Game freezes during some fights

[WillowIX]

Hmm yes I think you nailed it Dandad. It certainly seems as you are experiencing texture problems with arrows. I would try to apply the patch if I were you though. It has an upgraded deep6.exe, fully compatible with winME as well as any other OS. There´s a post you may want to read in the best tips thread that explains what you might loose with the patch. You can always back up the original files though. That way you are always able to un-patch the game.

[Radek]

Aha! Bows! I am never using bows so that I haven't known that.
As far as the bows are concerned, they are less useful that they seem to be. First, the melee weapons are superior to bows. Second, there is the "2nd Weapon" skill in the game which allows you to equip 2 melee weapons and have 2 attacks per turn.
I recommend using spells as ranged weapons. All offensive spells are ranged and their effect is much better than the effect of any bow. You are regenerating mana all the time so that you can afford it. Later in the game, you will have enough mana so that the effect of the spells becomes profound.

[kev]

G'day Dandad,
I had troubles in the early days of playing this game. I rectified them by adding more ram to my machine. If you have 64mb you may have troubles at times.

[Bungleau]

That 64MB was on the video card, Kev... but more memory never hurts in any case. His current config has 256MB.

But 256MB with 300MB swap is pretty puny. That's why I suggested bumping it up, and it appears that my suggestion didn't have anywhere near as much impact as putting away the bows did [img]smile.gif[/img]

Out of curiosity, Dandad -- was it just bows, or do throwing knives and the like cause problems as well?

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Bungleau: That 64MB was on the video card, Kev... but more memory never hurts in any case. His current config has 256MB. But 256MB with 300MB swap is pretty puny. That's why I suggested bumping it up, and it appears that my suggestion didn't have anywhere near as much impact as putting away the bows did [img]smile.gif[/img] Out of curiosity, Dandad -- was it just bows, or do throwing knives and the like cause problems as well?

And spells! Spells that are drawn and textured the same way as arrows that is. Try casting zap or burn. I still find it hard to believe you would experience a set origin error. Those are removedduring development and this is the first time we´ve encountered it here. I´m starting to consider that this error is not game related though I have no idea what application could cause this. Are you running Norton Systemworks 2003 perhaps? NS2003 has a VERY harmful "bug". It destroys your Direct3D support (fixed by Symantec now).

[Dandad]

I see I did not log out last night so please recognise that this "slow" response is the result of sleep not sloth.

Answering various questions that I have not yet addressed, or which have been raised since my last post.
CPU Athlon ~1211 (1200)
Average of 50% free resources
31Gb free disc space
The 300mb virtual memory I mentioned was a minimum setting which I had made when I first read the techie help tips. I have now changed to a 512mb minimum following suggestions here.

I have not experienced any problems with casting spells except a minor one of killing myself the first time I used Firedrop... OK and a few other times as well... I am presently in the Tomb of Heroes after finishing the Toad/Toadem quest and riding Champion the Wonderhorse all over the place.

I do not have any knives equipped but will experiment with this soon.

While not knowing anything about aspects of programming I nevertheless wonder if the spells and/or their effects are non-directional which might make them different to the arrows (and knives?) which are graphically targeted?

Another point, I do not have any Norton software. My McAfee has sometimes causes a few problems but I do not think it has anything to do with the present one, because it has occured with everything switched off except Systray.

Finally, I have considered the possibility that this error might be caused by issues specific to my machine. I have been running it for nearly two years and recently had to deal with a few corrupted files, e.g. lost Outlook Express and took an age to get it and settings etc back. But I have not had any problems similar to this particular one.

[Radek]

I have never experienced any problems with spells - and I am casting spells often. For example, Leprechaun. I am getting him by Incinerate and Lightning. Spell after spell but no freezing. I've never experienced freezing during the fight with Leprechaun. Also, I've never seen any freezing in the Shurugeon Castle ("mortals, I have you now"). All 8 (or 10?) spirits there are casting spells simultaneously without freezing the game.
If the game freezes then it always freezes unexpectedly without any apparent reason with a few exceptions:
- Elysia
- If the game tries to do much actions simultaneouslsy (sometimes! not always!).
It seems to be a problem with the scheduler in the game. Also, we must not overlook DirectX and Win**** in general. Here is my experience:
I had always problems with installation of W&W. When the installation ended and the computer restarted, I've always got a critical crash during startup and the "you need to reinstall your operating system, etc." message. Well, I didn't need to reinstall. A reset button sufficed and both the Win**** and the game run.
Recently, some game installed "the latest DirectX" on my computer and my other games stop to run. I downloaded the DirectX remover from the web and uninstalled "the latest DirectX". Heh?!? When I installed W&W, I got NO crash! Not even any error message! In the other words, something somewhere in the DirectX is guilty of the crashes.
As far as hardware is concerned, I am using a beggar level computer (from the point of view of contemporary computers): PIII, 550 MHz, 128 MB RAM, fast 13GB disc and 32 MB Riva TNT2 Ultra video - and I have no problems with running W&W.

[Wyvern]

Hurrah - that Dandad's game is underway again and
Hurrah - for all my wonderful techie posters who understand and know what advise to give and what questions to ask! Such a great group!!!

BOWS - save for the fletchery skill which is a great money maker, I never found bows to be that effective in W&W. The game had a real bias for swords, staves and knives over all the other weapons. They may have planned on balancing it out more consistantly had they been provided the necessary development time - but they didn't have it and it is unlikely we'll ever know for certain.

Long distance spells are so much more effective than bows, they seem to have little use in this game unlike other games where a bow was your best friend when starting out.

Keep us posted on how your game is going!!!

Wyv

[Dandad]

In compliance to Wyvern's kind request ".to keep us posted on how your game is going," I'll just say... very enjoyably. In fact the worst problem I've had to deal with recently is an invitation from an obviously very attractive young woman to spend the night in her home.
I mean to say... "Shelter from a Dragon?"
What happened to "See my collection of ........ belts" [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

I expect that as I begin to understand the depth and complexities of the game I will review all my game and computer options... and start again. Perhaps with the patch. A lot will depend on further experiments with the suggestions put forward in this and the techie help threads.

But right now I intend to push on.

They say Life is just a game
but this RPG is just Fun. [img]graemlins/warrior1.gif[/img]

When I need further help I can refer to this magnificent forum.

One regret, which players of MM7 will doubtless recognise, I will never again feel quite so noble while slaughtering the bird population of Avlee. [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

Dandad

[Bungleau]

Aye, Dandad. 'Tis sad but true that the Wyverns that parade the lands of Avlee have proven to be less than helpful to the regular traveler. I do believe that our Wyvern is from a different clan, one which has spent far more time in cultivating human relationships.

Either that, or she's been fattening us in her own little pasture for later consumption... anyone see Felix the Assassin around lately?