First

[goodwood]

Always wanted to be first to post on a new forum now I've done it! Looking forward to see some screen shots.

[JMass]

Second! And this is my third GI forum!

[PhilThib]

Well, at least you have a good sense of humour

I am sorry about this mess, but it was difficult for us to follow so many different forums (and the first one was hosted by a company that went bankrupt and it was lost completely for us all)

So support us and we shall not get bankrupt (hopefully) ... hey, that's a joke..we are doing fine here

[WallysWorld]

I've posted quite a bit on the other GI forum. It's nice to have it here instead.

[Luis de Aveiro]

Is it possible to migrate de database from the older forum into this one?

[Flashman]

Just wanted to say thank you for continuing to care about this game and supporting it. I think it's a great and very unique game.

[Korrigan]

Is it possible to migrate de database from the older forum into this one?

Unfortunately not, we tried but the DB from the two forums were just too different...

[demarcroix]

Is it possible to migrate de database from the older forum into this one?

Unfortunately not, we tried but the DB from the two forums were just too different...

If someone has a quick solution to migrate forums from phpBB to vBulletin, please tell us !

Btw: don't forget you can see old forums there: http://www.great-invasions.fr/forum

[JRK]

My third GI forum as well

[jimwinsor]

A Phil game for $20 US, of course I cannot say no, downloading now...

[jimkehn]

Jim, let us know your impression.......looks like a lotta fun.

[jimwinsor]

Thumbs down. It's a bug-ridden nightmare.

Beyond the minor serial number problem, and the my issue with (maybe) DivX, the game is having major graphics and performance issues, with pop up windows showing up without a background, or with buttons missing (ie, a close button, kinda important!), and freeze ups.

And the last crash seems to have affected other files on my computer somehow, as I now have missing icon symbols for some programs:



I don't know what happened, but for some reason I can't recover these icons. Now, the programs seem to run ok, but still...who knows what other damage was caused, that I have yet to discover?

My laptop is too critical to my professional life to mess around with, so off the hard drive this game goes.

And in any case, the few minutes clicking around the tutorial, the interface did not appeal to me much, even without the serious technical issues. The game is real time (like the EU series), with no apparant autopause...you have to keep pausing manually (which is tricky on my Vaio due to a Fn key needed to toggle the Pause key). There does not seem to be a pause button in game (although there might supposed to be one? See graphics issues above).

[Hell Patrol]

Whoa! That looks pretty serious...Ouch .

[rhondabrwn]

I see that there is a 1.07 patch. Is the game currently available for download from AGEOD already patched to version 1.07? Or should the patch be downloaded and applied after installation?

That might explain some of the difficulties posed by the prior poster.

At $20, I'm poised to buy, but his problems give me pause.

[rhondabrwn]

I see that there is a 1.07 patch. Is the game currently available for download from AGEOD already patched to version 1.07? Or should the patch be downloaded and applied after installation?

That might explain some of the difficulties posed by the prior poster.

At $20, I'm poised to buy, but his problems give me pause.

Duh... the description page very clearly says "1.07" so yes, the new patch is included in the download.

The patch description also doesn't mention anything about reducing crashes.

Still waiting to buy until I hear some more opinions on the stability issue.

[jimwinsor]

It's a 1.07 version you get.

And in fairness I must add that it could well be my problems are system specific to my Vaio (using an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 card).

And on top of that, may be largely due to the DivX bundled witht the software and not the actual game itself (although I dunno, I was still having serious issues after uninstalling the DivX, on the theory that's it's only purpose was to run the opening video). But the readme does speak of problems with DivX and the GeForce 7800, so...???

[Pocus]

Even if we did not develop the game but are distributing it, it is safe to say that AGEOD will do a refund to any player having unsolved hardware issues.

[calvinus]

And on top of that, may be largely due to the DivX bundled witht the software and not the actual game itself (although I dunno, I was still having serious issues after uninstalling the DivX, on the theory that's it's only purpose was to run the opening video). But the readme does speak of problems with DivX and the GeForce 7800, so...???

