Mr_Majestic
10-19-2012, 23:58
Hello everyone. My first post here and it's to complain about S:TW not working right in a really nit-picky way :rolleyes:. 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):
Sepheus' DDraw replacer for M:TW from this forum, works fine with S:TW as far as I can tell
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
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 :laugh4:. 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. :sweatdrop:
In short, nothing urgent but an irritating bug nonetheless. I'd appreciate any and all comments. :yes:
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):
Sepheus' DDraw replacer for M:TW from this forum, works fine with S:TW as far as I can tell
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
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 :laugh4:. 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. :sweatdrop:
In short, nothing urgent but an irritating bug nonetheless. I'd appreciate any and all comments. :yes: