I am getting really fed up... server problems.

[llamabeast]

In my experience the server stuff is at least a little bit crazy. Definitely best in future to take your turns offline I think.

Sorry for your misery though.

[lch]

Now I understand what you are talking about, using two copies of the game and your own server - you are trying to set up a network game on a single computer, playing it locally, yes?

I am not surprised to see that this runs into problems. You should play a local game, not networked, if you want to play and host at the same time.

If you still want to do both on the same computer, then just to avoid strange things like those that you are experiencing, you should set the savepath's of server and client to be different directories when you start them up. Dominions uses these environmental variables when starting:

DOM3_DATA
DOM3_TEMP
DOM3_CONF
DOM3_SAVE
DOM3_MAPS
DOM3_LOCALMAPS
DOM3_MODS

You should use different values of DOM3_SAVE for your server and client, with a batch file / shell script for example. Using different directories for the game files doesn't do anything, as the save directory should depend on the user running the game, not the game installation. You can run with one installation, so long as you change the savepaths.

[lch]

Argitoth said:
I log in to my nation, none of my actions were saved. This happened twice now and I am just so freaking pissed off right now on how much time I spent thinking of all the things I need to do.

Quite a predicament: CLIENT wants to upload the 2h file. SERVER accepts the connection and awaits the data from CLIENT. CLIENT starts sending the data, which SERVER writes to its savegame directory. But uhoh, the file that CLIENT wants to send and SERVER wants to overwrite are the same! In case the file is read in chunks one can see that this easily leads to trouble, I don't know how it looks it in reality. If the client would read the whole contents out of the file before sending it over then it might work. I think that for the trn file the client never actually asks the server to download it, since they're the same, so it's always at the latest version and the client doesn't bother to download it.

Argitoth said:
Edit: Oh great, now that I deleted c'tis 2h and trn files it looks like I can no longer take my turn alltogether. Any help?

No wonder. Those files are essential for your game. The 2h file for your orders - deleting this will let you stale. The trn file is the game state - deleting this will let you stale aswell, I'd expect. If you deleted them then you'll have to host the game so that the server generates new ones.

[Argitoth]

Yep, thanks for your replys Ich. One thing I just discovered though is that there's no difference between logging into your own server and hitting the "play existing game" button. When you end your turn offline, since the game is in the same folder, it registers on the server.

Get what I'm saying? So I'm just going to "play existing game" instead of connect to my own server via "network."

[llamabeast]

Oh, is the server on the same computer? Using the same Dominions directory?

If so, I suspect you can avoid this issue just by having another copy of dominions (simply copy the whole directory), and call it "Dom3Server" or something. Then always run the server from that directory, and play your games from the original one. I think it will then show normal behaviour.

[Argitoth]

Llamabeast, you came a bit late into the discussion and have come to a wrong conclusion. The original problem was because I was using two different directories. Thus your suggestion would actually cause the problem again.

[vfb]

Argitoth said:
Yep, thanks for your replys Ich. One thing I just discovered though is that there's no difference between logging into your own server and hitting the "play existing game" button. When you end your turn offline, since the game is in the same folder, it registers on the server.

Get what I'm saying? So I'm just going to "play existing game" instead of connect to my own server via "network."

Make sure you turn off quickhost when you do your turn though.

If you save your game on the server with your turn halfway done (even without clicking 'end turn') and all other players have submitted their turn, and it's on quickhost, then the game will host.

[lch]

Argitoth said:
One thing I just discovered though is that there's no difference between logging into your own server and hitting the "play existing game" button. When you end your turn offline, since the game is in the same folder, it registers on the server.

Get what I'm saying? So I'm just going to "play existing game" instead of connect to my own server via "network."

Yes, that was what I meant when I said you should "play your game locally". I didn't have the game window nearby when I wrote that so I didn't know what the correct name for it was, but "Play existing game" is exactly what you should do.

[llamabeast]

Ah, apologies for that, I skim-read.