Simultaneous game issue

[Ruatha]

Grand Lord Vito>
I think Geo explained it quite well.
What doesn't work is to make alot of changes in the turn, save the turn as it is, quit the game, load it and continue the same turn with the changes you've already made still there.
Each time you restart a simultaneous game it resets the orders you've entered the current turn.

To save previous turns you just need to save the old .GAM files, then load one of those.
Put them in an other directory if you wish and name them after the turn i e 2401.GAM, 2402.GAM if you are playing solo. If you want combat and ship movement replays you'll need to save those aswell but they are not necessery to see what had happened that turn.
To reload choose change directory and pick the turn you wish to view, but the orders you entered that turn won't be visible, you'll have to load the next consecutive turn and see the results to see what you decided to do, only orders that have spilled over from previous turns will be seen!
You can in this way by only saving the GAM file enter new orders and roll back the game aswell.

In PBW it's even easier, just save the ZIP files!
Ofcourse you can't "roll back" the game here but you can follow the events (I'd really like a working good replay function)

BUT, you cannot in any known way at the present time save your current turn in simultaneous, quit the game, restart and pick up where you left off.
I'm quite certain of this

Edit:typo and removed something about a replay button...

[ May 06, 2003, 19:01: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Fyron]

I bet MB can come up with something to save and recall existing turns in a basic Simu Game though

That would require hacking the executable.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
I suppose it's possible someone could design a method of doing this involving somehow capturing the current contents of the PC memory and saving that to be reopened later. I am not sure how that would be done though other than just a basic theoretical idea. It might be kind of close to hacking the game though.

Geoschmo

Well you can dump the content of your memory to your hard disk, then restore it later. The laptop PCs do that when you 'emergency close' the screen. Now I dont know if a utility can do the same thing for a specific task, eg SE IV, and not the entire system.
My point is that, even if I'm totally far from being able to code such an utility, it is surely feasible, and that it dont involve hacking, as you dont have to understand the memory structure of a task/process to dump it to hard disk.

Well, my rant is all theorical, seems that no one here master enough the windows environment do to such a wonderful tool

Anyway, back to topic, and I will speak again of my stars! experience: stars! which fitted on a single floppy, enabled you to save and continue a simul turn. A shame that Malfador never did that. I climb to 3 hours a turn in big PBEM games (stars, dominions), and I'm now unsure that I will PBEM/PBW SE IV because this feature lack.

[JLS]

Originally posted by Ruatha:

BUT, you cannot in any known way at the present time save your current turn in simultaneous, quit the game, restart and pick up where you left off.
I'm quite certain of this

Hi, Ruatha

In regards to Simultaneous game play only. Also works with LAN.
Never played PBW or PBEM, so I would not know.

If you copy and Back up these folders before ending a turn 100;
Savegame Folder – If playing a Mod then within MODS directory; otherwise se4 Directory’s Savegame folder.

Backup Folder – In se4 Directory
History Folder – In se4 Directory
Temp Folder – In se4 Directory

Play 10 Turns and then End game at 110.

Paste and overwrite the older Four above Folders containing turn 100 over the existing folders containing turn 110.
When turn 110 was overwriten, now there is no way the game would ever see turn 110 like it never existed.

The Game now Resumes at 100 and only can see turn 100, including all orders, history, Stats, Log, Combat reports AI everything from turn 100. Right were you left off at turn 100.

Please test it, how is it possible to be untrue?

[ May 06, 2003, 21:38: Message edited by: JLS ]

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by JLS:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ruatha:

BUT, you cannot in any known way at the present time save your current turn in simultaneous, quit the game, restart and pick up where you left off.
I'm quite certain of this

Hi, Ruatha

In regards to Simultaneous game play only. Also works with LAN.
Never played PBW or PBEM, so I would not know.

If you copy and Back up these folders before ending a turn 100;...
.
.
.
Please test it, how is it possible to be untrue?

---

JLS, you are still confusing two totally different things. Ruatha is talking about saving during a turn and contuning that turn later. You are talking about saving at the end of a turn, and reloading a previous turn later. Two totally different things. One is possible and easily done, the other is impossible short of a hardcode change by Malfador or some memory storing trick like we talked about earlier.

Geoschmo

[JLS]

Originally posted by geoschmo:

JLS, you are still confusing two totally different things. Ruatha is talking about saving during a turn and contuning that turn later.

Geo

If I can save turn 100; during the turn, as I explained.

And then latter restore turn 100; to it full glory.

Then how is this different from your above quote?


~~~

short of a hardcode change by Malfador or some memory storing trick like we talked about earlier.

In regards to mem storing, as soon as you shut down...puff.

I believe it writes and reads to the folders I mentioned.

Where all in game information is saved and all is
Resumed and reloaded.

[ May 06, 2003, 21:52: Message edited by: JLS ]

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by JLS:
Geo

If I can save turn 100; during the turn, as I explained.

And then latter restore turn 100; to it full glory.

Then how is this different from you above quote?

Because the only way to save turn 100 is to hit end turn. That is the only way to save any simultaneous turn in Se4. Once you hit end turn it saves a .plr file for turn 100. That .plr file is used by the host to process the next turn. You can reopen turn 100, but you will be back at the begining. Everything you did the first time you opened turn 100 will be gone. You will have to do it again.

If you are running the host turns on your pc you can backup the files for turn 100, process the turn and then open turn 101, see what happened, and then restore the backup for turn 100 and open it again. But again you will be back at the begining of turn 100. You cannot open turn 100 "in the middle" and have the orders you already gave still be there.

That is what people are asking for the ability to do. We all know how to back up previous turns so we can reopen them and play them all over again form the begining. That doesn't help. What we want to be able to do is stop in the middle of turn 100, save it, go eat lunch and come bac in the afternoon and finish giving our empire orders. That we cannot do.

Geoschmo