S:TW Crashes When You Press ESC In One Peculiar Circumstance

[Mr_Majestic]

Hello everyone. My first post here and it's to complain about S:TW not working right in a really nit-picky way . I'm also posting this with the intention of informing other players if they have come across this same issue and haven't found a way to fix it.

Seeing that I lost my original bigbox copy of S:TW, as well the separate Mongol Invasion expansion pack, a while ago (they're both at home but they're buried somewhere. Luckily I still have the manual and tech tree poster in arms' reach), I bought a mint-condition copy of S:TW Warlord Edition (Sold-Out Software version) from a charity shop the other day as I fancied taking over Japan again for the first time in years. It installed fine on my laptop (as did the patch, running them both as Administrator). Knowing ahead of time about the compatibilty issues with newer systems, I used a combination of fixes thinking that would cover all my bases. Those fixes are as follows (in order of usage):

1. Sepheus' DDraw replacer for M:TW from this forum, works fine with S:TW as far as I can tell
2. Following Lanjane's guide on using Microsoft's Application Compatibility Toolkit to make an ad-hoc fix so that the game is forced to use DDraw, found at TWCentre
3. The NVidia 8xxx and 9xxx Graphics Fix that's been stickied here (tweaked for Intel graphics)

Almost everything is okay. The opening movies (skipped and unskipped), menus and tutorials work. There aren't any crashes when either quitting or completing any of the tutorials. Starting any of the campaigns as any of the factions work. You can go to the Throne Room and talk to the advisor, as well as any diplomats that may arrive, without the game crashing as I've read elsewhere. The Campaign Map works properly as well (me and the computer moving units around, sending ninjas and geishas on assassinations [failed and successful, including accompanying videos], building structures and training units in different provinces etc). Battle mode, which is what I was most afraid of not working at all, works perfectly (I've heard of the game crashing as soon as a battle ends, as well as numerous graphical bugs, but none of that has happened to me).

The one thing that doesn't work? The title says it all.

When I press Escape (from the Campaign Map) to go to the main menu, the game CTD's without an error message. However, after some investigating, I discovered that it only happens when there isn't a save file present, quick or proper, and if it hasn't been accessed at all. It's a good thing Creative Assembly put in the quick-save and auto-save function, otherwise I'd have to do a campaign in one sitting and then, only one at a time . Quick-saving and quick-loading straight after then lets you access the main menu from the Campaign Map without the game crashing.

That's the long and short of it. I hope this will help someone else who may be banging their head against their keyboard trying to get S:TW to work in this unique way as I did. On another note, I also ask the more knowledgable members of this community for some insight as to why this happened in the first place. It's worth mentioning that I haven't done the memory trick where you lower the amount of RAM Windows can access, seeing as the game was working fine without doing so. I also have a separate install of DirectX 9.0c running alongside DirectX 11 if that helps.

My laptop specs are as follows:

• Intel i5-2430M @ 2.4GHz
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• Intel HD 3000 graphics chipset
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

2012 and I'm still stuck with this toaster of a computer. Believe me, I'll be upgrading as soon as I get the chance.

In short, nothing urgent but an irritating bug nonetheless. I'd appreciate any and all comments.

[caravel]

The ESC menu CTDs are common, I've been lucky to avoid them for the most part, but I do remember one or two graphics cards in particular having the issue. I have never observed any correlation between quicksaving and the ESC menu crash, so that is quite interesting. I have always assumed the menu crash was down to a mode switching bug. The game does run much stabler on some types of hardware if you set the desktop resolution and colour depth to the same as the game.

Are you sure you needed the direct draw wrapper? Did you see if you could run the game without it? STW has far less problems with direct draw than MTW. Also the 8xxx/9xxx series problems don't apply to you if you don't have an nvidia 8xxx/9xxx series GPU. e.g. unless your mouse pointer behaves strangely in battle or units are invisible...?

2012 and I'm still stuck with this toaster of a computer. Believe me, I'll be upgrading as soon as I get the chance.

I agree it's shocking... I'm surprised you had the gall to turn up here with such a low spec system... the best thing you can do is donate it to me at once, to replace my P4 with Nvidia 7xxx series card and 1.5GB of RAM...

[ReluctantSamurai]

I have the Sold Out version, as well, and there's two oddities with it...

When the CD is first placed into the optical drive, the loading screen has no 'play the game' function. I had to use my vid-card control panel to create a launch icon (which is ok since I can customize all the video settings).

The second one is the irritating one...the game freezes if I try to exit normally using the in-game menu. I have to alt-tab to desktop and then use the process manager to close it. (I'm still running WinXP, btw...god I hate all those other Windoze....)

[caravel]

The crash on exit is a problem I've always had on various systems. The menu you refer is not needed, just run the game from the desktop shortcut (or create one from the .exe).

[DEB8]

The menu you refer is not needed, just run the game from the desktop shortcut (or create one from the .exe).

A desktop shortcut ( direct from the .EXE ) works just fine for me. ( Compatability set to Windows XP. )

[ O/S = Vista , CD = Sold Out version of Warlord. ]

For ReluctantSamurai :

I am no PC whizz, but I have a suspicion that your second problem is related to the launch method noted.

[caravel]

I still have the original STW (v1.0) and the separate MI expansion.

STW v1.0 unpatched does not have the problem, but once the v1.12 patch or MI is installed (and the credits which play on exit are removed) the hang on exit occurs.

[ReluctantSamurai]

A desktop shortcut ( direct from the .EXE ) works just fine for me.

Using my vid-card to create the .exe is virtually the same as the very first step in the process prompts for a pointer to the .exe that's involved....

As to the freeze-up, I wouldn't know if it's related to the launch method, but I suspect it isn't (tried just creating a shortcut directly from the .exe---same result). Most times, the alt-tab method takes me directly to desktop, but sometimes it takes repeated attempts to get the game to minimize, and therein lies an occasional problem....file corruption. I've only had it happen twice. The first time I could repair the corrupted file, but the second time required a complete re-installation of the game. Adds a little unwanted angst to exiting the game....

[DEB8]

Using my vid-card to create the .exe is virtually the same as the very first step in the process prompts for a pointer to the .exe that's involved....

This, however, suggusts that other "things" get done too. They may contribute to to problem ( they may not )...

As to the freeze-up, I wouldn't know if it's related to the launch method, but I suspect it isn't (tried just creating a shortcut directly from the .exe---same result).

OK ( I think you may know more about these things than I do anyway ). Sorry the Shortcut does not work for you.

Most times, the alt-tab method takes me directly to desktop, but sometimes it takes repeated attempts to get the game to minimize, and therein lies an occasional problem....file corruption. I've only had it happen twice. The first time I could repair the corrupted file, but the second time required a complete re-installation of the game. Adds a little unwanted angst to exiting the game....

A little angst ? I would just HATE that happening to me! I think you are very brave ( or a touch foolhardy ) to persevere with playing on in these circumstances!

[ReluctantSamurai]

"A little angst ? I would just HATE that happening to me! I think you are very brave ( or a touch foolhardy ) to persevere with playing on in these circumstances!"

I guess I love the game enough not to let it bother me much.

[caravel]

Find the sound which is played on exit and rename it - this worked for me sometimes, but not always.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I'll have to give that a try