Sale = I am new player! Could use some help.

[KaiLae]

Got game today after watching the XTRG vs Historical gamer youtube series, which I'm greatly enjoying. I'd link it but apparently that's not allowed. Problem is that I'm having issues getting the game running as I'd like, so I have a few questions:

1. I have a ultrawide monitor (2560x1080). Can I run it windowed with this setting? The readme says...maybe, using switches. I used several of these, some of them worked but changing the screen size did not. I would like to use the whole monitor, and windowed since I believe I'll need to be constantly referring to the manual or help posts while I learn to play.

2. The graphics shown starting in the second session of the series looks greatly preferable to what I'm seeing. I assume there's a way to get that in some fashion. Generally, looks similar to what I see in War in the East. Could someone help me out with that?

I'm sure I'll have more things later, but this should allow me to get started. Thanks for any help you can give.

[Enforcer]

1- Get Seabees https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4415089 and use these settings

2- Get the 2 patches-
Update v1.01.26a- https://www.matrixgames.com/member/down ... ls-edition
and
Patch 07 - Unofficial Public Beta - 1126b- https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3185062

3- Install the patches

4- Launch seabees and choose these options:
-multi-core- SingleCpuOrders
-pick core- cpu4
-enable 32- Deepcolor
-directdraw- dd_sw
-multi-core audio- multiaudio
-display mode- fd
-force resolution- yes and try 1920x1080 first
-use Alternate- altfont
-skip inrto- skipvideo.. (maybe the first run you should watch it..it is pretty good)
-Get it to work- select manual browse and click build shortcut

Tell us if it works.. I hope I did not miss anything

[KaiLae]

Generally worked great, but the graphics are still not what I'm looking for. PM'ed you a response for that as I can't link anything.

[Anachro]

KaiLae, I'm not sure what graphics you are referring to, but I'm guessing you want one of the various map art modifications which you can find on the forums. Unfortunately, Chemkid, the creator of the most popular map pack (the one I think XTRG uses), went AWOL and also deleted all his stuff. Some kind souls did save most of this and you should be able to find the map mod you are looking for in the Scenario Design and Modding subforum. Actually, here you go, the kind soul saved Chemkid's work in dropbox:

Dropbox Link

However, if I may say so, I find MakeeLearn's map to be the best there is, a great compromise between Chemkid's artwork and trying to preserve clarity of projection.

MakeeLearn's Bellum Pacifica Map

[BBfanboy]

I took the graphics issue to be the recommended resolution not working well with his combination of monitor/video card/Win 10 restrictions.
The key is to click on the user's desktop and find the native resolutions that are offered and choose one of those. It may not be the highest resolution because Win 10 does not willingly hide the task bar.

The other thing some users get confused about is that the initial screens on start up are not meant to be full screen displays (the radio dial setting screen). You don't see what your game switch resolution is doing until you start a scenario and look at the game map.

[KaiLae]

Everything is good now other than the map art style. I'd show you what I'm looking for, but the forums refuse to let me.

Will check the map mods. Assuming the ChemKid map is the one I'm looking for, how do you install it?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: KaiLae

Everything is good now other than the map art style. I'd show you what I'm looking for, but the forums refuse to let me.

Will check the map mods.

Be careful with map mod installations - they can be tricky because some maps are extended with extra bases and islands (like one separating Aden from Abadan) and some maps having stacking limits in every land hex, not just the bases.
Be aware that the map art is eye candy for you, but the heart of the map is the set of files that the computer uses to get all the information on bases, roads, railroads, geography, and passability of hex sides. It is probably best to get the game up and running on the stock map before playing with player-devised mods.

[Enforcer]

KaiLae.. ChemKid is the map you are looking for

[JohnDillworth]

In the past I have had problems with some of hte switches when I do a cut and paste. Carefully typing them in sometimes works better

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: KaiLae

Everything is good now other than the map art style. I'd show you what I'm looking for, but the forums refuse to let me.

Will check the map mods. Assuming the ChemKid map is the one I'm looking for, how do you install it?

You need a few more posts before you can embed pictures.

