Windows update destroyed my logfile!

[patman]

Welp, after spending a good hour or so learning about VASSAL and generating a rather snappy and humorous logfile (or so I thought!) through Turn 2 of the First Mentoring Scenario for PG-Über, I saved my VASSAL game file (not the logfile, apparently you don't do that until the end, of course!), then was going to turn in for the night, but as I was going to set my laptop to sleep, I saw the "update and shut down, update and restart" options and figured, "yeah, I saved the thing so let's do that". 

Big Mistake.

So the screen comes up with the "these things are preventing update", one of them being VASSAL, and I'm like "uh oh", so I stop the shutdown/update, but one of the VASSAL icons in the taskbar or whatever (there are always 2, except for now) has shut down, and the other one doesn't show me the game. Uh oh. 

So I get it to update. When it comes back, I start up the game I had saved, expecting to see the comments, dice rolls, etc., that I had SAVED, right?

WRONG!

All that stuff is gone. I still have all the pieces in the right places, but the logfile option on the menu says "Start Logfile". Except it's supposed to say "end logfile" because I hadn't ended it yet (that's what you do when you ARE DONE!) Except I guess if you stop and restart, you lose all the logfile stuff (I don't see any file with the name I had assigned that file when I started the logfile).

So, am I screwed, or is that stuff hiding in the file somewhere? And if not, how do I satisfy the PG-Über requirement? Can I just restart the log and submit the Turn 3-5 stuff for full credit? 

And by the way, I already have a 35-year-long contempt and hatred for Microsoft (their products were shoddy and failed me when they first started out, and still are shoddy now). My contempt had abated recently since I think Windows 10 is not that bad, but it screwed me here. 

Sorry to rant, but if anyone knows how to recover the log, I'd be grateful for the advice.

Pat

[Shad]

So, am I screwed, or is that stuff hiding in the file somewhere?

You're screwed.

And if not, how do I satisfy the PG-Über requirement? Can I just restart the log and submit the Turn 3-5 stuff for full credit? 

This is fine. Just add a comment to the start of your log so the mentor who reviews it understands what's happening in case they don't see this thread.

[cjsiam]

Also---regarding stopping and starting....when you finish a session (say you played a few turns) you can stop and end log file...
Then when you start up again, using you .vsav file, you start a new log file (with a name telling you what turn ...up to you...)..

in the end, when you submit, you can submit all your log files---Peter has suggested zipping them up....
so you don't have to leave Vassal open, subject to the "update whims of Mr. Gates"......you can save the progress,
and then start a new one when you sit down again.

from what I understand.
cj

[plloyd1010]

It is actually best to zip them. That way we don't need to do 1 approval and X disapprovals for one scenario. We can step through sequential logfiles if they are named consecutively.

If you lost the first couple turns of a full scenario, we won't be too harsh.  We would still like to see the setup, if you have that saved.

[patman]

Welp, I just lost ANOTHER turn's logfile due to computer freeze-up. Thanks again, Microshit. 

This could be avoided if they would just let you save the actual log file whenever you wanted, rather than it only being able to save when you quit out of VASSAL. Am I really supposed to be quitting out of VASSAL every time I have to stop playing? I only have 15 minute dribs and drabs of time to do this in (given busy life things mentioned above). That coupled with my naive trust that I can just keep a computer with a Microshit operating system running and everything will be fine is my downfall, I guess.

I have taken the precaution of entering all my text describing the action into a text file. And I will have a complete description of the action in that file. But only 2 out of the 5 turns in the actual VASSAL log file! Which I guess is kinda defeating the purpose of the Academy  . But I guess this will teach me to quit and restart VASSAL after every PG activation! 

[Shad]

You running Win95 or something?

[patman]

I actually think Windows 10 isn't that bad. And sometimes you just gotta re-start things, even on Macs. 

But this wouldn't be so bad except for the primitive way VASSAL is set up. I shouldn't have to quit out of VASSAL just to do a maintenance save on the logfile.

[plloyd1010]

What versions of Windows, Java and Vassal are you running? The only , not self inflicted, troubles I have had were fixed by clearing the tile cache.

[Shad]

Why can't you go:

1. File > Begin Logfile
   
2. Make your moves
   
3. File > End Logfile
   

I just did it and it seems ok?

[patman]

To clarify: I am 99% sure that the crash/freeze was NOT caused by VASSAL itself. But VASSAL is very vulnerable to loss of data from random crash/freezes due to the issue with its architecture that I mentioned above. I mean, if I have to quit/save VASSAL after every PG activation to work around random (and unrelated) system crashes or inadvertent reboots for upgrades (which I now know to handle, time for a quit/save) then I will, but letting us save the logfile without quitting would be a nice fix in the future. 

I am using VASSAL 3.2.17. Is there a later version?