2.7 Lobby + Bots Available & Early Testing Phase

[Panther]

@lafayette

With 2.7.15494 the "Centering on Capital" of the active player still does not seem to work:

(Map: WWII Global 1940 Second Edition, Lock Map is deactivated)

[Cernel]

@LaFayette Cool. If anyone wants to play a game of "270BC Wars" on the latest TripleA, let me know here, so we can do some testing this way.

[wc_sumpton]

@Panther said:

With 2.7.15494 the "Centering on Capital" of the active player still does not seem to work:

Yes and no.
"World War II Global 1940 2nd Edition" 'first' step is technology, which can be switched in "Game Options". Turned 'on' map will center. Turned off map does not center.
Please see discussion here.

Cheers...

[Cernel]

@lafayette Two problems on 2.7.15494.

Joining the lobby, I don't see my name on the right bar (nor anyone else's, but I assume I'm the only one in the lobby at the moment).

Hosting via the "Host Game" button is not showing in the lobby list (as I only see the 6 automated hosts in there). The host itself looks fine: I made a turn by myself.

[Cernel]

I cannot enter the automated host. Faling, it prompts me to report to TripleA but also fails to do so. It says "[500 Internal Server Error] during [POST] to [https://prod.triplea-game.org/support/error-report] [ErrorReportClient#uploadErrorReport(ErrorReportRequest)]: [RESTEASY003880: Unable to find contextual data of type: jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest]".

[Cernel]

Cernel said:
Hosting via the "Host Game" button is not showing in the lobby list (as I only see the 6 automated hosts in there). The host itself looks fine: I made a turn by myself.

Clicking on Network, I've the option to click on "Remove Game From Lobby", so it looks like the game itself "believes" to be connected to the lobby (even though it is nowhere to be seen).

[Cernel]

I'm in the new lobby at the moment. I've just tried to type in the lobby chat, but I see nothing in there other than

Welcome to the TripleA lobby!
Please no politics, stay respectful, be welcoming, have fun.

Donation Drive
https://forums.triplea-game.org/category/41/donation-drive-2025-26

[beelee]

@Cernel

yea I just went there with 15497 and I couldn't type anything either. The 15447 one I was able to.

Edit
15474

Edit 2
Yea works on 15474

[TheDog]

@beelee
I get

then I click on TripleA Forum, it goes dark

then click on a white area and it returns

It is a bit weird, but for now I can cope with it.

[LaFayette]

Do be sure all to use the latest game client! The support server is not compatible with clients from before today.

Some more fixes landed today:

Game Updates

• [fix#14351] fixed crash when playing 2.5 saves of greyhawk_wars in 2.7
• [fix#14352] fixed crash when AA guns fire during an 'edit mode' combat
• [fix#14293] courtesy of @Sandli11, improves error message when map XMLs are missing a required open parens in certain fields. Previous crash message was completely cryptic. New crash message is clear and has a line number
• [fix#14353] fix (game-client lobby) crash when lobby games reconnect to the lobby

(Maps) Support-Server Update

• [fix#69] (very nice!) Fix map server crashing at about map 50 during indexing. Now proceeds past errors and finishes indexing all (~300) maps

Lobby Updates

• Lobby no-chatters & no chat is fixed, re-deployed latest lobby. Check that you have the latest game client if you see issues there

Website Updates

• [eba1f535] Collage image replaced by image carousel on homepage, now live

Upcoming Updates

• AFAIK no critical fixes/updates needed
• Migration of Map Tags and Moderator Toolbox UIs to HTML
  • I'm thinking of replacing most of the moderator toolbox with webpages (currently available in the Lobby UI for moderators). As HTML, that's less Java code, and overall fairly simple HTML
  • The lobby now supports a dynamic message from database, similarly managing that via HTML webpage would be good
  • Map tags are administered in the moderator toolbox. It's a poor fit, poor UI, and also would be better as an HTML page
• Enhance website SEO. We really want to try and win the keyword "free wwII strategy game". Turns out our maps is the biggest gold mine we have for SEO. If our maps are all plastered with "world war II" and the website has "free strategy game" all over the place, we have a hope to start ranking well in the search results.
• Upgrade/versioning capabilities to be enhanced. The server now reports what the latest version of TripleA is, I need to be sure that is a good UX.
• UI/UX tweaks. FlatLaf is still a contender. Though overall I think a pass at UI would go a long way. The UI looking roughly the same as it did from 15 years ago is nostalgic, but was and remains ugly.
• Roll out of refreshed dice server. Ensure that error messaging is good and clear (eg: user not found should give a message like that, and not a cryptic java stack trace)
• gather release notes! There's a lot of updates.

Wish List Updates if I can

• 'same luck' dice rolling. Like low luck, except the dice roll value is also the same.
• technical:
  • remove Feign in favor of HttpClient
• font size settings (allow font size to be increased)

[LaFayette]

@Cernel not many people can still host (myself included), coudl you double check the hosting issue; with luck that should look good now.

[Cernel]

@lafayette

Joining the lobby, I don't see my name on the right bar (nor anyone else's, but I assume I'm the only one in the lobby at the moment).

Fixed.

Hosting via the "Host Game" button is not showing in the lobby list (as I only see the 6 automated hosts in there).

Fixed.

I cannot enter the automated host.

Not fixed.

