Mismatch warning in MP game?

[primevalangel]

Hi guys, I just got this warning in Turn 3 of my MP game "Big Deals"; what does it mean? Also, it recommends to abandon the game; what should I do?

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[devoncop]

It means someone may have modded their game which may give them an advantage or they are not on the same version of the game so one of you needs to upgrade to the latest patch

[primevalangel]

Thanks. Now on Turn 4 I've got a different (but similar) message. Why is it different now? Is this feature actively being worked on by the devs? (Pocus should let us know). I've checked Scenarios folder and I don't have mods and game is up-to-date by Steam (1.3.9 x 1000606). Is there a way to know which player is the culprit?
Please note that I haven't played FOGE for a very long time (about 1 year and a half) and this is my first MP game since, so might be something I'm missing.

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[Hyding]

I have never played a mod or an update beta in this game and I'm pretty sure I have always been running the current version of the game before submitting any multi-player turns. I have still seen the first message you mentioned frequently in all of the 5 MP games I have played in. Not every turn but often.

Pocus and the community have addressed this in the forums in the past. When asking about this using the in game chat experience players tell me not to worry about it because the game will not crash over it. The was a problem with MP games hanging up if someone was using an update beta version . That could make all players go idle. That corrected months ago.

[Hyding]

If players are using mods that give them advantages in MP games it would sure be nice if that could be policed or at least be noticed.

[primevalangel]

Thanks, so it might be just that one of the players has a newer/older game version, which is not (intentional) cheating (depending on the changes between versions). It might also be that one player has some mods that do not affect MP games (or are just cosmetic changes, without giving him any advantage)? The Mismatch warning should definitely mention what player is the culprit, so he knows he has to fix the problem (if there is any).

Is the second paragraph "Your scripts..." shown to all players or just the culprit player? How can I find out if I am the culprit (so I can try to fix it)?

Also is it possible to cheat in MP games? Since all player moves are submitted to the Slitherine/Ageod server, the server should check for (and reject) illegal moves.

[Pocus]

The message is not super informative indeed, I'll see with the Archon engine developer if something can be done so it is more precise, but it might be tricky (also, he is super busy!).

One of the issue is that the game detects differences even among graphic files, that can't in anyway alter gameplay. It can be a very mundane change, say a player dislikes the gold pieces icon and replaced it by another!

The Slitherine server does not run your turn, that's just a location where turn are stored then sent back.

[primevalangel]

Thanks Pocus. I guess I will just ignore this message from now on. But please do not remove it completely, so we know sometimes there might be a possible cheater winning by not playing fair. At least the warning will discourage cheaters and remind modders to disable the mods that give advantages.

[Pocus]

Edit: Graphic files are not included in the verification check, my bad. It remains that the change can still be mundane I guess, most of the times players don't intent to cheat, but may have modified a file for their single player game etc.

[primevalangel]

There are checks in place which would warn other players if someone were modding the game in any way.

Hi Pip, that warning is basically appearing in every single MP turn I play, to all the players. Since it seems it is always a "false-positive" (as no cheater has been identified), all players now just ignore this annoying message (if you miss-click the 2 buttons it closes your turn).

Unless the devs add the name of the player (so the issue causing the warning can be further debugged and found), this message should just be removed from the game, as many new players complain about it (in in-game chat).

It's certainly not an issue we are aware of until now. There isn't any real way to know which player has the 'wrong' version of the scripts. I will raise it with the team so they can gather more information. I know that I have an item on my task list to provide more detailed information on which file(s) are causing any sync issues, but if you are seeing them in every game, then either someone in every game is running with altered scripts, or perhaps you have tinkered in some way and have forgotten?

Cheers

Pip

I might have added a mod in the Scenarios folder, then deleted it a few minutes later, and that's all I played with mods (this was long ago, high chance I had reinstalled the game since then). But just to be sure I just uninstalled the game from Steam, deleted Documents\My Games\FIELDOFGLORYEMPIRES folder, and then re-installed it. But I still get the Mismatch warning message in at least 1 MP match (I do NOT get it in 2 other MP matches). Does this guarantee 100% I am not the reason for the Mismatch warning message? Shall I compare gamers from my 12 MP matches to see who appears in matches with warnings but not in the others?

