---> AACW 1.05f quick fix <---

[Pocus]

Dear players,

This is a quickfix which will be official within 24 hours if no problems arise.

fixed: When the AI shuffles leaders around, a crash could occurs since 1.05d
fixed: Players troops in the Tutorial get more cohesion recovery (just to be sure you win when you should)
fixed: the stalemate report when you have smashed the enemy moral bug is corrected. (you now get the Victory Screen as expected)

Gameplay:
Blockade Runners have now twice as less chance as previously to get caught by enemy ships in Blockades Boxes.
Commerce raiders do +50% more assets loss (money and war supply) in the Shipping Box.

Note of importance: each patch overwrite the Combat.opt file, so if you tweaked some parameters, you have to put again your modifier file.

This patch is a bit special... it comes in two version, because we would like to change the Sound Mixer Library (not the actual sounds, but how they get mixed together). So for whose willing to help us see if this new sounds mixer is compatible with all players machines, you can download this version:

http://ageoddl.telechargement.fr/latest/patch_AACW_v1.05f_NewSoundMixer.zip

And report your experience with the game here:

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?p=37279#post37279

For others players, get the regular 1.05f version here:
http://ageoddl.telechargement.fr/latest/patch_AACW_v1.05f_StandardEdition.zip

[aristoteles]

I`ll test the new sound mixer, I`ll keep you informed,...

[flintlock]

Sound mixer library is back! Will test this version. Thanks and have a great weekend, Pocus!

[Spruce]

during my last games under 1.05e I often had an error when playing the Union. I just got it again under 1.05f - it's always during battle resolutions.

[Pocus]

Spruce, can you send me your saved game, telling me at which turn you got an error. Please send it to support@ageod.com

[James D Burns]

I think there is a problem with the new patches. I first noticed it under e, but had it happen again much worse today under f.

Basically I think it is a memory leak problem or something similar. After playing about 8-10 turns today, my game became extremely sluggish and non-responsive. Just clicking on the save button to get out took over 1 minute to finally execute the save command mouse click.

All this time I could hear the hard drive being accessed frantically and it continued this frantic accessing even after I had closed the game program. I then used the windows start button to order the computer to turn off and waited 2 minutes and nothing.

I ordered it to shut down a second time and several end now pop-up windows came up, including one for the game program even though I had exited the game about 4 minutes prior to the pop-up. The PC finally shut off over 8 minutes after I first tried to shut it down.

After a reboot the game runs fine, so I suspect it’s a memory leak problem. Under the e patch I had a similar slow down after a long session of play, but I was able to reboot on the first try that time and it only took about 2 minutes total to shut down.

I haven’t had this problem unless I’ve played the game for several hours straight first. Usually things are smooth as glass, it’s only after a marathon session that things get really sluggish to the point of practically being non-responsive.

Jim

[Pocus]

I don't like to hear that, especially because no changes in the game engine since 1.05can result in this. I will check memory load though. Are others having this problem?

[Franciscus]

I think there is a problem with the new patches. I first noticed it under e, but had it happen again much worse today under f.

Basically I think it is a memory leak problem or something similar. After playing about 8-10 turns today, my game became extremely sluggish and non-responsive. Just clicking on the save button to get out took over 1 minute to finally execute the save command mouse click.

All this time I could hear the hard drive being accessed frantically and it continued this frantic accessing even after I had closed the game program. I then used the windows start button to order the computer to turn off and waited 2 minutes and nothing.

I ordered it to shut down a second time and several end now pop-up windows came up, including one for the game program even though I had exited the game about 4 minutes prior to the pop-up. The PC finally shut off over 8 minutes after I first tried to shut it down.

After a reboot the game runs fine, so I suspect it’s a memory leak problem. Under the e patch I had a similar slow down after a long session of play, but I was able to reboot on the first try that time and it only took about 2 minutes total to shut down.

