Is there a way to minimize MTW screen while I look something up?

[Frankish_Knight]

I was wondering. Most games ive played on my PC I have been able to pause and minimize while I use the internet then open it back up and start off right were I left off. Is this possible in MTW VI?

[Geezer57]

I use a two-stage process: I hit CTRL-S to quicksave the game, then hit ESC to go to the game menu and do a regular save. Once the game acknowledges the save, I'll ALT+TAB to the desktop and do whatever I need (answer the phone, look up unit stats, browse the web for trivia, etc.).

Works about 99% of the time without problem - if it decides to act up, I still have the quicksave to fall back on.

[Frankish_Knight]

I'll ALT+TAB to the desktop and do whatever I need (answer the phone, look up unit stats, browse the web for trivia, etc.)..

Thanks so much for that....its bothered me for soooo long. I have a feeling Ill be playing more now.

[Deus ret.]

? The ALT-TAB switch has worked for me in every situation in MTW - battles, campaign map etc. It even crashes very seldomly on these occasions, although it may happen that the unit icons disappear from their tabs on the battle screen.

The one switch which doesn't work with MTW is ALT-F4 which sometimes can be quite annoying

[R'as al Ghul]

..although it may happen that the unit icons disappear from their tabs on the battle screen..

This can be solved by grouping all units and ungrouping them again.
Apparently the movement of the unit cards (closer when grouped) refreshes the image.

R'as

[caravel]

That's right. you only have to change one of your groups. Break a unit off from a group and regroup it again. The icons will reappear. This is the only issue with alt tabbing out of battles AFAIK. The campaign map is usually ok for me also but you should definitley save beforehand. If you're at the prebattle screen (VI only, where you organise your reinforcments) it may crash on alt tab, so if it does you've two options.

1) Use the prebattle save to the Save the game (same function as quicksave) and alt tab (crash the game) then run it again when you're ready (not recommended, though you can do this to test for the problem. Better to test it at a non critical moment than to lose your campaign!)

2) Prebattle save, organise your reinforcements and enter the battle, pause and then alt tab (recommended).

Be aware that quicksaves and prebattle saves can lead to save game corruption.

[macsen rufus]

The unit icon thing: I find all you need do is select a group, ungroup and regroup it, and all is well. If you don't have any groups, then group two units and ungroup again...

I've had more crashes from hitting end-of-year than I have from Alt-tabbing out of the game - even while going into MTW directories with Explorer and moving stuff around, opening up unit_prod files, deleting save games etc I'd definitely agree that the pre-battle screen is the worst place to try it though.

[gingergenius]

for some reason, when returning to the campaign map after an alt + tab, all the ships on the map become invisible, and every once in a while i will hear of a naval defeat but not be able to do anything about it. its all ok after i restart the game.

[naut]

for some reason, when returning to the campaign map after an alt + tab, all the ships on the map become invisible, and every once in a while i will hear of a naval defeat but not be able to do anything about it. its all ok after i restart the game.

That's, odd never seen that before.

Post a screenie of it, I really want to see.

[BlackHat]

Hmm, I play the game full screen. When I want to switch to look at some info, or check other programs, I usually just do a quick save (in case it crashes, it happens about 2-3% of the time) Then press the Windows key on the keyboard. This minimizes the game and I can do whatever I wanted to do, then just click the game button on the bottom of the screen to resume. (Thats where it sometimes crashes, when it is resuming the game.)

Thanks,

[naut]

Hmm, I play the game full screen. When I want to switch to look at some info, or check other programs, I usually just do a quick save (in case it crashes, it happens about 2-3% of the time) Then press the Windows key on the keyboard. This minimizes the game and I can do whatever I wanted to do, then just click the game button on the bottom of the screen to resume. (Thats where it sometimes crashes, when it is resuming the game.)

Thanks,

I forgot about that, yes that works.

[Mystic]

press p to pause in battle and Alt and tab at the same time