Update: After playing around with the interface, I found that if I try to order to move army Armenia to Sevastopol via convoy (not that I want to) it returns the following error. "alert Parameter 'viaConvoy' set to invalid value 'Yes'.

In other words it will not allow me to move an army from Armenia either overland or via convoy.

send an email to the moderators to get their attention. And list the game i.d. (you can simply go to the game and copy the address bar link).

maybe you are in check.

Could you please clarify what you mean when you say I am in check?

Also sorry for the really stupid question, but how do I contact the mods?

I'm quite new to the Webdiplomacy community and I am sadly quite clueless as to who the mods are and how I can contact them. The website as currently designed doesn't clearly provide information about how I should go about contacting them. It doesn't say anywhere in the FAQ who the mods are and what their contact info is.

It's no problem. And they put the mod email in WebDip "rules", don't ask me why, it does belong in FAQ's. [email protected]

"maybe you are 'in check' " was a chess joke - when in check, online games won't let you move other pieces :)

good luck. Make sure you give them the game ID by copying the address bar from the game.

Thank you so much! I thought that was a chess joke, but I just wanted to be sure. :)

hi, i can pause the game and take a look.

i haven't seen this reported.

as the javascript is running on your computer, and it is this which generates the orders, i suppose it is important to enquire, what version web browser are you using? and does it fully support javascript?

oh, and i'm a mod... i'm sure a better mod will be around soon.

I'm currently using Firefox 3.6.17. I have since tried performing these same orders using IE Version 8.0.7600.16385 with the same error. I will try Chrome shortly. Note that I have been using Firefox regularly to play Webdiplomacy for the past several weeks without any problems. In fact there are other games I am currently in where the orders have processed without hitch. And this is the first time this game I've run into any problem at all.

It's happened to me on vdip, which uses much the same code. Sometimes clearing your cache works.

i kicked you from the game and joined myself.

it's very odd. i've never seen it like that.

you seem to be able to enter orders without specifying 'via land' just leave that drop down blank. and it accepts them normally. i'm not sure if via convoy will work.

It totally baffled me too. By the way, I really appreciate the prompt response. I know that we all have other responsibilities and you guys do this unpaid.

Is this still an issue?

@orath

Are you sure leaving a field blank will complete the order? I was fairy sure it would be considered incomplete.

It's still an issue in the sense that if I order Army Armenia to move to Sevastopol via convoy you get the error: "Parameter 'viaConvoy' set to invalid value 'Yes'." Once you attempt to issue this order, the interface prevents you from issuing an order to Army Armenia to move overland. When you attempt to do this you get the error: "Parameter 'viaConvoy' set to invalid value 'No'."

However it seems that you can reset the interface somewhat by changing the move order to any other order (a hold, support hold, or support move) and then saving the order. But it still doesn't let you complete the third box.

Well, let me give it a shot and see if I can be of any more help.

It works now, but I don't know how to kick myself from the game : ) Just a sec...

For anyone who's interested:

I changed the order to move to a different location and specified via land. This somehow reset whatever wasn't working and afterwards, I was able to issue the proper order.

But, seriously, I need to find another mod to help me get out of this game.

OK, Bigmac, you can join again.

Although, I just realized this will probably put a resign on my record. Not cool... : /

abgemacht, I can't join again. When I go to the game page it says that you are still playing as Turkey.

Nvm. This must have changed recently.

Glad you could get back in. Luckily, I didn't get any resigns. Wish I had thought of this mod account earlier though.

So, did that fix everything for you?

Well, it fixed it in the sense that I can now issue the order I wanted to. It didn't fix the underlying issue, namely that issuing an order to convoy army Armenia to Sevastapol will prevent the interface from working properly until you order an alternate order first. That being said, I can't think of any possible reason why I would issue that order in the first place, (why move to Sevastopol from Armenia via convoy when the two territories are adjacent).

It's definitely a functional fix that I'm pleased with. :) Although if someone gets the chance, someone should look into the code to see what the cause of this bug is.

Again, I really appreciate the prompt response. It's really great that you mods are willing to do all this stuff for the community.

I will be sure to report it to the powers-that-be. I can tell you that this isn't always reproducible, as I've certainly made that move before and haven't noticed such an error.

Oh, and there are plenty of reasons to want to convoy. I'm not going to mention them, because this is an active game, but if you care, you can ask me later.

I think this is one of those random oddities that Kestas hasn't been able to catch in the wild or reproduce in the lab.

Usually setting the affected units to Hold and saving and then setting back to move will clear it.

@Alderian

That's what I (and presumably orath) tried first, but it didn't help.

wow. what a random problem. glad its fixed.

+1 to Bigmac for being so calm and mature about all this, and a huge round of applause for the Mod team!!

*clap clap clap* . seriously second Bigmac, you guys rock and thank you for all that you do.

@abgemacht, after this game is finished, I will probably take you up on your offer and ask why I might want to convoy an army from Armenia to Sevastapol. The only reason I can think of is if you had a fleet in Sevastapol, and for whatever reason you wanted it to swap places with Army Armenia.

@Bigmac - based on something else you mentioned (not being able to take over at one point) I would suggest you check your browser and make certain it isn't caching pages from webdiplomacy.net. Caching pages can sometimes cause problems.

@abgemacht

"That's what I (and presumably orath) tried first, but it didn't help."


exactly, though i tried all other possibilities.
you get 1 red exclamation mark when there is an error. I'm glad i was able to reproduce it, so it's not just your browser - which is what i would have dismissed this as.

it is the javascript order generation, but i don't know how that works (as i've only looked at the how maps are stored for making variants on v(ariant)dip)

It looks like it was generating the order correctly (at least from what i could see) however it wasn't verifying the order as correct (hence the error message) The fact that it allowed me to save an order with a blank form element (so army Armenia to Sev blank in the via convoy/land) is odd, and it also accept that as a correct order (which is wrong, with explicit convoys you HAVE to specify via land where that is possible...)

I was talking about this with kestas recently. I should really have kept it paused until he came along to test it 'live and wild'

hopefully this testing will give him enough insights.

By the way, the game is still paused if you would like to take it over and pass it on to kestas. I really wouldn't mind if it helps debug the interface. It's a fairly small pot game, and in the grand scheme of things one game isn't all that big of a deal.

ok, changed my mind. Big mac, you're entirely right, this should go to kestas for a proper fix.

i've explained - i hope - on the global chat.

Bigmac, can you please reproduce on Chrome? i've only tried it on firefox.

Thanks for pointing this out bigmac; I've played around with it and clearly it's a bug. I've taken a database backup so that the game can continue on and I can debug it when I get a chance to

Thanks orathaic for pausing and letting me know also, hopefully I'll track down and fix this now that I have something repeatable to work with

kestas, if you could please either unpause the game or post a note in global chat telling the other players what you've just posted here that would be great. I suspect that some of the players in the game may not unpause it if they don't know that you've already taken a database backup.

Thanks!

I posted in global for you.

I've also run into this error a couple times in live games, and my work around has always been ordering the unit to actually convoy somewhere, saving that order, then reordering it to my original destination via land. Always very frantically.

This should now be fixed. Via convoy orders are validated by being checked against a set of generated options, but these options are only generated when the place you're moving to gets validated.
If you're not moving to a new place the options won't get generated, and neither via convoy or via land will be accepted (this is why gramilaj's work-around of moving somewhere else then moving back works)

This came about because before javascript-generated orders all options were re-generated on the server every time, even when you hadn't changed anything

Thanks again for pointing this out

This thread is much win. Well done by everyone involved, and an interesting read. :-)