I get

error in call: Remote method call, method name: speakerAdded remote name: _ChatControl_games.strategy.engine.framework.ui.ServerStartup.CHAT_NAME  IllegalArgumentException: argument type mismatch

Faling [sic], it prompts me to report to TripleA but also fails to do so.

Fixed.

This is the report I just made:
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/14358

I'm in the new lobby at the moment. I've just tried to type in the lobby chat, but I see nothing in there other than

Welcome to the TripleA lobby!
Please no politics, stay respectful, be welcoming, have fun.

Donation Drive
https://forums.triplea-game.org/category/41/donation-drive-2025-26

Fixed.

Summarising, everything I reported the last 24 hours was fixed except the fact that I still cannot enter bots.

Other issues (not necessarily problems):

If I join as "Cernel" while already being in lobby as "Cernel", I only see one "Cernel" in lobby. I think it was better the previous behaviour, where the second "Cernel" would be named "Cernel (1)", then "Cernel (2)" and so on. Alternatively, having that joining with a new "Cernel" has everyone already in lobby named as "Cernel" being booted out already, assuring that only the latest joining "Cernel" remains in lobby. The reason you want to join again as "Cernel", beside testing, is that sometime you get ghosted, so you join again (and you are called "Cernel (1)" while there is in lobby the ghost called "Cernel").

On the other hand, I have joined the lobby as "Cernel", hosted a game, then joined again the lobby as "Cernel" and joined my game hosted by the previous "Cernel". In this case, the second "Cernel" was actually "Cernel (1)" inside the host only.

I can right-click my name and slap myself. I'm not seeing why.

I can right-click my name and ignore myself LOL. This disallows me from seeing what I write in chat, which I don't think is a good thing.

I can mute myself. I guess this is the virtual version of biting your tongue but still LOL.

I can disconnect myself. Not sure about this.

I can ban myself, apparently. I don't think this is good. I remember of a guy who asked to be banned from TripleA because he was too addicted, but I don't think we want virtual seppuku.

In my opinion, I think it is better only to have the "Show Player Info" option when right clicking yourself. By "yourself" I mean only the user itself. For example, if I join a second time as "Cernel (1)", that is not myself as the previous "Cernel" (so "Cernel" should be able fully to interact with "Cernel (1)" and vice versa as if they are two different users).

This is not really an issue: it is just how it goes: as always, you (or at least I) cannot host while being on a VPN. I forgot to disable the VPN before hosting, so it failed. Then I disabled the VPN without closing the lobby first, and (of course) this made my connection to the lobby fail.

This is the error report I made when I got the error because I disconnected the VPN while being in lobby (I don't think this is a problem.):
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/14356

I assume it is still not possible to host with a VPN? If it is possible, I would be interested in trying it out (as it's a bit annoying having to remember to disable it each time), but I need information on what exactly I have to do to make myself able to host via VPN, but only if it does not require too much effort (meaning without having to do things like contacting anyone providing the VPN or giving away my information other than my IP).

[LaFayette]

@Cernel Helpful feedback, I think some of those other lesser issues might be quick fixes. I updated the bots to the latest, looks to have resolve the inability to connect.

re: VPN, I think there was a service that is available that can be configured for hosting via VPN. Overall, the efforts/focus I hope will quickly shift to implementing a TripleA 'relay', that will be a massive simplification and change how networking is done.

[Cernel]

@LaFayette said:

I updated the bots to the latest, looks to have resolve the inability to connect.

Joined the automated host successfully and played the first turn successfully but got these errors in the chat:

Bot-Bot-us-west-103:  [ERROR] Failed to save game to file: /home/bot/triplea/savedGames/autoSave/autosave_Bot-Bot-us-west-103_autosaveBeforeBattle.tsvg
Bot-Bot-us-west-103:  [ERROR] Failed to save game to file: /home/bot/triplea/savedGames/autoSave/autosave_Bot-Bot-us-west-103_autosaveAfterBattle.tsvg
Bot-Bot-us-west-103:  [ERROR] Failed to save game to file: /home/bot/triplea/savedGames/autoSave/autosave_Bot-Bot-us-west-103_autosaveBeforeEndTurn.tsvg
Bot-Bot-us-west-103:  [ERROR] Failed to save game to file: /home/bot/triplea/savedGames/autoSave/autosave_Bot-Bot-us-west-103_autosaveAfterCombatMove.tsvg
Bot-Bot-us-west-103:  [ERROR] Failed to save game to file: /home/bot/triplea/savedGames/autoSave/autosave_Bot-Bot-us-west-103_autosaveBeforeBattle.tsvg
Bot-Bot-us-west-103:  [ERROR] Failed to save game to file: /home/bot/triplea/savedGames/autoSave/autosave_Bot-Bot-us-west-103_autosaveAfterBattle.tsvg
Bot-Bot-us-west-103:  [ERROR] Failed to save game to file: /home/bot/triplea/savedGames/autoSave/autosave_Bot-Bot-us-west-103_autosaveAfterNonCombatMove.tsvg

EDIT: The game I played is "270BC Wars". Only did the first "Carthage" turn (and previous "barbarians" sub-turn).

[Cernel]

Where is that thing which you were able to open to see all the log of the errors and else you got while playing the game (I mean both for local gaming and while hosting)? Has it been removed? I think it was a good thing to have.