Testing request: 2.1.1 testinstaller.

[Zenerka]

smalul
1) does this bug appear only in case of UFO on the geoscape? if yes - can you save when the ufo dissapears and check whether no problem with loading? then, can you shoot them out, save and check whether no problem with loading?
2) we are not going to give any numbers to testinstallers, because these are... testinstallers; of upcoming version 2.1.1; since no vital bugs will be found in these testinstallers we will release 2.1.1 version (based on 2.1.0 released month ago and focused on bugfixes and new savegame system)
3) about message subsystem - the message subsystem contains not only messages visible on the geoscape, but also mails in the mailclient (basicaly, they are the same); not saving all of them is pointless (in case of mails)

[smalul]

1. I don't think this bug has anything to do with the a UFO - I've had it in all the versions since version 2.1 (when I started playing), and in most of the cases it had nothing to do with the UFOs.

2 & 3. Thanks for your answers.

OK, I've loaded the previous game, played the mission, when the mission was over, there was no UFO on the geoscape. I've returned to the base, let the time pass, saved a few times, and loaded each of those saves. In one strange case, when I loaded a game there was a UFO on the geoscape (it wasn't there when I saved), I intercepted it, saved again, let the time pass, and saved again. And once again - I hit that bug:

The latest saving:

Code: [Select]


Save 'slot3'
...subsystem 'base' - saved 11495 bytes
...subsystem 'campaign' - saved 373 bytes
...subsystem 'hospital' - saved 2 bytes
...subsystem 'market' - saved 2176 bytes
...subsystem 'research' - saved 6331 bytes
...subsystem 'employee' - saved 24307 bytes
...subsystem 'aliencont' - saved 0 bytes
...subsystem 'production' - saved 87 bytes
...subsystem 'aircraft' - saved 1 bytes
...subsystem 'messagesystem' - saved 35104 bytes
...subsystem 'stats' - saved 28 bytes
...subsystem 'nations' - saved 32 bytes
Campaign 'Shai51' saved.


The latest loading (with this bug):

Code: [Select]


Loading savegame
...version: 1
...game version: 2.1.1
Global data loaded - size (null)u bytes
...techs: 132
...buildings: 18
...ranks: 8
...nations: 8

Load 'slot3'
...subsystem 'base' - loaded 11495 bytes
Initializing aircraft and aircraft-items ...
...aircraft and aircraft-items inited
Cmd_AddCommand: popup_aircraft_action_click already defined
Cmd_AddCommand: ships_click already defined
Cmd_AddCommand: ships_rclick already defined
Cmd_AddCommand: multi_select_click already defined
Activate stage intro
Activate stage ufos_are_coming
...subsystem 'campaign' - loaded 373 bytes
...subsystem 'hospital' - loaded 2 bytes
...subsystem 'market' - loaded 2176 bytes
...subsystem 'research' - loaded 6331 bytes
...subsystem 'employee' - loaded 24307 bytes
...subsystem 'aliencont' - loaded 0 bytes
...subsystem 'production' - loaded 87 bytes
...subsystem 'aircraft' - loaded 1 bytes
...subsystem 'messagesystem' - loaded 35137 bytes
...subsystem 'messagesystem' could not be loaded correctly - savegame might be broken (3f)
Changing to Singleplayer


You probably noticed this already, but when I save, a certain amount of bytes are saved in the "messagesystem" subsystem (...subsystem "messagesystem" - saved 35104 bytes), but when I load and this bug appears, more bytes are loaded from the "messagesystem" subsystem (...subsystem 'messagesystem' - loaded 35137 bytes). This has always been the case when this bug occurs. When everything works fine, the exact same amount of bytes are saved and loaded into and from the "messagesystem" subsystem.

I would also like to know if other players are having this bug, or is it just my problem? I've checked my computer memory with memtest86 and everything is fine, and I don't have any other problems with my computer, so I don't think this is a local problem.

[Zenerka]

You probably noticed this already, but when I save, a certain amount of bytes are saved in the "messagesystem" subsystem (...subsystem "messagesystem" - saved 35104 bytes), but when I load and this bug appears, more bytes are loaded from the "messagesystem" subsystem (...subsystem 'messagesystem' - loaded 35137 bytes). This has always been the case when this bug occurs. When everything works fine, the exact same amount of bytes are saved and loaded into and from the "messagesystem" subsystem.

