Posting something I posted in El Lobo's AAR, because Japan's resolution is not necessarily correct:
ORIGINAL: Alfred
Read this thread:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4355560&mpage=1&key=synch�
There are several other threads on the sync bug issue.
The short end is:
1. What Japan sees is always 100% correct.
2. The combatreport.txt which the Japanese player should send to his opponent is always 100% correct.
3. The incorrect info is seen only by the Allied player when he sees the combat resolution phase movie and the subsequent combatreport.txt file which is generated from the movie.
4. The "bug" does not carry over to the next turn. It is the info generated by the Japanese combat resolution phase movie which is carried over to the next turn.
5. The most common condition which will result in a sync bug is if both players are not using the exact same game version or there is some other discrepancy between the two installations.
6. It is possible (but extremely rare) for consecutive turns to exhibit sync bugs but the cause of the succeeding synch bug appearance will be different from the cause of the preceding sync bug.
Bottom line is that the sync bug can be a cause of frustration for the Allied player (although sometimes he can get some valuable intel which otherwise would not have been available) but is never in itself a ground for surrender. If an Allied player loses a carrier battle it is not due to the sync bug but to a combination of both his and his opponent's actions. The lost carrier battle would have resulted even if there had been no sync bug.
Alfred
I'm with Alfred on most of the above, there is a big 'however' though..........
I know of multiple ways, playing as Japan, to force the game to produce different outcomes of a turn. Bottom line is: the Japanese player (if he was a low down cheating rat and so chooses) has the control to effectively run and rerun the file sent by the Allied player until he is happy with the outcome.
In addition to this intentional desync manufacturing, very rarely the bug happens with no apparent cause and throws out (at Japans end) an anomalous result.
Given both of the above, Alfred's point 1 list doesn't really cover the situation. It would be better put as: what Japan sees is what is represented in the game file that he uses as the basis for the next turn.
The anomalous results, however they occurred, become the basis for the next turn (because whatever Japan sees is reflected in the subsequent game file), but neither the accidental nor intentional sync bug turn files should be considered 'correct'.
The solution: I run two installs of the game on separate machines which I patch to what ever version I am playing. If as the allies I see a replay that results in a different combatreport.txt than the one sent to me by Japan, then I rerun it on my other machine.
If the two turns on my machines produce different movies and report files (and particularly if the replay I run on my second machine matches the Japanese combat report) then the anomaly was at my end and can basically be ignored.
If they are the same, then it is an statistical certainty that the results that Japan has seen and that have been used as the starting point for issuing Japan's orders for the next turn, are the anomalous ones. I just ask him to rerun the turn. It has happened once in my current game (Now in Sept 1942) and a rerun by Japan brought it back in line with what I had seen.
