STICKY: Metaverse Help!

Ok, I'm still confused about what I should do after reading afll of the above. I played a game tired uploading it, but got the "application serial number did not match the Metaverse serial number". What do I need to do to upload this game. What is the correct serial number to use. Why is this so confusing?

I've been using the same serial number here for everything I've input and it's been accepted except for the Metaverse. This is very frustrating. Can someone help me? And please don't tell me that this game is lost and cannot be uploaded after I spent hours on it.

Thanks.

Ok, I went to the loader for GalCiv2 and hit the button where it says "update serial number". There number there for GalCiv 2 that it shows is totally different than what Stardock sends me when I email them through SDC for my serial number. So what gives?

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Ok, I'm still confused about what I should do after reading afll of the above. I played a game tired uploading it, but got the "application serial number did not match the Metaverse serial number". What do I need to do to upload this game. What is the correct serial number to use. Why is this so confusing?

Well, what eventually worked for me was:
1. I downloaded the patch mentioned above. Link
2. I went to Stardock Central and clicked on Tools-Lookup serial number (that sends me an email, and I copied the GalCivII serial from the email into the clipboard)
3. Open the game launcher and click on Update Serial number.
4. Paste the serial number from the email.
5. Go to www.galciv2.com, go to Metaverse, then Accounts, the Edit Characters.
6. Create a new character, and paste the serial number there.
7. Go back into the game, click on Metaverse, choose your newly created character, and click on Play to play a new game.

I'm not sure how much of that is necessary, but doing it all can't hurt.

The first game I played still can't get put into the Metaverse (due to that error) but it works for all subsequent games.

Hope this helps,

Stamforth95

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Thanks, I figured out what the problem is. For some reason the game chooses an entirely different serial number than the one Stardock gave me. How did that happen for heavan's sake. Yeah, I can go in and change it, and I think it will work - I'm going to just lose a game after one turn and check to be sure before play ing again. But I'm really ticked - I just lost posting a 35,000+ point game because of this. Can someone at Stardock do me a favor and help me get this game posted? I'm not really happy at losing this game because the game gave me the wrong serial number.

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Ok, the game won't update the original serial number. I created a new character in the Metaverse so I know exactly what serial number to use. I then use that in the launcher to update the serial number. However, the Metaverse won't accept it. When I look at the XML file fof the Metaverse load, it still has the old serial number in it. This is getting pretty frustrating - I can't even load a dummy/test game.

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Ok, I finally figured out the problem. Even though I updated the registration in the launcher menu the game wasn't using it. It was instead pulling it from Stardock Central and was using another registration serial number. I went into Stardock Central and changed it. But I just wonder now if Stardock Central will be screwed up for updates.

I

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Have a few questions about the metaverse.

1. For metaverse ranking, is it only for those above Rank 25?
2. When I view my empire statistics, it says: "Empire : Not in an Empire". But I created both an empire and a character, so what should I do to get that character into that empire? I tried inviting my character into the empire, but I saw nothing happen.

Does anyone know the above answers? Thanks for taking the time to reply.

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Ok the first Metaverse game I played failed to register correctly because of serial key issues..
so I messed a bit with the serials and played a test game with a new character ( resign after 2 turns

)

Tought I'd share 2 observations :
- Though I played as Arceans, my Metaverse character mentions Altarians as favorite race while the medal remains human.
Common issue it seems ?
- Difficulty was listed incorrectly. I tested with 3 intelligent opponents which makes a "tough" game overall not a "painful" one like posted on Metaverse.

Truly minor issues, though perhaps you'd like to check them out.
I must say the Metaverse techies did a fine job the past few days. Its mostly functional right now.

A few more questions though.
-Will you be able to submit a game to the Metaverse that was saved / finished at a later time ?
-Will CTD's "corrupt" a Metaverse game so that it will be considered "cheated".
One of my games was submitted as a cheat. A CTD occured in that game though.
-Are you allowed to use Ctrl-N at the start of a Metaverse map or will this be considered a cheat?

Thx for all the support SD

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Maathyas:

Nah, ranking goes past 25. I'm something like number 78 right now.

