1.05F : still not stable

[Strat_84]

I've given a new try with this patch after a huge disapointment when discovering the game with version 1.05C.

There are some improvements, but the game is still not playable.

I've encountered several random crashes (with a Windows error), one even happened when the game was loading itself.
The game seems also to hang at the beginning of most of the reinforcements phases (just after the battles). Not sure this is linked to that issue but I noticed the music had turned off during the battles before the game hangs at the reinforcement phase.

There are also some odd events in battles. I've seen 3 battles in the same turn where my 2 or 3 first engaged units were killed (not disorganized or running away, but really destroyed). The problem is that those units were all veteran or regular full health ones, facing reservists (sometimes half dead and without artillery support).

Last, another problem (more obvious to fix I guess). I always choose the plan XIII when playing France, and it seems that it prevents the game from running in turn to turn mode. All the armies are locked for the first turn, and the game asks me forever to activate an army when none can play, so no way to move to the next phase.
By the way I noticed the description of the plan XX is exactly the same as the XVII one, so what is the difference ?

The last savegame I made before giving up is attached.

Here are the two computers I use if it can help (the one with which I tried 1.05c and mine with 1.05F)

1°)
Intel E8400 dualcore
2 Gb DDR2 PC8500
Radeon X1950XT
Soundblaster X-FI XtremMusic

2°)
Opteron 170 dualcore@2.4 ghz (overclocked but stability seriously checked, and it has been running fine for more than 2 years)
2 Gb DDR1 PC4000
Radeon HD 4850 1Gb
Soundblaster Audigy 2ZS

[Syagrius]

Windows errors still occuring to me with latest patch.

[calvinus]

Last, another problem (more obvious to fix I guess). I always choose the plan XIII when playing France, and it seems that it prevents the game from running in turn to turn mode. All the armies are locked for the first turn, and the game asks me forever to activate an army when none can play, so no way to move to the next phase.

Are you sure no other nation(s) joined the war on your side during the Diplomacy phase(s), so that the game is waiting for her armies activations?

[calvinus]

Are you using some antivirus / firewall?
If yes, which one(s)?
What happens if you deactivate them?

[Syagrius]

Are you using some antivirus / firewall?
If yes, which one(s)?
What happens if you deactivate them?

For myself the antivirus I use currently is Bitdefender, however I always turn it off before playing. As for a firewall just have the Windows one included.

[Strat_84]

Are you sure no other nation(s) joined the war on your side during the Diplomacy phase(s), so that the game is waiting for her armies activations?

That may have been the problem. But what I remember is that I could also control Belgium (but the armies were locked too) and maybe England but there was still no BEF available.
I've tried again to check, I was that time controlling only France and everything has worked well. I'm quite confused now.

About firewall/antivirus yes, I use Norton Internet Security 2007 + Spybot resident.
I'll try to set all this off next time, but that means also I have to plug off from the network every time I play. That's quite annoying if it's really the issue.

[calvinus]

About firewall/antivirus yes, I use Norton Internet Security 2007 + Spybot resident.
I'll try to set all this off next time, but that means also I have to plug off from the network every time I play. That's quite annoying if it's really the issue.

I'm testing the savegames of lilian, who is suffering same stability issues like you. Zero crashes on my PCs... I suspect there some activity done by external resident programs (antivirus) that interferes with the I/O operations done by the game.

So:
1) try disabling the antivirus
2) try enabling the "load all map at start" and "load all sounds at start" options, plus disable the "play sounds in streaming mode" (Configure Game): this should reduce considerably the accesses done by the game to the hard drive: activity that could be considered by the antivirus as a "threat"...

[lodilefty]

I'm testing the savegames of lilian, who is suffering same stability issues like you. Zero crashes on my PCs... I suspect there some activity done by external resident programs (antivirus) that interferes with the I/O operations done by the game.

So:
1) try disabling the antivirus
2) try enabling the "load all map at start" and "load all sounds at start" options, plus disable the "play sounds in streaming mode" (Configure Game): this should reduce considerably the accesses done by the game to the hard drive: activity that could be considered by the antivirus as a "threat"...

