PBW supports v1.20

[geoschmo]

We have added support to PBW for the following SE5 versions:

Stock 1.20
1.20 + Balance Mod v1.01
1.20 + Gritty Galaxy
1.20 + Golden Eclipse

The Gritty Galaxy and Golden Eclipse mods have not been updated for 1.20 by the modders as far as I am aware. These are the 1.17 mods with the new sort line added to the settings.txt. I believe they should work, but please report any problems to the PBW admin team.

I have also added the ability for the game owners to change the game version themselves. This new feature can be found on the game admin screen. This should be fairly straightforward, but if you have any questions, let us know.

Geoschmo

[se5a]

need to split the shipset selection so that seIV and seV shipsets are seperate from each other.

[geoschmo]

se5a said:
need to split the shipset selection so that seIV and seV shipsets are seperate from each other.

Yes, I should have that done in a day or two.

Geoschmo

[Intimidator]

geoschmo said:
We have added support to PBW for the following SE5 versions:

Stock 1.20
1.20 + Balance Mod v1.01
1.20 + Gritty Galaxy
1.20 + Golden Eclipse

The Gritty Galaxy and Golden Eclipse mods have not been updated for 1.20 by the modders as far as I am aware. These are the 1.17 mods with the new sort line added to the settings.txt. I believe they should work, but please report any problems to the PBW admin team.

I have also added the ability for the game owners to change the game version themselves. This new feature can be found on the game admin screen. This should be fairly straightforward, but if you have any questions, let us know.

Geoschmo





Yes, I noticed the new Feature, tried it out at once.....
Now I'm waiting for the turn to process...... (;) please let it work http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )

[Intimidator]

It worked http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Great job, and fast, thanks Geo !!!

[se5a]

geoschmo said:
Yes, I should have that done in a day or two.

Geoschmo



it would be wicked cool if they and the flags and empire portrates could be selected and shown as icons.

[geoschmo]

se5a said:
it would be wicked cool if they and the flags and empire portrates could be selected and shown as icons.



I tried to get Admiral to do that 5 years ago during the PBW beta, but he never got around to it. I'll have to play around with that and see if I can figure out how to do it myself.

It would probably be not too difficult to simply allow you to chose an icon and leave it up to you to make sure it matches your in game empire. Having it pull the pic from the empire you select would me a little more complicated.

Geoschmo

[Baron Grazic]

Hi Geo.
If I use a flag set created by MarkSheppard, that is not going to cause a problem is it?
Thanks.

[geoschmo]

Baron Grazic said:
Hi Geo.
If I use a flag set created by MarkSheppard, that is not going to cause a problem is it?
Thanks.

As far as I know 1.20 fixed the problem with custom shipsets. At least it worked in the one game I tested. If you run into a problem processing turns let me know though.

Geoschmo

[Baron Grazic]

Hi Geo, sorry to bother you but the first turn failed.
That should, but probably won't, teach me to stick with the default empire.
Baron Grazic.

[geoschmo]

I'm getting errors when I try to run this turn offline:

Could not load file: C:\ProgramFiles\Strategy First\Malfador Machinations\SE5\pictures\phong\phong_flag_texture .bmp

Could not load file: C:\ProgramFiles\Strategy First\Malfador Machinations\SE5\pictures\phong\phong_flag_texture _ship.bmp

Could not load file: C:\ProgramFiles\Strategy First\Malfador Machinations\SE5\pictures\phong\phong_flag_texture _fleet.bmp

Could not load file: C:\ProgramFiles\Strategy First\Malfador Machinations\SE5\pictures\phong\phong_flag_set.bmp

I'm confused.

[Phoenix-D]

I presume other games with the phong set in them are working?

[Will]

Is "ProgramFiles" supposed to be missing the space on this machine? That may be the problem...

[Baron Grazic]

Certainly strange because I'm using the Drushocka ship set with the Ayres Rock flags.
Also the Phong flag pictures are suppose to be in the ..\Space Empires V\Empires\Phong directory.
se5a - where you perhaps using the Phong ship set?

[geoschmo]

Phoenix-D said:
I presume other games with the phong set in them are working?


I don't know.


Will said:
Is "ProgramFiles" supposed to be missing the space on this machine? That may be the problem...


That's simply a typo I did when recording the error message.


Baron Grazic said:
Certainly strange because I'm using the Drushocka ship set with the Ayres Rock flags.
Also the Phong flag pictures are suppose to be in the ..\Space Empires V\Empires\Phong directory.
se5a - where you perhaps using the Phong ship set?


