Derfel

YEAH! Da man's back! One thing though: I can't get any of the mods to DL, is it at my end or yours you think? Regards, Derfel Edit: Weird, I managed to get one (1) mod downloaded, then I just got blank refusals. "ftp login denied" was the error msg. -D [ September 24, 2002, 09:17 AM: Message edited by: Derfel ]

Truly a noble bit of work! Thanks a bunch for this effort, Gary! This gets top priority among my CM bookmarks. -Derfel

Excellent report Kump, mind if I link to it? -Derfel The Byte Battler

oooh, that gotta hurt. Best damned put-down I've seen since Peng had his personal problem adjusted. Well, done MrSprocket! The Lurkers at the back of the hall all applaud you, or would if they weren't Lurkers. What? Oh. Right. I'm going. -Derfel

I usually don't descend to vulgar exclamations but just this once: WOOt! W00t! W00t! W00t! There, I feel better already... I wonder, if I inform BTS that my 40th birthday is in August would they... nah... __________________________ Go for a Byte Battle it's quick and easy, though nobody said it would be painless. -Derfel [ July 12, 2002, 08:34 PM: Message edited by: Derfel ]

Gents, (Jon S, J Salt and Jason ) I would be delighted if you would give me permission to publish an edited version of this thread on my website The Byte Battler among other "documents of interest". I really do think these examples should be preserved for future generations... or at least available for a little while longer than it takes to fall from page one of the forum. -Derfel

Yeah! What he said! (Geier, that is) Now, for what might be a real problem, those damned copy protections. Yes I know why they exist and I totally understand the need. However, most copy protection systems seem to run afoul of some hardware/OS combinations, and the further from "US standard" the computer system is, the more common the problems seem to be. SO; If I arrange to by a U.S version (I have friends in low places) will it come with the same copy protection as the CDV version, or possibly a different copy protection or even no copy protection? Oh, and BTW is there a list of CDV retailers in Europe? Might be interesting to shop around a little... -Derfel [ July 10, 2002, 05:25 AM: Message edited by: Derfel ]

Austrian: Right, a "No Frames" variant is in the works. The number of BBs available will be twelve beore this day is out... Oh, by the way: BUMP! -Derfel

A shamless BUMP and also an opportunity to tell you that the number of Byte Battles on the site is growing by the hour... now there's ten... -Derfel [ July 08, 2002, 05:33 PM: Message edited by: Derfel ]

Gentlemen, I thank you for those nice words... a little encouragement goes a long way with me... Andreas: You're quite right it IS a blatant attempt at plagiarism, so SUE ME! Dorosh: The info is in the scenario briefing, just click on the title of a scenario and you'll find it... I most definitely will register the Byte Battles with Scen Depot Austrian: Sorry to hear that, what webbrowser are you using? I'll fiddle about a bit and see if I can make it work. -Derfel

Yes, it's true, a new website dedicated entirely to the publication of Byte Battles have opened its gates to the public. Lots (well, at the moment there's only eight actually) of finely tuned Byte Battles for the discerning CMBO player. You will laugh, you will weep, you will wish you were color-blind. Rave Reviews "w00t!" -Anonymous "One of the Sites Ever Published." -Local Internet Guide The Byte Battler [ July 07, 2002, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Derfel ]

I agree, this is better! -Derfel

Well, gents (and cesspudligans) I cannot let this go by without singing the praises of the Kessel-born "Byte Battles". For a middle aged man with no life but a lot of comittments it is ideal. You and your opponent sit down to a set table so to speak, just pick a scenario and about an hour later (with the time set to max 5 mins) you will have lost severly... well, that's just me maybe... but it is really a very enjoyable way to play TCP/IP. Thanks to the shortness of the scenarios (usually around 10-12 turns)it is comparatively easy to find the time/opponent even if you're half a world and twelve timezones apart. Also, the smallness of your force makes for intense and exciting play, every mg and every sharpshooter can make a difference. A single AFV is a huge force equaliser and so on. In fact I like these little nuggets so much that I've created a good few myself and will force them on Der Kessel one of these days... Of course every now and then I also enjoy to set up a LAN, invite a friend over and have a go at some 6000+ points monstrosity but it seems to be happening less and less... -Derfel

Why do I wish his enemies health? Because they'll bloody well need it! -Derfel (P.S Bill, you know what I meant. D.S)

I too caught this a little late but as a fellow gamer who have followed your work as far back as the "Steel Panthers" days let me express my deepest congratulations, have another beer and post some pics of the "reinforcements" so the board can all comment on... er... maybe not such a good idea as the pics might make their way into the Peng thread and I believe there are laws against that sort of thing... Health and Confusion to your enemies! -Derfel

This is indeed a well known bug, sometimes known as the "Ding of Death"... look in the "TCP/IP crashes" thread on the tech-support forum and youll see that it happens quite frequently that TCP/IP games lock up and on occasion weird things like the substitution of units occur before the game crashes and burns. The only workaround seem to be saving every turn manually (the autosave gets corrupt, see below)and then reloading the game when you've re-booted both computers. This is what the mad bald one had to say when he last adressed the issue (july 2001): "Guys, here is what we know after reviewing this issue for some time: I have NEVER been able to replicate the crash, neither have any of my testers I asked to check into it. Some people who have been playing TCP/IP games for many months have never experienced such a crash. I am certain that there is *something* going on though, thats why I have continued to research this issue. It is NOT hardware specific. It is NOT OS specific. It *appears* to sometimes be triggered by the appearance of duplicated crews or after prisoners are captured. Other times there is no such triggering event. The reason for the crash itself is that it appears something is corrupting the transmitted data between systems. What happens is that when one system tries to process the corrupt file it locks up the game and it drops to the desktop (or dings). This also explains why you can not reload some autosaves from crashed games as they are themselves corrupt. The root cause for the corruption is where we are having difficulty discovering. It could be when the host compiles the turn or it could be getting corrupted at some point doing the transmission between systems. I have said repeatedly that Charles will look into this issue but he has not had time to do so in depth yet. When we have more to report we WILL REPORT IT. That's all I have for you at this time." Hope this is some help, personally I'm just hoping that a solution appear before CM:BB ships. -Derfel

Kingfish: If you're asking me; I just placed the troops intending them to defend various parts of a perimeter, no modified states and all were in C&C. The scenario was meant to be an Axis assault on an allied position defended in depth where the A.I would handle the defense and the human p´layer the assault.

