H2H Helper & Dropbox. How does this work?

[TheBlackHand]

I thought I had it all set up. In fact, it was working for the first couple of PBEM battles that I've played. These were started by my oppo & sent to me.

In the process of trying to start up a battle & send it to him, I've completely messed the program up and I cannot figure out how to fix it.

The help files that I've read, really don't help much. Makes me feel like an old fart. Normally I'm pretty good at getting things like this to work, but this thing is throwing me for a loop.

Can anyone tell me where to find a decent help file on how to get the program working with CMFI. How to set up a dropbox, start a battle and send it to an opponent?

It seems like everything I do with this H2H Helper program is wrong. If one thing works, something else doesn't. Tonight I thought it might be a good idea to "forget install" and reinstall . . . bad idea. I can't seem to get it to find my CMFI installation at all.

I also managed to erase all the previous chat logs. Dunno how that happened, but it did. That's a drag because my oppo had politely helped me get the thing running in the first place. If I hadn't erased those chat logs, I might be able to find a few good answers on my own. The second round of problems began when I tried to start a game myself, & send it to him. I seemed to get it working, but it said I didn't have a drop box for the chat files . . . so I fumfered around and ended up only screwing things up even more . . . which is why I thought I'd remove the installation completely . . . and we know what happened next.

Is there an "A, B, C, D, etc." kind of instruction manual?

[eltorrente]

When i grabbed the setup file from the our dropbox, and put it in my inbox folder, expecting to see it pop up in h2hhelper... it didn't.

I then realized it was probably because you didn't name the file with "001" at the end of it, the way the game does automatically when naming the file(s). When you renamed the file and left that part off, h2hhelper didn't see it as a normal game file.

After I finished my setup and saved it - now with a 001 at the end of the file name - h2hhelper saw it, and it works fine now.

[TheBlackHand]

Gahhh! Except that now I've done erased everything! I can't figure out how to get H2H Helper to recognize my CMFI install.

In other news . . . gotta head off to Iowa tomorrow morning & I won't be back till Friday. Hopefully we can get the shooting started this weekend.

Oh, and have a look at the BigDork vs Tiresius thread . . . does that map look an awful lot like the map for our QB? I thought those QB maps were made random, based on a few parameters . . . but now I'm wondering if they're all basically the same.

[eltorrente]

Oh wow - you're right. Yup, same map. There are no longer randomly generated maps for CMx2.

Our visibility will be much lower of course, so we might bumble into each other unexpectedly somewhere. I normally play with nice clear skies, so I'm looking forward to dark and rainy conditions - should be interesting.

[GreenAsJade]

Can anyone tell me where to find a decent help file on how to get the program working with CMFI. How to set up a dropbox, start a battle and send it to an opponent?

Is there an "A, B, C, D, etc." kind of instruction manual?

Dang, I thought my instructions were pretty good:

http://gregories.net/h2hh/H2H%20Helper.html

Admittedly, they don't deal with CMFI, because it came along after those instructions were written. CMFI's change of directory structures made things more complicated for sure.

However, 1.7.3 and beyond are supposed to deal with it OK.

What version are you using?

What problems are you having? "I tried everything and nothing works" isn't much to go on

GaJ

[Ales Dvorak]

I thought those QB maps were made random, based on a few parameters . . . but now I'm wondering if they're all basically the same.

CM2 engine = No random generate maps anymore.( look at the app's quick battle maps folder )

[TheBlackHand]

OK, so I'm back from my business trip and I'm going to try to get this going tonight. This post will be sort of a play-by-play.

1. I open the program. I have a CMBN install but no CMFI install. I assume the instructions for CMBN will apply to CMFI so I'm going to try to install it that way (it worked fine last time, until I tried to start a new battle . . . but we'll get to that shortly).

2. Going to "Add Install". Writing CMFI in the Install Name slot. Putting C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Fortress Italy in the Installation Directory slot. Putting C:\Users\Owner\Dropbox in the Drop Box Location slot. (Unsure if this is supposed to point to C:\Users\Owner\Dropbox\TBH vs Eltorrente . . . or just to the Dropbox folder.)

It now seems to recognize the game and it shows that it is my turn.

