FREE CEAW Grand Strategy Expansion!

rkr1958 · Post by **rkr1958** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 5:51 pm

rkr1958 wrote:All,

If you're having the problem described above,

GS loaded on first installation but will not load past the startup screen for subsequent runs
then try this.

Go to the scenario data folder in the expansion (e.g., "*/Grand Strategy Mod/data/scenario") and in that folder you should see the files,

1939.scn
1940.scn
1941.scn
1942.scn
1943.scn
1944.scn
ww2.map

Make a backup copy of all these files. Then delete all files; EXCEPT 1939.scn & ww2.map

See if that solves your problem. If it does then you can add back the other scenario files (i.e., 1940.scn, 1941.scn, 1942.scn, 1943.scn & 1944.scn) ONE AT A TIME until you encounter the above problem. When that happens delete that file and let us know. For now, just play the expansion without that, or those, scenario file(s).

Also, for folks having problems and try this let us know what happens.

O.K., ignore most of what I just said!

We've fairly confident that we've found the problem. Actually, Tim our java expert, found the problem, which is a coding error that's only showing up now that we have more people running the expansion. Not to bore you with the details but it's an indexing code error into an array.

And it was my error. I indexed by "i" when I should have indexed by "j".

We already have a prototype for a fix out and in testing. We need to verify it and when it's verified (hopefully later today), I'll put out a hotfix (i.e., beta patch).

For now the following workaround allow you to play the expansion. Delete one or more of the scn files from scenarios that you don't plan to start before we get the hotfix out (e.g., 1942.scn, 1942.scn, 1944.scn). However; DO NOT DELETE the 1939.scn file.

If you are experiencing this issue and the workaround works (or not) please let us know.

Wolfe1759 · Post by **Wolfe1759** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 5:57 pm

Stauffenberg wrote:It seems the game has problems with the 1942.scn file. Maybe it's corrupted or something.

I uploaded all the files that should be in the scenario folder. Can you please download the zip file and put the content in the following folder:
C:\Program Files\Slitherine\Commander - Europe at War\CEAW Grand Strategy\data\scenario (or similar if you have MH CEAW).

http://rapidshare.com/files/319411432/scenario.zip.html

Also try to delete all the data files in the following folder:
My Documents\CEAW Grand Strategy\data\scenario

What's the date and file size of your 1942.scn file? It should have 25.11.2009 with size 631 kb

I just downloaded the installer and installed it. The game works like a charm after installation. So I don't think the files are corrupted in the installer. I was installing on-top of CEAW 1.12 (not 1.12.1).

This fix worked for me (replacing all including the 1939 scenario)

Do I need to undo this given the subsequent posts about retaining the origional 1939 scenario or am I good to leave it as it now is ?

rkr1958 · Post by **rkr1958** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:00 pm

Wolfe1759 wrote:
Stauffenberg wrote:It seems the game has problems with the 1942.scn file. Maybe it's corrupted or something.

I uploaded all the files that should be in the scenario folder. Can you please download the zip file and put the content in the following folder:
C:\Program Files\Slitherine\Commander - Europe at War\CEAW Grand Strategy\data\scenario (or similar if you have MH CEAW).

http://rapidshare.com/files/319411432/scenario.zip.html

Also try to delete all the data files in the following folder:
My Documents\CEAW Grand Strategy\data\scenario

What's the date and file size of your 1942.scn file? It should have 25.11.2009 with size 631 kb

I just downloaded the installer and installed it. The game works like a charm after installation. So I don't think the files are corrupted in the installer. I was installing on-top of CEAW 1.12 (not 1.12.1).
This fix worked for me (replacing all including the 1939 scenario)

Do I need to undo this given the subsequent posts about retaining the origional 1939 scenario or am I good to leave it as it now is ?

You're good with the 1939.scn file you have. You just need to have one in your data/scenario folder or you'll run into issues.

If you shut the game down and restart does it restart ok or do you encounter the hang on loading scenarios again? If it hangs, kill the program through task manager and try what I suggested above.

Peter Stauffenberg · Post by **Peter Stauffenberg** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:07 pm

rkr1958 wrote:We've fairly confident that we've found the problem. Actually, Tim our java expert, found the problem, which is a coding error that's only showing up now that we have more people running the expansion. Not to bore you with the details but it's an indexing code error into an array.

And it was my error. I indexed by "i" when I should have indexed by "j".