Keith: Nope, it isn't that easy, believe me. I've tried with flags in front, behind, no flags and practically covered the entire vl with defending troops but the little bleeders will still leave their positions to engage the enemy... I'm still hoping for that "Lie low until fired upon" command in CM:BB.

Shatter; it just gets weirder, doesn't it... I'll try something similar and see what results I get... BTW has this happened in any other scen? PL: Nope, that ain't it, I tried placing the units right on top of the VL and the little b*stards took off AWAY from the flags to get at the enemy... Curioser and curioser, no?

Hmmm very weird behaviour to be sure.... I've had exactly the reverse problem. In some of my scenarios the defending units won't sit still in their prepared positions but would immediately go "over the top" and rush out in the open to be cut down by the advancing enemy units... I've suggested a "Sit the hell still" command to be added at the scenario editing stage but so far no word on it's inclusion in CM:BB. All I can suggest is that the "Exit" edge of the map might have something to do with it... which isn't all that helpful... what was the status of the units that scampered off? (Green, Regular etc) -Derfel

uh... since it appears there are two parallel threads on this issue I will just pop in here to state that for those interested in the reasons for the departure of Col. Klotz from the CMBO scene I've posted a reply on this matter in the other thread. Also I would to thank tanq_tonic (say that three times with an ice-cube in your mouth for a dispassionate and clear description of the rules of "Intellectual Property". Moronic as they can seem at times it's nice to have a pro to guide you... Personally I would agree with those that say that while Hasbro et al probably has the right to act against ASL2CM conversions it would be stupid to do so, the gains would (as has been pointed out above) hardly be worth the effort. The argument that they would lose their rights if they don't protect them is rather beside the point, the entire idea is to persuade Hasbro to give up some of their rights in return for a better relation with the small Wargaming community that is in reality the only potential customers of a product such as ASL. I'm sure that if Hasbro (or MMP or whoever) wanted to they could set up provisos (correct term?) for conversions to other gaming systems or home made ASL scenarios that would limit the "damage" to their rights even while allowing gamers to go all out and create all the scenarios they want to (as long as no money changes hands of course). I'm sure this could be done under Swedish law, but I'll leave to tanq_tonic to comment on the feasability of this in the U.S. Finally, I have a seaking suspicion that if you were to look into the overall situation of the rights of the varios aspects of ASL you would find them a total mess. At least it's my experience that when a small group of creative people (like the original ASL designers) get together and produce something they rarely stop to consider the legal side of things, few contracts and even fewer detailed agreements get signed. Thus the question of who really owns the rights to the final product might be a very open question... which would explain Hasbro's hair-trigger reaction to the ASL2CM thing, they really don't want to open that particualar can of worms... (all this is of course pure speculation, for all I know the entire ASL design team might have been Lawyers...) -Derfel [ 08-19-2001: Message edited by: Derfel ]

As a long time friend of Col. Klotz maybe I should step in here and point out a few things: 1. The Col. did get a note from Hasbro saying that they understood he was running website with material that might be the property of Hasbro and that he should desist. No specifics were given and there was most certainly no mention of scanned maps. 2. All authors of original scenarios (both ASL and CMBO) and mapmakers were credited on the site. 3. While the Col. felt that Hasbro et al probably wouldn't/couldn't pursue the matter legally (what could they hope to gain from a sueing a private individual who hadn't made any money from this alleged breach of copyright?) their attitude rather pissed him off as he felt that he was doing them an, albeit small, favor by creating interest in the ASL material. So, this in conjunction with an growing workload in his studies the Col. decided to leave the scene (but not the game, the b*stard beat me ragged just a few weeks back). -Derfel

OK, I've tried to restore a manually saved game after suffering the tcp/ip crash... and I'm in a position to state that it works! Well, at least it did this time. We were 15 turns into "Move it or Lose it" (medium scenario, 30 turns) when the crash occurred. We rebooted both 'puters and loaded the last save (done at the start of turn 14) and it worked flawlessly after that. There's been a good few guesses at what the trouble might be, so I'll just put in my 5 cents worth: I think the transfer of data between computers is the problem. I seem to notice that data transfers in the turns just previous to the turn where the crash occur seem to go slower and slower. In fact I've had my opponent's computer start running the "movie" a good 10 seconds before me. So, from now on I'll save every turn before either opponent has commenced to give orders... at least until we can get a patch or somefink... -Derfel

Rex, I just realised I've forgotten to post my follow up to our discussion on this on the main board- Anyway I'v done about 5 more scenarios without any trouble... weirder and weirder... but I still havn't heard if anybody has successfully restored a "manually" saved game after experiencing this particular kind of crash... -Derfel

Yeah, data corruption was my first thought as well... but... a selective corruption that replaces or rather repositions units? Anyway, I will send the autosavefile to BTS, not that I imagine they can do anything about it but it might (as you said) prevent it (if it really is a bug) from appearing in CM2. -Derfel