PBEM players, lets report the bugs.

Conqueror · December 13, 2002, 14:24

Quote from Firaxis employee :"if you do not report the bugs, they will not be fixed"

This is why we each individually should report the bugs we encounter in our (Play By Email) PBEM games, so that in the future we might enjoy bug-free and fun gaming with our Play-the-World's.

For example the notorious difficulty level "always Regent/Chieftain" bug, how many of you has reported it, even propably many of you have suffered from it.

More known bugs:

-Being able to open someone elses turn.

-Having to load PBEM game from MP screen, otherwise game wont work properly. (Happened atleast in one PBEM - using the MP screen loading corrected the errors we had otherwise almost every turn.)

-I/O error occures when loading the game. Usually when previous player plays the turn again and messes around in preferences screen before saving, the bug goes away.

-Expiring peace treaty with another human player causes them to somehow automatically declare war on you and the game crashes, solution : renegotiate peace with that player before ending your turn.

- ' Drigate ' bug, solution here http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...32#post1878032

I just reported these bugs, and i hope that some of you are also inspired to do so reading this mail.

Easy way to report PtW bugs via this form:
http://www.ina-support.com/YANFPHPF/...front_page.php

Good Luck in your PBEM games

alva · December 13, 2002, 19:11

Being able to open some elses turn comes to mind

Having to load games from the MP screen..

That's it for now

ps: Conquror, will you edit them in your first post?

self biased · December 13, 2002, 20:37

alva, i don't load my PBEM games, or my regular games from the MP screen.

Soltz · December 16, 2002, 23:05

I'm in a couple of PBEM games (not as a host though) and I've been able to load my turns without going into the MP screen.

Maybe I've been lucky!

alva · December 16, 2002, 23:10

@ self biased:

and you havn't run into problems yet...like accelerated production suddenly appearing, etc....

Beta · January 5, 2003, 18:27

Well, this post will bring this thread back up, and result in a few more suggestions.

Mine is a re-hash of the MP screen one. It is a pain.

There should be a Pbem option on the main screen - and it should take you right to load saves screen from which you choose the save you want to play.

Saves in a pbem game should be tagged as such to prevent then from being opened under the single player option and thus subject to - er - well you know.

And the administrator of the game should be able to make certain modifications - for instance - change the name of a leader when players change. I have taken over a game for someone else, and I have to play under that name (unless anybody know how to change it - in which case - please post.)

Adagio · January 6, 2003, 14:12

Preferences bug... please save the game preferences on the computer, and not in the save-game (It's annoying to load other peoples preferences when loading a PBEM game)

Dis · January 7, 2003, 03:35

this thread should be topped.

Harovan · January 7, 2003, 10:04

Quote:

Originally posted by ADG
Preferences bug... please save the game preferences on the computer, and not in the save-game (It's annoying to load other peoples preferences when loading a PBEM game)

Seconded. That's annoying as hell

.

Another one: Saving a PBEM turn and reloading it again nets you another turn of production, food and commerce. I haven't tried it yet, but with enough patience it could be possible to get to Modern Armor in 4000Bc this way. Also, doing this sometimes opens the game for your successor without password and lets you spy him out completely and even moving his units. This is a game breaking bug!

Oh, and did I mention to save the preferences separate from the game?

GhengisFarb™ · January 7, 2003, 10:12

When you load the game the correct way the background is centered on the area of the team prior to you.

If you have explored that area it will show behind your password prompt, otherwise it will be black in shrouds of the fog of war.

I don't think this is a bug, as just an unthought advantage in that you can always know where the team prior to you is at and send explorers straight for them.

Dis · January 7, 2003, 19:51

Can someone please top this thread?

OK I think I have figured out how accelerated production gets turn on. Because I have done it.

If you load a game through the multiplayer setup screen any game rules that you have checked before you load the game will incorporate itself into the game you are loading. I hope this makes sense.

so the last game I created had accel. prodution turned on. When I load another game through the multiplayer setup screen, if I don't uncheck accel. production it will end up into the other game I just loaded.

I never noticed this before because I have always loaded as a single player game.

but of course this can accidently reveal a starting position. Although that has never happened to me.

Anyways the game rules you have checked for creating a multiplayer game should not carry over into the game you load from the multiplayer screen. That is how it is supposed to be.

Dis · January 8, 2003, 05:36

Thanks to the mysterious toppper who topped this thread.

Hot_Enamel · January 8, 2003, 07:24

Not quite a bug...but still annoying.
PTW should be linked to your email client to make emailing the file a lot easier.

Adagio · January 8, 2003, 07:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Hot_Enamel
Not quite a bug...but still annoying.
PTW should be linked to your email client to make emailing the file a lot easier.

lmtoops · January 8, 2003, 12:08

I had read in a review that said sending saves within the game was a feature of PTW. I haven't been able figure out how to do it.

