EF & WF keep crashing to desktop

[sorrowman]

OK, so I've been playing, or rather been trying to play, campaign games in both EF and WF (Polish Tragedy in EF and Afrika Korps in WF), but for some reason the game keeps crashing to the Desktop with a Windows Errormessage and a memory error somewhere into the first battles.

Ever since I've been playing games from these series (used to play the first Talonsoft incarnations of both EF and RS, and I recall this was something that has plagued these series ever since they first came out. Does anyone have any clear idea what may be causing these CTD's (Crash To Desktop) and what I might do about it?

I'm running the series with the "temporary 1.02B patch" applied on a WinXP SP2 machine

Core 2 Duo E6320
2GB RAM
X1950 Pro 256MB GPU
2* 250GB Samsung HD's
Creative SB Audigy 4

THX in advance.

[vadersson]

Hey Sorrowman,

I think you have a pretty common problem. Check this thread:

tm.asp?m=1484498

Basically you need to make sure you are saving the campaigns to the right folders, (East Front campaings to the East Front folder, etc.) The program does not default to the right place at first.

Thanks,
Duncan

[sorrowman]

THX for your quick reply..

How do I make sure these campaignfiles end up in the right folders (either for EF, WF or RS). Or how do check wether they are in the right folder right now?

Right now I've just found what I assume to be my campaignfiles are located in the West Front folder. I've started the Afrika Korps dynamic campaign and my player is called Von Thoma Looking into the West Front folder shows that:

- Von Thoma.ccd
- Von Thoma.ccx
- Von Thoma.CPN
- Von Thoma.MAP

are all located there? so I'm assuming that's the right spot?

[vadersson]

The files you need to check are your save files.  For example, the campaign you are talking about needs to be saved in the West Front folder.

If that does not work, I will have to defer to Jason.

Thanks,
Duncan

[1925frank]

I'm the last person to ask about computer problems, but unless you specifically directed your LCG save file to West Front, it won't be there.  About the only way I can think of (and my thinking on computers is limited) to determine where your LCG save file was deposited would be to try saving another LCG and see where the game tries to deposit it.  As noted above, the game won't direct the save file automatically to West Front.  You have to do that manually.  Once you see where the game tries to deposit the save file, hopefully your LCG save file will be in the same directory or folder.  There are probably other ways to find a particular file within a hard drive, but I'm not skilled enough to know them.

[sorrowman]

I don't want to be a pain in the rear end, but I don't quite understand it yet.

What files do I need to look for....what qualifies as a savefile? what would be the name of such a file (including it's extention), and how do I make sure it is put in the right folder? What is the 'right folder' 'cause browsing through my main campaign series folder shows there's multiple folders in there called East Front, West Front and Rising Sun. The main folder I installed the game in is F:\games\campaign series\

As far as the random crashes to desktop are concerned I've tried a couple of other things as well. I disabled direct-draw, direct 3D and AGP acceleration and it seems to me the crashes occur less often. Maybe there's some graphics issues with the enigine or something. Maybe it can't handle new directX versions and modern hardware or something....tho I recall the same thing was happening quite a lot when I first started playing EF back in the late nineties.

A different graphics related thing that seems to occur here is the fact that my Windows theme is changed to campaign series style green/brown-ish everytime I exit the game? green windows menu's, green taskbar and such. [&:]

Either way, I hope u guys would care to shine some more light on this matter..'cause these crashes are a real bummer.

[Jason Petho]

Are these Dynamic Campaigns or Linked Campaigns?

Jason Petho

[sorrowman]

I've been trying to play Polish Tragedy in EF (which is dynamic I believe) and now I'm moderately succesful at playing the Afrika Korps dynamic campaign in WF

[Jason Petho]

Hmm, odd.

What forces are you playing in the Polish Tragedy?

Here is a post that might help out:

tm.asp?m=1484498


When the posts are referring to where you are saving your campaign file, they are merely stating that the first time you are asked to save your file - the save file location defaults to My Documents or something - this is WRONG - the save file location would be in the game folder.

So, if you are playing an East Front campaign, ensure you are browsing to the East Front folder and saving the file there.

Jason Petho

[sorrowman]

In the Polish Tragedy campaign (EF) I've been playing as the Germans, same for the Afrika Korps campaign in WF.

As for saving files, sofar the game never asked me to save anything anywhere [&:] so I was assuming that was all automatic....and that's also why I've been asking about how I can alter that location?

[Jason Petho]

Might be only for Linked Campaigns and standard scenarios, I haven't played the campaigns in eons and since I am at work at the moment, I am unable to check.

Jason Petho

[Jason Petho]

Noting the German reference, there might be an error in the campaign file for that particular campaign. What are the dates for it? Only the Barbarossa campaign oob had been revised, the others are on the to-do list.

Jason Petho

[sorrowman]

the Polish Tragedy *.DAT files (which I assume are the Campaign files) I can find are dated 1998, so I guess they haven't been revised

[Jason Petho]

Precisely.

On the brightside, as I noted above, it is on the hitlist to be revised.

Jason Petho

[sorrowman]

OK, well that's good...THX for your fast answers and advice sofar.

So I'm gonna try and visit the forums every once in a while to see if new patches and such are being made available, in the mean time I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope I don't get too much crashes anymore.

It's great to see you guys putting so much effort in bringing an old but great series of games to the next level. You must know I kinda dislike turn-based games in general, but this series was the huge exception to the rule for me. And ever since my East Front CD got wrecked I've been looking for a replacement that I couldn't find, until I figured out Matrox took things over and re-released the series. Hope you'll be able to give this series a seonc life so to speak.

[Jason Petho]

ORIGINAL: sorrowman
OK, well that's good...THX for your fast answers and advice sofar.

No problem, my pleasure!

ORIGINAL: sorrowman
So I'm gonna try and visit the forums every once in a while to see if new patches and such are being made available, in the mean time I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope I don't get too much crashes anymore.

The next major update is expected to come out around Christmas, assuming all goes according to plan.

ORIGINAL: sorrowman
It's great to see you guys putting so much effort in bringing an old but great series of games to the next level.

We are a passionate bunch about the Campaign Series. I would like to see it last for another decade or more!

ORIGINAL: sorrowman
You must know I kinda dislike turn-based games in general, but this series was the huge exception to the rule for me. And ever since my East Front CD got wrecked I've been looking for a replacement that I couldn't find, until I figured out Matrix took things over and re-released the series. Hope you'll be able to give this series a seonc life so to speak.

With the present BETA Brigade and the Campaign Series Legion, the game will continue to grow with additional features, new scenarios, new and updated campaigns and new units and organizations.

With every update, there will be plenty of new "stuff" to keep the game alive and well.

Jason Petho