Game wont start

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:25 am

Just got the game and downloaded the newest patch. Game starts, goes through the various company pages and then on the page where it starts loading the game I hear the music and voices but once the bottom bar is nearly filled (I hear the word "fire")it crashes to the original screen.

Any help would be appreciated.

Gil R. · Post by **Gil R.** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:31 am

While waiting for the tech-savvy cavalry to arrive...

What are the specs of your computer, especially memory? If you have less than 1GB of RAM then you might need to use the low-memory options.

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:58 am

i cant even get to the options part before crashing. But I do have 2 gigs of ram(ddr2)

I did think it maybe was my soundcard drivers since I always forget to upgrade those, so after posting by diagdx I got the latest driver but the problem persists

Gil R. · Post by **Gil R.** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:12 am

I'm no expert, but it sounds like your video drivers or Flash might be out of date. If you don't know how to update these, then perhaps later in the day someone will be able to give suggestions. I do know that 2GB of RAM is more than enough, so in cases like this it always turns out to be some sort of sound- and/or graphics-related file(s) needing to be updated.

Because of Christmas there's a chance that it might take a while to respond. I'd strongly urge skimming through older threads in the Support forum, because this sort of thing has come up before.

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:15 am

I just got my video card saturday and got the newest drivers from the manufacturers site. Will go check out the flash thing and let you know.

BTW, thanks

edit: nope, not flash..dled latest version 9.xxxx. same problem. crash in same place.

edit2: ran thru the boards and someone suggested shockwave. same problem. crash in same place

Gil R. · Post by **Gil R.** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:35 am

Hmm. I'm stumped. Thought that's not saying much.

I guess this will have to wait for morning.

ericbabe · Post by **ericbabe** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:39 pm

Try loading with the NOFLASH=1 option set in the .ini file.

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:42 pm

But doesn't the game have to run at least once to generate an .ini file?

Spent an hour this morning looking for it. Dont see it in the fof folder.But then it was 4am, i was tired so imight have missed it.It wouldn't be in a sub folder would it?

the only thing i can find in windows is a fof uninstall utility and
a fof setup log.

just ran another check for all fof files on my comp. dont see any ini file associated with fof

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:30 pm

tried uninstalling and reinstalling. no go

Gil R. · Post by **Gil R.** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 6:41 pm

The .ini file is kept in the Windows folder, the super-important one that would be under "My Computer," if your set-up is like mine. There is a "ForgeOfFreedom.ini" file that can be opened and edited using the "Notepad" program. Just add the line Eric gave you and we'll see if that solves things.

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:08 pm

the only reference to fof in the windows subdirectory is to the uninstall utility and the setup log. no fof.ini anywhere to be seen

seems it is not generating one on install or running the game...strange....or else my bloodshot eyes can't discern between letters anymore...but i refuse to sleep or celebrate Christmas with the family till my Christmas present to myself is running...

ericbabe · Post by **ericbabe** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:20 pm

I haven't figured out how to get the .ini files to work on my Vista machine, and although I see you are using XP, I don't know whether some new security features are on XP are causing the same sort of .ini file problems I've seen with Vista.

The fact that you're hearing some sound makes it unlikely to be a problem related to the sound drivers.  The fact that it's crashing at just the point at which the Flash animation begins makes me think it's a Flash/Shockwave problem.  I will attach a ForgeOfFreedom.ini file that has NOFLASH=1 set.  Please try copying this file to your WIndows directory and/or to your Forge of Freedom root directory (same folder that the ForgeOfFreedom.exe file is in) and see whether this helps.

ericbabe · Post by **ericbabe** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:22 pm

Hmmm, for some reason I can't upload zip files to this thread. If you wouldn't mind e-mailing me (ericbabe@west-civ.com) I'll send you the .ini file directly.

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:29 am

Thanks for the help, but unfortunatly, The ini file is not helping. Tried it once in the win directory. same prob. deleted that one and putit in the default fof directory. no dice. tried it in both win and fof dir at the same time..no dice

Is it supposed to be in any specific directory in FOF or just in it?
if its to be in windows, where?(never mind, saw ericbabes post )

ericbabe · Post by **ericbabe** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 6:19 am

Please try editing the .ini file to add the lines (right after the NOFLASH=1) to include the new lines:

NOSOUND=1
LOWANIM=1

Let's see whether it'll run with a few things turned off.

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 6:30 am

No to both of your suggestions

ericbabe · Post by **ericbabe** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:58 pm

Did the NOSOUND option successfully shut the opening sound effects off?

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 4:17 pm

it shut down the voice part but not the music

ericbabe · Post by **ericbabe** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 8:13 pm

The .ini file seems to be working then.

So far, the only crash-on-loads we've had with people who have had system specs as good as yours have involved (1) out of date or double-installed audio drivers (two cases of that), (2) out of date or mis-installed Flash/Shockwave components (maybe 3-4 cases of that), (3) a handful of people with 64-bit operating systems, (4) one guy whose system turned out to be having physical problems unrelated to the game.  Since your audio is working, I doubt it's an audio problem.  You don't have a 64-bit OS.  Your Flash/Shockwave is up-to-date.  Haven't had any crash-on-load problems so far that weren't one of these three cases (on systems that met the minimum system specs and such).

We have had problems in which peoples' anti-virus software prevented the game from installing properly, but my guess is that you wouldn't be getting the sort of error's you're seeing in this case.  You might try temporarily disabling your AV software and re-installing.

Perhaps try this: open your internet browser.  Go to the Video folder and drag the file intro.swf into the browser.  This should play the Forge of Freedom intro screen in your browser.  If it doesn't, then we'll know something's wrong with Flash/SW for sure.

Phatguy · Post by **Phatguy** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:23 am

it must be the flash. IE(i havent used in over 1yr) says i have no flash, Aol(work account) says I have no flash when I tried to test youtube out. Mozilla, my default right now will play flash but not the intro for some reason. I have looked at totally uninstalling flash as it said on its site, but im not really sure which processes use flash so i can disable them and where to look for them to totally remove flash.

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