MP Game Hangs During Replay

[w_michael]

I am playing a PBEM game with Ulysisgrunt. Halfway through the replay of his turn the animations speed up, flicker quickly, and the replay hangs. I still have mouse control, but it is jerky, so I restarted the replay. It happened at the same spot. I rebooted my computer and tried again, and it happened again at the same spot. We can't proceed with this game. My second PBEM game plays just fine.

I am running the Slitherine version of the game, and not Steam. Do you need any more information other than our user names to be able to look at the file?

I am running:
Windows 10 pro, version 1703, build 15063.674
Processor: Intel i7-4720HQ CPU @ 2.60 GHz
RAM: 12 Gb
GPU: NVIDIA GTX965M

[pipfromslitherine]

If you can give the map name and the last updated time that will help us be sure to get the correct game.

Cheers

Pip

[w_michael]

Attached is a screen shot with the information. I am playing Roman 199 - 106 BC, and Danny is playing Galatian 280 - 63 BC.

[w_michael]

I had the same thing happen in another game, but after two minutes of agitated animation the replay finished. I re-loaded the original game with the problem, walked the replay up to where the problem starts and left the room. When I returned 10 minutes later the replay was finished and I was able to continue playing the game.

[rbodleyscott]

I had the same thing happen in another game, but after two minutes of agitated animation the replay finished. I re-loaded the original game with the problem, walked the replay up to where the problem starts and left the room. When I returned 10 minutes later the replay was finished and I was able to continue playing the game.

I am guessing this is due to you opponent starting up his turn and then leaving it for a while open on his machine before finishing it.

[pipfromslitherine]

There do seem to be a minority of players who just leave the game running while they wander off for hours. I will add a note to see if I can skip past huge chunks of empty space more quickly, though it is not trivial. Or at least add some other feedback on playback to differentiate from a hang.

Cheers

Pip

[w_michael]

I didn't realize that you were recording inactivity. I have been guilty of playing part of a MP turn, attending to a chore, and then completing the turn afterwards. Real life is like that.

[rbodleyscott]

I didn't realize that you were recording inactivity. I have been guilty of playing part of a MP turn, attending to a chore, and then completing the turn afterwards. Real life is like that.

You can save the partial completed turn to the server and then come back to it later.

[w_michael]

I didn't realize that you were recording inactivity. I have been guilty of playing part of a MP turn, attending to a chore, and then completing the turn afterwards. Real life is like that.

You can save the partial completed turn to the server and then come back to it later.

Good suggestion. My daughter did a FaceTime call while I was in the middle of a MP game. Next time I will save as you suggest.

[the_iron_duke]

I'm having this issue with a current replay - it will take several minutes for the replay percentage to reach 100%, the game is unresponsive, mouse is jerky.

Also, what's this with game recording inactivity? I don't understand this at all - this isn't a real-time game.

EDIT: Well, it took about twenty minutes to get through the percentage-counting part of the replay.

[76mm]

I'm about ten minutes into one of these "hung" replays and it is at 6%; honestly it is really irritating.

If you can't skip periods of inactivity, there should at least be some easier way to exit the replay--I had to Ctl-Alt-Del the first time I wanted to replay, I wanted a quick turn, not to wait around for half an hour or an hour for a turn to play out. At the very least more effort should be made to ask people NOT to walk away from the game for half an hour in the middle of a turn.

[the_iron_duke]

I still don't understand what "periods of inactivity" should have to do with what, I presume, is a list of commands inputted by the player.

[pipfromslitherine]

It is to do with the way the game replays the turns - it has no information to 'skip' empty space, as it could miss things like UI popups or other scripted logic.

For it to take 10 mins to get to 6% means that the opponent must have wandered off for literally hours. In my tests a 20min empty period plays out in about 20 seconds.

I will keep trying to see if there is a solution. It may be that after N minutes without any order, I just pause the game until something happens.

Cheers

Pip

[76mm]

In one of my games, I let it run for almost an hour, and it got to 53% replay; I had to Ctl-Alt-Del out of the game to exit because I had to turn off my computer. This is really sub-optimal...

[pipfromslitherine]

It's has honestly not been an issue in any games prior to this. As I say, people must be leaving it running for literally hours and hours, perhaps overnight. Not sure why FoG2'ers are more prone to it.

I have implemented a pause when no orders have been given for 5 mins. It should be pretty much seamless for most people, and offenders will only see that the animations stop until they select something or give an order.

I will also see about making the 'save turn partial turn to server' functionality more in-their-face.

Cheers

Pip

[76mm]

Not sure why FoG2'ers are more prone to it.

Thanks; this is strange, I don't recall this behavior from, say, WitE, where you would expect the turns to last much longer and so there would be a greater chance of people just letting it run while finishing their turn. Maybe turns in FOG2 are short enough where people don't think it is necessary to save?

Also, maybe you could put something on the multiplayer splashscreen asking people not to do this!

[pipfromslitherine]

Not sure why FoG2'ers are more prone to it.

Thanks; this is strange, I don't recall this behavior from, say, WitE, where you would expect the turns to last much longer and so there would be a greater chance of people just letting it run while finishing their turn. Maybe turns in FOG2 are short enough where people don't think it is necessary to save?

Also, maybe you could put something on the multiplayer splashscreen asking people not to do this!

WitE uses an entirely different system.

Cheers

Pip