Want an easy way to play Civ V online? Say hello to Giant Multiplayer Robot! (GMR)

A counter showing what turn we're on in the game window might be good? If only to see about how many turns per day (or days per turn) a game is averaging.

Also, am I remembering rightly that the app should update which civs are being played if they're different from what was picked on set up? This doesn't seem to be working in our game Speed.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=456538

This thread talks about something about password in hotseat save file. Hope that won't be the case here. The only relief is that I used a different password for the save file.

Onan said:

A counter showing what turn we're on in the game window might be good? If only to see about how many turns per day (or days per turn) a game is averaging.

Click to expand...

This is a great idea! I've added it to our to-do list.

Onan said:

Also, am I remembering rightly that the app should update which civs are being played if they're different from what was picked on set up? This doesn't seem to be working in our game Speed.

Click to expand...

Yes, when the very first save file is submitted for a game, the GMR website will make sure that the civilizations selected on the website are the ones set in the save file. So if the host creates the HotSeat game differently than how the game is defined on the website (either the player order is different, the civilizations are different, or the AI/Human selection is different) the website will directly modify the save file, setting these values accordingly. So for example in our Speed game it seems that something was a little different than how the game was set on the website, because while everyone is technically playing as the correct civ, their colors are off. This is a current side effect of the website changing a player's civilization after the game has already been created. We actually have an idea of how to fix this for future games but haven't had a chance to implement it yet

Oh, and if a player has selected "Other" as their civilization on the website, then instead of enforcing their civ in the save file GMR will update the website to reflect what civ was selected for them in the hotseat game.

It's all a little complicated, but I hope my explanation made some sense. Please let me know if I can clarify things further!

EEE_BOY said:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=456538

This thread talks about something about password in hotseat save file. Hope that won't be the case here. The only relief is that I used a different password for the save file.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is still correct! Civ V stores all players game passwords in plain-text in the save file. So anyone with a notion for mischief could just open that up, find the passwords, and "play" through the other players turns locally to gain an advantage.

Sadly there is nothing we can do about this right now. We can only try to identify such players that would take advantage of this and ban them from GMR

So as we state on our website when you first sign in, it is SUPER important that you don't use a password in the game that you use anywhere else, be that Steam, Gmail, Facebook, or even CivFanatics!

m4stermel said:

Yes, when the very first save file is submitted for a game, the GMR website will make sure that the civilizations selected on the website are the ones set in the save file. So if the host creates the HotSeat game differently than how the game is defined on the website (either the player order is different, the civilizations are different, or the AI/Human selection is different) the website will directly modify the save file, setting these values accordingly. So for example in our Speed game it seems that something was a little different than how the game was set on the website, because while everyone is technically playing as the correct civ, their colors are off. This is a current side effect of the website changing a player's civilization after the game has already been created. We actually have an idea of how to fix this for future games but haven't had a chance to implement it yet

Oh, and if a player has selected "Other" as their civilization on the website, then instead of enforcing their civ in the save file GMR will update the website to reflect what civ was selected for them in the hotseat game.

It's all a little complicated, but I hope my explanation made some sense. Please let me know if I can clarify things further!

Click to expand...

So, in that game for example, I gave Russia to another player who asked for it in the thread first, then picked China for you even though you'd picked Russia when you joined the game on the website. Are you saying what's on the site is correct, and we actually have two Russias in our game? That the website overrode my (admittedly, somewhat arbitrary) pick for you?

I can see the appeal of the system fixing mistakes. In this case, though, it seems it may have overridden a considered human decision...not so sure about that. Then again, maybe others don't mind duplicate civs so much.

Also, if the above is true, then it would seem the app prevents players from picking duplicate civs, but then can cause players to have them when a host takes initiative to also prevent players from having duplicate civs...!

We also seem to have two Songhai in the game...not quite sure if this was part of the same issue or not.

m4stermel said:

Yes, this is still correct! Civ V stores all players game passwords in plain-text in the save file. So anyone with a notion for mischief could just open that up, find the passwords, and "play" through the other players turns locally to gain an advantage.

Sadly there is nothing we can do about this right now. We can only try to identify such players that would take advantage of this and ban them from GMR

So as we state on our website when you first sign in, it is SUPER important that you don't use a password in the game that you use anywhere else, be that Steam, Gmail, Facebook, or even CivFanatics!

Click to expand...

Wow, that's a sad state of affairs. Given how long PBEM games take, one unscrupulous player could put a bunch of other players off them for a long time.

No choice but to fall back on the honor system, and hope those in our games have the moral fortitude to resist the temptation! And the wisdom to avoid being banned forever from our games!

Onan said:

So, in that game for example, I gave Russia to another player who asked for it in the thread first, then picked China for you even though you'd picked Russia when you joined the game on the website. Are you saying what's on the site is correct, and we actually have two Russias in our game? That the website overrode my (admittedly, somewhat arbitrary) pick for you?

I can see the appeal of the system fixing mistakes. In this case, though, it seems it may have overridden a considered human decision...not so sure about that. Then again, maybe others don't mind duplicate civs so much.

Also, if the above is true, then it would seem the app prevents players from picking duplicate civs, but then can cause players to have them when a host takes initiative to also prevent players from having duplicate civs...!

