SOW Gettysburg and Win 8 ??

[Little Powell]

That looks like a typical internet disconnect, not related to the Win8 crash. I assume they just got disconnected so all three of you were still in game, but not connected -- so you couldn't see the stars in the upper right corner of the screen?

Would an internet disconnect give those bad formation errors at the end? I was thinking a bad mod when I first saw those, but there are none enabled..

[JohnVW]

BUT, we were playing a custom scenario...(i'd emailed the 6 files to each player, and they were installed)...I played a 2+ hr game last night with just 1 other player, playing the same exact scenario...and we played 2+ hrs (only quit because it was getting late)...

several times I've been ok (after using port forward) with 1 other player, but always have problems with more than 2 players (total)...but, we did get over an hr into a 3hr 3-player scenario yesterday before both of them were booted out of the game?

attached is the log file for the 2-player game that played fine last night (if it helps)...

also...between games yesterday I increased my internet bandwidth to it's max (in case I was having problems hosting because of it); it's as high now as it can go...and this was done between the 3-player game where 2 players were booted and the successful 2-player game last night...

[JohnVW]

ok:
- no ISP drops, so that wasn't the issue (checked with ISP provider this am)
- all MODS and anti-virus programs off
- again, 3-player game with me hosting (port forward) was a drop (after an hr +)
- increased bandwidth after that game
- 2-player game after that worked fine (but only 1 game, so far), AND we had 1 MOD turned on ("textured minimaps")

so:
- obv Win 8 is still a problem, and that's why I can't play in lobby games anymoe (since going Win 8)
- maybe increasing the bandwidth will help me host 3-player games; just grasping for straws now...but won't know until I can test it, multiple times
- if/when I can play several games in a row without someone being bumped, I can start trying to add some MODS and see how it goes

before Win 8 I've played for years online, via the lobby, with players from all over using a varirty of PC's and never had a problem...it's only been since going Win 8 that I've had issues...to the point that i'm always booted now in the lobby ("windows has stopped working"), so I went with the "port forward" suggestion...and since then both 3-player games I tried crashed after awhile, but I could play 2-player most times...then I upgraded my bandwidth and had a smooth 2-player game, but haven't had a chance to do a 3-player since that increase...

[JohnVW]

no...but it was a custom scenario (that i'd edited as well)...but we have played (2-player) the whole scenario without any issues (as recently as last night; same scenario...only diff was it was 2-player and when we tried 3-player they were both booted)

[Garnier]

Few things:

- I guessed it was an internet disconnect since it wasn't clear they had crashed. Since they crashed, it clearly was a crash, not an internet disconnect. "Booted" isn't clear if it means a disconnect or a crash.

- I assumed the crash was not directly caused by the bad formation errors since they happened repeatedly at different timestamps, but it's obvious now that this was a custom scenario with errors in it, and in theory that could have caused the crash later in the game, it's not clear.

- Either way, this crash seems to me to be unrelated to the Win8 crash since it happened to two people at once, and they weren't on Win8. In our experience, the Win8 crash happens to an individual Win8 user and the game continues for everyone else.

- Increasing bandwidth seems highly unlikely to affect crashes, since the game uses very little bandwidth and can run even on very slow internet. If there was a bandwidth problem, the game would pause waiting to catch up, and might eventually disconnect, just like if you unplugged your internet. (However, most/all disconnects are not due to low bandwidth, but rather due to a temporary internet outage.)


So from this episode, nothing has changed in my view, except that we saw a case where two players simultaneously crashed out of a game with a bad custom scenario. Even though you replayed that scenario again, the crash may still have been caused by scenario errors, because you didn't play the scenario exactly the same way, you won't always trigger the same errors. (We had a crash once that could be reproduced by following a certain sequence of commands in game, but it seemed "random" until we identified how to reproduce it.)

[JohnVW]

but, I was hosting the game (not a lobby game) on Win 8 with them both on Win 7, so if I get bumped or have an issue, they're both out of the game...

[JohnVW]

anyone know what this means (from the game log at end of a game)?

"08:34:15 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:34:30 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:45:44 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:56:43 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:56:49 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:58:28 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
09:06:09 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
09:11:42 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
09:12:29 BAD FORMATION ID: -1"

it was a scenario I created, and i'd like to try and fix it...but I have no idea what exactly this means! thanks...

[Little Powell]

anyone know what this means (from the game log at end of a game)?

"08:34:15 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:34:30 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:45:44 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:56:43 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:56:49 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:58:28 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
09:06:09 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
09:11:42 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
09:12:29 BAD FORMATION ID: -1"

it was a scenario I created, and i'd like to try and fix it...but I have no idea what exactly this means! thanks...

See, you threw another wrench into the troubleshooting process. A custom scenario is a mod.

I'd have to see the files to determine the bad formation. It's probably an invalid entry in the OOB or scenario.csv.

[JohnVW]

can I send you the .csv by email?

[RebBugler]

anyone know what this means (from the game log at end of a game)?

"08:34:15 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:34:30 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:45:44 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:56:43 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:56:49 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
08:58:28 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
09:06:09 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
09:11:42 BAD FORMATION ID: -1
09:12:29 BAD FORMATION ID: -1"

it was a scenario I created, and i'd like to try and fix it...but I have no idea what exactly this means! thanks...

Check your scenario.csv file, there's a formation in there with a wrong name, IOW, it doesn't match any names in the Drills.csv file.

Interesting how you say you're playing without mods yet you're using a custom scenario. I thought the retail game wouldn't allow custom scenarios except through the Mod's folder...guess I thought wrong since none of the other team members have spoken up about this.