That's why I'm confused. I thought it would pull the flags from the empires\phong directory. To be honest I'm not clear what the purpose of the Pictures/flags directory is.

[geoschmo]

Something is funky with both yor empires in this game. There's another SE5 kth game between exolis and parabolize that is processing turns ok using 1.20 and balance mod 1.01.

When I try to load your game I don't see empire logos in the list for either of you. In the other koth game I do.

When I try to create a new game usign your empires I don't see an empire logo. Using the empire files from the other game I do.

When I modify Se5a's empire, I don't know the password for the grazic empire, it appears on my machine as if it was created without a shipset, flag or race pic. If I edit and try to save without doing anything it won't let me save it because these selections are missing.

I repeat, I'm confused. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Geoschmo

[geoschmo]

Grazic gave me his empire password and it has a similer problem. In his case there is a shipset and race pic selected, but no logo. I hit edit and change nothing and it won't let me save it.

All I can guess is there must be something setup differently on your pc's than mine. I don't know that that would be though.

[Baron Grazic]

I've PMed my password.
I just confirmed by empire setup and I'm using the Drushocka ship set, AyersRock flags & Terran Race pictures.
Sorry for the trouble.
I wonder if Parabolize had any problem setting the game up?
Baron Grazic

[Baron Grazic]

Crossed posts.
Would it be possible to download the flags onto the PBW server and see if that makes a difference?
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=477808&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1
If it does that would mean PBW would need all shipsets and flags, which SE IV didn't. At least I didn't think it did.

[geoschmo]

Ok, I didn't have the error exactly right, here's what it said:

Could not load file: C:\Program Files\Strategy First\Malfador Machinations\SE5\pictures\flags\phong\phong_flag_t exture.bmp

I added a phong folder under pictures/flags and copied the phong flag bitmaps to it. The turn runs fine on PBW now.

So obviously this is how you've got things setup on your machines? But what I don't understand is why.

[Baron Grazic]

Thanks Geo.
Its not setup on my system that way, tripple checked now.
se5a?

[se5a]

if you're having problems with my empire it's probibly because the ngrath empire is not installed on PBW.

where did baron grazic install the flag mod? I think he may have installed it into the pictures/flags directory which is why we are having problems with his empire, the flag mod should have been installed into the empires directory in the se5 root.
I'm guessing it's looking for a flag picked from the flags mod, which it cannot find, then it looks *in the same directory* for an alternate shipset flag to use, since there are no shipset flags suposed to be in the flag directory it cant find *pictures/flags/random stock empire/flag.bmp*

that's my guess on it.

[se5a]

geo may be able to fix the problem on PBW by installing the flag mod into the flags dir, but... it kind of makes things messy from the server point of view, if geo wants us to restart then I'm ok with that.


Note that this turn it failed to run as well, so it's probibly decided to use a different stock flag to use this time, since you've only goten the phong dir installed into the flags dir it cant find whatever random empire it's deciding to use this time?

[geoschmo]

What flags mod? You guys are using balance mod 1.01 right? What is flags mod? Nobody ever told me anything about a flags mod. If you guys are using a different mod on your machines than on the PBW server that would definetly explain it.

The odd thing Se5 is that both of your empires are missing flags when I look at them on my pc. Yours is missing in addition the race pic and shipset pic. Grazics at least have those.


se5a said:
if you're having problems with my empire it's probibly because the ngrath empire is not installed on PBW.



That was an issue with 1.17, but it was supposed to be fixed by 1.20. And at least for the games I tested it seemed to work.

Geoschmo

[geoschmo]

Well, I'm stumped. I found the Flagtastic download that Mark Sheppard made and put it on my machine as a test. No matter where I unzip it too though it doesn't seem to make a difference to this game. When I try to load the game it still can't find your flags. When the turn tries to process it's asking for pictures/flags/xiati now. It's like it wants me to put all the folders form the empires folder into the pictures/flags folder, even the stock ones. I have no idea why that would be happeneing.

I'd like to send this to Aaron, but I'm sure there has got to be more to this that we are missing. Baron, would it be possible for you to print out a directory tree for your SE5 folder? If you aren't sure how to do this, the easiest way I know to tell you is open a command prompt and cd to your SE5 root directory and type:
dir /AD /S /B >directories.txt
This will create a file called directories.txt. Send that too me and then I can put together a bug report for Aaron.

[shinigami]

They may be using TNZ's flag mod.