I haven’t had this problem unless I’ve played the game for several hours straight first. Usually things are smooth as glass, it’s only after a marathon session that things get really sluggish to the point of practically being non-responsive.

Jim

Can't say that I have encountered this problem, but I rarely play more than 5 or 6 turns in a row. But I can give two pieces of advice: one obvious - defrag your hard drive; another less obvious: in the Settings folder of AACW, go to the "general" file and change the line MemUsage=50 to a lesser value (I am using 15). This forces the game to not use more than 15% of your RAM with the textures (or something similar ) and has solved some problems that I experienced with the memory load. The price is a little sluggishness when scrolling the main map. You could try it.

Hope this helps.

[richfed]

I don't like to hear that, especially because no changes in the game engine since 1.05can result in this. I will check memory load though. Are others having this problem?

Nothing to that extreme, but after playing awhile, my game does seem to slow down during the AI phase. I've attributed it to more forces=more decisions.

I have 3GB of RAM on Vista 32bit

[James D Burns]

defrag your hard drive;

I do on a regular basis, a current check shows less than 1% fragmentation right now.

This forces the game to not use more than 15% of your RAM with the textures

Hmm, I do have the option that allows the game to pre-cache selected, I'll disable that and see if it makes a difference.

But the fact the game runs fine until after extended play, leads me to believe it’s a memory leak and not my settings. I've also never had trouble before until recently, so it appears to be related to some recent change.

But I'll tweak my option settings and see if it helps. If not I'll try setting it to 15 as you suggest and see if that helps.

Jim

[James D Burns]

especially because no changes in the game engine since 1.05can result in this.

It's very possible it happened a while ago in 1.04 or 1.03 and I simply hadn't played a long enough session to see the problem before now. Assuming of course it is a memory leak and not something else.

I also notice game files are getting dumped into my trash bin now automatically by the game. I've never seen that before, is this intentional or is something perhaps wrong here as well? I assumed they were simply old save files that the game had overwritten and dumped, but since it’s a new behavior I thought I should mention it as well.

Jim

[oldspec4]

Haven't noticed a slowdown in play but I also don't play more than 5 or 6 turns at a time. I have noticed the game files in the recycle bin tho...IIRC believe that this was a new feature/option of 1.05e.

[DEL]

Old files going to the recycle bin is normal. This is from ACW Updates in your game folder:

==============================================================================
User Interface Improvements and Additions
==============================================================================
When players delete files from the load game menu or restore backups, all files goes now to the windows recycle bin.

[James D Burns]

Hmm, I do have the option that allows the game to pre-cache selected, I'll disable that and see if it makes a difference.

Well this definitely made a difference. I turned off pre-caching and high memory and played the game. About 5-7 turns in I noticed the hard drive starting to access frantically again, but slow down was minimal this time, more like mild lag that caused scrolling to pause for a second or two now and again. Button clicks also had some lag, but it wasn’t bad at all compared to what I saw before.

After a few minutes the hard drive stopped accessing and I continued on to the next turn with no apparent loss in functionality or speed.

I also don't really notice a difference in gameplay/gamespeed with these two options turned off. So they'll remain off for me from now on. When I have more time I'll try a longer 8-10 turn marathon session to see if the problem crops up with a longer period of play than just roughly 6 turns.

Jim

[Franciscus]

Please note that when you have "high memory" on, MemUsage is set to 75 (75% of your RAM is used before a "flush"), and when it is off, it is set to 50.
Changing this parameter directly in the settings file to a lesser value has been benefficially to my system (2 Gb RAM, ATI 1600 AGP graphic card)

[Chamberlain]

Pocus,

Is this 1.05f quick fix official ?

If so, it is both versions with & without the Sound Mixer Library ?

Thanks,

Chamberlain

[Pocus]

I will update it to 1.05g and then it is official (just a couple minor things between the two).

[Pocus]

The potential sound issue a user had will be checked for 1.06 btw.

Thread closed, 1.05g is up.