Problems and Troubleshooting

This section describes some of the problems you might encounter, and what to do about them.

• Errors and Warnings
• Cheating

Errors and Warnings

"Errors" are fatal flaws. Xconq must shut itself down in order to prevent a bad situation from getting worse. You may be able to save the game, repair it, and restart it, but you must understand a good deal about GDL and about how Xconq works.

"Warnings" are advice that something is amiss, but that there is no obvious reason to quit.

Any error or warning not listed below is almost certainly a bug, most likely in a game design, but maybe in Xconq, and should be reported as such.

Can't find module xxx anywhere

This means that Xconq searched in the library locations it knows and found no modules named xxx.

Module xxx could not be opened

This typically means that although the module was found, it could not be opened; for instance, it might have been read-protected.

Too many players

Some game designs limit the number of players, and you asked for more than that. Ask for fewer.

Requested advantage is too (low, high)

The game design limits the range of advantages that you may request, and you went outside that range.

Only n of the requested displays opened

(not the most useful message in the world - only document the "xxx could not be opened" message?)

Need at least one display to run

Xconq is an interactive game; a game with no displays at all is sort of pointless, eh?

Images were not found

A game design may not have had images defined for all types of units and terrain. Xconq will warn about this, then make up some (typically ugly) default images itself. Actual game play will be unaffected.

xxx color is way off on display yyy

It may be that a particular display and its software will not have set up a color that matches what was requested (this can happen in X, for instance). This has no direct effect on game play, but some of the players may have difficulty if, say, their displays show several different terrain types as having the same color.

Memory exhausted

Some Xconq games are exceedingly large and complex, and it is not unusual that they will need more than that available RAM or swap space. This will typically occur during game setup, since Xconq preallocates nearly all of the space it will need. If you have no way to get more memory, you must choose a smaller game. You can make a given game smaller by choosing the "See All" variant (no need to record views for each side) or by having fewer players and/or fewer AIs. For instance, instead of playing against 7 AIs, you can play against one AI with an initial advantage of 7.

Can't open statistics file xxx

(Obvious)

Can't open score file xxx

(Obvious)

Sides have undesirable locations

A game can specify how close and how far away each side should be from all the others, and the kind of terrain each will start on. If the world is too small, or doesn't have the right kinds of terrain, then Xconq will warn about this. The game will still play normally, but it may be grossly unfair, and if the sides start out hidden from each other, it may be a while until it becomes obvious how unfair it really is.

Cheating

The standard builtin AI mplayer does not cheat; it always plays according to the same rules as you do. This should be true of any AI in Xconq. If you have evidence that would seem to indicate that any AI is using information it should not have, or is otherwise cheating, that is a bug and should be reported. Note that sometimes the AI is smarter than you are, or moves more quickly; it may very well have spotted one of your units and disappeared again without you noticing.

Cheating by human players is possible, though not easy. For instance, a player could examine a saved game and learn all kinds of things, perhaps even starting up a separate game from it. As always, human ingenuity will defeat any purely technical defenses, and the best way to forestall cheaters is to refuse to play with them. If you suspect cheating, look at the game history and the final game statistics for things that seem suspicious.