Samurai Warlords - Multiplayer desync (possible reason)

[R'as al Ghul]

Dear Samurais,

last Sunday we had more desync problems than ever before in Samurai Warlords. I've never crashed or desynced in a game before but last Sunday I crashed every single game.
My apologies to those that might have dropped because of me. If one player drops the game often gets unstable and others drop, too.
Yesterday CBR and me did some tests and I got my version running again. I tried several changes to my system but the reason was obviously a damaged directx install. The file error.log in the main folder of the game (default: Programs/Total War/Medieval - Total War/) gave this error for all the crashed games:

\Source\VikingsPatch\Crusaders_TW\main3d_1.cpp(1929) : DirectX call : DDERR_SURFACELOST

After reinstalling directx 9.0c the problem went away immediately.
I'd suggest that those people who've dropped on Sunday check their error.log file and if they have the same error as quoted above reinstall directx.
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As a failsafe we've decided that it would be best to have a beta_5 install ready. In case we experience problems again we could then switch to beta_5 which has always been a stable version so far.

To install beta_5 you need a completely untouched vanilla MTW/VI 2.01 install. It will neither work to install over beta_8 nor over a different mod.
Download beta_5 here: (Changed this to CBR's installer like Yuuki pointed out.)http://www.mizus.com/files/files/MTW..._beta5_11b.exe
For beta_5 you also need the MP-Mappack 1-3. Download here: http://www.mizus.com/files/files/MTW...PackVol1-3.exe
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See you all on Sunday. Let's try beta_8 first before we decide to switch back to beta_5. Those that had problems in all or any game last Sunday should run test games before Sunday if possible.
Please give us feedback.



R'as