[KaiLae]

Ok so there is apparently a pile of good useful mods that I might want to make use of. However, I'm not sure how you install them. The map mod for example, I'm not sure how you actually get it running? I assume you back up a directory and replace, but not sure which one that is.

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: KaiLae

Ok so there is apparently a pile of good useful mods that I might want to make use of. However, I'm not sure how you install them. The map mod for example, I'm not sure how you actually get it running? I assume you back up a directory and replace, but not sure which one that is.

You are focusing on the wrong things. Mods of any kind are what you add once you have some idea what's going on.

A lot of new players are like guys who just made the jump from High School football to the NFL. And having done that, by all means, don't watch game film or listen to your coaches. What's really important is to pay attention to your brand of cleats and how shiny your helmet is, because really, how hard could it be? Right? It's still football.

Don't be those guys. Learn.the.game.

[Pax25]

ORIGINAL: Enforcer

1- Get Seabees https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4415089 and use these settings

2- Get the 2 patches-
Update v1.01.26a- https://www.matrixgames.com/member/down ... ls-edition
and
Patch 07 - Unofficial Public Beta - 1126b- https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3185062

3- Install the patches

4- Launch seabees and choose these options:
-multi-core- SingleCpuOrders
-pick core- cpu4
-enable 32- Deepcolor
-directdraw- dd_sw
-multi-core audio- multiaudio
-display mode- fd
-force resolution- yes and try 1920x1080 first
-use Alternate- altfont
-skip inrto- skipvideo.. (maybe the first run you should watch it..it is pretty good)
-Get it to work- select manual browse and click build shortcut

Tell us if it works.. I hope I did not miss anything

Thank you for posting this. Someone should really sticky it.

I'm a new player as well who took advantage of the holiday sale. Following these instructions made a huge difference in my game's appearance and performance. I was enjoying the game, but the outdated graphics and terrible performance would have driven me nuts.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Pax25

ORIGINAL: Enforcer

1- Get Seabees https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4415089 and use these settings

2- Get the 2 patches-
Update v1.01.26a- https://www.matrixgames.com/member/down ... ls-edition
and
Patch 07 - Unofficial Public Beta - 1126b- https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3185062

3- Install the patches

4- Launch seabees and choose these options:
-multi-core- SingleCpuOrders
-pick core- cpu4
-enable 32- Deepcolor
-directdraw- dd_sw
-multi-core audio- multiaudio
-display mode- fd
-force resolution- yes and try 1920x1080 first
-use Alternate- altfont
-skip inrto- skipvideo.. (maybe the first run you should watch it..it is pretty good)
-Get it to work- select manual browse and click build shortcut

Tell us if it works.. I hope I did not miss anything

Thank you for posting this. Someone should really sticky it.

I'm a new player as well who took advantage of the holiday sale. Following these instructions made a huge difference in my game's appearance and performance. I was enjoying the game, but the outdated graphics and terrible performance would have driven me nuts.

Back when the game was in development the team decided that it was more important to have a game engine that could handle all the detection and combat calculations and keep track of the status of thousands of units/ships/devices/squadrons/aircraft/bases etc. as opposed to putting in a lot of pretty graphics of ships and aircraft maneuvering. The result is not eye-catching until you immerse yourself in following all the clues that tell you what is going on in that simple animation screen - read the text, watch the hits and note what caliber they are, actively estimate how things are going as a commander of your TFs would.

The relatively staid game face belies the tremendous excitement you will get when you have worked for dozens of turns to bring about a clash or avoid one. And the randomness injected into so many elements of the battle always means tension. IOW, give the game time to work its charm on you rather than look for a pretty face! [;)]

[Pax25]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Pax25

ORIGINAL: Enforcer

1- Get Seabees https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4415089 and use these settings

2- Get the 2 patches-
Update v1.01.26a- https://www.matrixgames.com/member/down ... ls-edition
and
Patch 07 - Unofficial Public Beta - 1126b- https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3185062

3- Install the patches

4- Launch seabees and choose these options:
-multi-core- SingleCpuOrders
-pick core- cpu4
-enable 32- Deepcolor
-directdraw- dd_sw
-multi-core audio- multiaudio
-display mode- fd
-force resolution- yes and try 1920x1080 first
-use Alternate- altfont
-skip inrto- skipvideo.. (maybe the first run you should watch it..it is pretty good)
-Get it to work- select manual browse and click build shortcut

Tell us if it works.. I hope I did not miss anything

Thank you for posting this. Someone should really sticky it.