..and be sure the 'AI logs' is not checked

[calvinus]

Syagirus, didn't you receive my PM?

[Syagrius]

Syagirus, didn't you receive my PM?

Yes calvinus, I answered to it, you dont have my answer?. I will also try what you just advised to the first poster.

[Syagrius]

Calvinus,

Just sent you another PM, new mail address at home since the jerks here at the office blocked your last mail to me.

[lycortas]

Hi,

I used to own a computer business so i have at least a hint of knowledge.
I hope.

For me, the largest problems i have had in this game is the music player; if i have music on i receive random crashes quite regularly. With music off i have had one or two crashes in the last two months. So, for what it is worth, try with no music on and see how that goes.

As bad as the interface and controls in this game are, i would not bother except that this is by far the best WW1 game ever made. It has made one of my favorite historical periods FUN! Every other game made about WW1 has been dull, boring. And i go back to AH's Guns of August.

Mike

[Syagrius]

I disabled the windows firewall, and there is no more windows errors. However I have encountered a endless politics AI processing, which never occured before, my game is ruined as even if I reload a save game it happens always in Sep 1915 at the beginning of replecements phase

[calvinus]

For the endless political AI, be sure the "Give AI full-time" options is disabled.

Post here a zipped savegame, if you wish, so that I can check your problem in Sept. 1915.

[Syagrius]

AI full time was disabled, in fact I keep things at the minimum for now.

Yesterday night I was suspecting that my antivirus was still messing around even disabled, so I disinstalled completely; fortunately it worked I was able to get over the endless AI et continue my A-H game. It seems for me that's the way to go for now: no antivirus and no firewall.

[Tamas]

AI full time was disabled, in fact I keep things at the minimum for now.

Yesterday night I was suspecting that my antivirus was still messing around even disabled, so I disinstalled completely; fortunately it worked I was able to get over the endless AI et continue my A-H game. It seems for me that's the way to go for now: no antivirus and no firewall.

Do you have AI logging turned off? That can collide with antivirus stuff.

[Syagrius]

Do you have AI logging turned off? That can collide with antivirus stuff.

Yep, turned off also, as I said I am playing basic not pushing the enveloppe considering the trouble I had. However the game is so fun that is why I want to find solutions to play more

[calvinus]

You were using Norton Antivirus, right? Ohh how much I "love" that application...

[Syagrius]

You were using Norton Antivirus, right? Ohh how much I "love" that application...

No calvinus, it was Bitdefender, very efficient antivirus but there was no way I found to shut it down for good so I had to disinstall. I am no computer crack so I dont really know why some games are affected by antiviruses and others not.

[calvinus]

No calvinus, it was Bitdefender, very efficient antivirus but there was no way I found to shut it down for good so I had to disinstall. I am no computer crack so I dont really know why some games are affected by antiviruses and others not.

I can't provide you a full explanation, because I partially have the same doubts like yours. What I can tell is that I suspect that your antivirus interferes with the I/O operations performed by the game, most notably the loading of musics and sounds, as well as the loading of map areas and the generation of AI files (logs, .SEQ files [where the AI stores her "knowledge" and her "behaviours"]), but also the loading of scenarios and savegames.

This is why I suggested you to enable the "load all map" and "load all sounds" options and to disable the "play sounds in streaming" mode option: this should reduce considerably the I/O operations performed by the game on the hard disk.

Going more technically into details: WW1 has remained a multi-threaded game for the aspects that must be handled in thread separated by the main WW1.exe process: the mouse, the musics & sounds, the Multiplayer engine. So it could be that the antivirus slows down the single thread performing the I/O operation (because considered a possible "threat"), in order to "inspect" if its activity is... let's say... "legal", ok? This slow down of the single thread can generate an inconsistency (memory leak) with the other threads and mainly the main process (WW1.exe), so generating the freeze/crash.

[Strat_84]

That may have been the problem. But what I remember is that I could also control Belgium (but the armies were locked too) and maybe England but there was still no BEF available.
I've tried again to check, I was that time controlling only France and everything has worked well. I'm quite confused now.

