New MP scenario not working in 1.3.6

Bob_The_Mighty · Post by **Bob_The_Mighty** » May 8th, 2007, 5:52 pm

Here is a new multiplayer scenario I have been working on. It is designed specifically for 1.3.2

Whenever I start it I get the initial dialogue and a message saying 'network disconnection has occured'.

I don't know if this is my bad coding or a bug with 1.3.2

Anyone care to look into it? Here are the files for the entire scenario...

Bob_The_Mighty · Post by **Bob_The_Mighty** » May 9th, 2007, 1:51 am

I've done some more testing, (it works if I host a network game and play all sides myself) and found a few other things.

storing units doesn't seem to working properly. This code does nothing:

Code: Select all

[store_unit]
      [filter]
		x=5
		y=49
      [/filter]
      variable=unit
    [/store_unit]
[set_variable]
	name=unit.side
	format=$side_number
	[/set_variable]
{VARIABLE unit.overlays "none"}
[unstore_unit]
      variable=unit
    [/unstore_unit]

And there are other problems elsewhere with failures to either store the unit or set the variables once stored.

Also, die events seem to be messed up a bit. It did something so strange I cannot quite work out how or what it did (basically made random units say the dialogue from other die events).

Again, I don't know if this is my WML or a bug with this version. Maybe the WML should be used different now, I don't know.

Website · Post by **Sapient** » June 19th, 2007, 10:20 pm

I played this version, and it was working fine for me. I played it with Soliton on the svn trunk MP server and we didn't get any OOS or disconnects. Also we had a couple of observers.

I did however note some minor bugs. Here is my analysis:

bug#1 can't choose meat cleaver
analysis: likely a WML bug; have not investigated further

bug#2 can use magic menu over allied leaders not just self
analysis: a WML bug; should be easy to fix

bug#3 shopkeeper menu has no OK button loc=(62,89)
analysis: a C++ bug; recently fixed in trunk, thanks

bug#4 shopkeepers not deducting gold
analysis: likely a WML bug; have not investigated further

bug#5 after alt+tab, screen stuck scrolling to the right until rightclick pressed
analysis: a C++ bug; hard to duplicate

bug#6 black side not on status table, Elven Ranger
analysis: unknown cause; have not investigated further

bug#7 no NPCs have names
analysis: likely a WML bug; user_description must be set, not just description

bug#8 mouseover 51,24 causes halo bug, alt+tab makes a big pink ring
analysis: likely a minor C++ bug; have not investigated further

( As for the code snippet you posted above, I made a test scenario and it worked as expected, no errors )

Bob_The_Mighty · Post by **Bob_The_Mighty** » July 30th, 2007, 9:39 pm

Thanks for the bug list sapient (btw could you explain more what you meant by #6?).

This scenario is still causing me problems. When I try to even host a game of this map it says 'client disconnected' whilst waiting for players to join. This is what must have been causing me to get the error at the start of the game that I mentioned before.

Any ideas?

Website · Post by **Sapient** » July 30th, 2007, 10:04 pm

well it does have a *ton* of WML; my guess is some people just got impatient while waiting for it to load.

Bob_The_Mighty · Post by **Bob_The_Mighty** » July 31st, 2007, 4:33 pm

I don't know if anyone even tried to join. It disconnects after around 30 seconds it seems. If i load the game, it runs the intro but disconnects before I am able to make a move. If i wait in the set-up screen it disconnects if i wait more than 30 seconds or so.

Bob_The_Mighty · Post by **Bob_The_Mighty** » July 31st, 2007, 10:03 pm

I have also noticed that when I save and reload a game (whilst hosting a local game with me as all players) it tells me the file is corrupt. It points to the arrays i use, such as mana[1], mana[2], etc...

It reloads it anyway but all the mana stats have vanished (the dialogue screen that is meant to show the stats has blank spaces where the numbers should be) Could this be because they are initialised in a macro that activates on a side turn?

This is really doing my head in. I will post the whole thing again, since i have made lots of changes now.

Website · Post by **Sapient** » July 31st, 2007, 10:15 pm

mana[1] is not a scalar, it's a container. try mana[1].value or mana_1 instead

Bob_The_Mighty · Post by **Bob_The_Mighty** » August 2nd, 2007, 7:05 pm

A player called 'ping' directed me to this bug:

https://gna.org/bugs/?9215

It sounds like this might be the problem, only I am not reloading but loading for the first time.

But would a big enough scenario cause the client to disconnect even before the game has started?

Post by **Soliton** » August 2nd, 2007, 9:02 pm

Bob_The_Mighty wrote: But would a big enough scenario cause the client to disconnect even before the game has started?

When you create the game you upload the scenario to the server. If that fails/times out you get disconnected.

Bob_The_Mighty · Post by **Bob_The_Mighty** » August 8th, 2007, 12:40 am

Since sapient was able to play the earlier version okay, I presume that a faster computer and/or internet connection allows for a larger scenario file to be loaded before it times out. Is this correct?

In any case, I have stripped back my .cfg to under 300kb. But I plan to add more. What is an acceptable size for the main scenario file?

Website · Post by **Sapient** » August 8th, 2007, 7:57 am

Bob_The_Mighty wrote:Since sapient was able to play the earlier version okay, I presume that a faster computer and/or internet connection allows for a larger scenario file to be loaded before it times out. Is this correct?

In any case, I have stripped back my .cfg to under 300kb. But I plan to add more. What is an acceptable size for the main scenario file?

I can't say as I never experienced the problem myself.
The good news is the server is being rewritten in Perl to improve the network performance.

Bob_The_Mighty · Post by **Bob_The_Mighty** » August 14th, 2007, 12:17 am

Well I have got the .cfg file down to 267kb, but it still doesn't work for me!

Maybe it wasn't the size after all...

Or maybe the macros files are too big (5 files, totalling 76kb)

Here is the current version...

Website · Post by **Sapient** » August 14th, 2007, 3:15 am

Bob_The_Mighty wrote:Well I have got the .cfg file down to 267kb, but it still doesn't work for me!
Maybe it wasn't the size after all...
Or maybe the macros files are too big (5 files, totalling 76kb)

Macros don't actually decrease the size of the WML, they just make it easier to manage (thus you might say they conceal its true size). Also, if you use macros to do extra unnecessary work or include a macro more times than necessary, it will actually *increase* the size of your WML. To get idea of the real size of your WML, you should start a local game and then save it (probably in binary mode). The size of this savefile is what the server is trying to host for you.

Bob_The_Mighty · Post by **Bob_The_Mighty** » August 14th, 2007, 3:13 pm

The size of my saved game file (autosave, turn 1) is 1,814kb.

There is a ton of variables initialised in a start event, I presume that accounts for much of the data.

What's a plausible size, i.e. what can the game handle at the moment or in the future? Is this ever gonna work?