It's the first time a GI customer is experiencing such serious problems with GI: damaged icons and similars. I'm very sorry for your troubles.

The readme file showed upon game installation constains the following "Known Problems" section:

---

KNOWN PROBLEMS

Some anti-viruses and/or firewalls could bring a significant loss of game performance, mainly during loading phase.

In such a case, we recommend you to deactivate these tools, of course if you are playing in solitaire, without being connected to internet.
Sometimes you may just deactivate some checks done by the anti-virus or firewass, such as the controls on I/O operations, as well as the TCP/IP protocol.
Some anti-viruses, finally, could absolutely not compatible with Great Invasions, so that you would be forced to uninstall them.

In addition, some firewalls prevent DirectX 8.1 to play on the net as « Host » .
In fact, some firewalls forbid the establishment of a connection between « Clients » and the « Host » : the firewall makes your host PC totally ignores the conncection request messages!
In such a case, you have to configure your firewall in order that it validates the DirectPlay (DP) server as a trusted server, both in input and in output.

On some PCs equipped with a GeForce 7800 series, there might be an incompatibility with the Intro logo and the latest DivX codecs.
To solve thos problem, we recommend
-either uninstall DivX codecs to launch the game with the logo
-or disable the logo: from the Start menu, go to Programs, then great Invasions and click on Setup (or in the hard drive “C:\Program Files\Great Invasions\Setup.exe” by default). From here, choose “Off” for the logo option.

Anyway, further detail will be soon available on the site of Great Invasions.
The history of changes and fixes along the patches can be also found in the game root directory in the file called “history.txt”.

---

Indeed, the GeForce 7800 series video cards problem is known, but not so worring: you have just to uninstall the video codec, disable the "Logo" option inside the Setup tool and play the game.

In addition, my suggestion is: uninstall or disable any "nightmare" antivirus tool such as Norton Antivirus for example. These tools slow down a lot the game, produce continuous popup windows, freezes and crashes.

Finally, the pause button is present: the Pause key on your keyboard, that works both for pausing and un-pausing.

Thanks,
Calvinus.

[calvinus]

The game is real time (like the EU series), with no apparant autopause...you have to keep pausing manually (which is tricky on my Vaio due to a Fn key needed to toggle the Pause key). There does not seem to be a pause button in game (although there might supposed to be one? See graphics issues above).

If you wish, I can send you via email a zipped GI.exe that works with a key combination suitable for your Vaio laptop: the P key instead of the Pause key.

[jimwinsor]

Because I really wanted to like this game, I gave it a couple more tries, but nope, it's just not going to work.

I actually managed to play the tutorial for a few hours last night. The only really frustrating technical problem was randomly disappearing graphics; armies would vanish (you'd still see the marching dots) and the backup screens on pop up windows would be invisible (forcing you to read the text off the multicolored map).

But then there were the interface difficulties...there really should be a pause button you can hit with your mouse; my Fn + Pause on my keyboard I had to do was a real pain.

And then I discovered you can't exit back to the opening menu screen; the only exit takes you out of the game entirely. Which is strange.

The tutorial was difficult to follow. For example, the first thing it tells you to do is hit the gold anchor icon to load troops onto ships. Well, the icon was silvered out, meaning it can't be toggled. Turns out, the problem is you don't have enough ships to load the army, and you have to split it up...it took me several minutes to figure this out on my own.

Then it tells you to play a strategem. Well, all the strategems are X'ed out. It took me a bit longer to figure out you can't play strategems while the game is paused. This is an extremely odd design decision, as these icons are important, and require reflection and tooltip info absorbion to play properly.

And as I play along, moving my stuff around and learning...there so much depth here, and the real time engine really hampers you from enjoying this depth. This game would have been SO much better as a turned based game IMO; not only due to the depth of all the options before you, but the fact that you are running multiple empires at the same time.

