PBEM Game screw up???

[Mobhack]

MadSlob said:
Hi Don..Have attached a screenie of the message recieved..Took it to show my opponent before i tried to access it...Will zip the files and upload when i recieve my opponents password thanx for the quick response...best regards MD...great game btw congrats to all involved

It thinks that player 1 has already played the turn. that is what the message says.

Are you player 1 or player 2?.

if you are player 2 - player 1 has probably sent you the wrong files. You should not be getting a player 1 message.

If you are player 1 - did you unzip the files that player 2 sent to the wrong folder perhaps, and so be trying to play your (already completed) last turn?.

Another possibility is that your opponent has exited via the "save and continue" button and NOT the "end turn" button, and has sent you the saved current turn he has yet to complete with the "end game" button.

Either way - you most likely have your turns out of synch somehow, and you will need to resolve which of you either sent the wrong files, or unzipped to the wrong folder, or (possibly) sent an unfinished in-progress turn to the other person.

Cheers
Andy

[Pyros]

Andy,

From my experience in a similar situation, the problematic zip file caused problems to both players (couldn't be opened by no one and the error message was the same for both players, but this particular game was between 2 different versions...

cheers,
Pyros

[MadSlob]

I was player 1 and files were sent unzipped...I'm sure that i sent the right files as i replace the old files with the new ones everytime...the files sent to me were smaller than what i had been seeing so maybe my opponent screwed up...NP...i was losing very very badly anyways...we thought we would highlight our problem in case there was a problem with the game...thanx for your time....best regards MD

[DRG]

MadSlob said:
I was player 1 and files were sent unzipped...I'm sure that i sent the right files as i replace the old files with the new ones everytime...the files sent to me were smaller than what i had been seeing so maybe my opponent screwed up...NP...i was losing very very badly anyways...we thought we would highlight our problem in case there was a problem with the game...thanx for your time....best regards MD

It *is* unusual for a PBEM to progress and the save files get smaller. Zipping up the files and saving the zips until the game is complete ( or at least three of four turns past where you are ) is the best way to handle file transfer

Don

[Double_Deuce]

MadSlob said:
I was player 1 and files were sent unzipped...

I have seen on occasion, in other PBeM games (Combat Mission and SPWAW) wierd things like this when sending the data files unzipped. It has been mentioned that some email programs scramble the files when they are recieved/downloaded. Unzipped files are alledgedly broken down into "data packets" by some email programs when travelling across the internet unless they are zipped. When they are received, the receiving email program attempts to put them back together correctly. Any little error in doing this could cause the file to be corrupted. No one has ever proven this to my knowledge but it seems the only real time this happens is when the files are sent unzipped.

[Pyros]

Yes,

Probably this corrupted zip files are connected with the time interval of ending/starting the game turn and zip/unzip the files. From my experience it is better to wait 3 seconds before transferring game files to zip folders and the opposite. I know... it is weird!!

cheers,
Pyros

[MadSlob]

Thanx for all replies guys...Will zip the files from now on...cheers MD

[Mobhack]

Pyros said:
Yes,

Probably this corrupted zip files are connected with the time interval of ending/starting the game turn and zip/unzip the files. From my experience it is better to wait 3 seconds before transferring game files to zip folders and the opposite. I know... it is weird!!

cheers,
Pyros

even zip files can have problems. I sent Don some game files zipped up the other day - the thing opened up at his end as "contens text streamed" and loads of garbage.

I rezipped the files at this end and resent, and the zip worked perfectly the next time.

So probably some sort of data transmission corruption. No idea what - the internet transfer process, the email packages (at both ends) or say the anti-virs software 9at both ends). That was the first tim in 1000's of zipped files over 5+ years that I recall this happening.

The cure is to rezip (if zipped) and resend the files, it seems if you have some sort of transmission corruption.

Also - if you are getting this sort of thing, you may have disk errors, so probably a good idea to run scandisk on the drive to find any such lost clusters.


Cheers
Andy

[MadSlob]

cheers Andy will do!!