In previous versions of EECH there was a command line switch that went like this:

/pitod:0900

It set the time of day that the campaign started at. While you can set this campaign start time from a few options when you are starting the game yourself. This was the only way to set the time of the campaign, when calling the campaign on a dedicated server (using dedicate.bat for example)

So, the whole line would look something like this:

cohokum /pitod:0900 dedicated:1 game_type:2 gunship_type:2 path:..\common\maps\map6 directory:camp03 filename:yemen.chc

I'm not sure which version it stopped working in, either 1.12.x or 1.13, but it seems this command no longer works.

The result of this command not working is that every time my dedicated server starts a new campaign (either because the previous one has finished, or crashed) it starts the campaign at 00:00 on the first day of the campaign. While this is not a problem (the campaign still starts) it does mean that for the first hours of the campaign it is night, and since the game is known to crash and restart, I have seen it where for several crashed campaigns, only night missions are flown.

Do any of the people who have looked at the code, know if this command is still viable? I have tried it with and without the "/" in front of it. And have tried it at the beginning and end of the command line, and it does not seem to work. Any guidance or light that could be shed on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
AMRAAM.

It appears that option doesn't exist anymore, so no wonder it doesn't work for you. Probably dissapeared when firebird did a rewrite of the options, but don't think it was on purpose.

Thanks for the info Arneh.

Not knowing much about the magic you coders do...would it be possible perhaps to get that option reinstated?

P.S. I'll send the coder who does it a cake. (Everyone in IT likes cake right? )

Yes, shouldn't be hard to do. Though it's not going to be high priority, so don't expect anyone to rush out a new version just to fix this one problem Could you report a bug in the bug database so we don't forget about this?

Thanks Arneh, I have logged a bug in the database.

Cake? Did someone say cake???

I searched the source code but have found no reference of such parameter.
The only time setting I found is "Midday/Morning/..." in user menu, not a specific time.
Are you sure you're talking about EECH?

You can write how?
Is it enough to a normal browser, As it was in DOS, whether it is appropriate for this tool?

edit ok i found , sorry

Yep. It surely was.... I have used it successfully in my batch file for several years now...

Just looking for some information on the net about it. it was listed in a strategy guide or some such.

On page 43 of this guide is a list of the command line options and there is one that sets the time that the Players Tour of Duty starts.

http://www.eechcentral.com/files/Manuals/EECH%20strategy%20guide.pdf

Hmmm... I haven't found player_initial_tour_of_duty too...
Well, I'll search deeper.

The guide also says that "APACHE_HAVOC" environment variable is used for options.
But EECH uses "COMANCHE_HOKUM" one.
Are you sure it is not "copy-paste" from EEAH's manual?

I searched sources for 1.11.0 and 1.10.1 too but haven't found "pitod" too.
Could you please specify any exact version where "pitod" worked?

Holy crap, firebird is back!!!!

Hi Firebird. I'll roll the server back through the version and see if I can confirm the last version that it worked on.

I believe from memory that the last time it worked was when the switches were changed from requiring "/" or not. But I can not remember what version that was.

I will test and let you know.

Okay. Have tested back to 1.12.0 which is far back as I have backups of the Server, and it seems to not be working. Perhaps it did disappear many versions ago and I have just not been checking it? I'm just looking to see if I have the exes to go back further than that.

Well I'm going to have to reinstall the server from scratch to get it working with EECH 1.9 or earlier. And the switch has not been working in any of my tests for later versions. So perhaps it stopped working in/around 1.10?

I believe the entire command line was parsed in the single file. I've got the oldest version of it from the repository and searched for "pitod" - and failed. So, it's all strange.

But I opened aphavoc.exe in text editor - and yes, it has pitod and player_initial_tour_of_duty inside.

Perhaps if you start and save a campaign file then look within the save file for clues. There may be PITOD referance for loading the save file?