PROJECT: Multiplayer

[Martin Gühmann]

So far Multiplayer isn't in a desirable condition. Therefore I would like to know the problems that are in the current playtest built. At least we need some sort of a list, to know what has to be done. To avoid that these reports get lost in the playtest trhread here a new thread.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Its been a few playtests back since i tried MP so i cant give you specific problems (others might), but the biggest was heavy resynching (worse than 1.0) and PW tax not giving anything some turns, then eventually giving it some turns later, and sometimes not at all.

Anyone interested in a MP game, to find specifically what needs fixing can post here and we arrange a game.

[Martin Gühmann]

The best is to make a save of every turn and post some selected saves with the bugs occuring nearly, so that we can reproduce them easily.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Still looking for a MP tester... it would take 30mins at most to reproduce the biggest problems, I would guess.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Still looking for a MP tester... it would take 30mins at most to reproduce the biggest problems, I would guess.

Therefore you should do a save of every turn maybe not of the first few, but of the later ones.

However I worry about how I can use the saves later, I suppose I can simply load a game and then I am alone on the server. That could make things more complicated, but maybe it is just enough to check the data then.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

OK well me and mapfi tried a MP game today with the 2005-09-12 playtest, we both got "database out of synch - returning to lobby" error as client as soon as we joined. We both double checked every file installed right.

We then went back to the 2004-04-03 playtest (only other one we could find) just to see, and we could join fine and completed one turn. We didnt play anymore since its such an old playtest it might be pointless. If we could try a slightly older playtest, perhaps a couple of versions to see how they do, or ideally fix this, but we have no idea why it gave that error.

[Fromafar]

It would be very interesting to get some log files of the communication with the original Activision game, and compare these with similar ones of the playtest release. To activate the log file generation, you have to select the debug version of the Anet DLL at the connection selection screen. This will generate - text - files output.<number> containing all communication packets.

It will be quite time-consuming to analyse the loggings, but probably this is the only way to get it to work.

[Maquiladora]

Hopefully we can do that next time.

One game, using CtP2, 1.1 official patch, XP fix dlls. Client joins then exit. Or by original do you mean unpatched?

Next game CtP2, 12 sept. 2005 playtest, XP fix dlls. Client joins then gets kicked.

Both with identical settings etc.

No kidding itll be time consuming, we used debug just as a last resort and it generated 123kb worth of text just for joining then getting kicked.

If youre ok with that mapfi ill be on ICQ wednesday at 4pm GMT+1 again.

[Fromafar]

Using the 1.1 patch is fine. Unpatched is basically what we had as source before we started to mess it up here .

If the 2004-04-03 version was working (at least the first turn), I should be be able to find out where it went wrong with the log. There have not been too many changes on the multiplayer parts.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
OK well me and mapfi tried a MP game today with the 2005-09-12 playtest, we both got "database out of synch - returning to lobby" error as client as soon as we joined. We both double checked every file installed right.

The string database is out of synch, I thought I did care about, but obviously not enough. And here you see why it is important to test the stuff, the only thing I could do was to start a MP game alone, it uses the synch check, but of course I couldn't really see whether the check is language unspecific as it should be.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Its funny, we wondered for a second if it might be the strings as he mentioned he was using a German version, but we dismissed it.

Does this mean we dont need to run the two games to generate the logs?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Its funny, we wondered for a second if it might be the strings as he mentioned he was using a German version, but we dismissed it.

Well all the English and the German text files are dilivered with the playtest, so basicly you can select the language you want. Only the the sound files are missing so that you have to copy the sound files from the one directory to the other and the *.ldl files in the English directoyr aren't complete. By the way you could upload them.

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Does this mean we dont need to run the two games to generate the logs?

If the logs were just ment to find this problem then they are unecessary I already know where the problem is located. But actual I understand it so that Fromafar thinks these logs could provide other useful pieces of information.

-Martin

[Fromafar]

Just have a look at the utterly incomplete code in net_feat.cpp. This is something that may be improved by analysing the log of 1.1 patch games.

[Maquiladora]

By the way you could upload them.

Well this might be better in the hands of someone who has it all setup, and knows what theyre doing like John. I still have those Spanish files though, which are still incomplete, ill try and complete them first.

Just have a look at the utterly incomplete code in net_feat.cpp. This is something that may be improved by analysing the log of 1.1 patch games.

OK we'll still do those two test games then.

