Saving moves before complete?

[BadgerDog]

I play head to head and use the HtH program, which by the way is outstanding for those that haven't tried it ...

Due to a busy work schedule, I often get into a situation where I have to leave my computer before I've fully completed my side of a head to head move.

Is there any method of being able to "save" my current move complete with the status I left it at, then re-load it to continue making my end of the head to head move?

I don't seem to be able to get this right and often end up screwing up my return move.

If I select "save" from the menu before I'm done, it wants to use the real "return" game name, but then it ends up sending it as my turn, which is incomplete.

If I temporarily "save" from the menu and use a fictitious name, sometimes it screws up the real game name when I ultimately "save" it after fully completing my end of the move.

I wish either the game itself, or the HtH add-on module added a function to be able to easily save an incomplete PBEM turn over time, so one could easily return to it and make additional moves, before sending the FINAL (computer calculates) move to the other player.

Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks for any feedback ..

Regards,

Doug

[GreenAsJade]

What I do is when I'm saving an incomplete turn I put _save on the end of the name that CMBN prompts me.

IIRC, suppose I load up

GajVBadj 010.ema

Then it prompts me for

GajVBadj 011

as the save name.

I type _save on the end:

GajVBadj 011_save

Then this appears in the "saved games" list next time.

Then you get prompted, when you finish the turn to save this as

GajVBadj 011_save_001

(IE CMBN just dumbly adds a number on the end)

so you delete the _save_001

and it is correctly saved as

GajVBadj 011

GaJ

[Tarquelne]

I thought saved games and completed turns (as in, you hit the end-turn button) always go in different folders (Saved vs. Outgoing Email) and that H2HH will only pull files from Outgoing Email.

Yesno?

[c3k]

One is a .bts, the other a .ema.

[BadgerDog]

What I do is when I'm saving an incomplete turn I put _save on the end of the name that CMBN prompts me.

That seems to work ...

Thanks ...

Regards,

Doug

[GreenAsJade]

I thought saved games and completed turns (as in, you hit the end-turn button) always go in different folders (Saved vs. Outgoing Email) and that H2HH will only pull files from Outgoing Email.

Yesno?

What you say is true.

This is interesting, actually. I guess it means that from H2HH perspective, you don't have to use the _save_ extension! It implies we could just save it with the incremented file number that CMBN gives it, and it will go into the "Saved" folder. Next time you load it and it will increment again: that shouldn't be a problem, and when you generate the outgoing, it will end up in the right place and be processed!

Nice point... I'll try that out as soon as I have a chance. If this is the case, then H2HH could actually clean up the Saved Games folder as well: as soon as it sees a higher numbered outgoing, it could clean up the old saves. _That_ would be nice!

Stay tuned...

GaJ

[A Canadian Cat]

I guess it means that from H2HH perspective, you don't have to use the _save_ extension! It implies we could just save it with the incremented file number that CMBN gives it, and it will go into the "Saved" folder. Next time you load it and it will increment again: that shouldn't be a problem, and when you generate the outgoing, it will end up in the right place and be processed!

I do add some kind of a _saved marker to mine because of one thing: incoming and saved folder contents show up in the saved game list. So if you have "GAJ vs Ian 002_saved" and "GAJ vs Ian 003" you can tell what is what but without the _saved you might get confused (OK *I* might get confused:-). Plus, the saved game will always be the first one in the list so once we get to turn 20 you still have "GAJ vs Ian 002" first in the list. Again I might get confused:)

So, I always follow a variation of the method you first suggested.

[GreenAsJade]

I agree with this thinking.

I do have a hunch that with H2HH managing the files and their names, this risk might go away: H2HH makes it it's business to make sure you only have one file, the one you're supposed to play, showing in the Saved Games menu. If it gets that right, you should not have to care.

This will be something for 2.x anyhow. Hopefully 1.4.0 will emerge on the weekend then I can get to thinking about this

GaJ

[A Canadian Cat]

My turn manager (Whose Turn Is It? - a WIP) only looks at the incoming and outgoing directories and handles .ema files. I have not considered poking around in the save directory. It would be a bit different in there because the file will not, necessarily, conform to the <battle name> <number>.<ext> pattern. But you could probably make it work. I would just be nervous about deleting files that start with <battle name>.

As long as no one used names that were too simple it would probably be safe. Perhaps if the tool warned you when a battle name was too simple. For example the tool would display a warning if the name did not include your name, your opponent's name and some other text. Would that be enough to prevent accidents?

Specifically I was thinking that if you were playing a scenario H2H at the same time as you were playing on against the AI you could easily end up with two battles with the same name if you just took the default name. Of course that means the player them selves would have trouble differentiating the saved games too so perhaps my worry is moot.

[GreenAsJade]

Thus far, I've considered "freakish" accidents to be a lowish concern, since you can always get the file back from the recycle bin.

GaJ

freakish: I mean, you can't have regular accidents, but if once in a blue moon a file gets deleted due to some freak name collision, it's not a calamity.

[c3k]

Even thought the extension will be different, the save/go will increment up one number, regardless.

For example, "KenvsGaJ001" is the file just opened. If I hit "save" the default name will be "KenvsGaJ002" for the just created bts file. If, after saving, I'm ready to execute the game, and I hit "go" the default name will be "KenvsGaJ003" for the just made ema file.

This could get confusing. In PBEM, once I start with, say, an odd numbered turn, "...001", for the rest of the game I should stay odd whilst my opponent stays even. My incoming and outgoing folders should show that type of pattern. If I start saving turns and NOT renaming them, then the turns will get thrown out of whack. I may send 001, then get 007 if my opponent saved 5 times. Then, based on my saves, he could get 010.

Keeping the _save suffix will help avoid this confusion.

[A Canadian Cat]

Even thought the extension will be different, the save/go will increment up one number, regardless.

For example, "KenvsGaJ001" is the file just opened. If I hit "save" the default name will be "KenvsGaJ002" for the just created bts file. If, after saving, I'm ready to execute the game, and I hit "go" the default name will be "KenvsGaJ003" for the just made ema file.

<snip>

Keeping the _save suffix will help avoid this confusion.

Agreed. Just for the sake of summing up here is what I do:

1. Issue the save command - it will increment the number as you mention KenvsGaJ002
   
2. add _saved to the end and let it save
   
3. then, later, when you press the red button to actually go it will add 001 to the end KenvsGaJ002_saved 001
   
4. all I do is back space away the _saved 001
   
5. sleep well at night knowing that your .ema file will have the correct number at the end:)