Problems with multiplayer ToT

[janineo]

hi,

I'm fairly new to Civ - Got ToT as a freebie from my ISP.
I think it's one of the most addictive games I've ever played!

I've been playing it over the network at home with my fiance, and we've had a few problems.
I have a Win2k machine and usually act as host.
The other machine is Win98.
The client machine has a problem with the units moving. They appear in the square they're moving to, and then do the moving bit. It's a bit weird, but you get used to it.
However if you use the Go To command the units can sometimes get 'stuck'. They just keep trying to move to one square repeatedly until they use up their movement, or we manage to stop them with the cursor.

We also have problems with the game freezing and crashing if it's the client.
There are no problems in a single player game though. Everything works just fine, then.

Does anyone have any ideas what the problem might be, and how we could fix it?
I've installed the upgrade from Microprose, and it hasn't helped.

Thanks,
Janine

[Boco]

I think it's one of the most addictive games I've ever played!

Welcome to Civanon!

I'm fairly new to Civ - Got ToT as a freebie from my ISP.

That's good news. If it's not too nosey, who's your ISP?

Can't help you directly with your MP questions, since you've already gotten farther than I have. However, if you don't get help here with troubleshooting your MP setup, you may have better luck with Civilization Fanatics' Forums > CIVILIZATION II > Civ2 - Technical Support.
If I understand your GoTo problem, it's universal with all versions of Civ2. In fact, there are some threads on the Civ2 strategy forum on how to capitalize on using the computer's GoTo routes to determine routes for roads that really build up your trade route bonuses.

[janineo]

Thanks for the reply, Boco
My ISP is Tiscali.co.uk.
They periodocally offer selected software for the price of postage to members. I don't know why. ToT looked interesting so I got it.

[Hydey]

Did you download the patch?

[Boco]

Pssst, she said

I've installed the upgrade from Microprose, and it hasn't helped.

@Janineo, if you do find the answer, please post it.

[janineo]

Boco,

Having re-read your reply I've realised what you meant by the universal GoTo problem, and it's not the problem I'm having. For clarification purposes:

My units do the 'head off in the wrong direction' thing, but they also get stuck in a different way:

They travel from one square to the next, then appear back in the original square and do the travel again. Sometimes they manage to get beyond it, and sometimes they travel between the same two squares for the length of their turn unless I can stop it with the cursor.

Hope that makes things clearer.

[Boco]

Have patience if I misunderstood you, but I suspect you're describing two types of behavior stemming from the same GoTo bug. For each square in the path of a unit 'goto'ing someplace, the program determines the 'best' next square. It's idea of best often conflicts with common sense, and it does not appear to keep track of where it's been. So if two adjacent squares are calculated to be the 'best next square' for each other, the unit will dutifully march back and forth. I've seen that same behavior with other Civ2 versions as well. If you're moving a unit along a railroad using the GoTo, sometimes it will get stuck in a long repeating cycle before a dialog titled "Long Unit Move" pops up asking "Continue moving unit?".

If you have a SAV file with a unit that will go nuts on a goto command, post it with info about the unit and from/to coordinates. From that, we can determine whether it's the common problem or another kind of bug.

Mostly, I think, players ignore the goto except on well-proven routes.