Did you create your character/empire recently? It takes a little while for changes to take effect. You might try logging into the Metaverse site, going to "View My Empire" and then choosing "Join Empire", if you haven't tried that already.

Silent Archer:

I'll trade your Altarian for my Arcean!

For one of your questions, you can finish and submit a saved Metaverse game. Just start a game through the Metaverse, play to whenever, and save it. Then when you want to play again, sign in through the Metaverse option again, click through until a new game starts, then go to the menu and load your previous saved game. I dunno if there's an easier way than that, but it works.

My own quirk I noticed today... I've created an Empire called "The Redshirt Brigade". I can't seem to upload a logo for it, however.

I go to: http://metaverse.galciv2.com/index.aspx?g=manageempire

First, when the page loads, IE6 gives an error of:

Line: 329
Char: 103
Error: Expected ')'
Code: 0
URL: http://metaverse.galciv2.com/index.aspx?g=manageempire

I click the "Choose" button by the "Empire Logo" input box on that page. I browse to my 128X128 pixel PNG file. I click the "Upload Logo" button. I can see IE6 working like it uploaded something, but the logo just isn't showing up.

Another oddity is that there is an "empty" image above the "Remove Logo" button also on the Edit My Empire page. If I click on the "Remove Logo" button, it gives me a "Do you really want to delete your Empire's logo?" prompt. If I click "OK", I get an error box that says:

Exception :
Conversion from string "undefined" to type 'Integer' is not valid.s

Please copy this message (Control + C) and notify the site administrators.

Peace & Luv, Liz

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Thanks for the reply Jeysie. Yeh I finally managed to get into my own empire. Took a while for that to happen though. Still its pretty fun to see the results on the Empire lists

But now I am waiting for my own medals to appear in the forums. Oh well guess its one of those days

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Um, similar to Jeysie, I can't edit my empire. I get the same Conversion from string error whenever I try to do anything on the page, which looks like this:

You may wish to note that I took the liberty of opening the dropdown menu under "Empire Status", but it is completely empty. As are the Empire name and other fields. Yet I am listed as being in the empire, at the bottom. Also, which may be related, in-game the Metaverse option still lists me as being Not in an Empire.

Any ideas?

edit: if you look carefully, this picture provides proof positive that I love ice cream.

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Hello - I'm having trouble sending my game to the metaverse - I'm getting an error message about the serial key so I guess I'm using the wrong one. But now I've gone crazy and somehow I think I've got three different serial keys, and three characters of which I'm not sure which ones have which keys. How do I get these to match, or what do I need to do to report a game?

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After correcting my seria number, I could submit a game to the metaverse, and I can see it there in my character, but, the games lists as unranked.
Anyone know why or what it means?
Thks

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My second game was flagged with 'Cheat codes detected' though I didn't use any - savegames have been mailed.
Also, as somebody else allready reported, the difficulty is displayed incorrectly - played on 'tough', game shows up as 'painful'.

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Definitely a problem with the difficulty levels displayed in the Meta submissions. From my profile:

Game 1 - in-game diff = Tough Meta submission diff = Challenging
Game 2 - in-game diff = Crippling Meta submission diff = Masochistic
Game 3 - in-game diff = Suicidal Meta submission diff = nothing displayed

Minor problem only, and I'm sure the folk at SD have much more pressing issues, but I'm also sure you like to know about the probs and will sort them out when you've got some spare time

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Is there a write up on the scoreing for the game. I notice that some people who play a "beginners" difficulty on large somethimes get better scores that some one play cripling on large, which doesn't make sense at first glance.

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If thats the case, which I bet would be because its a closer game on a harder difficulty, maybe there should be some kind of score modifier for playing on a harder level.

Also - I got the one guy working but I still don't know what to do about the serial key problem I had with the other two.

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I keep getting this error when trying to post my Metaverse score after a game:

(16) The results of this game could not be posted to the Metaverse. Would you like to try posting your results again?

I retired, but apparently talking with other gamers, that is not a problem.

I belong to an empire, but when I go to view my account then edit my empire or view my empire, I get to a screen that has blank fields in it, rather than an empire page. Maybe that's the problem? I have no other idea why I could be getting this error.

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If characters are tied to a serial number, there MUST be a way to refresh the serial numbers for our characters, whether that is through deletion or whatever.