[mapfi]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann


Only the the sound files are missing so that you have to copy the sound files from the one directory to the other and the *.ldl files in the English directoyr aren't complete. By the way you could upload them.

So is there anything I can do to my version or do we have to wait for a playtest version with your newest fix?

For trying out the other setup - I couldn't patch my copy of ctp2 last time I tried, after a new, single install the patch program would still return 'can't find ctp2'...

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by mapfi

For trying out the other setup - I couldn't patch my copy of ctp2 last time I tried, after a new, single install the patch program would still return 'can't find ctp2'...

Well at least for this you can use the patch in zip format from the directory here.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by mapfi
So is there anything I can do to my version or do we have to wait for a playtest version with your newest fix?

For trying out the other setup - I couldn't patch my copy of ctp2 last time I tried, after a new, single install the patch program would still return 'can't find ctp2'...

Yes, you have all the English text files, just not all the *.ldl files, but they should be identical, so go to your ..\ctp2_data\german\uidata\layouts\ folder and copy all the *.ldl files from there to the ..\ctp2_data\english\uidata\layouts\ folder that are missing.

Then you have to copy the sound files, you find them in ..\ctp2_data\german\sound\ copy there the sound.zfs to ..\ctp2_data\english\sound\.

Finally you have to switch language, to do this go to the ..\ctp2_program\ctp\ folder and replace there in the civpath.txt the term german by english, and vola you have an English version of CTP2 with German sounds.

The alternative is of course to ask John for a new playtest, the fix is done.

-Martin

[mapfi]

I did just that, but then it was missing the str_loc.txt - I copied that over, will that be a problem? we'll try again tomorrow - cu then Maq.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by mapfi
I did just that, but then it was missing the str_loc.txt - I copied that over, will that be a problem? we'll try again tomorrow - cu then Maq.

The english version does not have a str_loc.txt, that's true for the Spanish version as well, by the way. It doesn't matter whether you put it into the directory as long as you don't copy the German Strings.txt into the English version, because that would import the str_loc.txt and that could lead again to a out of synch error due to different string databases.

-Martin

[mapfi]

Maq and I had a very good game yesterday, unfortunately I didn't get to posting the results until now. Overall, mp seems to work fine, which is great! There were of course some bugs nevertheless:

- wonder messages: when the client starts building a wonder, the host got the message he stopped building it, the other way around the messages were, however, correct

- diplomanager human-human on both sides: when you make a proposal and then have to threaten -> just after the threat the diplowindow appears where you are supposed to select tone & recipient - when the answer to the threat arrives, this window instantly disappears again

- a unit that received a move order during the other players turn does not move when you press 'o' - it moves when you end the turn but then, e.g. if it meets a enemy unit and stops you're not able to react and the moving points left are not used

- one thing we were not able to explain was when we started froma save game, the trade routes had significantly lower values (like a third of what it was before) and it stayed that way - new trade routes due to a newly available good, however, had the assumedly right value again

- Maq (client) had two crashes to the desktop during the game, which we suspect to be due to a revolting city, but we're not sure - reloading the savegame and playing on worked although on the first instance we had to go back 3 turns for Maq being able to join the game properly again

- one thing that we were not sure as if it qualified as bug: when your opponent finishes a wonder, you get the message on his turn and therefore are able to change your build queue before it is your turn. Thus you won't loose the shields you've already accumulated for the same wonder.

Miscellaneous:
- The optimize slider button also optimizes specialist (at least farmers) - I didn't know that, consequently the button should be named differently.
- A very useful feature to implement would be, that when you press 'o' and no unit is left to move the screen centers on a city with an empty build queue, if such a city exists
- if you need any savegame or the output log (which is 45megs large) say so

[Maquiladora]

Well i was writing a long post with a lot of ramble, but you got the points a lot quicker.

The game was much smoother than i was expecting on the whole though, and none of the "missing PW" bugs of the playtests last year.

On the logs, i think fromafar wanted the start of the game only, from a 1.11 patch save and a playtest save (?), so perhaps we need to generate that 1.11 log at some point?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by mapfi
Maq and I had a very good game yesterday, unfortunately I didn't get to posting the results until now. Overall, mp seems to work fine, which is great! There were of course some bugs nevertheless:

Originally posted by mapfi
- wonder messages: when the client starts building a wonder, the host got the message he stopped building it, the other way around the messages were, however, correct

From a short look into the code, I didn't find anything, actually I didn't find out how the messages are sent from the Client to the host.

