"Go to next battle" freeze in 1.08i

[Franciscus]

I was playing my grand campaign (as central powers), September 1914 military phase. After a battle in the Vosges, that I won, I am unable to continue playing because the "Go to next battle" button is not activated. In fact, no other button is activated, except for the chat window button, the "AI" button (brains) and the battle log. Esc key or exit button also did not work.

I was playing in 1.08i, a campaign started in my desktop, now progressing (...) in my laptop, in which I am playing in single core mode (Win7 64 bits). Other facts that may be relevant are:
- I did not notice that I was fighting a large battle and lost my right flank during the battle (I only noticed in the end, after it froze)
- The French fled the battle in the end.
- I did not select any breakthrough.

After a few alt-tabs, WW1 stopped responding altogether. Before stopping, it was using around 1% of CPU and around 1,2 Gig of RAM memory.

I attach two pics of the end battle.

I can provide a save game, but it is from the beginning of September (Events), before any of the multiple political and diplomatic actions, Turkey joining the war, reinforcements, redeployments and move planning (that were all lost... )

[Random]

I had this happen several times and posted about one occasion here:

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=17728

It is almost like the A.I. cannot figure out what to do next but is not prepared to end the battle quite yet. The fix was to uncheck the "Give A.I. Maximum Time" box in the options menu of the game proper. Since doing that the problem has never recurred.

If you do not have that box checked sorry, I am stumped.

Good Luck.

[calvinus]

This problem was fixed by the other players by uninstalling the old antivirus (i.e.: "Avira") and installing another antivirus (i.e.: "AVG"). The battle freeze did never happened again.

[Franciscus]

Thank you, Random and Calvinus

I do not think the problem is related to the antivirus...I am using in my laptop Microsoft Security essentials and I have excluded the whole D:\Ageod folder from the scanning and real time protection of the antivirus. I also do not wish to change it as it is pretty decent, free, and includes a good firewall.

Besides, the issue is not really a freeze. Before I started alt-tabbing, the game was not exactly freezed. I was able to move units from the rear to the front of the battle, and vice-versa, it really seemed as Random said - the AI seems to be still "thinking" (pulsating brains and all - but more than 15 minutes ? :blink

Regarding the AI settings, I confess that now I am confused. there are 2 places where we can change AI settings:
- in WW1 configurator, where we can click on/off "AI logs" (I have it OFF) and "AI memory" (I have it ON)
- in-game, in the setup screen (Esc Key) where we can choose to "Give AI full time" (I had it ON in both my computers) and "AI uses all behaviors" (it is OFF in my desktop but it was ON in the laptop, where I got the "freeze").

A few questions:
1. What is the relation between the 2 sets of options and what exactly do they do ? I thought they were related, but I noticed now that no mater what I change in-game (Esc menu), the options in the configurator remain unchanged. Particularly, I thought that by activating "all behaviors" we were activating html AI logs, but it is not so...
2. What shall I change ? I read already here that sometimes these AI logs can be interpreted as virus-like activity, that´s why I have "use all behaviors" (and AI logs) OFF in my main gaming PC (desktop), where I have had no freezes (yet :neener . These "all behaviors" were inadvertently ON in my laptop (although "AI logs" was and remains OFF :wacko . On the other hand Random's suggestion of turning OFF "Give AI full time" makes sense, as it implies somewhat forcing a limit on the time alloted to the AI - although I am wary of crippling the AI...
and what about "AI memory" in the configurator ? should it be On or OFF ?

I am a bit confused...
Help, Calvinus

[calvinus]

I do not think the problem is related to the antivirus...I am using in my laptop Microsoft Security essentials and I have excluded the whole D:\Ageod folder from the scanning and real time protection of the antivirus. I also do not wish to change it as it is pretty decent, free, and includes a good firewall.

Setting the folders to be excluded from AV scanning is not a solution.
It's not a problem of HD scanning. It's a problem caused by the AV that freezes the working applications (running processes). So you should configure the AV so that WW1.EXE is to be considered a trusted application. Or disable the AV or even uninstall it if nothing works...

Besides, the issue is not really a freeze. Before I started alt-tabbing, the game was not exactly freezed. I was able to move units from the rear to the front of the battle, and vice-versa, it really seemed as Random said - the AI seems to be still "thinking" (pulsating brains and all - but more than 15 minutes ? :blink

If you see the AI brain pulsating, one game thread can be freezed too. This makes you confuse and let you believe the game is not freezed, but the game is freezed anyway in one of his threads.

Regarding the AI settings, I confess that now I am confused. there are 2 places where we can change AI settings:
- in WW1 configurator, where we can click on/off "AI logs" (I have it OFF) and "AI memory" (I have it ON)

AI Logs : AI creates HTML logs for everything she "thinks" and "does". Some AVs consider this activity like a "threat" (because these are HTML files) and make the game crash! So setting it off is a good choice.

AI Memory : AI stores all her "choices" and "knowledge" in txt files. Some AVs consider this activity like a "threat" (even if they are not html files), and make the game freeze or crash.

- in-game, in the setup screen (Esc Key) where we can choose to "Give AI full time" (I had it ON in both my computers) and "AI uses all behaviors" (it is OFF in my desktop but it was ON in the laptop, where I got the "freeze").

Give AI full time - if on, AI works considering all potential choices until finished. If off, AI considers only best potential choices, so she works more fastly.

AI uses all behaviors - if on and "AI Memory" is on too (see above), AI checks all previous choices to see if they are good or bad as compared to the present option she's evaluating.

[Franciscus]

Thanks Calvinus for your explanation regarding AI options. Things are clearer now. I will try and follow Random's suggestion, it makes sense.
Regarding my antivirus, I was not clear enough: ww1.exe (and the configurator too) are set as "trusted". On top of this I speciffically excluded all the ww1 folder from the AV activity (both scanning and "real time protection").

Thanks

(PS You mentioned game "threads" - plural. Could my freeze be related to the fact that on my laptop I am using single core mode ?)

[calvinus]

(PS You mentioned game "threads" - plural. Could my freeze be related to the fact that on my laptop I am using single core mode ?)

The application runs in multi-threading mode even if on one CPU only (single-core).