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JWE -> RE: To patch or not to patch? (12/8/2010 6:07:14 PM)
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Want to explain the ‘patch’ thing. In a nutshell – yes – go ahead and patch – but read this first.
When you start a game, from any scenario, the “code” part loads the scenario “database” into a “savegame” file. ALL subsequent game-play is with respect to the “savegame” file and NOT the scenario “database”. Once a game is started, the scenario database is NO LONGER consulted. All the data, for that game, is in the “savegame” file.
So, there are three pieces to the puzzle, and they are independent from one another;
the “code”,
the scenario “database”, and
the “savegame”.
1) The “code” may always be updated. “Code” includes all universally used files, like pwhex, art, etc. The “code” is independent from the scenario “database” and the “savegame”, so may be updated without impacting either of them.
2) The scenario “database” may always be updated. Once a game starts, the specific scenario database gets incorporated into the game “savegame” file, so that specific scenario database is no longer relevant. The game uses the “savegame” file, not the “database” for all game/turn processing. The game no longer cares what is in the scenario “database” file after it creates the “savegame”.
“Database” updates are there for use in connection with subsequent games, or restarts of existing ones. Merely downloading and installing a “database” update WILL NOT affect an ongoing game (will not adapt a “savegame” file) unless you AFFIRMATIVELY tell it to.
3) Since there are hundreds of different “savegame” files, from hundreds of different players, it is a stone witch to an in-game data update code. Thus the age old warning – ‘requires restart’ – from every “database” patch that was ever made.
The developers busted their bones and made every effort to try and devise ways that some of the more structural aspects of “database” structure could be incorporated into ongoing games, without ‘requiring restart’, but given the complexity of the multi-file data pointers, and the game (code) driven calculations that define elements of the “savegame” files, it is not hard to understand how some things could be missed.
So:
A) Yes, always install the latest exe patch. There’s stuff in the new executable code that is worth having.
B) Yes, always install the latest data patch. There’s stuff in a “database” update that might be useful, or even important, when used in conjunction with “code” changes, in SUBSEQUENT games. Installing a “database” patch will NOT affect ongoing games unless you AFFIRMATIVELY tell it to.
C) No, do not update ongoing games with “database” updates. Think restart, unless you have been unequivocally told, by an “official” source, that the “database” change is pristine and seamless (not bloody likely). Too many ways, otherwise, for error to introduce itself.
Case in point:
I) If you download and install the 1006i patch and do NOT want the database changes, just say NO to the ‘update game’ request, and you will be fine. However, you will not get the benefit of the database changes.
II) If you download and install the 1006i patch and DO want the database changes, you must restart.
III) If you are playing a scenario that already has those database changes in place when the scenario started (i.e., Babes), you are pretty much good to go.
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