Errors and Warnings

Errors are fatal flaws. Xconq must shut itself down in order to prevent a bad situation from getting worse. You may be able to save the game, repair it, and restart it, but you must understand a good deal about the Xconq Game Design Language (GDL) and about how Xconq works. If the error happens during game setup, you will not be able to save anything.

Warnings are advice that something is amiss, but that there is no obvious reason to quit--yet. Warnings may indicate either mistakes in a game design or bugs in Xconq. If you know that a warning does not indicate a serious problem, you can keep playing, but be wary.

If the warning happens during game setup, you will not be able to save. Otherwise you can save, and the game can usually be restored as-is, although the problem causing the warning may still exist, and you'll see the warning again when you restore the game.

Any error or warning not listed below is almost certainly a bug, most likely in a game design, but maybe in Xconq, and should be reported.

Can't find module name anywhere

This means that Xconq searched in the library locations it knows and found no modules named name.

Module name could not be opened

This typically means that although the module was found, it could not be opened; for instance, it might have been read-protected.

Too many players

Some game designs limit the number of players, and you asked for more than that. Ask for fewer.

Requested advantage is too low / high

The game design limits the range of advantages that you may request, and you went outside that range.

Only n of the requested displays opened

(not the most useful message in the world - only document the "xyz could not be opened" message?)

Need at least one display to run

Xconq is an interactive game; a game with no displays at all is sort of pointless, eh?

Images were not found

A game design may not have had graphical images defined for all types of units and terrain. Xconq will warn about this, then make up some (ugly) default images itself. Actual game play will be unaffected, although the default images really are ugly and will want to make you stop playing...

name color is way off on display yyy

It may be that a particular display and its software will not have set up a color that matches what was requested (this can happen in X11, for instance). This has no direct effect on game play, but you may have difficulty if, say, your display shows several different terrain types as having the same color.

Memory exhausted

Some Xconq games are exceedingly large and complex, and it is not unusual that they will need more than that available RAM or swap space. This will typically occur during game setup, since Xconq preallocates nearly all of the space it will need. If you have no way to get more memory, you must choose a smaller game. You can make a given game smaller by choosing the `See All' variant if it is available (no need to record views for each side) or by having fewer players and/or fewer AIs. For instance, instead of playing against 7 AIs, you can play against one AI with an initial advantage of 7.

Can't open statistics file name

(Obvious)

Can't open score file name

(Obvious)

Sides have undesirable locations

Many game designs can specify how close and how far away each randomly placed side should be from all the others, and the kind of terrain each will start on. If the world is too small, or doesn't have the right kinds of terrain, then Xconq will warn about this. The game will still play normally, but it may be grossly unfair, and if the sides start out hidden from each other, it may be a while until it becomes obvious how unfair it really is.