Online League Passwords

[cochrane]

I think one of the most frustrating aspects of OOTP2007 is the complete lack of Human Manager password control for online leagues. I'm in a league with 15 managers and I set their passwords to something they could change later, except every single one of the managers could not use any of the passwords I set; even after deleting them and readding them (btw, that's just dumb to have to do that, because it creates news files every time to announce the hiring).

To test this, I tried the password that I set and it did not work, either. Same system I set the passwords on.

I'm using the Windows version, no beta patch.

So, my question is, what's the problem?

-- ZC

[cochrane]

Follow-up: I deleted all the managers (except myself) and re-added them with no password. They set their own, and then on the next update the password they set is not working, either.

Please help, because this is becoming more and more frustrating.

-- ZC

[Curtis]

I'm not an expert at online play (and therefore should just stay out of this), but I was under the impression that only the commissioner needed a password. If that's the case, adding passwords to non-commissioners may not be supported.

[bp_]

Originally Posted by cochrane

Follow-up: I deleted all the managers (except myself) and re-added them with no password. They set their own, and then on the next update the password they set is not working, either.

Please help, because this is becoming more and more frustrating.

-- ZC

I don't get it...I am in two online leagues using 2007 and we have no problems with the passwords. Are you sure all the file imports went through error free when you uploaded?

And, managers can set their own passwords on the manager options screen.

[cochrane]

I'm in another online league and no problems. And managers have set their own passwords on their own screens (read my follow-up). I use the OOTP2007 uploaded, so it's really up to the internal FTP it uses to check against errors.

-- ZC

[cochrane]

I double-checked the uploads; the GMs are able to download the league file without problems. I'm using the FTP uploader from within the application, not an external program.

Bump for assistance.

-- ZC

[Qrashman]

I dont know what the heck the problem could be. Passwords work fine in my sim league whether I set them or the owners set them and send it with their export.

[bp_]

Originally Posted by Qrashman

I dont know what the heck the problem could be.

Same here. There are tons of online leagues out there and no one has had this problem. I'd go through again and make sure you have everything set up correctly for online play.

[cochrane]

When you say 'have everything set up correctly for online play,' I guess the fact that GMs are downloading the file doesn't already indicate that I've tested an FTP connection. I have everything set up for online play; I'm not running a solo league, here.

I'm going to try using a third-party FTP application to see if a file corruption is a possible problem, though I have downloaded the file myself and the passwords I entered did not work. I'm also uploading to an alternate site to see if it's a server-side issue. One GM is reporting that he has to download twice before manually extracting the .tar.gz file after a sim is completed; so possibly the archive is corrupted from creation or from uploading. Though, when I extract the archive located on the local machine, the passwords /do/ work.

Btw, the responses in this forum have been less than helpful. Telling me that tons of online leagues out there have no problem doesn't help me, but tells me that you guys either a) think I'm crazy or b) think I'm lying... neither of which are remotely close to resolving the issue being reported. And I've been working technical support for over a decade.

-- ZC

PS: I've since patched. This has not resolved the issue, either.

[Nutlaw]

Originally Posted by cochrane

Btw, the responses in this forum have been less than helpful. Telling me that tons of online leagues out there have no problem doesn't help me, but tells me that you guys either a) think I'm crazy or b) think I'm lying... neither of which are remotely close to resolving the issue being reported. And I've been working technical support for over a decade.

Sir, all of the people responding here are either volunteers or are simply other players who are commenting upon the issue. I understand that you are frustrated, but no one thinks that you are crazy or lying. They are simply saying that they don't know what the problem is. We don't know what is different about your situation that is making it not work.

[Zeyes]

Originally Posted by cochrane

Btw, the responses in this forum have been less than helpful. Telling me that tons of online leagues out there have no problem doesn't help me, but tells me that you guys either a) think I'm crazy or b) think I'm lying... neither of which are remotely close to resolving the issue being reported.

No, they're saying that it's a problem that is not reproducible by them and/or hasn't been reported by anybody else despite the feature getting plenty of use. I know it can feel a bit disrespectful, but since you're doing tech support yourself, surely you know that the great majority of such problems are user errors, so that's what the support response has been geared towards up to this point. That doesn't preclude the possibility that you've uncovered a real problem, but I hope you'll appreciate that the nature of never-seen-before errors in otherwise functioning parts of software makes them rather difficult to handle without direct access.

[cochrane]

No one here has once tried to troubleshoot the issue. They've only offered vague and ambiguous solutions.

Having worked technical support as long as I have, I've asked questions to try and figure out or troubleshoot the problem. No one here has said much else beyond, "Everyone else doesn't seem to have this issue." And I realize that I might be the problem, but so far, I've checked, rechecked, and checked once more to make sure all my online settings were correct. I update with that information, and all I get is, "Everyone else doesn't seem to have this issue."

I'm happy for the majority of OOTP users who aren't experiencing this problem, but it impacts me and it impacts the 17 GMs playing with me. And this is a brand new league, so the problems don't just frustrate me, but them as well. The problem itself is frustrating enough without people simply making a comment on the issue. As I told one of the GMs, it feels like I'm drowning and everyone else is commenting on how they've got a rubber boat and I don't. Good for everyone else... I'm still drowning! :P

Since I have to try and troubleshoot this problem myself, I'll update with what I find out. And in the future, maybe you guys need to make it clear that you're all volunteers and that having a 'logged issues' forum sets an expectation that might not be correct.

-- ZC

[Zeyes]

In fairness, you kinda invited all the "it's working for me" posts with your original post which clearly assumed that this is a universal problem.

Anyway, I'm blissfully ignorant of anything related to online leagues so maybe I shouldn't even comment, but I'll throw out one thought anyway...which file are the passwords saved in? Maybe it's a read-only/write-protection issue?

[cochrane]

Originally Posted by Zeyes

In fairness, you kinda invited all the "it's working for me" posts with your original post which clearly assumed that this is a universal problem.

Anyway, I'm blissfully ignorant of anything related to online leagues so maybe I shouldn't even comment, but I'll throw out one thought anyway...which file are the passwords saved in? Maybe it's a read-only/write-protection issue?

The only general comment I made about OOTP2007 was when I mentioned that managing human manager passwords was frustrating within the game, especially when you have a high number of GMs and they all need a new password. You have to delete them and re-add them, which is tedious.

It's saved in human_managers.dat and it's not write-protected.

-- ZC

[cochrane]

More information: I've uploaded the file to an alternate site and downloaded it. Opened it on 3 computers and it worked fine. Had another GM download it from both, and it won't work for him on 2 computers.

I'm totally at a loss... but we're looking into it a bit more.

-- ZC

[sporr]

Have the owners downloaded a full league file manually prior to trying to use the in-game update?

[cochrane]

Originally Posted by sporr

Have the owners downloaded a full league file manually prior to trying to use the in-game update?

Yes.

-- ZC

[Nutlaw]

Originally Posted by cochrane

More information: I've uploaded the file to an alternate site and downloaded it. Opened it on 3 computers and it worked fine. Had another GM download it from both, and it won't work for him on 2 computers.

I'm totally at a loss... but we're looking into it a bit more.

-- ZC

By that you mean that the file download worked or that the password change worked?

[cochrane]

There was no password set, this time around. Now we have reports of a 'corrupted database or previous version' error on top of the passwords not working.

-- ZC

[Nutlaw]

Originally Posted by cochrane

There was no password set, this time around. Now we have reports of a 'corrupted database or previous version' error on top of the passwords not working.

-- ZC

Are you all using the same version of the game? Did some recently patch and some not?