[primevalangel]

I have checked all my 12 MP games, and the Mismatch warning message appears only in the matches with YES:

Big Deals: NO
Wild_East: NO
Succession wars: YES
Roman Republic Roleplay: YES
Wild_West: NO
La legion perdida: NO
La caida de Roma: YES
COLOSSUS: YES
no dlc: NO
SPQR: YES
No major players or greeks: NO
Lets Go Brandon: YES

EDIT: I've compiled a list with players for each match, if it helps identify the cause of the Mismatch warning:

all_matches_warnings.zip

(479.38 KiB) Downloaded 73 times

Can one of the IDLE players be the reason for the Mismatch warning message? I'm asking because if I rule-out all the idle players, and all the non-idle players in matches with no warning, there is only one player who is non-idle in 5 matches with the warning, but he is idle in the 6th (and also idle in 4 of the matches with no warning).

[pipfromslitherine]

The first (single button) message occurs if there are different files between the players in a MP game. The second (with the option to cancel) occurs when you, yourself, have changed files.

As has been said, we are working on adding some additional reporting details to aid players in working out what files might be erroneous.

Cheers

Pip

[vonSchlausewitz]

The first (single button) message occurs if there are different files between the players in a MP game. The second (with the option to cancel) occurs when you, yourself, have changed files.

I doubt that as I can confirm to have gotten that second message before without ever tempering with the game files and using the latest patches.

Is there any known way that my game files could have been changed apart from file corruption (which I have checked through the Steam repair option)?

[primevalangel]

I think I found the cause for the Mismatch warning message:

vonSchlausewitz is right. So before I reinstalled the game yesterday (as mentioned above), I definitely got the 2nd (with the option to cancel) message (not sure if sometimes also the 1st, but usually I remember I got the 2nd). BUT: after the reinstall (and deletion of the Documents\My Games\FIELDOFGLORYEMPIRES folder), I only got the 1st message (without the option to cancel)!

Before reinstall, I never changed the game files, except in the:
1.Documents\My Games\FIELDOFGLORYEMPIRES\SCREENS
and/or
2.Steam folder\userdata\56837538\760\remote\1011390\screenshots
folders I sometimes add new folders to move some of the screenshots in them (to quickly find some of them); sometimes I rename/add/delete the image files. Will this cause the Mismatch warning? Because I did just that and now I get the 2nd (with the option to cancel) message again!

Solution? Deleting all files and folders in SCREENS folder does not bring back the 1st message (without the option to cancel), so maybe once you are flagged as 'cheater', it does not check the files again. I guess I have to reinstall the game again?

EDIT: just reinstalled the game again (and deleted Documents\My Games\FIELDOFGLORYEMPIRES), and I still get the 2nd (with the option to cancel) message; so it does not work

[grahamed]

Hi chaps, i was wondering those of you that have the second type of mismatch error do you use the auto mp login script? Also are you direct or steam based installations?

[primevalangel]

do you use the auto mp login script? Also are you direct or steam based installations?

1. what is "auto mp login script"? I open game, press MP, it asks for user+password (which are already filled), and just press login button.
2. Steam

[grahamed]

do you use the auto mp login script? Also are you direct or steam based installations?

1. what is "auto mp login script"? I open game, press MP, it asks for user+password (which are already filled), and just press login button.
2. Steam

Hi

Page 4 of the fog medieval update notes says

If you add AUTOLOGIN 1 to your User.txt file in /Documents/My Games/FieldOfGloryMedieval,

the game will automatically log in to MP (once you have done it once) when you click the Multiplayer button.

This also works on fog 2 and fog empires. Since it is altering a script, but clearly not a cheat I was wondering if it might be something that contributed to this issue on some setups. I do use it but have not had that issue, although i do sometimes get a windows message that asks me if i am ok to report a multiplayer sycnchronsiation issue to slitherine, which i say yes to ( if i remember to bother)