Matrix Games Forums

My "replay last turn" VCR controller does not look correct and does not work correctly.

The 8 buttons in the wheel do not appear. I get the whole graphic (e.g. the frame counter, the sliding progress indicator, and even the wheel for the buttons) except for those 8 buttons, and I can't start/stop the playback using those buttons. It has worked correctly at least once, I have seen what it is supposed to look like, but 95% of the time it is messed up for me.

This is a bug. Outside of the bugs ... in general I think I'm really going to like this game, but the UI is sort of a bear. Huge learning curve (e.g. figuring out what all these icons mean without supporting text, compounded by the fact that units look different depending on nationality, figuring out the research submenu [after selecting an attribute to research] with all those unexplained icons [not explained in the manual so far as I found]), and there are some basic things either I just haven't figured out or really should be added.

In the "detailed combat report" screen ... nothing tells you where the combat took place. Yes, I know, if you know how you got there you can figure it out, but why add the obfuscation? This screen should have "previous combat" and "next combat" buttons, so it is easier to scroll through the combats of the previous turn. Or maybe I wouldn't want this if my VCR playback worked...

We have seen cases of the replay controller coming up without buttons. In every case we've seen it was after either Alt-Tabing out of the game and/or exiting one game and starting another (or loading a save) without exiting the program. In all these cases, exiting the program and then loading a save fixed the problem. We have not figured out yet what is causing this problem or how we might fix it. For now, the workaround is if this happens to exit the program and rerun it. You said you always get this problem. Is it always in a situation where you have Alt-Tabbed and/or loaded a different game without exiting the program? We're looking for any clues we can get on this problem.

As for the items you mentioned that are unexplained, in general, if you put your mouse cursor over a number you will get pop-up text describing what that number represents. Also, while the combat report pop-up is active, you will see the region on the map where the combat was changing color. If you have the replay working, you should be able to tell where the combat's are happening for the other players as well.

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings
Is it always in a situation where you have Alt-Tabbed and/or loaded a different game without exiting the program? We're looking for any clues we can get on this problem.

Yes, we could surmise that it has always been caused by an Alt-Tab. I am Alt-Tabbing over to these forums very very frequently.

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings
if you put your mouse cursor over a number you will get pop-up text describing what that number represents.

Hmm, yes, I see some explanations for things that confused me before. Thanks.

Thanks for the response. It's always good to know that you are aware of and working on the issue.

Yes, we could surmise that it has always been caused by an Alt-Tab. I am Alt-Tabbing over to these forums very very frequently.

If you are an Atl-Tab fan, why not simply run the game in windowed mode? Removes the potential problems of alt-tabbing alltogether.