Stability problems with The War Engine with Windows XP

[John Stone]

I'm wondering if other gamers out there have experienced the problem of repeated random crashes while playing the war engine under windows xp? Is this game only stable/playable under windows 95 or 98? I'd like to mess around with this game but only if it's halfway stable. Of course it's the freely released to the public version at gamershell.com so it's matrixgame's version and doesn't apply to shrapnel games anymore but I wonder if the original game designer Michael Cooney can come up with a patch of some sort to fix this problem?

[Warspite]

I want to say I used to run this game on Windows ME and I believe I had ran the Matrix version on Vista a while back. I don't ever remember having any issues of it crashing nor do I remember reading anything about that from others in the past. Are you playing a certain scenario or mod when it crashes? Try running it in windows compatiblity mode. If you don't know how to do that... right click on the games shortcut or exe, select properties then check compatibility mode box and maybe try Win 98 or ME.

[John Stone]

Hi. The error occurs on Windows XP and Windows XP windows media center edition. Yeah I've altered the war engine's executable in that way when I came across that suggestion at matrix game's war engine forum so lets hope that improves the game stability. I've also installed the public release hotfix that wasn't in the gamer's hell download (I believe). I've played some more with the war engine and it seems like the issue might be with the second bellvillian campaign mission: echo station attack. About 2 or 3 times in a row I recall it seemed to crash when I was moving I think the 4th or 5th unit in the upper right group maybe 2 or 3 turns after they arrived. The game would just crash to the desktop each time and stay at the game's resolution. But recently when I replayed the mission to replicate the crash now the mission seems to be getting I'm guessing an error when you lose your first turret, the two squads that are supposed to arrive never do resulting in losing the mission each time. And this happened after replaying the mission 5-6 times in a row. And then when I play the mission the last few times it seems play the gameplay and sound effects at a slightly faster than normal pace but it seems to correct itself as the mission plays on. But the main crash doesn't occur on the other modules or campaigns. I actually played the first 2 missions of the north realm saga with no problems at all. But its good to hear that other gamers don't have the same problem with their games. In any case, thanks for responding!

John Stone

[John Stone]

A quick update: I managed to get past the problem mission when the 2 squads did manage to appear after the first laser cannon gets blown up, I put everyone on overwatch besides the one remaining laser cannon for the remainder of the mission and that allowed the mission to be completed without a crash. I was then able to play the 2 missions after that mission with no crashes so it must be an isolated minor bug to that mission. I posted my solution in case any other gamers encounter the same problem on the mission.

John Stone

[Begather]

Have you got the answer yet? If yes then do share it with us.

[John Stone]

Well this is a very late response to this message but basically if you repeat the process that I mentioned above (putting all the squads in overwatch on that mission right when they arrive so they don't move at all so the crash doesn't occur) you should be able to get past that level. Not sure if that mission is too difficult or the turrents need to be more robust but every time I try to play that module that mission just seems unpassable most of the time! Might deserve an analysis or re-edit with the war engine's own tools to make it a bit easier, especially since it's the first mission of the campaign and all.

John Stone