dharm I've always found there to be a legit reason for what I though was an error. Post the game, year, and move and one of us will happily take a look at it and explain what went wrong with the failed move.

The missed build? Most likely you submitted a chat message before you finalized your build orders. Doing so wipes what you entered. Happens all the time.

I once submitted a move that wasn't processed because I forgot to check the "via land / via convoy" option that appears when there is a convoy route available to the destination of your army, even when that option is a little ludicrous and you didn't consider it.

In that case just check or you can ready...

I knew I'd get responses like that !
As for the build I had TWO, & only one 'appeared' ...
the game was later 'cancelled' so it 'it is gone'

the other : Turkey Fall '02...
http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=77196&viewArchive=Orders#index76

Ain't the first times I see errors BTW !!!

You got the support move backwards. That's why it did not work.

the first "mistake" has been cleared as a mistake from you - regarding the build order, its very likely you ordered two units to be build at the same home center.

By the way, the game engine has been tested very rigorously against a set of test cases. You can read more about that here
http://webdiplomacy.net/datc.php

If you find what appears to be a bug, please try to rule out user error. If you are absolutely certain that it is not, feel free to contact us about it.

Keep in mind that the root cause of many adjudicator bug reports are often just cases of PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair).

Yeah actually I think one day the "to: from:" sequence should be rigorously reversed. Because official diplomacy notation uses the contrary form. It has also gotten me in trouble sometimes.

PEBKAC - cripes! ... LOL :)

The to: from: sequence for support moves is presumably there because it results in far fewer options having to be presented: rather than every unit that could move to a territory adjacent to the unit you're ordering, it only has to show the adjacent territories then the units adjacent to that particular territory. Otherwise eg. the "Army in Bohemia support move from: " dropdown would have 17 options.

PEBMAC = (problem exists between mouse and chair)
. . . . Having problems with your kbd?

Always, *always*, double check your orders and don't assume the game engine is in error if you haven't double checked them with a microscope after. You get an "Epic. Fucking. Fail." from Draugnar (that's me!) for your arrogant "the game engine errored, not me" attitude.

@chrysaetos, that's possible, but I'd actually say that's a good thing. In fact, it would be much cooler to have all provinces and seas in every drop down menu, just like in the real game.

I would love to see the filtering via javascript eliminated and all "from" and "to" provinces listed, *especially* for gunboat as it would more closely emulate what we do when we play gunboat on the judges, which predate this site by a significant number of years (decades even?)

Exactly.

It would be nice if there was a checkbox on the order menu that would turn off the limitations on the dropdowns. That would help world map games because by clicking that it no longer has to figure out what convoy routes are possible. And on gunboat it would allow bogus orders.

Regarding the From: and To: order, one thing that might help protect against backwards support orders would be if it would list the from unit's country owner when not one of your own units. For example: if you wanted Con to support Smyrna-Aegean and Italy was in Aegean, the from box would say "Smyrna" and "ITALY Aegean".

Another option would be to switch the from and to boxes, but have the from box disabled until the to box has been selected. So at least then they are in the correct order, but you still have to select the to first.

"...at least then they are in the correct order, but you still have to select the to first."
Alpha. order, and/or order of 'obvious' relevance ;)

One of the things I miss from other websites (I think Judges) is in gunboat you were able to write false orders that could help with alliances. Nothing crazy but fleet convoy or army support to Switzerland was an offer of friendship. Convoy to an opponents capital was a suggestion of war. It just added a possible dimension of communication without speaking. Just my thoughts...

Just another random thought...what if there was a way to show orders on the right side of the screen. Just for the last season. So say the moves for fall appear on the right if you so choose, like an interactive bar on the right. That way you can see everybody's orders instead of having to switch back and forth between the orders and map? I can do a bit more research as to how that could be set up.