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doogles

Join Date 10/2003

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Done with GC2 for a while - metaverse error 12 yet again

Well, I finished a very long and crappy game just recently with the fleet bug in place. I avoided the new build because of the claim that we may start getting error 12, and having had that happen once I had no desire to get it again. Yet after finally finishing the game, and getting my second-highest score ever, I find that just like when I got my highest score ever, I cannot post to the metaverse.

Yes, I've already emailed support, but as before I expect nothing to happen. Yes, I re-entered my serial in SD Central. Yes, I reloaded the game, played a couple turns, saved, closed, reloaded, won, and tried posting again. Yes, I verified that the code displayed on the website via the "Register" link was the same as that which was in SD Central.

I find it amazing that this issue is so difficult to deal with that nobody from SD can even tell me what's wrong with the save games I sent last time, and they won't even attempt to fix it. It seems that there's no way to fix the issue, no way to tell why it's happening, and no way to even so much as view my metaverse character's serial and compare it to my save game's serial, which is also totally unviewable. It almost feels like the metaverse is still a beta product. Yeah, maybe it's stable for most people, but this kind of problem that isn't even diagnosable, even if it affects a minority of users, is unacceptable.

It's been a lot of fun, but at this point I've spent way too much time playing unpostable games to keep going. I really loved the metaverse - without it, GC2 is just another 4x game to me. Yeah, it's far deeper than most, sports significantly better AI, and has a theme I really dig. But after 20+ games, my motivation to continue is being able to watch myself get better, climb the ladder, and get medals.

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I do empathise. I have had a few little problems myself with the metaverse, (error 12) which I'm in the process of working out... hopefully. Going to have to try with a duel map soon and see how it all goes.

Sure, a break may be good, but don't forget the best way to solve a problem is to not give up. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

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I avoided the new build because of the claim that we may start getting error 12, and having had that happen once I had no desire to get it again.

Cari thought it *might* be possible (I haven't seen any new reports of it happening to those who tried it). Considering you've already got problems, it can't possibly hurt to try it since the bug she fixed relating to serials may well be the cause of the problem you're having.

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kyro, good point - I'll try that, but understand I have little hope of getting this particular save game working, so if it's still a situation of "try a new game and see what happens", I'll probably still be taking off for a while.

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You could simply try what I did with the update. Take a new or secondary character start a meta game and resign. You'll know immediately if you still have the problem and if it is a new character you can just clear the game off your record. Saves going through an entire game and then finding that you can't post it.

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I have little hope of getting this particular save game working

Fixing the save would probably require manual hex editing work, and that's if it only takes changing the serial in it. If there's any more to it than that, it's probably not feasible at all.

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I need to retry DA, but I think I'm in the same boat. I was just going to email support to try to get them to fix things, and I figured I check the forum.

Wouldn't it be great to just allow either serial ? I geuss that might interfer with resales, but who cares? There could just be an unregistration/transfer method. (is there already?)

I've read a few posts on this, and there just doesn't seem to be an answer. Right now I can play DL metaverse, but not DA. DL is just too easy now...

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I had the same problem, and e-mailed tech support. They gave me a new registration number to type in, but said I might not be able to post past saved games. As a matter of fact, it *did* make the old games "postable" (is that a word?), for which I was very thankful. I, too, was frustrated with spending time on the game and then not being able to submit it to the metaverse. Next, before starting a new game, I followed the same proceedure that DethAdder mentioned above - started a game under a secondary character, and resigned on the first term to end the game, and submitted it to the metaverse. When I saw that it worked, I felt confident that any new game I started would be "postable."

Good luck, and I especially hope you can end up getting credit for your past games ... even if it means you shoot by a bunch of us in the rankings!

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DethAdder, Shamgar, I actually did that already after my first error 12 - I in fact did that twice after my first error. Here's a quick rundown of what I've done and why I'm pretty fed up at this point:

* Got error 12 on the best game of my life, contacted support, read forums, found that I should try a second character.
* Was able to post a resign on second character, so started a new game.
* Finished the new game with a low but acceptable score (it was a tiny map), and got error 12 again. Emailed both saves to support.
* Support replied with more information about resetting the serial on the metaverse via the "Register" link, and told me to try posting a quick lost/resigned game. Since I'd already done this on a secondary character, I decided I'd better be sure, so I posted to my primary character, dropping my score a good 10%.
* Support also let me know that if I loaded an old save, played a few turns, and saved again before winning, I could post it to the metaverse (now that I'd verified metaverse posting was working). So I played a save game that was two hours from finishing the big game, and yet again got the error 12. (I chalked this up to a simple bad save, or else I would have ended here)
* Since I was able to post games to my primary character, I decided to start a new, larger game. This one was very tough to finish with the 1.8e fleet bug, but I had done so well I didn't want to give up, so I spent a lot of time manually moving fleets around and finally finished the game. The score was again far better than my average metaverse score, so I was pretty happy I could finally post a good game.
* Got error 12. Exit stage left.

After this much effort, if my current save game cannot be fixed, I'm just going to ask for a refund for my TA preorder and maybe check back with DA in a few months. And kyro, the serial is stored in the save file in some way that both the metaverse and DA can read, so both places should have a way to report at least the last X digits for me to see what is going wrong. I'm not saying I expect anybody to deal with it - on the contrary, I don't expect anything much at this point. But from a company that has been so amazing at supporting the game, this total lack of metaverse support is shocking. I think I've had better luck contacting EA's support....

