writes and reads to the folders I mentioned.

Where all in game information is saved and all is
Resumed and reloaded.

[ May 06, 2003, 21:52: Message edited by: JLS ]

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by JLS:
Geo

If I can save turn 100; during the turn, as I explained.

And then latter restore turn 100; to it full glory.

Then how is this different from you above quote?

Because the only way to save turn 100 is to hit end turn. That is the only way to save any simultaneous turn in Se4. Once you hit end turn it saves a .plr file for turn 100. That .plr file is used by the host to process the next turn. You can reopen turn 100, but you will be back at the begining. Everything you did the first time you opened turn 100 will be gone. You will have to do it again.

If you are running the host turns on your pc you can backup the files for turn 100, process the turn and then open turn 101, see what happened, and then restore the backup for turn 100 and open it again. But again you will be back at the begining of turn 100. You cannot open turn 100 "in the middle" and have the orders you already gave still be there.

That is what people are asking for the ability to do. We all know how to back up previous turns so we can reopen them and play them all over again form the begining. That doesn't help. What we want to be able to do is stop in the middle of turn 100, save it, go eat lunch and come bac in the afternoon and finish giving our empire orders. That we cannot do.

Geoschmo

[JLS]

THANK YOU....

I SEE THE LIGHT....

So we are both right

[JLS]

go eat lunch and come bac in the afternoon and finish giving our empire orders. That we cannot do.

Not to be a pest, but why can't you just leave the unit on EAT and then finish the turn latter.

Never mind, jut kidding

[ May 06, 2003, 22:03: Message edited by: JLS ]

[Grandpa Kim]

The scene:

GK has just changed to go out for dinner and night of drunken debauchery... but he has some time to play his PBW game.

Starts the game and up pops the log screen. Events? What's this? Oh, just the warp point I opened. Politics? Some interesting stuff there. Combat? Hmm, good news and bad. Research? Okay those projects are done, better add these things. Click off the log, go to designs and make some new fighters and capital ships based on the new tech. Okay, back to the log. 3 new colonies. Get them up and running.

Now system by system. GK goes through 4 systems making changes when suddenly... "Whats that dear? Time to go? Already? Just let me save this game."

Save the game?

THE GAME WON'T SAVE!!! And Gk still has 6 systems to make changes in and those diplomacy Messages to respond to!

Three choices:
Leave the computer running and hope no one fiddles with it before noon tomorrow! Hah!
Quit the game and start over tomorrow. *groan*
End the game even though the changes are only half done! Naddachance!

I hope this clarifies what we are trying to say JLS.

[geoschmo]

JLS, let me explain it this way...

I am playing a simultaneous turn game of SE4. Doesn't matter whether it's PBW, PBEM, LAN, or Hotseat on my own pc, they are all the same. Simultaneous.

By turn 100 I have a fairly large empire, let's say 200 planets. 300 ships, and I share the quadrant with 5 other empires, two of which I am at war with. Lot's of stuff going on. I am a very busy little emperor.

Since I am complely anal and I don't trust the Ai ministers to do anything I have to check every one of my 200 planets to make sure they are building what I want them to, answer all the Messages I get from other empires, and direct my fleets in their battles with the enemy. All this takes a lot of time. Let's say two hours, cause I am slow and have incredible attention to detail.

The problem is in real life I have a wife and kids and they don't really care whether or not my western sector is exposed to Xiati attack, or whether the space yard on Tarus IVA is stuck on repeat build of an obsolete ship design. They want to use the computer.

The only way I am going to get two straight hours of computer time is if it starts at 1 in the morning. I can't simply do half the work and walk away and hope my ten year old doesn't screw something up in between bouts of Final Fantasy IV can I? So I want to be able to do a little at a time, saving as I go and in the end I will have a .plr file ready for the next turn.

You "method" doesn't allow me to do that. All it allows me to do is go back and start over from the begining each time I open the turn. I can do that now without backing up anything.

Geoschmo