We have no idea what is causing this - really. Moreover, we cannot reproduce this, but the fact that you have such problems means that there is a bug somewhere, no doubt. The amount of loaded bytes for subsystem should be the same as amount of saved bytes.
This would be a wild guess... but we just uploaded new testinstallers (27.04.2007) - the same place as usual (szklo.eu.org) - there is a slightly modified (safer) way of message subsystem saving - could you try it, please? If this bug won't be fixed we will have to postpone 2.1.1 release.

I would also like to know if other players are having this bug, or is it just my problem?

Last days and last testinstallers - no, but some other people also reported such problems with message subsystem saving some days ago. So I believe it is not "only you", but indeed, there is a bug somewhere.

[smalul]

We have no idea what is causing this - really. Moreover, we cannot reproduce this, but the fact that you have such problems means that there is a bug somewhere, no doubt. The amount of loaded bytes for subsystem should be the same as amount of saved bytes.
This would be a wild guess... but we just uploaded new testinstallers (27.04.2007) - the same place as usual (szklo.eu.org) - there is a slightly modified (safer) way of message subsystem saving - could you try it, please? If this bug won't be fixed we will have to postpone 2.1.1 release.

OK, downloading now.
You know, I actually thought of a way to help locate the bug - save the save games as simple text (disable the current encoding of the saved games files). This would probably make the saved games files bigger, and would allow cheating (by editing the files), but it would also show what information is saved into those files. Now, if and when this bug occurs again, you could just look at the text to see what exactly are those extra bytes, and you might get some idea as for their source. Once the problem is found and fixed, you could just re-enable that encoding.
This should help locate the problem, unless the bug is in the encoding algorithm itself.
 
I hope you won't have to postpone the next release, because repeating everything over and over again (I had to start a new game every time a new beta was released) is starting to get boring. I would love to to be able to do some new research, capture UFOs, kill new aliens and so on.

By the way - isn't it a problem for you that people are downloading about 260MB for each beta version (I'm assuming you have some kind of bandwidth limit)? Is there a way to download just the files you changed between the beta versions, just to help you with the bandwidth (I have no problem downloading 260MB each time, it only takes a few minutes)?

Last days and last testinstallers - no, but some other people also reported such problems with message subsystem saving some days ago. So I believe it is not "only you", but indeed, there is a bug somewhere.

OK, thanks.

Edit:
OK, downloaded and installed. It seems I can load the games from the previous version (April 26th) in this version (April 27th) and play them just fine. Should I start a new game or can I continue my current game?

[Zenerka]

OK, downloaded and installed. It seems I can load the games from the previous version (April 26th) in this version (April 27th) and play them just fine. Should I start a new game or can I continue my current game?

It should be ok if you are sure that you loaded the same amount of bytes for message subsystem as saved.

[Zenerka]

Updated first post with new testinstaller links.
smalul, how things going apart of those bugs you reported on SF? Any problems with "message system loading" so far?

[smalul]

No, the load/save system seems to be working fine for me (as for the April 27th, 2007 version).
Downloading the April 29th, 2007 version now.
If I get one of those error messages again I'll post here as usual.

[smalul]

OK, this is probably nothing, but since it has something to do with the load/save system, I've decided to post it here.

I started the game and loaded a saved game:

Code: [Select]


====== UFO Initialized ======

Loading savegame
...version: 1
...game version: 2.1.1
Global data loaded - size (null)u bytes
...techs: 131
...buildings: 18
...ranks: 8
...nations: 8

Load 'slot0'
...subsystem 'base' - loaded 12287 bytes
Initializing aircraft and aircraft-items ...
...aircraft and aircraft-items inited
Activate stage invasion
...subsystem 'campaign' - loaded 210 bytes
...subsystem 'hospital' - loaded 2 bytes
...subsystem 'market' - loaded 2176 bytes
...subsystem 'research' - loaded 6288 bytes
...subsystem 'employee' - loaded 47198 bytes
...subsystem 'aliencont' - loaded 0 bytes
...subsystem 'production' - loaded 61 bytes
...subsystem 'aircraft' - loaded 1 bytes
...subsystem 'messagesystem' - loaded 51335 bytes
...subsystem 'stats' - loaded 28 bytes
...subsystem 'nations' - loaded 32 bytes
File 'slot0' loaded.
Changing to Singleplayer