I know that Java code often uses i and j for indexing arrays. I even did it myself and created bugs because I didn't see the difference between i and j while reading the code. The problem is not the letters by themselves, but it's hard to see the difference inside brackets.

scenario and scenario[j] look almost the same. So I like to index with e.g. i1 and i2. This way it's easy to see the difference.

I'm glad we found the bug. Will you release it together with the updated 1939.scn and game.class?

Peter Stauffenberg · Post by **Peter Stauffenberg** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:17 pm

One thing I don't understand about the bug is why not everybody experiences this problem. If it's a general bug then all of us should get it. Do you know why some people get the problem and we don't? That's maybe the reason we didn't detect it during beta testing.

rkr1958 · Post by **rkr1958** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:33 pm

Stauffenberg wrote:One thing I don't understand about the bug is why not everybody experiences this problem. If it's a general bug then all of us should get it. Do you know why some people get the problem and we don't? That's maybe the reason we didn't detect it during beta testing.

Borger,

It has to do with the number of scenario files in the game/scenario folder versus the number in the "My Documents/CEaW - Grand Strategy/data/scenario" folder. If for some reason there's a scn file in the game/scenario folder that does not get compiled into a data file in the "My Documents/CEaW - Grand Strategy/data/scenario" folder then this would cause the index "i" to exceed the size of the array that should have been indexed by "j". An scn file wouldn't get compiled if it is incompatible with the mod (i.e., one compatible with the vanilla game). Since the expansion (i.e., mod) is applied over a copy of the vanilla game, which includes a copy of the scenario game/scenario folder, then if this folder contains additional scn files or scn files that don't get copied over then this would cause the code bug to appear.

Apparently in our test group everyone always had scn files that were compatible with the expansion. Also, the error occurred in one of our last changes made to check the scn files and recompile them if they were stale (i.e., had been updated).

Wolfe1759 · Post by **Wolfe1759** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 7:17 pm

rkr1958 wrote:
Wolfe1759 wrote:
Stauffenberg wrote:It seems the game has problems with the 1942.scn file. Maybe it's corrupted or something.

I uploaded all the files that should be in the scenario folder. Can you please download the zip file and put the content in the following folder:
C:\Program Files\Slitherine\Commander - Europe at War\CEAW Grand Strategy\data\scenario (or similar if you have MH CEAW).

http://rapidshare.com/files/319411432/scenario.zip.html

Also try to delete all the data files in the following folder:
My Documents\CEAW Grand Strategy\data\scenario

What's the date and file size of your 1942.scn file? It should have 25.11.2009 with size 631 kb

I just downloaded the installer and installed it. The game works like a charm after installation. So I don't think the files are corrupted in the installer. I was installing on-top of CEAW 1.12 (not 1.12.1).
This fix worked for me (replacing all including the 1939 scenario)

Do I need to undo this given the subsequent posts about retaining the origional 1939 scenario or am I good to leave it as it now is ?
You're good with the 1939.scn file you have. You just need to have one in your data/scenario folder or you'll run into issues.

If you shut the game down and restart does it restart ok or do you encounter the hang on loading scenarios again? If it hangs, kill the program through task manager and try what I suggested above.

Restarts with no problems at all.

Also started up all of the scenarios and all seems to be fine there as well. One thing I noticed however (and it is very minor) in all but the 1939 scenario the accented e in Orleans isn't displaying properly.

Thanks again for what is looking like a great mod.

rkr1958 · Post by **rkr1958** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 7:22 pm

Wolfe1759 wrote:Restarts with no problems at all.

Also started up all of the scenarios and all seems to be fine there as well. One thing I noticed however (and it is very minor) in all but the 1939 scenario the accented e in Orleans isn't displaying properly.

Thanks again for what is looking like a great mod.

I think I know what MIGHT take care of that but given that you've gotten things working I suggest that we leave well enough alone for now.

El_Condoro · Post by **El_Condoro** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 8:42 pm

Deleted all SCN files in My Documents\...\scenario except 1939 and the game runs without problems.

Edit: The scenario folder gets repopulated on the startup and so the game won't start a second time until they are cleared out.

rkr1958 · Post by **rkr1958** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 8:53 pm

Stauffenberg wrote:The problem is not the letters by themselves, but it's hard to see the difference inside brackets.

scenario and scenario[j] look almost the same.

Borger's just being nice here, "'but it's hard to see the difference inside brackets" is most true for those of us who have to use reading glasses to see the screen! And as you can probably tell I learned to program with FORTRAN and BASIC, where integers began with the letters I, J, K, L, M or N. Also, there was no difference between lower and uppercase characters (i.e., "i" was the same as "I"). And the version of BASIC I learned on only allowed variables up to two characters in length (e.g., A, A1, A2, I, I1, I2). Sorry for the digression ...

