DEBUG: Pbem?

[EPW]

Both players had the same problem. I don't know if the computers were effected.

[J Bytheway]

Bizarre...

[J Bytheway]

Well, thanks to fromafar (see posts here and here), PBEM is a little more healthy. City growth and science now work to a certain extent.

I've also just fixed the problem with the saved turns always saying "Turn 0" - I'll upload the source for that in a moment.

There's still a problem with the research - the research completion event occurs while the game is still under the control of the previous player, so they get to see what you researched and choose what to do next. I think it would be pretty difficult to get the dialog into the next players turn, so I think the best solution is probably to scrap it entirely for PBEM games and just put a message in the message tab instead.

Does this seem an acceptable solution (at least for the short term...), or does someone have a better idea?

[Maquiladora]

I see what you mean. Would it be possible to have those msg popup symbols on the left-hand side of the screen for science (ideally for everything) like CtP1, or would that appear on the previous players turn too like in CtP1? I say that because I dont check the msg tab often, if at all sometimes. Of course if a msg popup cant be done then in the msg tab is fine, as long as it works.

[J Bytheway]

I sorely miss the symbols down the left-hand side of the screen too. I've no idea how we would go about reimplementing them, though... I think if we did manage to implement them at all, we would be able to make them hide themselves properly - but that's a big 'if' .

[Maquiladora]

You can reenable some of the symbols now in script.slc but they dont work/appear in pbem.

I think either way theyll be useful for working diplomacy like CtP1 uses them to show proposals.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
You can reenable some of the symbols now in script.slc

Really? How?

[Maquiladora]

From the faw in general:

Originally posted by Locutus
Q43 I find it really annoying that I can't see when my cities are not producing anything, is there a fix for this?
A43 There are a number of ways to see which cities have empty build queues.

• Press the 'o' key to cycle through your units with movement points left. Once all units have moved, this key will cycle through all cities with an empty build queue.
  
• Scan your empire for cities who's name is yellow, their build queues are empty.
  
• Check the message tab in the control panel, messages are displayed here when something is built and a queue is empty.
  
• Scroll through the list of cities in the city tab (on the control panel) or City Screen (F3).
  
• Open the City Manager (F2) and click the Build tab.
  
• Open the file ctp2_data\default\gamedata\script.slc. Now search for '38UnitCompletedQueueEmpty', '38BuildingBuiltQueueEmpty', '38WonderBuiltQueueEmpty' and '38EndgameBuiltQueueEmpty'. Insert the following line after these texts:
  

  	Show();

  Now you will get a pop-up message whenever there is an empty queue somewhere.

but actually I jusy tested in single player and it didnt work.

It definitly worked in 1.11 i did it everytime i resintalled, perhaps there is something different in the sourcecode playtest?

On second thoughts maybe it just gives a popup (none when there is multiple). but im sure it gave the sybmols on the left too.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
There's still a problem with the research - the research completion event occurs while the game is still under the control of the previous player, so they get to see what you researched and choose what to do next. I think it would be pretty difficult to get the dialog into the next players turn, so I think the best solution is probably to scrap it entirely for PBEM games and just put a message in the message tab instead.

Why should it be so difficuilt to move the reasearch event to the next player?

-Martin

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
Why should it be so difficuilt to move the reasearch event to the next player?

Becuase we've just gone to some touble to do precisely the opposite . The auto-save game happening before the research is what was causing the useless-research bug in the first place. Pending events don't get saved with the savegame, so the fact that the research occured was just lost.

I think a better solution is probably have the research actually happen when it is happening now, but arrange for the research dialog to appear when the game is loaded again and it notices a research has occured somehow. If we start trying to make everything happen after load then we'll run into endless confusion - indeed I believe that is exactly what happened to the original development team.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
but actually I jusy tested in single player and it didnt work.

It definitly worked in 1.11 i did it everytime i resintalled, perhaps there is something different in the sourcecode playtest?

Well, I did change the source to stop it from happening in PBEM and hotseat when the wrong player was "in control", but I thought I'd checked that it still worked under SP...

On second thoughts maybe it just gives a popup (none when there is multiple). but im sure it gave the sybmols on the left too.

No, I'm fairly sure it only ever gave a popup.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
Becuase we've just gone to some touble to do precisely the opposite . The auto-save game happening before the research is what was causing the useless-research bug in the first place. Pending events don't get saved with the savegame, so the fact that the research occured was just lost.

I think a better solution is probably have the research actually happen when it is happening now, but arrange for the research dialog to appear when the game is loaded again and it notices a research has occured somehow. If we start trying to make everything happen after load then we'll run into endless confusion - indeed I believe that is exactly what happened to the original development team.

Maybe the solution to the whole problem is to move the BeginTurn event to the load event, actual they did this, but unfortunatly for scenarios instaed for Pbem. The only problem I might see here is that it could cause some other unwanted side-effects.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
Well, I did change the source to stop it from happening in PBEM and hotseat when the wrong player was "in control", but I thought I'd checked that it still worked under SP...


No, I'm fairly sure it only ever gave a popup.

Yeah youre right it was only a series of popups but its definitely not working in SP either at the moment.

I could live without those build complete popups if only diplomacy proposals and science progress popups were there.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
Maybe the solution to the whole problem is to move the BeginTurn event to the load event, actual they did this, but unfortunatly for scenarios instaed for Pbem. The only problem I might see here is that it could cause some other unwanted side-effects.

The most obvious side effect would be the same bug that plagued scenarios - whenever you loaded a PBEM game saved in mid-turn you'd get a whole new free 'beginning of turn'. Similarly for hotseat games unless you diverged the handling of the two types even further, which is something to avoid unless necessary.

In any case, upon investigation, I discovered that there was already in place a system for postponing the science dialog until the next player began their turn - it just wasn't working properly due to one minor error. So I've fixed that, and it works fine under hotseat, but I forgot to test it under PBEM.

There might be side effects to this fix meaning that the science window will no longer pop up in hotseat / email games when the advance currently being researched is obtained via other means (ruins, diplomacy). Nevertheless, I think it's another step in the right direction, and I think PBEM (and certainly hotseat) should be playable now.

If it passes 'in-house' testing satisfactorily, would anyone be interested in a trial PBEM game to search out new problems (I'd upload a new playtest version)?

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Yeah youre right it was only a series of popups but its definitely not working in SP either at the moment.

Curious. Something else to look into...

I could live without those build complete popups if only diplomacy proposals and science progress popups were there.

Ah well, diplomacy is a whole different problem... Not for the faint-hearted to tackle .