Deleting pieces in 3.5.4 and later

Technical Support & Bugs
1

I have previously reported an issue with the Britannia module. I have been trying to narrow down the issue and it seems to be a core VASSAL issue starting at version 3.5.4.

To reproduce it I need at least two .vlogs.
I start with a fresh 4 player game.
In the first I create a Roman unit in the Icelandic sea.
In the second I delete the Caledonian in the Orkneys.
When I replay these files one after the over the Caledonian is not deleted.

We are using the module version 2.4.1 but it also affects 2.4.

I provide examples for 3.5.4
01-test-V3.5.4.vlog
02-test-V3.5.4.vlog

My operating system is
Linux leonhartsberger 4.19.0-8-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.98-1+deb10u1 (2020-04-27) x86_64 GNU/Linux

2

This does not seem to have caught anyone’s attention. Just to be clear I am claiming it is a bug in VASSAL > 3.5.3 not the Britannia module.

That said it does raise the question why it affects the Britannia module and not other modules. I may still be investigating that question, but I did manage to find a version where this was working in one and then broken in the next.

Or is there a different way of raising bug reports?

3

And just to confirm I tested the bug in version 3.6.0-beta2 and it is still there.

4

Thanks for the report, and the detail you provided, I have been able to reproduce the issue you describe.

I’ve created an issue for it on our Bug Tracker Log replay of delete command behaves differently after load of sebsequent log file · Issue #10405 · vassalengine/vassal · GitHub.

Regards.

1 Like
5

You will find a new build VASSAL-3.6.0-SNAPSHOT-760987a-10405-Reset-pieces-on-load-log at Builds of vassalengine/vassal

Could you please test this and confirm it resolves the problem for you?

Thanks

1 Like
6

Yes, that seems to work.

I am curious what the underlying issue was and perhaps any other impacted games were identified. I am sure it must have been something specific that Britannia was doing but I had a look and I could not see anything especially odd.

7

No, nothing to do with your module.

There was a change made in version 3.5.4 to streamline the process of loading a new log file over top of the existing game. This change was no longer clearing out the existing game state completely before loading the new log file. This was then interfering with the replay of the log. I am not exactly sure why (or why it didn’t cause bigger problems), I didn’t dig deeper once I realised the old state was not being cleared.

I’m wondering if this might also be the explanation for some other unexplained log related issues that have been cropping up.

1 Like
8

Obviously our current work around is to use version 3.5.3. However in the previous game we just loaded the .vlog files with no pre-existing load. If everyone either does that, or plays live or perhaps like Twilight Struggle the module never deletes pieces may be they can miss it.

And as you say it may be that it has been spotted in other guises.