Originally posted by mapfi
- a unit that received a move order during the other players turn does not move when you press 'o' - it moves when you end the turn but then, e.g. if it meets a enemy unit and stops you're not able to react and the moving points left are not used

I think this is also a problem in SP but of course not as obvious as in MP.

Originally posted by mapfi
- Maq (client) had two crashes to the desktop during the game, which we suspect to be due to a revolting city, but we're not sure - reloading the savegame and playing on worked although on the first instance we had to go back 3 turns for Maq being able to join the game properly again

Any crash.txts?

Originally posted by mapfi - one thing that we were not sure as if it qualified as bug: when your opponent finishes a wonder, you get the message on his turn and therefore are able to change your build queue before it is your turn. Thus you won't loose the shields you've already accumulated for the same wonder.

That's a bug, however is this bug also present in the original game 1.0 or 1.1?

Originally posted by mapfi
Miscellaneous:
- The optimize slider button also optimizes specialist (at least farmers) - I didn't know that, consequently the button should be named differently.

And entertainers.
Any suggestions that fit on the button?

Originally posted by mapfi
- if you need any savegame or the output log (which is 45megs large) say so

And what is the log size compressed?

- Martin

[Maquiladora]

Any crash.txts?

Unfortunately in my haste to install last time i forgot to enable the logs. Theres a chance that loading the particular save might generate a crash in SP though, or we could simply reload it in MP and hope for a repeat.

BTW theres another bug that only happened to me as client, the diplomacy manager wasnt updated on my side, i noticed when we had to reload the game and our peace treaty and withdraw agreements had all disappeared, of course they ended properly after 20 turns on mapfis side, i think.

[mapfi]

ah yes - i completely forgot the severe diplo bug:
my diplomanager temporarily didn't let me send any proposals, saying it wasn't my turn or I was awaiting a reply (though I wasn't) - I suspect it's somehow connected to the agreements because it first happened when our peace treaty was about to expire - then the treaty didn't disappear but lasted another 20 turns and when I got again the message, that it was expiring, it finally did and the diplomanager became again available to me.

suggestion: optimize ressources?

[Ekmek]

since were addressing some bugs here I was wondering: is it a bug that you cant add a settler to an existing city (increasing the city's population and disbanding the settler) or a missing feature?

[Maquiladora]

Well its definitely not a bug, but some kind of flag in units.txt would be useful to do that for certain units.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by mapfi
suggestion: optimize ressources?

This sounds good.

So if I understand it correctly, the treaty expire messages aren't received at the client side?

And another thing I could give you the debug version, which could generate a lot of more logs and leak reports. I suppose you don't play with any slowing down AIs anyway.

An speakig of logs the best is to post them so again what is their size in compressed form after using WinZip or WinRar?

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann

So if I understand it correctly, the treaty expire messages aren't received at the client side?

That seems to be whats happening.

And another thing I could give you the debug version, which could generate a lot of more logs and leak reports. I suppose you don't play with any slowing down AIs anyway.

We played with 2 AIs last time, to basically have a full range of settings, to test as much as possible.

An speakig of logs the best is to post them so again what is their size in compressed form after using WinZip or WinRar?

Well I have 5 logs, which looks like they started each time i joined the game. The longest is the first which is 43mb and the rest add to around 3mb. Together they all compress down to 4.5mb in a rar.

Ill have time to upload them tomorrow if mapfi hasnt done before then. I assume our logs will be identical?

[Ekmek]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Well its definitely not a bug, but some kind of flag in units.txt would be useful to do that for certain units.

hmm i think i found it here why it doesnt let you add a pop to the city:

BOOL UnitData::Settle()
{
	DPRINTF(k_DBG_GAMESTATE, ("Unit %lx settling\n", m_id));

    if (CanSettle(m_pos) == FALSE) {
		DPRINTF(k_DBG_GAMESTATE, ("CanSettle false!\n"));
        return FALSE; 
	}


    Unit    nearbyCity  = g_theWorld->GetCell(m_pos)->GetCityOwner();

   	if (nearbyCity.IsValid()) 
    {
        SlicObject *so = new SlicObject("29IASettlingTooClose") ;
        so->AddRecipient(m_owner);
        so->AddCity(nearbyCity);
        g_slicEngine->Execute(so);

		DPRINTF(k_DBG_GAMESTATE, ("Tile already owned!\n"));
        return FALSE;
    }

[mapfi]

I got two logs (3.7 and 1.6mb):
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=21593_log1.rar
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=21593_log2.rar