I'm a new player as well who took advantage of the holiday sale. Following these instructions made a huge difference in my game's appearance and performance. I was enjoying the game, but the outdated graphics and terrible performance would have driven me nuts.

Back when the game was in development the team decided that it was more important to have a game engine that could handle all the detection and combat calculations and keep track of the status of thousands of units/ships/devices/squadrons/aircraft/bases etc. as opposed to putting in a lot of pretty graphics of ships and aircraft maneuvering. The result is not eye-catching until you immerse yourself in following all the clues that tell you what is going on in that simple animation screen - read the text, watch the hits and note what caliber they are, actively estimate how things are going as a commander of your TFs would.

The relatively staid game face belies the tremendous excitement you will get when you have worked for dozens of turns to bring about a clash or avoid one. And the randomness injected into so many elements of the battle always means tension. IOW, give the game time to work its charm on you rather than look for a pretty face! [;)]

I think you missed my point.

I get it that the game is incredibly deep and mostly texted based. I am an experienced wargamer. Playing games like The Operational Art of War, etc. for years.

However, in this case, when you own a modern laptop with Windows 10 and you attempt to play this game without any modifications, the game is almost unplayable. For example, it would take 5 to 10 seconds just to select a unit. Once a unit was selected, the map would barely scroll at all. These are just basic functions that would turn anybody off who doesn't have the skills to modify his computer.

This Seabee program was excellent and fixed all the issues I was having. It had nothing to do with adding eye candy.

[Enforcer]

Yes I knew that from the private message KaiLae sent me.. That other stuff was a copy and past "just in case" any other issue popped up. KaiLae knew that

[BBfanboy]

You are right Pax25 - I misinterpreted your comment about graphics to mean a desire for the eye candy kind, like prettier maps.
Glad to hear you have your expectations in the right place!

BTW, the whole switches thing is not exactly the game's fault. It was designed when Win XP was the leading OS, and many of the game's routines used "hooks" into the Win XP OS to perform their functions. As Microsoft brought out newer Windows versions they did away with many of the OS routines the game needed to run well. The hardware was also changing rapidly with different BIOS routines.

I think the Matrix development team are the ones who invented the switches to tell the game how to interact with various combinations of Computer hardware, Windows versions/Graphics Card software and Monitor drivers. They may be a pain to get set up for your particular system, but it is a brilliant way to have a flexible means of ensuring almost all systems can run the game reasonably well. Kudos to them and to the forumites like Kovar who have helped us all get our systems playing well (even if the operator does not!) . [8|]

[rockmedic109]

Pax25-
When I got a new laptop with Win10, I had a hard time getting AE to run. I ran into the same problems you did. It required the proper switches to run and I had mistyped one of them and it took me awhile to determine what I did wrong. Once set up right, the game absolutely flew.

Welcome to the obsession that is AE.

[KaiLae]

After making this thread, I found a similar one (which I still can't link to) in the tech support forum (Fresh install - What patch and Utlilities i need?) which lists the following steps:

1. Ok, from a fresh install, first install the official update:

2. After you install this, install the Beta update, in the first post click on the "Attachment (1) ". You start the game from a new shortcut on your desktop that says "War in the Pacific - Admiral's Edition (Beta)"

3. After this, install all of the Patch 07 unofficial data scen updates by Andy Mac, those are unofficial but everybody uses them. They are made by one of the devs of the game. Install everything into the SCEN folder, NOT! the default game folder.

4. Now when your game is updated, we can install all the mods.

here are all of the Chemkids maps in a single file, first backup your ART folder (just in case):

5. And for the "Unified Art Mod", also unpack everything in your game folder. If something goes wrong, or you don't like it, just delete the ART folder and copy the backed up back in:


This is what I want. Only thing is after downloading the Chemkids map, it's not at all clear how to install it as the directories in the zip file don't correspond to any in the game directory. Could someone help me out with this please?

[Enforcer]

KaiLae,

I sent you a PM

Enforcer