Then I passed the time a bit, and I wanted to save. But I clicked the wrong slot to save into, so I pressed ESC and saved to the right slot.
This is the save I tried to cancel. Notice the error message, and also - the fact that the game was actually saved (I thought pressing ESC would cancel the saving)

Code: [Select]


Save 'slot2'
MSG_WriteByte: range error -1 ('../../src/client/cl_basemanagement.c', line 2515)
...subsystem 'base' - saved 11839 bytes
...subsystem 'campaign' - saved 157 bytes
...subsystem 'hospital' - saved 2 bytes
...subsystem 'market' - saved 2176 bytes
...subsystem 'research' - saved 6288 bytes
...subsystem 'employee' - saved 47198 bytes
...subsystem 'aliencont' - saved 0 bytes
...subsystem 'production' - saved 48 bytes
...subsystem 'aircraft' - saved 1 bytes
...subsystem 'messagesystem' - saved 51550 bytes
...subsystem 'stats' - saved 28 bytes
...subsystem 'nations' - saved 32 bytes
Campaign 'Shai79' saved.


Then I saved the game in the right slot, but again I got the same error message:

Code: [Select]


Save 'slot1'
MSG_WriteByte: range error -1 ('../../src/client/cl_basemanagement.c', line 2515)
...subsystem 'base' - saved 11839 bytes
...subsystem 'campaign' - saved 157 bytes
...subsystem 'hospital' - saved 2 bytes
...subsystem 'market' - saved 2176 bytes
...subsystem 'research' - saved 6288 bytes
...subsystem 'employee' - saved 47198 bytes
...subsystem 'aliencont' - saved 0 bytes
...subsystem 'production' - saved 48 bytes
...subsystem 'aircraft' - saved 1 bytes
...subsystem 'messagesystem' - saved 51550 bytes
...subsystem 'stats' - saved 28 bytes
...subsystem 'nations' - saved 32 bytes
Campaign 'Shai86' saved.


I then played a mission and saved a few more times after that. In those saves there was no error, and they can be loaded.
Just to clam you - there was no problem loading the game which was saved into slot1:

Code: [Select]


Loading savegame
...version: 1
...game version: 2.1.1
Global data loaded - size (null)u bytes
...techs: 131
...buildings: 18
...ranks: 8
...nations: 8

Load 'slot1'
...subsystem 'base' - loaded 11839 bytes
Initializing aircraft and aircraft-items ...
...aircraft and aircraft-items inited
Activate stage invasion
...subsystem 'campaign' - loaded 157 bytes
...subsystem 'hospital' - loaded 2 bytes
...subsystem 'market' - loaded 2176 bytes
...subsystem 'research' - loaded 6288 bytes
...subsystem 'employee' - loaded 47198 bytes
...subsystem 'aliencont' - loaded 0 bytes
...subsystem 'production' - loaded 48 bytes
...subsystem 'aircraft' - loaded 1 bytes
...subsystem 'messagesystem' - loaded 51550 bytes
...subsystem 'stats' - loaded 28 bytes
...subsystem 'nations' - loaded 32 bytes
File 'slot1' loaded.
Changing to Singleplayer


Like I said - this is probably noting, but I thought I should let you know.

Edit:
I'm of course using the latest version - 2.1.1 from April 29th, 2007.

[Zenerka]

Thanks for your hard work with betatesting and your reported bugs we managed to fix a lot of issues in 2.1 branch.

Earlier today 2.1.1 was released. Have fun playing.

[cyb3rj]

This bug/feature may have been superseded. I am still playing on a slightly old test release 2.1.1 April 22.

I have played through for quite a while (run out of stuff to research), had a base attacked and now the same mission keeps coming up. its "Atacama desert", map "falcon_crash04n". I've done it three times in a row now. So, have I reached the end of the story so far? or is this an unexpected bug?

If you are interested, I will make the .sav and log available.

I am playing on win xp with an amd64.

I am experiencing a problem with the same series of events on Kubuntu 7.04 (32-bit) in version 2.1.1.  However, the problem that happens with me is a crash.  When I click "Enter" to go into the mission, the game crashes.

I installed using the file from sourceforge.

Is this the official place where I report bugs?

[BTAxis]

Is this the official place where I report bugs?

This forum is meant for bug reports, but you can also have a look here.

[Mattn]

could you please post a backtrace of that crash - or your ufoconsole.log? maybe open up a sourceforge.net bug tracker item and attach the info