looks like the obfuscate the save files so you can fool with them, I was going to try to figure out what was up with the password breaking when you add an email. If they saved it in XML it would be a lot easier to figure out what is going on.
Agreed although having it in the save file makes it a lot tidier. I wouldn't suggest trying to figure how the file has been damaged as any patch will most likely render this format of files incompatible - unless it is a corruption on the writing and the reading has been set fine - possible which may explain how it got missed in testing if they made a last minute change which effected startup games more than running games.
Someone mentioned that pitboss runs on a 300MHz PC, so it will run on your one, it's also been mentioned above that pitboss doesn't check the CD, so after installing and patching Civ4 and pitboss on your old PC you won't need to put the CD in it again.
Yes that was me - just checked the
specs PII 300 with 96MB of ram on win 98 se! The game was installed over my network as I don't have a CD drive for the machine, it's an old laptop (good for persistent games as they are quiet) so has no graphics card to speak of. When you install you do have to install directx 9. I've genned a few turns on it and all is fine - what I don't know is if this spec will handle turns in the latter stages but till the sort out the pwd issue i'm a bit snookered for testing any more.
After install I then ran pitboss which promptly crashed - as it hadn't been patched
Then patched to 1.52 (using the patch file on my pc's machine as I obviously will not be able to run civ iv proper in this thing
It then ran fine except for the pwd corruption and the minor display issues that have been described. In the assets directory I tried deleting the art and sounds directories but this is then causing it to crash - when this makes final it would be useful to have a minimal install for pitboss to reduce its footprint (the HD on this pc is very small)
So all in all very pleased with how the pitboss will work - actual working looks reasonably good
Main thoughts are:
1. Fix Pwd issue
2. allow minimise to tray
3. Ability to force a turn (not just a time set one)
4. Ability to amend some of the server settings once game has started:
eg game pwd/ turn limit not sure on the other ones
Would be useful if one of the devs can give an indication of timescale for a next beta release days/weeks/months?
Tals
nb just checked - arts directory did delete - sounds was the one causing the crash. Footprint now at 1gb but could still do with being smaller.