Field Marshal Fogger vs Marshal Fulkerson (again)

[larryfulkerson]

How about a screengrab of the equipment file that lives in the graphics directory inside the Ron's Mod directory.

[fogger]

Graphics or AltGraphics?

[fogger]

Altgraphic

[larryfulkerson]

I didn't know you could put your equipment file in the Altgraphics directory. I wonder how the game engine treats that. Anyway, I was talking about
the equipment file that the game engine looks for when we load a PBEM file, the one that lives in the Graphics directory inside a folder that has
the same name as the scenario. You DO have one right?

[Lobster]

Perhaps Larry could send you his equipment file for the game. Seems yours was corrupted somehow? If you are editing an equipment file and slide something new in between existing equipment everything gets moved down a slot and the whole thing becomes bolloxed. Don't see why the game would suddenly load the wrong file unless what it's looking for is in the wrong directory. Then it goes to the default equipment file. I'm with Larry, I put the scenario folders in the Graphics directory.

[fogger]

Now I am really confused. I have put the folder in the Graphics directory (it was not there previously) and the equipment has return to what it was before. I.e. the spare equipments have returned to the various countries infantry. In the preceding 54 turns I had been checking the losses so those “spare equipment slots” were not there previously. I have loaded turn 55 a couple of times now along with previous turns and do not get the “abandon equipment” message but I still get you are playing with the “wrong equipment” message.

What I do not understand is why I could go 54 turns before the problem started. On my desk I have two computers, blue is for the “real world” and red is for my “real world backups” and TOAW. The daily backups should not effect the TOAW folder.

So what would have caused TOAW to look at a different equipment file on turn 55 and then use that same file for all the previous turns that I loaded and now why putting the folder in the graphic directory fix one problem but not the other?

[larryfulkerson]

Oh good. We don't have to abandon the game anymore. Good news right?

[fogger]

I would love to play on but in view of your email the other night are you sure that you want to?

My only fear is that there is some under laying problem in the game or on my PC. I have just load turn 55 to continue and have noticed that the air-assist is on, I do not play with it on and the bottom line circled has now appeared and it was not there previously. I have run an anti-virus check and it shows all is ok.

As in the post above why has this problem appeared now and why are we both getting the "wrong equipment" message?

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: fogger
I would love to play on but in view of your email the other night are you sure that you want to?

Yeah, I see your point. I just don't like to say no to my opponents.

[Lobster]

ORIGINAL: fogger

I would love to play on but in view of your email the other night are you sure that you want to?

My only fear is that there is some under laying problem in the game or on my PC. I have just load turn 55 to continue and have noticed that the air-assist is on, I do not play with it on and the bottom line circled has now appeared and it was not there previously. I have run an anti-virus check and it shows all is ok.

As in the post above why has this problem appeared now and why are we both getting the "wrong equipment" message?

The possibility of someone making a computer virus that targets TOAW is about as likely as a wheel falling off a passing B-17, falling through your roof and killing you. The wrong equipment message is very common with the latest patches as is the air assistant being turned on. The bottom line of buttons belongs there. You can find them in your graphics files. None of these things should be a show stopper.

[fogger]

Thanks Lobster for the info. In the attached picture these are the two changes that I have noticed so far. I always play with these two buttons off. They were off up to turn 54. Would have creating a folder in the graphics directory caused these two to turn on?

This computer only goes on the internet for this site and my hotmail accounts so the chance of a virus is very small.

[larryfulkerson]

And the Air Assist is on too. I don't think you have a virus. I think maybe everything is normal dude.

[Lobster]

You said you have TOAW on a machine that you use for backups? Then it could have been something that your backup procedure did. The two items you have selected are recorded in the Opart.ini file. Maybe your backup procedure replaced that file with another version which would set those two items to default. Might be a good idea to run TOAW on a drive that is not subjected to backups.

[fogger]

Hi Jack,
Great minds think alike. I have already checked that but could not see any of the backup files.