I've tried again to launch a "clean" game in turn by turn mode and the same issue came again. I control France, Belgium and UK, all my armies are locked but the colonial corps in Africa (but I can't activate them). The only thing I can do is to "validate the movements" and I'm stuck here.
The savegame is attached to this post.

Another (silly ?) question: when you choose the "generals" event in the warplan window, you are supposed to be able to change them. But there are actually generals you can see in your nation statistics that aren't commanding any army. How do you switch them to an "uncommanded" army ?

[calvinus]

I've tried again to launch a "clean" game in turn by turn mode and the same issue came again. I control France, Belgium and UK, all my armies are locked but the colonial corps in Africa (but I can't activate them). The only thing I can do is to "validate the movements" and I'm stuck here.
The savegame is attached to this post.

I played your savegame...
You totally forgot the British armies: V army in Port Said (Egypt) and VI in India. So I activated them, one by one. After I ended the activation of the second one, my "impulse" immediately ended and Germany started her "job".
Then the Russian/Serbian player, and finally the AH.

[calvinus]

Another (silly ?) question: when you choose the "generals" event in the warplan window, you are supposed to be able to change them. But there are actually generals you can see in your nation statistics that aren't commanding any army. How do you switch them to an "uncommanded" army ?

Not a silly question, Strat_84!

Well, let's proceed step by step... First, probably you misunderstood the purpose of the "Generals" warplan options. The "Generals" options allows to redeploy some generals, not to receive new ones.

Just to be sure, so I double-checked the texts in English (example for France):

"Generals: French generals can be freely redeployed by the French player. General Franchet is assigned to III French army.\nEach general remains face down, revealed during the 1st combat or end of August.\nCost: NW -2, events (-2 / 0)."

and in French:

"Généraux: les généraux français peuvent être réaffectés librement par le joueur, et Franchet est rajouté.\nUn des généraux doit être placé sur l'armée principale du front occidental (l'armée I). Les généraux restent inconnus des autres joueurs et ne leur seront révélés que lors de leur premier combat, ou au plus tard fin août.\nCoût: VN -2, événements (-2 / 0)."

Now let's go to the problem, what seems a gameplay bug: the Redeployment phase has been removed from the "Early August 1914" pre-turn... so generals cannot be redeployed anymore, and this option is a nonsense.

So I'm going to work on this bug very soon! Thanks!

[Strat_84]

I played your savegame...
You totally forgot the British armies: V army in Port Said (Egypt) and VI in India. So I activated them, one by one. After I ended the activation of the second one, my "impulse" immediately ended and Germany started her "job".
Then the Russian/Serbian player, and finally the AH.

Ok my bad, I had checked almost all the areas but Egypt, I'll be more careful next time.

About the generals, I had understood that it allowed only to move an existing general to the army you like. I was more refering to the fact that, for exemple, Franchet was commanding the 3rd army instead of Joffre with that event, and Joffre was still in the general pool, but I couldn't find a way to give him an army to command.

[calvinus]

Ok my bad, I had checked almost all the areas but Egypt, I'll be more careful next time.

About the generals, I had understood that it allowed only to move an existing general to the army you like. I was more refering to the fact that, for exemple, Franchet was commanding the 3rd army instead of Joffre with that event, and Joffre was still in the general pool, but I couldn't find a way to give him an army to command.

Yes, in fact I'm right fixing the gameplay bug in order to allow the redeployment of such generals even during the Military phase (but only for the affected generals, of course).

[calvinus]

Perhaps I have good news: I probably have found and fixed an error that made drag & drop not working in a lot of occurrences.

[calvinus]

Yes, in fact I'm right fixing the gameplay bug in order to allow the redeployment of such generals even during the Military phase (but only for the affected generals, of course).

Gameplay bug fixed! Next patch.

[Syagrius]

I just encountered a bug that should be mentioned: In my game in Oct 1916 Russia after several defeats surrendered. At the next military phase Russia
"started" a battle against the germans at Kulm (?), the battle never developed and the game is now stalled on this battle screen.

[calvinus]

As I posted on the other thread, a savegame is welcome for testing.

[Syagrius]

As I posted on the other thread, a savegame is welcome for testing.

Here you go Calvinus