Link (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=465149&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)


It sounds like the host machine is loading (or trying to in this case) game graphics that it doesn't need to just to process a turn. If this is so then there will be a problem anytime someone uses a custom graphic.

[se5a]

yes mark shepards one is the one I was refering to.
maybe this game is just screwed and we should start again?
I created my empire without the mark shepards flags, I downloaded them when I got the same error you are getting geo, however I installed them into the empires folder as the readme dictated.
I copied the ukratal folder into the flags folder to get the game to load properly, and since it's randomly changing which empire flag it want's I was assuming that it still couldn't find the flag and was looking for annother in the wrong place...

[geoschmo]

Ok, I downloaded the NGarth empire and now I do get the icon for SE5's empire. I still get the errors processing the turns though. The problem with using a custom empire like this was what was supposed to be fixed with 1.20 and I believe it was. What I think is happening here is something wierd either about the flagtastic flags in general or with the way Grazic has them loaded on his machine in particular. And the failure of the turns to processes definetly seems to be because of his empire. If we do a game using just an Ngarth race it will process even without the Ngarth race loaded on the host machine.

[parabolize]

putting AyersRock in /Pictures/Flags will get it to run.

[geoschmo]

parabolize said:
putting AyersRock in /Pictures/Flags will get it to run.

No, actually it doesn't. One of the things I tried was unzipping all the Flagtastic empire folders to the /pictures/flags directory. AyersRock is one of those. I still get the errors.

Geoschmo

[parabolize]

not the folders but the files inside

[geoschmo]

Ok parbolize, that did it. Once I put the AyresRock flag bitmaps in the root pictures/flags folder it started working. This isn't where you are supposed to put the custom flags, is this where you have it located Grazic?

[se5a]

The flag folder is for allience flags only.
epire flags should be placed in the empire folder, in there own empire folders.

[geoschmo]

se5a said:
The flag folder is for allience flags only.
epire flags should be placed in the empire folder, in there own empire folders.

That makes sense. But if you do it incorrectly and put the flag bitmaps in the root pictures/flags folder the game will let you select them for your empire. The problem being if they aren't also there on the host machine you get errors processing the turns. Aaron patched it to solve the problem with the host machine not having the custom empire in the empire folder. Apparently he didn't forsee someone placing the images directly in the pictures/flags folder and so didn't account for it.

[se5a]

send him an email if you havn't allready geo, with the empire files. also note that if you have flags in an mod folder as well as in the defult empires folder it will show both flags, it should probibly not show the defult flags if it finds them in the mod empires folder...
(at least this is what I assume is causing the double ups of flags)

[se5a]

how does the RTC get the game files geo? I want to try get my PBFTP client to grab files from PBW...

[Baron Grazic]

geoschmo said:
Ok parbolize, that did it. Once I put the AyresRock flag bitmaps in the root pictures/flags folder it started working. This isn't where you are supposed to put the custom flags, is this where you have it located Grazic?



Yes sorry guys. I didn't see the readme file, and yes I copied the AyresRock flags into the pictures/flags folder.
It made sense in my warped mind, to put flag pictures in the flags folder. Sorry I didn't notice that it was alliance flags.

We can start again if you want, and I'll recreate my empire.
However the turn processed fine 2 minutes ago.

[se5a]

I think it's going to be ok, for now though install the other flags properly and when we've finished this game remember to del those flags from the flag dir.

[Baron Grazic]

Yes, other flags are now installed, and I've updated my Empire file with the flag from the correct directory.
Sorry about that guys...

[se5a]

and it failed again for some reason.

[se5a]

I tried replaying my turn with kamakazi on my colony ships, but it's still crashing.

[Randallw]

Now if only someone could explain to me why since 1.20 my empire portraits no longer show, they get replaced by Eee. It has my flag, but not my Terran AuCol pictures. Might it be that the folder uploaded to PBW lacks the large portrait I only placed in there afterwards when I realised what it was for. I thought they were masters that didn't do anything till I learnt it's when you click in game for a large portrait.

[geoschmo]

What's on the PBW server or not shouldn't matter for what you see on your screen. But where the files were on your machine when you created the empire does matter. Custom race image files should all be in a named subfolder under the empires folder. If they were somewhere else when you created the empire, like in the root empires folder or the root pictures/flags folder that might explain why it's having trouble finding them now with the new version.

[se5a]

Geo it keeps dying on our KOTH game whenever there is combat.
any ideas on figuring out what's wrong?
parabolize can prosess it fine on his box too so it must be something fixable...

para and edkolis game is working fine, even when there is combat. so that should narrow it down to...
ahh something.