We also seem to have two Songhai in the game...not quite sure if this was part of the same issue or not.

Click to expand...

Yes that's precisely what happened, the website overwrote the civ selections you made when setting up the game. We intended for this to be a measure against game hosts accidentally or intentionally giving players the wrong civilization, however we hadn't considered that this may be a desired ability on the part of the host

Perhaps a good compromise would be for GMR to only enforce civilizations in a public game and adhere to the setup submitted by the host for private games.

Unfortunately it's a bit too late for our Speed game. I suppose I could manually set the correct civilizations in the save file the next time it's my turn, then they would be how you defined them in this forum. Or we could restart the game, making sure that the civs selected on the website match the ones you're planning to select. What do you think?

Also, the website does allow players to select the same civilization when joining a game. So you could potentially set up a game where everyone is Russia!

Onan said:

Wow, that's a sad state of affairs. Given how long PBEM games take, one unscrupulous player could put a bunch of other players off them for a long time.

No choice but to fall back on the honor system, and hope those in our games have the moral fortitude to resist the temptation! And the wisdom to avoid being banned forever from our games!

Click to expand...

Yes, it's a sad oversight on Firaxis' part. However they probably never imagined that people would be using their HotSeat mode like we are. If we were all playing HotSeat on the same computer the way it was intended, save file hacking wouldn't really be possible

So until we think of something else we're stuck with the honor system. If we do find that someone has been cheating in one of our PBEM games we can easily replace them with an AI opponent and ban them from the GMR service all together! Hopefully we won't have to do that though

m4stermel said:

Yes that's precisely what happened, the website overwrote the civ selections you made when setting up the game. We intended for this to be a measure against game hosts accidentally or intentionally giving players the wrong civilization, however we hadn't considered that this may be a desired ability on the part of the host

Perhaps a good compromise would be for GMR to only enforce civilizations in a public game and adhere to the setup submitted by the host for private games.

Unfortunately it's a bit too late for our Speed game. I suppose I could manually set the correct civilizations in the save file the next time it's my turn, then they would be how you defined them in this forum. Or we could restart the game, making sure that the civs selected on the website match the ones you're planning to select. What do you think?

Also, the website does allow players to select the same civilization when joining a game. So you could potentially set up a game where everyone is Russia!

Click to expand...

For our game, let's leave it, it seems everyone is happy. I like that you are Russia with Chinese colors.

Sounds great! I kind of like it too

Onan said:

No choice but to fall back on the honor system, and hope those in our games have the moral fortitude to resist the temptation! And the wisdom to avoid being banned forever from our games!

Click to expand...

I guess I shouldn't tell everyone that I peeked at your password then. I never knew that you used the ILIKEPINKFLOWERS password for all your accounts.

No, you really shouldn't have.

The last couple of times when I submit a save, it takes a little while, then I get a message, error submitting save, check the debugging logs for details. However, the turn rolls over to the next person, and they seem to be able to play the save fine.

I'm glad that it's working but that is strange that you're getting the error. Could you find our debug log file and send it to me? In Windows XP you should find it at "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\GmrClient\Debug Logs\GmrClient\debug_logs.txt"

m4stermel said:

I'm glad that it's working but that is strange that you're getting the error. Could you find our debug log file and send it to me? In Windows XP you should find it at "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\GmrClient\Debug Logs\debug_logs.txt"

Click to expand...

Will do, later on.

hmn, would that be a different path or filename for windows XP? I tried searching for the file too, and couldn't find it. The turn I just played gave no error on submission.

Hi

Thanks for this nice apps ! We are going to launch a game with GMR wit the french civ community (civfr.com).

I have a question, can you use the GMR when civ is already launch ? I guess, yes. And is it possible to not close the game when you submit your turn ? Maybe the apps can ask a question to close the game or not.

Thanks again

Onan said:

hmn, would that be a different path or filename for windows XP? I tried searching for the file too, and couldn't find it. The turn I just played gave no error on submission.

Click to expand...

Oh sorry, it looks like I forgot a folder in there. This should be the correct path:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\GmrClient\Debug Logs\debug_logs.txt

KiffeLesBiffles said:

Hi

Thanks for this nice apps ! We are going to launch a game with GMR wit the french civ community (civfr.com).

I have a question, can you use the GMR when civ is already launch ? I guess, yes. And is it possible to not close the game when you submit your turn ? Maybe the apps can ask a question to close the game or not.

Thanks again

Click to expand...

Awesome, I'm glad you guys are able to use our service to help you get your civ on!

You can use GMR to play your turn even when Civ V is already running. Just click on the turn you would like to play in the GMR application and select "Play turn now!", this will copy the correct save file to "(GMR) Play this one!", which you can then load from the already running Civ V.

You can disable the GMR application from automatically closing Civ V when saving a game under the settings control panel for the GMR app. To access this just click on your avatar in the top-right corner of the application and select "Settings". However I think that you'll find it difficult or impossible to to do much else in Civ V after saving your hotseat game, as there is no way to get back to the main menu to load another game. The only thing you can do is exit the application

Thanks for making this great program! Is there any way to resign from a game before your turn? I'm tired of two of these hanging out for days with no one taking a turn - in fact not even sure I've actually gotten to my turn on either one.