Stauffenberg wrote:I'm glad we found the bug. Will you release it together with the updated 1939.scn and game.class?

Will do.

rkr1958 · Post by **rkr1958** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:49 pm

Great News. It seems one of our testers did have this problem afterall. That's not the great news. The great news it that they just tried out the prototype of the hotfix and it worked! I need to do some more testing but I should get it uploaded later today (my time).

rkr1958 · Post by **rkr1958** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:58 am

GS-Hotfix (beta): http://rapidshare.com/files/319635985/2 ... HotFix.zip

This hotfix is cumulative and includes the following changes.

GS Expansion Beta Patch.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This patch will NOT invalidate saved games. That means that if you apply this patch that you can load and continue to play saved games.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Change Log.

12-10-2009

1. Changed the expected entry date for Poland, who is pro Allied, to 9-1-1939. If not attacked by Germany, Poland will activate at the end of the Allied turn no later than 9-29-1939. If Poland activates then the Polish units do not suffer the 10% efficiency loss. If Germany; however, declares war on Poland then all Polish units suffer an immediate efficiency loss of 10%.

2. Fixed a messaging bug where the owning player wasn't being notified when a minor ally activated on their own. The axis player was not seeing any messages when Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary or Finland joined the war. Similarly, the allied player wasn’t any messages when the USA and Free France activated. This is now fixed.

12-11-2009 (Hotfix)

3. Fixed a code bug that caused the game for some players to hang on startup when scenarios are loaded. For those players that experienced this bug this is a critical bug and prevented them from playing the expansion.

El_Condoro · Post by **El_Condoro** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 5:36 am

The Hotfix corrects the startup bug. Thanks for your efforts - the game looks great.

Moltke71 · Post by **Moltke71** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:31 pm

rkr1958 wrote:GS-Hotfix (beta): http://rapidshare.com/files/319635985/2 ... HotFix.zip

This hotfix is cumulative and includes the following changes.

GS Expansion Beta Patch.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This patch will NOT invalidate saved games. That means that if you apply this patch that you can load and continue to play saved games.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Change Log.

12-10-2009

1. Changed the expected entry date for Poland, who is pro Allied, to 9-1-1939. If not attacked by Germany, Poland will activate at the end of the Allied turn no later than 9-29-1939. If Poland activates then the Polish units do not suffer the 10% efficiency loss. If Germany; however, declares war on Poland then all Polish units suffer an immediate efficiency loss of 10%.

2. Fixed a messaging bug where the owning player wasn't being notified when a minor ally activated on their own. The axis player was not seeing any messages when Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary or Finland joined the war. Similarly, the allied player wasn’t any messages when the USA and Free France activated. This is now fixed.

12-11-2009 (Hotfix)

3. Fixed a code bug that caused the game for some players to hang on startup when scenarios are loaded. For those players that experienced this bug this is a critical bug and prevented them from playing the expansion.

The hotfix isn't working for me. How should I apply it, i.e. what directory, etc? I have the matrix version.

scarfacetarraff · Post by **scarfacetarraff** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:39 pm

Has anyone compiled a Mac installer? Or, better yet, offer the zipped folders.

Johnus · Post by **Johnus** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:07 am

How does one apply the hot patch ?? I have the Matrix game.

rkr1958 · Post by **rkr1958** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 3:30 pm

bis wrote:The hotfix isn't working for me. How should I apply it, i.e. what directory, etc? I have the matrix version.

Johnnie wrote:How does one apply the hot patch ?? I have the Matrix game.

Unzip the files. You should see two files (game.class and 1939.scn). Copy these files over the files by the same name in the expansion.

game.class -> */Grand Strategy Mod/game/game.class

1939.scn -> */Grand Strategy Mod/data/scenario/1939.scn

Moltke71 · Post by **Moltke71** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 4:02 pm

That worked. Thanks.

Johnus · Post by **Johnus** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:07 pm

1939 scenario I can find. But when I go to GSMod/game, I don't get to "game class." I open game and get four folders: hex, terrain, p. resource, and unit. ?? I don't know where to copy the game class file.

rkr1958 · Post by **rkr1958** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:09 pm

Johnnie wrote:1939 scenario I can find. But when I go to GSMod/game, I don't get to "game class." I open game and get four folders: hex, terrain, p. resource, and unit. ?? I don't know where to copy the game class file.

The game.class file goes in the game folder itself. The game.class file is a file in the game folder.