And the interface compounds the problem...there is no autopause, for anything...even important popup messages. A message pops up, and my undexterous fingers on my left hand fumble to the Fn key, those on the right grope inaccurately towards the Insert/Pause key, hoping to arrive on target a second after the left hand does its job...ach! Can you say frustrating?

This really should be a turned based game.

But the real bad news was yet to come. I quit the tutorial (then relaunched the game...sigh) and fired up the campaign. Wow, it was a nightmare trying to deal with two nations with this real time interface. Imagine dealing with 6 or so. Of course you can set how many you wan to computer control, but what the fun in that?

Not that it mattered, as the game crashed on me after only a few clicks. Twice. These were really bad, total freeze-up crashes, not even Cntl-Alt-Delete can get you out of (an error message pops up, saying taskmgr.exe unable to load...I never seen a crash on my laptop this bad before). Only a cold reboot can recover, ie disconnecting the power and yanking the battery out. Obviously, this is something I want to avoid having to do on a regular basis.

Thanks for the offer of the Fn - Pause issue. That would obviously solve one issue in my case, and I am appreciative. However, as you can see, there is just a host of problems and issues on top of that - technical, gameplay, and interface - that I'm just going to have to put this game away for now.

But I still want to like it! I'm stubborn that way. I'm going to hold onto it in the hopes further development can solve the graphics/crash problems...and (dare to dream) a turn-based could be included as well.

Like I said, this game REALLY needs to be turn-based.

[PhilThib]

Could be done later on, but this takes hours (and funding) we do not have... yet

[Primasprit]

[...]Like I said, this game REALLY needs to be turn-based.

Actually I like that continuous time approach of the GI engine (and the Paradox games). It offers possibilities turn based games are missing, as the 'real world' does also not leap forward in two-week-steps.
No doubt that the GI engine it is technically not up-to-date and the interface is not really intuitive but the game itself seems to be very interesting. Till now I only scratched the surface but for sure I don't regret that I bought it.

[Pocus]

Jim, have you switched to the last video driver you can get? If you are using XP, download the Omega Driver. Sound like you get a driver incompatibility there.

[calvinus]

So many crashes and freezes at a very beginning of the game are worth of the following tests:
- disable play Logo, Sound and Musics options in the Setup tool - this will let you save a lot of precious RAM;
- play the game in Windowed mode (still via Setup tool) - this will prevent TSR programs (Antivirus/Firewalls) in some way to "disturb" the game
- deactivate (or uninstall if you wish and you may) the Antivirus/Firewalls - some tools such as Norton Antivirus are absolutely NOT compatible with GI;
- set properly the Stability Manager (security level) inside the Setup tool;
- disable the Auto-save and play at low game speed;
- check if your video card driver is up-to-date and use Omega driver as Pocus suggested.

Freezes, map flickerings, sprites disappearing, crashes are triggered when the game engine works very slow because low PC specs (that is not your case I guess!) or because some TSR program is slowing down the memory/HD accesses done by the game (security checks typical of an antivirus). Such slow downs make the game go in time-out, multithreading goes fault and the game crashes.

For this reason I agree with jimwinsor: a turn-based GI would be much more stable!! leure: Real-time is a nightmare. But moving towards a turn-based GI should mean to rewrite the whole game code... I believe it would be easier to "adapt" the game to AGE engine, and surely more convenient!

[jimwinsor]

I will check on that. Like I said, I REALLY want to like this...

[jimwinsor]

"For this reason I agree with jimwinsor: a turn-based GI would be much more stable!! Real-time is a nightmare. But moving towards a turn-based GI should mean to rewrite the whole game code... I believe it would be easier to "adapt" the game to AGE engine, and surely more convenient!"

The next best solution, IMO, would be to allow for popup window +AUTOPAUSE for various player selected events in the game menu. That way, the player can set the events he wants real time to cease, maiking the game, for most intents and purposes, turn based (sort of).

And let strategems be played while paused too! This be a welcome improvement I think.

[jimwinsor]

OK, omega drivers on, and eh, missing graphics...crash...pull plug, yank battery out. Sigh.