G/burg Friday 23rd November at 19.30 UK Time

Am free for a game on Friday if anyone else is.

It occurs to me that Neal may be planning a campaign game for that day. If that is the case, it should obviously take precedence, so I won't put up a doodle link as yet.

Martin (J)

How about looking at a campaign battle and maybe a later starting one.

I should be around to play all day Friday

I'll be available Friday as well. Looking forward to a campaign game sometime this weekend.

Likewise, I'll be available for a game.

idem

Tonight both Hays and I could not join a 7-player game. We tried Neal, Martin and Grog all hosting and in the end it seemed only Grog could host and get players to join, but Hays and I could not join.

It looks like the new post-v1.500 MP setup is less reliabale than the old one.

Mr. Digby wrote:Tonight both Hays and I could not join a 7-player game. We tried Neal, Martin and Grog all hosting and in the end it seemed only Grog could host and get players to join, but Hays and I could not join.

It looks like the new post-v1.500 MP setup is less reliabale than the old one.

In the end I hosted and 4 of us played. We turned off all mods except Kevin's, which seemed to do the trick.

Interesting game. We surrounded the Confederate Reserve Artillery Corps at Atietam Creek.

Martin (J)

I will also be online tonight.
I can also host if needed, after having upgraded my internet connection.

Leffe7 wrote:I will also be online tonight.
I can also host if needed, after having upgraded my internet connection.

Yes I think you should Stefan. Let's build up a stable of reliable hosts. Apart from anything else, it saves time before the game if the expected host cannot make it. It also means that any host is automatically configured say for a 2 yd camera range.

Am still not sure why we initially had problems last night. They were in 2 areas:

(a) As Digby says, he & Hays could get into the lobby, but not into the game room. This was regardless of who hosted. Yet my impression is that both have had no problem before, even under patch 1.50 - is that right chaps? Does anyone (eg Uncle Billy) have an idea what might have caused this?

(b) The rest of us could get into the game room, regardless of who hosted, but the game kept crashing thereafter. I saw some reference in the log files to different map versions, and also to device connections being lost. I could not see that these were specific to any particular player however. We eventually solved the problem by disabling all mods (?) except Kevin's - is that right chaps?

Martin (J)

(a) As Digby says, he & Hays could get into the lobby, but not into the game room. This was regardless of who hosted. Yet my impression is that both have had no problem before, even under patch 1.50 - is that right chaps? Does anyone (eg Uncle Billy) have an idea what might have caused this?

I had this problem last week with one player who has never had a problem connecting with me. I was host. I shut down SOW and restarted it. The problem disappeared. It may have something to do with the Matrix servers handling the game now, but that is just a guess. We should ask the GCMers if they have had similar issues.

(b) The rest of us could get into the game room, regardless of who hosted, but the game kept crashing thereafter. I saw some reference in the log files to different map versions, and also to device connections being lost. I could not see that these were specific to any particular player however. We eventually solved the problem by disabling all mods (?) except Kevin's - is that right chaps?

Which map were you trying to use?

I have never had a problem joining any host before unless they either failed to open their ports or were borderline weak connections to begin with. For the strong hosts we had in the past like Kevin, Baldwin and John I never had problems.

While I have been able to join games under 1.500, it has only been since 1.500 was released that I have begun having problems. Again I suspect these could be linked to the hosts bandwidth. This "NAT Server" I presume is in N America - would that be why its more often the UK/EU hosts I can't join?

Kevin - we were using Garniers Random Maps 4. It seems in the end Martin used Antietam.

Mr. Digby wrote:Kevin - we were using Garniers Random Maps 4. It seems in the end Martin used Antietam.

Correct, although I suspect it was rationalising the mods that made it work, and that this would have worked had we then gone back to Garnier's maps. Can't prove that though.

Martin (J)

Martin wrote:

Mr. Digby wrote:Kevin - we were using Garniers Random Maps 4. It seems in the end Martin used Antietam.

Correct, although I suspect it was rationalising the mods that made it work, and that this would have worked had we then gone back to Garnier's maps. Can't prove that though.

Martin (J)

I had both Random Maps 2 and Random Maps 4 enabled while we were crashing. I got rid of these when the four remaining players did a clean-up of our mods. After this we played. No idea what was causing crashing as our tidying up was not hugely methodical.

We should perhaps fill the normal waiting period in TS (while the early birds wait for the people coming in on the wire) with dry runs, checking hosts can host, and that all can join games and not crash. This should reduce the time spent faffing around after the rendezvous time.

-Jeff

I presume the last couple of posts are not referring to the inability of Hays and I to join the game room, but refer to crashing games after that?

CourierAndMaps doesn't do anything with RandomMaps4, just version 2. The map mismatch would be due to the fact that some people were loading Random Maps before CouriersAndMaps and some were loading it after.
Here is the order one should use for commonly used mods.

1.RandomMaps2
2.CourierAndMaps
3.GCM or RebBugler Toolbar (if you use it)

Other mods such as Improved Terrain, More Smoke, RebBugler flags, custom OOBs can go anywhere.

Uncle Billy wrote:CourierAndMaps doesn't do anything with RandomMaps4, just version 2. The map mismatch would be due to the fact that some people were loading Random Maps before CouriersAndMaps and some were loading it after.
Here is the order one should use for commonly used mods.

1.RandomMaps2
2.CourierAndMaps
3.GCM or RebBugler Toolbar (if you use it)

Other mods such as Improved Terrain, More Smoke, RebBugler flags, custom OOBs can go anywhere.

Thanks, Kevin. Niall did ask what order mods should go in and (in your absence) no-one knew.

Can RandomMaps4 be enabled in addition to the 3 mods you list?
If so, can it be placed anywhere?

Thanks again,

Jeff

Yes, RandomMaps4 can go anywhere.

Uncle Billy wrote:Yes, RandomMaps4 can go anywhere.

Thanks. This should sort out the crashing.

Now we need to get everyone into the room.

I need to finish tonight by 22:30, so I hope we can get a game going pronto at 19:30 - if the start drags on an hour like it sometimes does I'll either have to pass or drop out when the fighting is at its height.

Yesterday battle replay

It was a fantastic battle and really hard fought. The last 30 minutes where we were constrantly driving the enemy back was amazing.

Martin's defense of the right flank was very impressive.

Last night's battle was hugely enjoyable. It seems to have been really varied, with pitched battles on the right and centre and lots of flanking on our left flank. Kevin's division crossed half the map in contact with their right flank, though I was always "behind schedule". He's a hard taskmaster.

I like these large co-op games vs the AI.

Jeff

Very much agree Jeff. This and last week's corps battles vs the AI are among the most enjoyable I've played.

Thanks to Uncle Billy for his comments. I have to say that things looked at lot less impressive on the ground

When the second Union division appeared, we were tired, not ideally-positioned against this new threat, and I feared they might roll us up. Stefan & Digby were very assured in defence though, and much of the credit goes to them. I think the Union troops must have been severely weakened in their attacks.

The 3 of us agreed we would go over to the attack at 4.30 pm on a coordinated basis. I think the concerted pressure overwhelmed them, and was the part of the game I enjoyed the most. Having fought hard further north, Davide joined us with his Virginians for the final push and was a very welcome arrival. His friend 'Suchet' (sorry I don't yet know your first name) also fought very effectively along the Jonesboro Pike, so I was extremely fortunate with my human brigade commanders.

Uncle Billy (as unofficial corps commander) controlled the battle very well, and his own division did even more damage than mine. So it appears that, for once, we did not disgrace ourselves vs the AI!

Martin (J)