I just discovered an important clue in the infamous "DEFEAT" bug in ShadowEra. I used to encounter this bug all the time in October 2012, then the bug went away for a month or two (I thought it must have been fixed), but now it is BACK. I've gotten the bug twice today. BUT, I discovered a very interesting clue, which I think will help the developers fix the problem. The clue is below.
BUG REPORT:
DESCRIPTION: When playing ShadowEra, and it is the other player's turn, there is a very long pause (two minutes maybe) where it seems like the other player is letting the timer run out, then ShadowEra announces "DEFEAT" even though it was NOT your turn, and you might even be way ahead. You still get the RANKING benefit as though you WON (weird), but you DON'T get the experience points or the gold from the win.
PLATFORM: iPhone 4
VERSION OF ShadowEra: v1.612
STEPS TO REPRODUCE: Bug occurs when ShadowEra says, on both players' screens, that it is the other player's turn. (That is the CLUE!) You can see this in your server logs of a game I played about an hour ago. Please look in your server logs for a game between "Illusionator" (me) and "Duke1977", that ended at about 1:00pm Eastern Time on Dec. 15, 2012. We were part way through the game. Neither of us had a clear advantage. I finished my turn, and pressed "END TURN." Screen showed "Duke1977's Turn". I waited for a minute or so. Then, I sent a text message through the game that simply said "?", because I didn't know what Duke1977 was waiting for. Duke1977 replied with "Your turn". I replied to that with "Bug...says your turn". Duke1977 said "Weird. Offer draw?". I sent the message "OFFER DRAW", but it was too late, the game timed out and said "DEFEAT" on my screen (even though I hadn't lost). It also INCREASED my Ranking to 245 (as though I had won), but did not give me the experience or gold from a win. BOTTOM LINE: Both our screens showed it was the other player's turn, until it finally timed out and showed "DEFEAT" on my screen.
HYPOTHESIS: I think this problem occurs when there is some kind of communication error (that is not visible to either player), so that when one player clicks "END TURN", the message somehow doesn't get sent all the way to the other player's game. So, on both players' screens, it shows it is the other player's turn. Game finally times out, and one (or both) players screens say "DEFEAT," but BOTH players get a Ranking that credits the game as a WIN, but the player (or players) that see the "DEFEAT" message don't receive the experience or gold from the win.
POSSIBLE FIX: This is just an idea, but one possible way to fix this bug might be if there is a long pause, for the game to send a message to the other player's game asking for the status, to see if that other player clicked "END TURN". This would be a fail-safe, in case the "END TURN" communication doesn't make it all the way through the network to the other player.
I would LOVE it if the ShadowEra developers could PLEASE fix this bug. It is SO discouraging to be playing a great game, then suddenly get a long pause (when it shows it is the other player's turn) and then says "DEFEAT" on the screen. What a gigantic bummer. Thanks so much for listening!
-- Randy Forgaard
ShadowEra ID: Illusionator
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