Thomas Goetz Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 A friend and I have been doing a PBEM game of CMBB, and having a great time - mostly. Everything was fine for the first 5 turns or so, as was a tiny test scenario we ran to make sure we could exchange files without problems. But more recently we've been plauged by a rather annoying and inconsistent bug. He has no problem reading my files, but about half the time when he sends me his files, when I try to load it up during the opening of the game, all I get is that windows sound - "plunk" - and nothing loads. First time it happened, I assumed a corrupted transmission, and asked him to send it again. Still no good. So he reloaded my last file, and then finished his turn and sent it to me. Worked fine. Thought we had it licked. Turns out that was only the beginning. About every other file he sends me refuses to load. If it were every one, it would be more understandable, but some come through fine, while others refuse to load. So far, we've been able to keep going with the game because when he reloads my last file, and does his turn over, whether just watching or plotting, that seems to fix whatever it is, and then that file loads fine on my system. As I mentioned, he has never had any problems loading my files. This is driving us crazy, especially since neither of us has high speed internet, and it takes forever to up or down load the files. So a non-working file means lots of time wasted and no gaming action for another day. If anyone has any suggestions or comments or questions, I'd be grateful. Tom Goetz 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 If you're not already doing this, I'd suggest compressing/zipping the files before sending (on both sides). I'm not sure what the actual source of this problem is other than something is corrupt about the file that you're receiving. Does your friend play the game on the same computer or does he have more than one installation of the game ? What versions do you both have, BFC (internet) or CDV (retail, 'special editions') ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 The other thing to check is the size of the file that is failing to load. I have sporadically experienced file corruption at the _sender's_ end. Basically, it appears that CMBB writes only a tiny file (<1000 bytes). Of course, this fails to load at the other end! For my & my partners, this doesn't happen often enough to be able to narrow it down to a cause. Usually, the sender just re-runs the turn and ends up with a good file to send. Not sure if that's the same as your problem... I hope it is, because it would be nice to have more occurences to help track the cause down! GaJ. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Goetz Posted April 3, 2004 Author Share Posted April 3, 2004 Thanks for the suggestions. Haven't tried compressing or zipping the files - that should cut way down on transmission times, assuming we can get that to work without further incidents. We are both using just one machine for the game, but there are game variations. I'm using the CDV edition, while he is using the internet edition, so that might be contributing. I have noticed the extreme differences in file size on occasion - several megs vs. several k. But that doesn't seem to correlate with problems getting the things to load. I've also noticed that my system, at least, will sometimes save the file as a text file, and sometimes as a generic file - again, without seeming to correlate with the problems loading his files. But whatever is corrupting the files (myabe they're passing too close to some porn site while in transit?) seems to originate soley on his end, so it may be some problem with his machine that has little to do with the game itself. We will continue to investigate, and any further help will be welcome. Tom Goetz 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Turns with movies in will be big (around a Meg) Turns with just orders will be smaller (several k) It's broken if it's under 1k. GaJ. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLF Posted May 6, 2004 Share Posted May 6, 2004 I have also ran in to this issue of "corrupt" email files. I suggest that once you´re done with your turn, save and open your opponent´s file in order to see if it´s working. If you are asked for correct password it works fine. Perhaps this will be fixed in a future patch. (hint) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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