Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

David French and I are having problems with our battle. Keep getting errors opening battle file. We have declared a draw and are going to start again. BUT any ideas? were not using encryption or zipped file - mind you not used zip in training either.

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Tony,

Which game?

Are you both using the same version?

Matrix 2.01 and yes same version for both of us. First time we went back to previous turns but second time even that did not work.

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Zipping files helps reduce corruption on BG games. It happens randomly....some games are fine, some are not....

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

That sounds odd-

I have played many BG PBEM battles and never got across a random error.

Perhaps one of you gentlemen is using the Matrix version and another one the classic Talonsoft one??

Primer Teniente
Fernando LopezGallo
Tiradores De Castilla
Brigada Española
The Anglo Allied Army

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Talonsoft versions and matrix versions are compatible.

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Tony, the only time I have ever encountered a problem like this is when both parties did not routinely delete the pbemail.xxx and pbemail.yyy files. Compressing the file will not rectify this issue. I actually never play with compressed (zipped) files myself, as our IT personnel restrict their transfer through our email server. Compressing the file before transfer is usually only a potential issue when one or the other of you is using a dialup connection, or is located in more remote parts of the world where the internet service may not be quite as fast.

At least that has been my experience. There is no substitute for the regular deletion of the files listed above. If you are playing the old BG or Talonsoft games, I recommend you develop the habit of deleting these two files every time you close your game. These files are automatically regenerated each time you start your gaming program. Much worse than having your BTE files corrupted early on, is to have your files fatally corrupted when you are well along in your battle, but before it is definitively concluded.

My limited experience with this kind of thing suggests that it has less to do with game versions and operating systems than internet service providers and institutional anti-virus software.

The worst service providers (e.g. AOL) seem to scramble every tenth e-mail, and if each player has a service provider like that a PBEM game will eventually become hopeless. I've frequently been in a position where I could retrieve the text of the message, and more or less guess where it began and ended, but couldn't use it because the headers had been scrambled beyond recognition.

The solution is very simple. Zip your files. It doesn't make your files impervious to scrambling, but it acts as armor and deflects most of it.

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Every generation gets the Greeks and Romans it deserves.

History is a bad joke played by the living on the dead.

And I just saw Mark's post and realized that I learned to zip all my files back in the days when everyone had dial-ups...

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Every generation gets the Greeks and Romans it deserves.

History is a bad joke played by the living on the dead.

I too started playing many moons ago via dialup....

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

My intial inclination was to .zip the files. But I will start deleting those pesky pbemail.xxx and pbemail.yyy.

But I can't help but wonder, why would these files be causeing this issue? I don't recognixe the formatn, or even really understand what their purpose would be, if you can just delete them with no ill-effects.

Was this fix just figured out emrpirically? (seems contrary to me, when trying to solve a computer problem, to start haking away at game data)

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Dans Les Hussards:
♪ Le hussard, à la guerr' (The Hussar at the War)
Défend fièrement sa bannièr' (Proudly Defends his Banner)
Sans jamais tourner le derrière (Never Turn Back)
Ah ! La belle vi' que l'on mène...♫ (Ah! The Beutiful Life that One Leads...)

That "Fix" was figured out long before me, David. I just know that it works. I learned that from my Trainer, Andy Moss. Where he learned it, I could not say.

Like Scott and Philippe, I too started my PBEM adventures with dial-up. I was probably in the club for a year before I switched to HS DSL.

[quote="David French"]My intial inclination was to .zip the files. But I will start deleting those pesky pbemail.xxx and pbemail.yyy.

But I can't help but wonder, why would these files be causeing this issue? I don't recognixe the formatn, or even really understand what their purpose would be, if you can just delete them with no ill-effects.

Was this fix just figured out emrpirically? (seems contrary to me, when trying to solve a computer problem, to start haking away at game data)[/quote]

Basically, those 2 files are generated for each turn played and over-write previous files, if they are there. I am not sure of their actual function, but they have been a problem since the BG series. They continue to be used as they do provide some immediate function within the games. Some members might even delete those files every turn and there is a batch file that was made to do so automatically. You will find these files in the HPS game and the newer games by JTS.

It is not considered "hacking away at game data" as they have no function until regenerated on your NEXT game turn.

I imagine if you do a SEARCH of the MDT for pbemail.xxx, you might get some better explanations as this solution has been around for 10+ years.

In the majority of games, they are not a factor, but deleting them is the BEST method to correct the problems mentioned, as others have indicated.

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Ernie Sands
1ère Brigade of 2ème Division de Grosse Cavalerie, Réserve de Cavalerie
de la Grande Armée
President, Colonial Campaigns Club

I did a quick search on pbemail:

search.php?keywords=pbemail&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

The earliest mention of this solution (in this search) was 2005.

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Ernie Sands
1ère Brigade of 2ème Division de Grosse Cavalerie, Réserve de Cavalerie
de la Grande Armée
President, Colonial Campaigns Club

Sorry fellas, this just didn't solve it.

to be clear, I am running Matrix v2.01.

I have deleted the pbemail.yyy and pbemail.xxx at EVERY opportunity. WHENEVER I see them, they go.

STILL - "error reading replay file"

EDIT: I have also tried re-downloading the attachment several times

I hate to sound snappy, BUT - why is zipping such a big deal??????? Just make an archive, drag, and drop like you would any other file folder. To my knowledge, everything Microsoft has come out with since XP has supported the format natively. Zip puts the file in a nice, neat, solid container for travel. I don't take soup to work without a lid on it? Why send a file without .zip'ing it? Just .zip it for Pete's sake!

_________________
Dans Les Hussards:
♪ Le hussard, à la guerr' (The Hussar at the War)
Défend fièrement sa bannièr' (Proudly Defends his Banner)
Sans jamais tourner le derrière (Never Turn Back)
Ah ! La belle vi' que l'on mène...♫ (Ah! The Beutiful Life that One Leads...)