Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (Full Version)

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Altaris -> Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/28/2010 1:42:45 PM)

Okay, started up a game in Slitherine multiplayer last night (Road to Smolensk), and I'm worried I goofed things up. First off, I created the challenge and loaded up the game, playing through most of my Axis turn. I saved a couple of times and seemed to have no issues. I also did a save just before hitting End Turn, and that one seemed to be successful as well.

However, after hitting End Turn, the game went through AI Logistics, then tried to save again, but constantly kept getting Save Failed error messages. After 3 attempts to save, I simply canceled it and exited out.

Now, though, I can't seem to get back into the game. It shows up still under My Challenges, but not in My Games.

So what am I doing wrong? Does my opponent have to accept my challenge before I can get back into it? And at that point, will I still be able to retrieve what I had saved already (I certainly hope so, as I had already spent about 2 hours on my turn)?

Just trying to figure out what to do, as the manual isn't very descriptive on the Slitherine piece...



Helpless -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/28/2010 10:00:20 PM)

I'm not an MP expert, but I suppose you can't save it after you clicked end turn. It is saved automatically on the server and now your opponent should be able to access it.



Altaris -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/28/2010 10:52:45 PM)

Nope... my opponent accepted my challenge, and despite having successfully saved it just prior to ending my turn (when I ended my turn, I got stuck in an endless Save Failed - Retry or Abort loop), when I load up the game now, it's right back to the beginning of the turn.

This is immensely frustrating to say the least. I basically just wasted 2.5 hrs of my time last night. Now, when I created the game, it allowed me to load up as my side (Axis) and play out my turn, all the while saving at intervals successfully. It was only when I tried to end my turn that I ran into problems (which I can only assume is because I didn't have an opponent accepted yet). The only option I had was to cancel out at that point, which seems to have sent my previous saves into oblivion.

Frankly, I'm done with this Slitherine thing until a developer or Slitherine rep can tell me how it's supposed to work... turns of this game take too long to entrust it in a flaky match-making program.



PipFromSlitherine -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/29/2010 12:17:03 AM)

When you say saved it - do you mean saved it to the server mid-turn?

Cheers

Pip



Altaris -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/29/2010 3:13:37 AM)

Okay, here's how it went down:

1) I created a new challenge on Slitherine
2) Once created, I loaded up the game via Slitherine (my opponent had not yet accepted my challenge)
3) I played through my turn, saving at different intervals (in case of a crash or something like that)
4) Right before I wanted to end my turn, I did a save, that said it was successful (it said it sent it to server, etc). I figured this would at least save my game in the event of a problem when I clicked End Turn.
5) I then clicked End Turn. It attempted to save the game, but kept getting Save Failed - Retry or Cancel error messages. After several retries (each of which got the same error) I finally clicked Cancel, at which point it told me I would lose my progress... but I thought I'd be safe since I had saved before clicking End Turn.
6) I closed out the application and tried to get back into my previous save, but no luck. I then asked my opponent to accept the challenge, thinking that might be the problem. He did so, but when I loaded the game up again, it was the beginning of the scenario (all my turn's work is evidently lost).

So as far as I can tell, the whole 2.5 hours of time put in last night is lost, due to very confusing save procedures. It never occurred to me that I would lose the whole set of orders since I had had successful saves throughout the turn, but that seems to be just what happened.

At this point, I'm inclined to avoid Slitherine until I see what others have to say about it. Personally, I'm not happy with what I've seen so far... losing 2.5 hours of work due to some obscure save issue is beyond frustrating; however, that I can live with... losing a GC game that I had spent 2 months on would probably drive me nuts. I don't intend to risk that, so I'm thinking standard PBEM might be the route for me.



Zemke -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/29/2010 9:31:35 AM)

I had simular issues also, never really know if this new patchs fixed my save problem or not.

My latest problem, I am trying to accept a game, and it keeps saying wrong password. How do I fix that, when I know I am using the same old password I always use.



Altaris -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/29/2010 1:54:06 PM)

I guess the big question to the Slitherine guys is this: What happens to previous saves when something goes wrong trying to save the game? Because it's not a good situation to have all the previous saves get wiped out if something goes amiss during saving... I would hope there's backups on the server, but seeing as the players have no access to the prior saves, we're completely in the dark on this aspect.



PipFromSlitherine -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/29/2010 4:24:21 PM)

I'll take a look into this. Once you have done a successful save mid-turn you should be able to download and continue without issue. It's also odd you can play into your turn without someone accepting your challenge.

Cheers

Pip



Pford -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/29/2010 4:54:40 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Altaris
1) I created a new challenge on Slitherine
2) Once created, I loaded up the game via Slitherine (my opponent had not yet accepted my challenge)
3) I played through my turn, saving at different intervals (in case of a crash or something like that)


Correct me if I'm wrong: as the first player in a turn, say, the Germans, you complete your move BEFORE someone accepts the challenge? Shouldn't the non-phasing player initiate the game?

There a potential for abuse here, unless I'm missing something.



Altaris -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/29/2010 6:13:48 PM)

TBH, I won't touch Slitherine again until I have a better understanding of what happens to save files. If something going wrong during a save is going to have the potential of making a game un-recoverable, that's too big a risk to use it. After this experience, I've got a doomsday scenario of having a save go wrong 3 months into a GC and losing all progress... that's something I'm not willing to gamble on.



TemujinOz -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/30/2010 4:43:26 AM)

Altaris,

Regarding the 'doomsday scenario' - the server maintains a backup of a previous save, and this can be restored if a serious issue is encountered. This 'restore' cannot be done by players, you'd need to contact Matrix/Slitherine to arrange that.

With the specific issue here ... you cannot 'play' any part of a multipler/server game until the challenge has been accepted.

In the version 1.00 release code, there is a bug where you can 'tick' the "PBEM" button on the game screen, and then create a server challenge. This creates an invalid game file that cannot decide if it is a PBEM game or a multiplayer/server game, and it acts like both. This has been fixed in all beta versions since the 1.00 release. It sounds like this may be the problem here - if a challenge is created and you are also able to load and play before the challenge is accepted, then the game file will not be a valid server file (although it acts like one initially).

The solution is to either ensure that you always have the "PBEM" button unselected when creating multiplayer games, or upgrade from version 1.00.

If you are sure you are using an upgraded version, or you you have made sure the "PBEM" option is not selected, then we'll need to look into this further.

Karl.



Altaris -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/30/2010 3:33:02 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: TemujinOz

Regarding the 'doomsday scenario' - the server maintains a backup of a previous save, and this can be restored if a serious issue is encountered. This 'restore' cannot be done by players, you'd need to contact Matrix/Slitherine to arrange that.


Well that's good to know. What would be the process for escalating such an issue to Slitherine, and what kind of turnaround time is there? Also, how many restore copies are kept? (in the off-hand chance the backup had an issue as well)

I guess I've just gotten a little uneasy about a system where I have no way to roll-back to a previous save if something goes wrong. Hopefully that wouldn't happen, but right now I'd feel more at ease knowing I had my own save files to fall back on if needed.

Also, I believe I was still on 1.00 when I started that challenge, so it may be the bug you mentioned that let me get in. IIRC, I believe I did double-click on my challenge after creating it, and was allowed in that way (there was nothing in the My Games list since my opponent had not yet accepted)



PipFromSlitherine -> RE: Slitherine Multiplayer Issues and Questions (12/30/2010 5:16:44 PM)

Posting to this forum is the best way to raise an issue. The turnaround should be pretty much as soon as someone reads the post. We store both the last uploaded turn, and the turn prior.

Cheers

Pip



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