[geoschmo]

No clue. I'm totally hamstrung with 1.20 because I can't run a game from within the app and see what errors it's reporting. All I can do is run the turn at the command line, and there we get no errors. It just runs or it doesn't.

Once we get a new patch I can do some trouble shooting on these.

Geoschmo

[se5a]

I thought we might be able to narrow it down a bit since we know that:
A) it only happens if there is combat.
B) it works fine for parabolize when he proseses it.
C) parabolize and ekolis game does not have any problems.
D) Parabolize and ekolis are using stock shipsets, flags, and portrates.
E) BG and I are not using stock shipsets flags and portrates.

Therefore I'm assuming that it's a problem with either the Ngrath shipset, or the ayrs rock flag.
since we've fixed the ayrs rock flagset it could be the Ngrath shipset...

[se5a]

oh also PBW balks at the combat file when you try to upload it in the zip. (when executing offline)

[geoschmo]

I emailed the turn file to Aaron a while back. I didn't realize at first this was the same game. I didn't know you got it working running the turns offline. When I tried to run the turns offline back when it originally failed I couldn't get it to process.

If the problem is the Ayers Rock shipset it's probably the fact that Baron had the flags in the wrong folder when he setup his empire. I've reported that issue to Malfador already as well. I don't know what that would have to do with combat, but as I said I can't get any error messages. I can't exactly go willy nilly sticking files in different folders until I hit the right combination to make the game run. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

If it's a problem waiting for the next patch you could restart the game using a different shipset or trying it with the Ayers Rock shipset in the proper folders when he creates his empire.

Geoschmo

[se5a]

it runs fine on PBW when there is no combat. and I think you got the ayrs rock files in the right place a while back?

[Baron Grazic]

Yes, I've fixed my Empire file for the next game I play.

The replays of the battles seem fine even though I do not have the Ngrath Ship set installed. Could that be the problem that PBW does not have this shipset? For myself I just used the Drushocka ship set, in the default location.

The problem of not all the Ships moving that we just discovered is worrying me however. I emailed the 2 turn files to Parabolise for before and after it happened.

Baron Grazic

[parabolize]

I emailed a few of the turns to Aaron http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[se5a]

Geo, did you install the ngrath shipset on pbw at all?

if not I'm prety sure that's what has been causeing it not to work during combat.

I've noticed that when PBW prosesses the turn I don't get any of the news log pictures for any of the Ngrath shipsets (new ship constructed, new shipsize availible etc. etc.
however, when parabolize prossesses the turn, these pictures DO show up.
I think the game is dead now for some unknown other reason we can't get it to prosess online or off. but I'd like to confirm this picture thing before I alert Aaron to the problem.

[parabolize]

update: eorg looked for the shipset, didn't find it and installed it.

I sent the current turn to Aaron.

[geoschmo]

I installed the Ngarth on version 1.17. That issue was supposed to be fixed for 1.20 so I didn't have it on there for that version. Apparently the issue was fixed for loading the game but not for combat.

Geoschmo

[geoschmo]

Well, the bad news is loading the NGarth on PBW for 1.20 doesn't seem to have helped. The turn is still hanging. I also can't get it to run offline. It appears Parabolize has been able to succesfully, I'm not sure what he's doing different than me. (EDIT: Oh, I missed your post about not being able to run the current turn either.)

The good news is we have a new beta patch, and this turn runs fine on it. So when the next public patch is released we should be working better.

Geoschmo

[Slick]

geoschmo said:

...we have a new beta patch...

Geoschmo




Would you be so kind as to post the history.txt for this beta patch?

[Baron Grazic]

I have been unable to connect to the PBW server for the last couple of hours. Is anyone else having trouble?
Thanks.

[geoschmo]

Seems to be ok this morning.

Geoschmo

[se5a]

it was down all day, eorg kicked it. a couple of hours ago.

[Baron Grazic]

Same problem today.

"I have been unable to connect to the PBW server for the last couple of hours. Is anyone else having trouble?
Thanks. "

[geoschmo]

Looks like this time it was an ISP problem. I couldn't get to the internet when I got home. Looks like it's working ok now.

[Baron Grazic]

I'm in, Thanks Geo.
Oh and Thanks ISP...

[se5a]

pah, PBW seems to have gone down again.

Edit:
It's back up, but it won't let me download my turn.

Edit2:
nevermind, firefox was just playing up.