Anyway, I'll go try 1.8f and report back with my findings.

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Ran 1.8f and had the same problem with the saved game. It appears that somehow, even though all evidence suggested that all was working, something was still out of whack somewhere in my SDCentral or metaverse character. For the record, I just now had no problem posting a retired game to another character.

When paranoia about cheating ruins the honest player's experience, it's time to look for a better compromise between security and usability.

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When paranoia about cheating ruins the honest player's experience, it's time to look for a better compromise between security and usability.

Especially when they came in and "fixed" a bug to cause all this havoc. Maybe they should just unwind the "fix" until they give us a way to straighten this problem out.

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Ran 1.8f and had the same problem with the saved game.

If the save is broken that's to be expected. Try starting a new game, even if it's just an immediate resignation, and see if it posts (try it a few times, in fact).

As for the bad save, upload it somewhere (rapidshare, etc) and PM me the link and I'll see if I can't find what serial it has in it.

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kyro, good point - I'll try that, but understand I have little hope of getting this particular save game working, so if it's still a situation of "try a new game and see what happens", I'll probably still be taking off for a while.

I've been there. Before DA, I ran into a problem submitting Metaverse games (don't remember if it was error 12 or what). In any case, I tried two games with failed results and couldn't get any resolution on the issue. It really took the wind out of my sails as far as playing GC2. When they sent me an email advertisement about the expansion bundle, I bought it and re-installed the game via SDC (I wasn't using it before). Things started working right on Metaverse again. That renewed my interest. In any case, I can totally understand the negative impact of losing the ability to post games.

Evidently, the issue has resurfaced with 1.8e and beta f. I'm going to stick with 1.8d until 1.8f is officially released. I really don't want to experience this problem again.

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Okay, kyro, sent you a link to all three saves. I did verify that I could post games again, but I had already done these before two of the three games that gave me an error 12, so I don't really trust it. I'm not sure what happens from one post to the next, but something weird happens....

CraigHB, I don't know about 1.8f's possible issues, but my initial problem was actually before 1.8d even came out, so if you're not having any issues right now, you are definitely not experiencing whatever I had happen.

What I really don't get is why the metaverse character isn't tied to the game when you first start playing. It seems to be all about serial numbers, but wouldn't the proper security be to simply check the serial before allowing the game to start? And then simply tie the game to a specific metaverse character? Once the game is started, and the serial was validated once, why is it being checked upon post? Post to the stored metaverse character id, and be done with it. No multiply-posted games, no metaverse posts for people who have a pirated copy, and no headaches for people who activate a new game (for me this all started when I entered my TA serial - for some it seems to have happened when they got DA).

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What I really don't get is why the metaverse character isn't tied to the game when you first start playing. It seems to be all about serial numbers, but wouldn't the proper security be to simply check the serial before allowing the game to start? And then simply tie the game to a specific metaverse character? Once the game is started, and the serial was validated once, why is it being checked upon post?

Couldn't say; Cari would be the one to ask about the internals of the save format and why things are done the way they are (though obviously she may not be able to say about some security related stuff).

I did look at one of the saves and the serial (where I'm aware it is at, anyway) was intact. I don't know if it's also recorded elsewhere in a different format, and that's what's corrupted, or if it's something else at issue altogether, or what. It'd really need to be investigated by Cari to get any further, but as you might imagine she's rather busy with TA at present. So if she can, it'll probably be a while before she's available to look into it.

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Any way I can be put into some kind of "queue" so that she really will be able to look into this when she gets time? I think there's a segment of players who are like me in that without a working metaverse they'll lose a lot of interest in continuing to play. If I can't get this issue resolved, I really don't want to bother with TA

. TA has been a blast so far, but without the metaverse I think the tokens would be better saved for the fantasy strategy game or something.

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You can try filing a report to gc2bugs@stardock.com with your zipped saves attached. But a better bet would be to hop on IRC and ask Cari about it directly (go to the chat section in SDC, connect, and type /join #galciv to get to the right place).

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First, for me support came through. At least for my 1st meta game since this began...

(it posted)

Just going into stardock central and reregistering with the DA number (i think), as the support said, seems to have worked.

What was curious was the instruction to do it on GC2. Not GC2 DA. Doogles did you notice this as well?

(EDIT, note I haven't tried the save game from before that couldn't post, and I don't know that I will...)

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Well, I bought the gold edition so my serials were the same for DA and regular GC2 (DL). So I doubt that would help. Well, that and the fact that kyro discovered that the serials are the same in the save and the metaverse.... And the fact that I can post games that I don't play throught. Bleah.

Kyro, I doubt I will be able to get on IRC anytime that Cari's available due to my work schedule. It's a good idea, though, so I'll see if I can work anything out.

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I've emailed Cari. The latest TA changelog looks so tempting, I really want to get this fixed! If this isn't fixed, how can I un-order TA? Records should show I haven't grabbed anything new since 0.87[b].003, so it should be clear I'm not trying to pirate it and then get my money back.

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After many emails back and forth with Cari, I've been able to post my broken games!

There may be a correlation between registering token purchases on SDCentral and these error 12s - in my case I'm certain it was at least a factor. I'm hoping to get some definitive information from Cari on Monday so that maybe others can avoid this error in the future. I'm not sure that there will necessarily be a way to fix old saves, but at the least it would be really great to be able to keep others from hitting this issue in the future (if in fact there is an issue and it wasn't other factors that caused my errors).

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