[All A17]Custom scenario made with earlier version causes version mismatch error

[Calahan]

FYI - This is not my own bug report, as it is a summary of the extensive and methodical investigative work done by ymc in the following thread, which I link for reference. https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=32149.0

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1.What the circumstances were.
2.What happened.

A new default scenario game was started and some odd Pawn AI behaviour was observed. Inspecting the log from this playing session revealed there was a version mismatch error present. Saving and loading the game both removed the log error and corrected the odd Pawn AI behaviour.

Upon further testing, the following version mismatch log entry seems to be reliably produced if there are any custom scenarios present when starting a new colony that were not created with the current version. Even if you use a default start, and do not even click on any custom scenarios, this log error is still generated.   

Loaded file is from version [insert previous version that the custom scenario was made with], we are running version [insert current version]


3.What you expected to happen.

If you are using a default scenario then the game should not be affected by the existence of any custom scenarios. So it should not matter what version(s) any old custom scenarios that exist were made with, unless those custom scenarios are being used.


4.Steps we can follow to make the bug appear on our machine.

1 - Attached are two scenario files (kindly provided by ymc), created with 17.1528 and 17.129 respectively. Place these in the Scenarios folder (or create and save a custom scenario with an earlier version of the game).
2 - Start a new game with the most recent version (if you made your own scenario then make sure the scenario file is present).
3 - Check the log file for the above mentioned version mismatch error.

If you used the two attached scenario files then the log file should produce the following two errors.

Loaded file is from version 0.17.1529 rev1123, we are running version [insert current version].
Loaded file is from version 0.17.1528 rev801, we are running version [insert current version].

If required, an extensive collection of log files from earlier unstable A17 builds can be found in the reference thread. I will ask ymc to post one with the most recent version if it's needed, but the above reproduction steps should reliably produce one with the aforementioned log error.


As I mentioned at the start, this error doesn't appear to be just an erroneous (ignorable) log error, as there was some odd Pawn AI behaviour that could not be explained (see the OP of the reference thread linked at the top for more details), and which only seemed to occur in the playing session that contained this log error. So this issue might be causing in-game errors for (only) new game starts and not just innocuous log errors. (Edit Calahan - I wonder if this issue is the source of some of the bugs being reported that are resolved with a save and reload. As maybe some of those observing and reporting bugs also have old scenario files present?).

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[ymc]

I think everything is correct, but it would be good if @ymc you could check it over to make sure

I'd like to emphasize that simply possessing an older scenario, via workshop or your own creation, is enough to cause the logfile on new game thing (so plenty of people should be able to verify this).

The reproduction steps are correct, but to rule out any confusion I think we should forget about the AI thing entirely, as it no longer occurs. I believe the inconsistent AI thing is unrelated to the logfile entries you picked up on and was instead fixed by 0.17.1529. I have not seen any remotely similar behaviour in subsequent releases, and I've made plenty of new games since (I just can't seem to survive the difficulties I could in A16 anymore, haha.)

I blindly attributed the 'fix' to turning off Steam synch, when in reality it was because I had thrown my troubleshooting process out the window. The game version had changed from 1528 to 1529, I was loading my save file over and over trying to reproduce the pawn's behaviour (which doesn't make an entry), and I was no longer creating new games like I had in the steps before (where the logfile issue occurs). Once I was satisfied that the AI/logfile thing was over, I created a new game because I was just simply done to death with that other older version save wanted to test the new version from scratch. This is when I resumed a controlled flow of testing, changing one variable at a time, and saving logs.

I believe the logfile thing is just an incidental entry, probably with no actual effect on gameplay. It does still occur in 1532 by the way.
Loaded file is from version 0.17.1530 rev959, we are running version 0.17.1532 rev1003.

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[ison]

We sometimes have to load all scenarios anyway, e.g. to show a list of all available scenarios.

I don't see a bug here, these messages are warnings, not errors, and they don't affect the game. They only inform us that one of the loaded files has a different version in its header. So you can safely ignore them if you know they come from an old scenario.

The warning will now say that it's a scenario file from now on.

Thanks for reporting anyway.