Adagio · January 8, 2003, 12:14

I've read that review also, but I have also read somewhere else, that such feature wont be in the game...

alva · January 8, 2003, 18:41

It sure isn't

And PTW slows down my system after closing while I try to send the save. It takes ages to open my mail.

255 · January 9, 2003, 00:09

Considering that you have to input an Administrator Password when you start the game, one would conclude that the ability to change settings/player names etc. exists. If if does, has anyone found it, or any "Administrator" functionality?

255

Conqueror · January 9, 2003, 09:20

Quote:

Originally posted by alva
And PTW slows down my system after closing while I try to send the save. It takes ages to open my mail.

I have very similar bug, hard disk works like crazy (for no obivious reason) for almost five minutes after closing PTW, making every program work very slowly. This should not happen with 1,6 ghz processor and 1 gt ram.

And altho this has been reported before somewhere: my outlook express toolbar is totally wiped from any buttons after playing PTW. Thats why i use alternate mail clients to send PTW saves

Adagio · January 9, 2003, 09:23

Quote:

Originally posted by alva
It sure isn't

And PTW slows down my system after closing while I try to send the save. It takes ages to open my mail.

I've got the same problem, though I don't only have problems with my mail, but also with IE

alva · January 9, 2003, 09:57

IE is slower too for awhile, but 'recovers' faster then my mail prog.

I too have 768 MB of DDR ram, should be suffient IMHO.
(That's enough to hold a complete installment of win 98

)

Another I just thought of,

- Fonts are messed up in the players screen, the players names to be more specific.

delmar · January 9, 2003, 13:20

Geez, I'm glad I looked at this thread. I thought I screwed up something with my computers settings, that's why the browsers (IE for sure, but I think Netscape as well) hog the CPU for about 30 seconds after exiting from PTW. I don't hear the harddisk working like hell, it just that the browser takes up 100% of the CPU. Quite scary, I'm glad Firaxis is specializing in games and not virus development -- imagine what they could do if they really tried...

As for PBEM games/settings/loading from the Multiplayer screen: I used to think that the problem is simply that the game doesn't contain these settings, so if you load it through the Multiplayer screen then the settings will be whatever you specified on that screen just prior to loading the game. But then we ran into this Accelerated Production problem in the Double or Nothing PBEM where loading the game explicitily set Acc.Prod. ON even though it was turned off in the settings panel before I loaded the SAV.

Not sure if this was mentioned before, and it might be just another "settings" problem, but setting the difficulty level (I mean in a way that the game actually stays at that level) is impossible, too.

Beta · January 9, 2003, 13:30

Quote:

Originally posted by 255
Considering that you have to input an Administrator Password when you start the game, one would conclude that the ability to change settings/player names etc. exists. If if does, has anyone found it, or any "Administrator" functionality?

255

255 - Agreed. But no, one as of yet, has found out how to do it. Or if they have, they haven't shared it.

And I am still playing with my predecessor's name in the pbem game I took over for him. This isn't effecting game play at all - just mildly annoying.

alva · January 9, 2003, 13:39

You can use the admin password to change a players password. Maybe that's the way it works?(have not tried this myself, picked it up somewhere else)

alva · January 9, 2003, 13:43

Ohh, and another thing,

But I'm not sure if this a bug or a feature.

Apparantly there is NO War Weariness in MP games

Just about the most important feature of religious has been dumped...
I anyone could verify this.

Dis · January 9, 2003, 13:57

my civ3 only takes about 5 seconds to clear the memory. You can tell if you try to start civ3 again after exiting you will get not enough free memory message. But after 5 seconds I can do anything I want.

I'm one of the lucky ones

I think I heard that about war weariness. That sucks because I love religious civs. going to communism would be pointless then. Hmmm.

I hate it when they make decisions for us. I guess they figured most people would just want to wage war in multiplayer and not be bothered by war weariness. But some of us want to play multiplayer like the original civ3.

alva · January 10, 2003, 12:51

Quote:

my civ3 only takes about 5 seconds to clear the memory.

Civ3 or PTW ???
I don't have this prob with civ, only with PTW
-

Hot_Enamel · January 10, 2003, 18:09

Quote:

my civ3 only takes about 5 seconds to clear the memory. You can tell if you try to start civ3 again after exiting you will get not enough free memory message. But after 5 seconds I can do anything I want.

I am the same .. about 5 seconds for everything to clear itself....PTW

And I am running a 700Mhz Athlon with 256 Ram

Dis · January 11, 2003, 03:26

actually it might be like 2 seconds

. It only gives me a low memory message if I restart immediately after closing down.

Has this war weariness been verified? I have been using almost exclusively religious civs. I may have to rethink that.

delmar · January 11, 2003, 12:13

Memory is cleaned up immediately for me. The browser is still slow for a while.