Droidippy Android FAQ

What kind of an FAQ is this?

This is the FAQ for the Android interface to the Diplomacy like game Droidippy.

For gameplay questions that are the same regardless of interface, go to Droidippy Gameplay FAQ.

How do I join a game?

When you first start the application, press 'Menu' and then 'Play' and 'Join random game'. You will be duly warned about having to know what you are getting into, and then you will get the option to rank the European great powers of 1901 according to how much you want to play them in the game.

How do I chat?

You use the black arrows at the bottom of the map view to switch mode between map, chat and orders. In the chat view you will be able to talk to any other player one on one, or with all of the players at the same time in the 'Conference' channel.

You will also be able to select if you want a draw, or if you give up, using the 'Intent' spinner.

And how do I give orders to my units?

You can pinch to zoom and pan on the map, and when you long click (more than 1/2 second) your own units (those starting in the country mentioned in the title bar of the application) you will get a menu of orders to enter.

But the map moves when I try to long click the units, and nothing happens!

Press the menu button, select 'Preferences' and try different values for 'Long click sensitivity' until you find one that suits your taste.

I am unable to pinch to zoom, how can I select my units?

In the preferences you can select 'Show zoom buttons', which will give you a '+' and a '-' button in the map view that enables you to zoom in or out without using pinch.

Why do I keep getting the "This game client is too old..." message? I have upgraded!

For some reason Android sometimes doesn't clean up the old installation properly when you upgrade. Try uninstalling and then reinstalling the application.

I am told I need to upgrade my client, but there is no updated version on the Android Market?

Sometimes Android Market is really bad at disseminating new versions. I have no idea why. In these cases you may have more luck if you download the installation file directly from http://droidippy.oort.se/web/static/Droidippy.apk.

I am getting really annoying errors about the server experiencing errors, or that the server did not respond as expected. Fix it!

Chances are that I have already fixed it. Try to upgrade to the latest Market version, and if that doesnt help use http://droidippy.oort.se/web/static/Droidippy.apk.

If that doesn't help either send me an email to droidippy-mod@oort.se.

For some reason I am unable to leave the preferences dialog. Maybe 'back' does nothing, and maybe if I restart the app it will bring me back to the preferences... what to do?

To alleviate this problem (which is really a bug in your phone, scouts honor!) I have made the preferences dialog close if you click the version tag at the bottom.

Incidentally, it will also copy the version string to your clipboard so as you can send me the proper version of the app when you report bugs and ask for help :D

I no longer get notifications in my phone. Instead I get emails. Please send me notifications like before!

To send notifications I use a Google service named C2DM. The phone registers to C2DM and then sends the subscription ID to the server which uses the subscription to send you notifications.

The reason you get emails is that the server either has no subscription ID for you, or that C2DM claims the subscription ID is invalid. If your phone is turned off for too long, for example, the subscription ID may get marked as invalid.

If the notifications only fail for you and not everyone else chances are that it is either your subscription or C2DM that is at fault.

In both cases it may help to resubscribe to the C2DM service. This will happen if you reboot the phone or if you uninstall and reinstall the game.

If none of these solutions work for you, please contact me at droidippy-mod@oort.se so that I can try and see what the problem is.

How can I install this game on an Android device that doesn't have Android Market?

The latest Droidippy client for Android is always published at http://droidippy.oort.se/web/static/Droidippy.apk, both because Android Market is sometimes slow to update when I need to push a new version and to enable devices without Market to install it.

Note however that the authentication system is still Google, so you still need a Google account on the device.

If you have more questions just add comments to this entry and I will add the question and the reply to the Q&A above.