Simultaneous game issue - Page 4

geoschmo · #31 May 6th, 2003, 11:05 PM

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

JLS · #32 May 6th, 2003, 11:12 PM

Gee, I thought I was dense, Geo; You have some space yard on Tarus IVA, stuck on repeat build of old obsolete ship designs

[ May 09, 2003, 00:05: Message edited by: JLS ]

Fyron · #33 May 7th, 2003, 12:50 AM

Quote:

I am Irish, and a little slow

Excuse me? What kind of nonsense is that?

JLS · #34 May 7th, 2003, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

quote:
I am Irish, and a little slow

Excuse me? What kind of nonsense is that?

When Saint Patrick was converting Ireland, he was baptizing a Chieftain, when Patrick began the ceremony, he jammed his staff in the ground, accidentally spearing it through the foot of the Chieftain, at the conclusion of the ceremony, Patrick realized what had happened and asked the Chieftain, who was in extreme pain, why he had not said something, the chieftain replied, "I thought it was part of the ceremony."

No point in being Irish; unless you're thick

EDIT: Gaelic: Thick.
Has meaning of being substantial
This is a good thing.
Also could be intrepid as obdurate (stuborn and/or Persistent)
This could be a good thing.

[ May 09, 2003, 15:47: Message edited by: JLS ]

Gryphin · #35 May 7th, 2003, 06:49 PM

What happens in Windows XP if you "Change User" while SE IV is up and running?
Can you password protect a profile in XP?

Can you make the system near kid proof from being turned off?

Just speculating.

Q · #36 May 7th, 2003, 07:34 PM

Is MM aware that many user want this "simultaneous game turn save" possibility?
Otherwise I would e-mail it to them, altough I am pessimistic that there will be any further patch for SE IV.

Pocus · #37 May 7th, 2003, 11:30 PM

Gryphin : If I remember well, you can close a profil with applications still running (and you can pwd a profile). But a kid will always be able to shut down your PC. He will gets a warning that some profiles are still loaded, but I doubt he will care

After some querying to more geeky persons than me, it seems a harduous task to have an utility able to save and restore a program to the HD. One of the issue is that he wont be able to restore the application to the same memory segment that it occupied.

Altough a possibility exists to save the whole operating system (any OS). You have to use a virtual machine like the software VMWare, which allows you to create a virtual PC in to you PC (you can even have a virtual PC with XP inside a windows 98). With this utility, you can suspend and save to disk your virtual machine, and restore it and your will (along with SE IV running).

The problem is not that VMWare is difficult to use, it can be set to function in 5 minutes (you will have to spend an hour to install a windows in your virtual machine though). The problem is that VMWare is not freeware. If you want to meddle with the dark side, you can find serial keys, but we are far from having an honest and not cumbersome solution to save a simultaneous turn.

But theorically, if you pay your VMWare licence, you can. Or if you have some hundred dollars, buy a laptop with the system save feature

nb : I'm not encouraging anyone to do illegal things, I'm just saying a fact. Like the fact that most peer to peer Users are pirating things. Telling a thing is not encouraging to do it.

Stone Mill · #38 May 8th, 2003, 12:23 AM

I don't know if this helps, but WIN 2000 (and I believe XP) has "hibernate mode" next to the shutdown options which will put your computer to sleep. When you turn the computer on again, all programs restored will be at the exact point in time you gave the hibernate command.

I do this when I'm working on a big turn and need to leave.

Unfortunately, if someone else needs to use the computer, you need to brief them not to close SEIV, and leave it minimized while working, etc, and especially to hibernate it again, as opposed to shutting down.

JLS · #39 May 8th, 2003, 12:33 AM

You can set the option for a password entree, when coming off hibernate or sleep.

Fyron · #40 May 8th, 2003, 12:48 AM

JLS:
I will ask you not to post any racist jokes in the future. They are always offensive.

Quote:

Originally posted by JLS:
You can set the option for a password entree, when coming off hibernate or sleep.

Which eliminates the possibility of others being able to use the PC, which is wholely counter-productive.