Right now, if I create 3 characters with one serial number. Then, a year from now, I lose my serial number and need to reinstall, so I request an email with serial numbers. Well, that email will have a NEW serial number which will NOT match any of your characters and you will never be able to post a game to the Metaverse ever again.

I call that a problem.

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dj-LiTh - Please note that the ranks and score/point calculations are performed only ONCE per day.

Warren Steffen - Users are not permitted to delete characters. Please send your request to delete a character to andrew _at_ stardock.com for review.

Serial Number Issues - Please send your sdnet username along with the serial number you are using to andrew _at_ stardock.com and I'll have a look at them.

maathyas -
1. I'm not sure what you're asking here. Where are you viewing the ranking that this question is related to?
2. You must join an empire after you create it. If you invited your own character to the empire, then check the email address associated with your sdnet account for the invitation email.

TheMissingLink - I'm going to need a screenshot of what you're seeing please.

Finster27 - That's not something thats likely to happen very frequently. That being the case it's not actually a problem as we have some great support staff here If you happen to run into this issue, please let us know and we'll take care of you.

Jeysie - Good bug find. I should have a fix up there for your empire editing issues sometime after noon today EST.

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-Will you be able to submit a game to the Metaverse that was saved / finished at a later time ?
-Will CTD's "corrupt" a Metaverse game so that it will be considered "cheated".
One of my games was submitted as a cheat. A CTD occured in that game though.
-Are you allowed to use Ctrl-N at the start of a Metaverse map or will this be considered a cheat?

You should be able to save a Metaverse game and finish it at a later time. When you finish it, the game should ask you whether you want to submit it to the Metaverse; if you say yes, it'll ask you for your password and then submit it.

A CTD would indicate that there was something wrong with the program's internal state, so it's possible that a game that crashes could be flagged as a cheat. However, there's no direct correlation between crashes and cheat flagging.

A game started via Ctrl+N is not flagged as a cheat.

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I keep getting this error when trying to post my Metaverse score after a game:

(16) The results of this game could not be posted to the Metaverse. Would you like to try posting your results again?

Next time you see this problem, send the debug.err file that the game creates in the game's installation directory (typically, that would be c:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2) to gc2bugs@stardock.com along with a brief description of the problem (eg., "Couldn't post my game to the Metaverse."). Alternatively, you can copy the Metaverse-specific error messages and post them to this thread and we can diagnose the problem that way. You can identify the Metaverse-specific error messages by looking for "RPC error code" in their text.

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Hm, is it possible to 'de-flag' my submitted game that was falsly flagged as 'cheat', or do I just have to live with it?

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Is there a write up on the scoreing for the game. I notice that some people who play a "beginners" difficulty on large somethimes get better scores that some one play cripling on large, which doesn't make sense at first glance.

The score is calculated by taking a number of factors into account. Game difficulty, galaxy size, population, research, economy and military all figure into the score and each has its own weight. Also, the longer you take to win a game, the lower your score will be. So, it's conceivable that a game won at "beginner" could have been short enough to out-score a "crippling" game.

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Thx CaretFarmer for answering my questions.

@ Andrew : When we receive the game box can we update our characters' serials through you ?
I don't feel like creating a new char and losing my scores because my box arrived.

PS : You guys still have to fix the erroneous difficulty / favorite race / medal listing soo... get back to work

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Definitely a problem with the difficulty levels displayed in the Meta submissions.

Unfortunately, there isn't necessarily a 1:1 correspondence between the difficulty level you select when starting a game and the difficulty level reported to the Metaverse. The difficulty level reported to the Metaverse is the average intelligence of your opponents, which doesn't always correspond to the difficulty level you select when you start a game. For example, if I start a game on "Normal" difficulty but set all of the opponents' intelligences to "Fool", the Metaverse will record that game as being played at "Easy". And, even if I don't change the intelligence of my opponents, at the higher difficulty levels the difficulty-to-intelligence correspondence no longer holds. Therefore, you'll see discrepancies between the game's difficulty level and the difficulty level reported on the Metaverse because they're really not related. In fact, it would probably make sense to change what the Metaverse calls "difficulty" to actually be something like "average intelligence".

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