Didz's Dumb Question Thread

[Didz]

and what does your signature mean?

Sorry...I completely missed this question, and only noticed when MikeV tried to answer it for me.

Its supposedly my family motto, and according to the researcher it translates roughly as 'Strong in peace, or war'

I think you can only unfix plug bayonets. Don't think there's a performance hit though.

Nope! you definately can't unfix plug bayonets. I posted a warning about that earlier. Fixing plug bayonets turns you musketeers into expensive spearmen for the rest of the battle, and apparently thats working as intended. However, 'wiggy' does say you can unfix socket bayonets, but I think he's wrong, for a start you don't have the option to fix them in the first place they just appear on the ends of your mens muskets, and secondly the button he says to press to unfix them doesn't exist. I suspect this was a feature CA decided to abandon by failed to tell the advisors about.

At the start of your turn (after hitting the end turn button and letting it run through the other factions, but not when you load/continue from a saved game file), among the info droppings on the left will be one or more with an anchor symbol stating "Trade route raided." Bring up the full dialog and click the magnifying lens: it will take you to the fleet that's sitting on your trade route.

Thats was actually my point. When those reports appeared they all pointed to the Straits of Gibraltar where a Morroccan Fleets was blockading my trade route from the Altantic into the Med. I've dealt with that now and the Morrocan Fleet is lying on the sea bed just off the coast of Algiers. However, my trade with Denmark and Sweden is still blocked and there is no way of finding out quickly e.g. by clicking on the trade route in the Trade Report why it is still blocked.

In effect the 'Trade Route Raided' report only provides you with a snapshotof the primary reason your trade is blocked not the full story, and if you deal with that primary cause there is no report that says 'Well done, but you still can't trade with Denmark because Sweden has captured their Trading Port'. I was only able to work this out only by carefully tracking the trade route right back to its source and spotting that the flag flying over the port was the wrong colour.

The preferences.empire_script.txt file has this entry, by default:

gfx_screenshot_folder ./screenshots; # gfx_screenshot_folder <folder>, Folder to where save screenshots relative to Empire directory #

Two things to note:

1. The directory has to exist (this software is too dumb to create it).
2. You can change it to someplace else by editing the file and re-starting the app.

Also, the Alt-PrtScrn key combination copies the current screen to the Windoze clipboard. You should be able to fire up your favorite picture editor and use Paste to grab it.

So, just to clarify then, if I create a folder C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\The Creative Assembly\Empire\screenshots you think this may work.

Test Results
Well I created the folder and took some screenshots, but nothing appears in it. You sure its not necessary to do anything else like change the <folder>? (BTW: I also made sure the screenshot was being taken, by pasting it into a word document and its definately being taken just not being stored.)

Incidently, it appears the Russians and Japanese have cracked this, I've found a Russian website which includes a download of a modified preferences file that handles screenshots correctly, and I've found a Japanese site which shows a line by line analysis of the preferences file which notes on how to modify all the options including the screenshots. Unfortunately, not being able to read either Russian or Japanese it doesn't help much. The only thing I did manage to work out is that you can change the default unit sizes from (Default = 0) to (Double=2) to (Ultra=1) don't ask for a logical explanation to that but thats what it said. Apparently, Ultra produces units with 160 men in them. I have tested it though, so make sure you take a back-up copy of the file if you plan to experiment.