However, when I click on the chat icon it says "That game doesn't have a dropbox, so no chat!"

So, I go to "Edit Game". I enter TBH vs Eltorrente -in the Game Name slot. I enter C:\Users\Owner\Dropbox\TBH vs Eltorrente in both the Incoming/Outgoing slots. I enter C:\Program Files (x86)\Battlefront\Combat Mission Fortress Italy\CM Fortress Italy.exe in the Application Name slot.

Now it seems I have chat . . . although our previous chat logs have been erased, which is kind of a bummer. I sent a radio check . . . we'll see if Eltorrente is reading my lima charlie.

I guess my real problem was with how to actually START a battle with H2H Helper. By trial and error I seem to have learned that I need to start the battle, then copy the file from the outgoing game box to the shared dropbox folder where my opponent can see it, play it and send it back . . . correct? I was confused about what to do with the old battle and/or dropbox file. This is why I started erasing stuff, which caused all sorts of problems. When a battle is done, which files can/can't/should be erased? Is it OK to start a new battle using the same old dropbox folder?

On the map subject, I guess this means that if we play QB's we'll have to ask our oppo if they've played the map before. Seems like it won't take long before all the maps have been played out. Why is there no random map generator? Is it a game engine thing where they couldn't get it to work or something? Not complaining, just wondering.

[TheBlackHand]

Well, another problem has revealed itself. I initially attempted to do the unit purchase the other night before leaving for Iowa. The game crashed twice during this process, so I quit.

Tonight I gave the selection process three tries before I threw in the towel.

The selection process is unwieldy to begin with. Adding an entire battalion for a small battle and then subtracting piece by piece until you get to where you need to be. WTF is that all about? What a PITA. Certainly NOT an improvement on the way the CMX1 games worked. Nevertheless, I put a good ten minutes into each attempted setup only to be rewarded with the spinning circle in the middle of my screen which tells me that yes, the game has frozen and is about to crash again. I wasted a lot of time on this tonight. Three attempts. Three crashes.

Not too motivated to try again (and again and again?).

[sburke]

Not sure what you mean by referring to deleting piece by piece. If for example you wanted one company from a battalion, you select the battalion then delete 2 companies. That is about 5 clicks of the mouse.

The selection process in CMx2 seems to be one of those where if you take the time to get used to it and like having better ToEs, it is far better than CMx1. If you really just want the CMx1 version, then you are simply out of luck.

As to it is crashing, lots of folks are buying stuff using the editor and to my knowledge there haven't been other reports like yours. Best thing to do is go to the helpdesk, they may be able to help you figure out why it is crashing on you. Certainly better than just repeating it till you are too frustrated to want to play the game.

Good luck

[eltorrente]

Several people have reported crashing problems in the unit selection screen, and it happens to me, too.

To minimize your chances of crashing, don't use the mouse wheel or the button that shows the next page on the right pane. Also, keep everything on the right pane minimized except for the units that you are actually working with. The more units you have expanded on the right pane, the more likely it is to crash. Knowing this, every now and then it'll still crash sometimes, but the chances of crashing is greatly reduced by simply keeping the right pane "clean".

[BFCElvis]

Oh wow - you're right. Yup, same map. There are no longer randomly generated maps for CMx2.

Our visibility will be much lower of course, so we might bumble into each other unexpectedly somewhere. I normally play with nice clear skies, so I'm looking forward to dark and rainy conditions - should be interesting.

Most of the QB maps were created for QBs but in addition to them every map for scenarios are also QB maps. If forget for sure but I think some of the campaign maps may be in there too but not all because when they were made they only had AI orders for one side.

[GreenAsJade]

This thread got intercepted by some discussion about game crashes and other things, and TBH I can't be arsed trying to sort through which is about H2HH and which is not.

If you have an H2HH problem, or need help using it, drop me a PM, send me an email, or use Help->Report Bug.

Note that H2HH explicitly does not support one player using multiple computers for the same game, if that's what someone is trying to do. H2HH expects you to play a given game from one machine only. If you start doing turns on a different machine, using Dropbox to share your own turns with yourself, H2HH will get very confused: it can't tell the difference between you and your oppo in this case.

GaJ