SE4Gold game save bug?

[Visigoth]

I'm seeing thousands of small files written to the Savegame directory whenever I save a game, and when my SE4G game got to a couple hundred turns saves started taking at least 2 minutes to complete. With autosave enabled this makes the game unplayable. For a game named 'V1', the gamefile itself is of course 'V1.gam', but the added files all have the form 'v1_osav0_osav0_osav1_osav3_plr_1_events.txt'; similar pattern for thousands of .cmb files too. If I delete all such files, they all get written again the next time I do a save.

Many similarly named files are written for the various autosave slots, too, with of course 'autosavX' prefix (X in 0..9). Disabling autosave of course prevents this from delaying game turns, but I really want to leave autosave on...

I see no option controlling this behavior, and never encountered this with the original SE4 in any of its patchlevels. Environment is Win2k, Athlon 700. My SE4G Version reports as "1.60 Gold".

Anybody else see this? I have a support request in to MM but wondered if this issue wasn't unique... (kinda looks like a debugging output feature that made it into release build!)

[geoschmo]

Thousands of files?!?

What type of game are you playing? Simultaneous turn? Same machine or different? How many players. We can try to duplicate it if nothing else.

Geoschmo

[Captain Kwok]

I believe you are describing log text files and combat replay files...in the settings.txt found in the data directory, you can make these all false and they'll stop being made. Scroll through the list (they are about mid way down in the list).

The reason why you are getting so many is because it generates a file for each player each save and with autosave on, that's a lot of files.

Create Log Text Files for Players := False
Create Log Text File for Game := False

[Visigoth]

Yes, you are correct, they are log text files and combat replay files, but they are superfluous -- that is, they are IN ADDITION to the "normal ones" generated. I had the "Log.." settings set to 'FALSE' *already* in Data\Settings.txt. Combat replay generation is left enabled (needed for multiplayer, I believe).

Current game is a sequential game, solo against AI (currently 8 opponents). Current gamedate is 2421.6. Autosave is disabled for this game.

With the savegame directory *empty* I save the game, selecting 'v10' as the game name. After about 3-4 minutes of disk activity (I didn't time it) here is the savegame directory (abbreviated, sorry 'bout wrapping but can't control with your form):

------[begin dir listing]

Volume in drive E is STUFF
Volume Serial Number is 3A35-73AD

Directory of E:\games\se4g\Savegame

03/12/2002 02:45p <DIR> .
03/12/2002 02:45p <DIR> ..
03/13/2002 12:51a 160,524 v10_osav7_osav2_osav1_plr_1_stats.txt
03/12/2002 11:22p 99 v10_osav7_osav2_osav1_plr_1_events.txt
03/13/2002 12:51a 160,524 v10_osav8_osav4_osav1_plr_1_stats.txt
03/12/2002 11:22p 99 v10_osav8_osav4_osav1_plr_1_events.txt
03/13/2002 12:51a 160,524 v10_osav8_osav5_osav1_plr_1_stats.txt
03/12/2002 11:22p 99 v10_osav8_osav5_osav1_plr_1_events.txt

... [snipped]

03/13/2002 12:51a 11,207 v10_osav2_osav4_osav0_osav9_osav1_current_replay_c ombat.cmb
03/13/2002 12:51a 11,207 v10_osav2_osav4_osav0_osav0_osav1_current_replay_c ombat.cmb
03/15/2002 02:35p 453,302 V10.gam
8574 File(s) 419,251,286 bytes
2 Dir(s) 6,248,185,856 bytes free
------ [end dir listing]
You get the idea. I should only have a few files generated: v10.gam, v10_current_replay_combat.cmb, and a couple of text files if the log reports are enabled. I get these, but some 8570 extra files as well.

I can supply game savefile and settings.txt if needed.

Thanks for the replies, hope this extra info helps.

[Visigoth]

Something I forgot to mention: the timestamps of the additional generated files is interesting, too: 3/12, 3/13, back soon after starting the game. This was an empty directory just prior to the save! How did these "old" files get there?

[Visigoth]

This wasn't an SE4 problem. After reinstalling Win2k service pack 2 the issue disappeared. Apparently a debugging Version of one of the Windows libraries was installed, and was being invoked during an SE4G savegame (I didn't try original SE4 on same system, and have been playing SE4 under Linux/Wine for the past couple months, not under Windows.)

[Mephisto]

Good that you found the bug. And I'm glad it was not SE4.