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[Misotu]

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[Misotu]

BTW, for some reason my SMAX with the Yitzi patch has just stopped working. When I try to run the patched terranx.exe it does nothing at all. When I run the .exe from the original download (which I've kept in a separate folder), the screen flickers for a moment as if it's trying to run and then again does nothing at all.

Both my Garland version and my original SMAX installation work fine - it's just the patched version that has stopped working     I don't recall changing anything at all recently - any suggestions as to what might have happened very gratefully received.

I had to play my last turn using standard SMAX, I hope that doesn't change anything important or cause a problem ...

[Yabcok]

BTW, for some reason my SMAX with the Yitzi patch has just stopped working. When I try to run the patched terranx.exe it does nothing at all. When I run the .exe from the original download (which I've kept in a separate folder), the screen flickers for a moment as if it's trying to run and then again does nothing at all.

Both my Garland version and my original SMAX installation work fine - it's just the patched version that has stopped working     I don't recall changing anything at all recently - any suggestions as to what might have happened very gratefully received.

I had to play my last turn using standard SMAX, I hope that doesn't change anything important or cause a problem ...

Kirov,
could you please share your opinion on this matter? I heard about a lot of issues due to patch incompatibilities, but you know, it was about 10 years ago, so I don’t know if it’s still valid… Do we risk that the game will crash when we decide to continue using different patches?

[Yabcok]

Both my Garland version and my original SMAX installation work fine - it's just the patched version that has stopped working     I don't recall changing anything at all recently - any suggestions as to what might have happened very gratefully received.

No matter the reason, maybe you could make another one, fresh installation and try to patch it from scratch?

[Mart]

Recently Yitzi patch has included PRACX patch, that has additions to graphics. And it uses additional dll in the game folder.
I think reinstalation to a new folder could solve the problem.
Playing with different versions not necessarily means problems in the game, but it is not advised, since alphax file differs between patch versions and that may influence read data from save files.

[Misotu]

Sorry, it didn't occur to me until afterwards that playing without Yitzi's patch might cause problems for people playing after me - I thought that if I managed to play my turn ok it would be all right afterwards. Anyway, I've created a new copy of the game folder, re-patched and it works fine.

Do you want me to re-play the turn? I don't mind doing it - there was only one battle where I got a bit lucky so I don't suppose that'll happen again! but it's no big deal. It will have to wait until tomorrow now - let me know.

oooooooooooooo

Have to say though, I'm baffled. I've sort of found out what the problem is. Well, at least, I can repeat the symptoms, but I have no idea why it stopped working all of a sudden. My folder was originally called Alpha Centauri - Yitzi and has worked fine for months. In fact Yitzi SMAC was still working, just not SMAX.

Now my new installation works fine provided the folder is called Alpha Centauri - Copy. If I rename the folder to Alpha Centauri - Yitzi it stops working again! I've just gone back and forth a few times - it's totally repeatable. But it used to work, so why   I didn't think that the folder name mattered at all!

I'd really like to understand ... apologies if I'm being dumb, but I hate not understanding something like this.

[Mart]

It's possible that has to do with windows registry.
Possibly, if you rename to something else than "Alpha Centauri - Yitzi" that would work too, I think that name may be causing problems now.
And I would avoid names with spaces, sometimes programs have problems with it, since they parse names using spaces as end of character strings.

[Kurvivor]

On Windows as a rule programs have space in their names, since they are usually placed in "C:\Program Files" or "C:\GoG games"

[Kurvivor]

On we go

[Misotu]

Hi, thanks for the comments. Mentioned it to Mr Misotu this morning and his immediate thought, like Mart, was "registry problem". So that was v comforting, as you can imagine, until I ran up the game and realised (which I didn't notice yesterday, so happy was I that the game ran at all) that the resolution is now wrong and the thing looked suspiciously vanilla to my eye. Loaded a game and, yup, no Pracx options in the menu.

Long story short, seems Avast! decided that prax.dll is a "suspicious" file all of a sudden and silently removed it to the virus chest without warning. Not based on a scan - the scan was clear! - but simply based on an attempt to access the .dll and heightened paranoia. No error message, no nothing. Very unhappy Misotu.

I've eventually got it to accept that the file is fine, have restored everything and told it not to do it again but, horribly, it doesn't really explain the game not working at all earlier, or the folder name change stuff, since the game does run ok without that .dll

And in all honesty, I'm so fed up with Avast! crashing Windows Explorer repeatedly when setting all this up that I DARE NOT try experimenting with renaming the folder to see what happens   

Thought I'd mention it anyway in case anyone is using Avast!  Might save them some time.

[Yabcok]

I see a lot of discussions above, so to sum up:

•   Misotu’s technical issues are solved (@Mart – thanks a lot for supporting us!)
•   A key question, whether Misotu should replay her turn to avoid future issues or not, is still unanswered, but in the meantime Kurvivor played his turn without any visible issues, so it seems there is no impact, at least at the moment

So, in my feeling, we should leave the decision to Kirov, who seems to be the most experienced player form us all. He can:

•   play the turn attached by Kurvivor, so we will simply carry on the game
•   decide that Misotu should replay her turn, if we risk some serious issues in the future that Kirov is aware about

I hope that it sounds rational, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Best regards
Y.

[Kurvivor]

To me, the issue of 'potential problems' is insubstantial. If the problems arise, we could/should make the replay from the known point. Until such an occurence continuing looks like the most reasonable course of action

[Yabcok]

And by the occasion we are talking about technical aspects - if you never tied to improve your SMACX graphics experience like this:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=118326

just take a look. In my own case the effect is just amazing – with [DirectDraw=0] whole map looks sharp and simply beautiful in compare to what I used to play with. I hope that there are not too many drawbacks this solution will introduce.

Best regards
Y.

[Kirov]

It's ok guys, it' all over. I don't want to play anymore, it's just too easy. Everything is as Yabcok predicted - you let me grow unchecked and nothing can stop me now. You didn't listen! You just... didn't... listen...

Thanks for the game you all, it's been really epic, in fact it was the most epic game I've had. But it's just too hard to keep up the interest for so long between numerous pauses and delays. Especially as the outcome was obvious for so long (Prophecies don't lie, we just didn't listen). I'm afraid I half-reared my turn for a long time, before and after the recent replacements. I guess we should have just called it off at some point. I don't want to remember this game as a drudgery it became. There was a sliver of hope for some time, but it fell through many turns ago. Now I just see no point in continuing.

Again many thanks to all of you, it's been a pleasure to have you here. I will try to write an in-depth summary soon, although the truth is there are parts I don't remember much (anyone recalls that we started in May 2013?). I'm looking forward to another game with you, what do you say? I have only one other game left and it's paused now, so I hope to start something soon.

[Misotu]

Armageddon and I already agreed with Kirov by PM to call it a day - a well-played win Planet Cult and Uni, congratulations!

I would be up for another game too. Not as the Drones though