My backup procedure is to manual copy files from the Blue PC to a flash drive and then copy from the flash drive to the Red PC. I call them Blue & Red because that is the colour of the keyboards. The files are to do with stock / share data. After the backup I always check to ensure the balances / data agree between the 2 PC's so it is unlikely that I posted the data to the TOAW directory. If I had the programs would have the wrong balances.

[Wuffer]

I hope you could solve your problems as I really like your and Larry's AARs

[fogger]

The problem does appear to have been fixed but not the cause of the problem. I have just sent an email to Larry to see if we will continue.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Wuffer
I hope you could solve your problems as I really like your and Larry's AARs

Thanks for your kind words. I do try to make it readable.

ORIGINAL: fogger
The problem does appear to have been fixed but not the cause of the problem. I have just sent an email to Larry to see if we will continue.

My problem is that I'm playtesting two different scenario's and have a PBEM going on WITP-AE w/ Jim Moore. We've been playing
for about two years now and we're still in '42. It's going to be a long war. Well, maybe not. I'm the Japs and the corner has turned
and now the Allies will start mopping the floor with the Japs. At any rate I've overextended myself again.

This scenario is a good one but there's some bugs that need to be addressed w/ it and one thing I hope gets fixed is that re-spawn
spot on Sicily needs to be moved to Berlin or somewhere closer to the action. And John found some things that he deems bugs.
I'd like to see this scenario get fixed and John and I do a restart.......how about that?

[Lobster]

It's a very minor issue. I've had the air assistant turn on before. That is the game's default value. For some reason it sometimes resets.

This game is old and the code has been gone over several times. It is not documented. As I understand it the code is somewhat convoluted so if strange things happen it's kind of a "Ghost in the machine"* effect, where a means of interaction of lines of code are unknown or, at best, speculative.



*The phrase was introduced in Ryle's book The Concept of Mind (1949) to highlight the perceived absurdity of dualist systems like Descartes'.

[Lobster]

One more thing. Two of the largest problems with this scenario are these:

1) The speed with which destroyed divisions are returned. Reconstitution is far too fast and results in a huge number of Soviet divisions that should not even be there. After a was destroyed it's number was assigned to a new formation. For much of 1941 these new formations were not new at all. They were militia divisions that were turned into regular divisions and given new identities. Even this process was slow compared to TOAW. The vast majority of Soviet divisions that reappeared after being destroyed in June/July did not begin forming up until late September 41, eight to ten weeks. TOAW gives only a one to four week delay between destruction and reconstitution.

The next one could have been fixed with a FitE2 house rule but wasn't:

2) Axis ant units running amok. This is really a silly thing. While a German division's recon battalions were equipped to hold a strong point they are not capable of holding a six to eighteen kilometer front to prevent retreating divisions from getting past. Heck, even full combat regiments had their hands full doing this. And then to send the eyes and ears of the division 60 kilometers into the enemy's rear. Please. If I recall the longest range radios they carried had a 40 kilometer range. To make things even worse other German ant units are used in the same way, from MP units to HQ units. A bit of realism is needed here too or at least some personal restraint.

[fogger]

Thanks Jack for your help. I think you are correct in that it was a ghost in the PC.

In a private email Larry has asked for a rain check for a few weeks but after that I will then become unavailable for a month so this is where the game will regrettably stop.

So this is probably a good time for me to take a break from TOAW / FITE. I have become very dishearten over how Matrix is treating the TOAW community. I cannot understand why 3.6.0.88 cannot be released to the general public but then I have come to realise that Matrix does not fu*king care about the TOAW community. The silence is very loud.

I am a TOAW / FITE addict so there is a good chance that I will be back in the future so I will sign off with “over” and not “out”.

John

PS
If someone wants to work on this version of Ron’s Mod sent me a private email and I will tell of the couple small “bugs / errors” that I have come across.