It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
Castles seriesTechnical Issues with Castles 2(30 posts)(30 posts)
(30 posts)
Pages:
1
2
This is my favourite topic
Posted March 27, 2011
avatar
Firek: Make sure that your user account has Administrator privileges and that User Account Control is disabled in your operating system. To do this, go to Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety -> User Accounts -> Change User Account Control settings. Move the slider to the lowest position ("Never notify") and click OK.

Now, try launching Castles 2 by right-clicking its shortcut and selecting "Run as Administrator" and check if the problem persists, but don't use the savegame files you currently have. Try starting a new game, create a new savegame, load it and see if the progress bar issue is still there.
I'll put the pertinent info from the two e-mails I wrote back to you guys, to see if any of the other users have things they could add that I didn't do or didn't notice or if the info inspires some genius thought :).

e-mail 1:
So I'll give your suggestion a shot but I'm less than optimistic. I have a Mac with both an OS X and Win 7 partition. I've gotten the reported bug in the GOG Castles II to be reproducible on the OS X system (running DosBox for OS X of course) and others have gotten the bug when running Windows. So I'm not sure that it's a Windows UAC problem. However, I will try it out on my Win7 partition.
e-mail 2:
So unfortunately I'm actually having trouble replicating the load-game bug where the game would essentially stop working after loading a saved game. While normally the lack of bugginess would be a good thing, it is annoying now. :) I haven't installed a new version of Castles II since the original bug report and as such I am unsure of why the game suddenly seems to be working (although I have a theory below). I feel a bit like a guy who takes his broken car into a mechanic which suddenly starts working beautifully as soon I as get it into the shop. Anyway here is a thread link for other users who experienced this same bug: http://www.gog.com/en/forum/castles_series/technical_issues_with_castles_2. The only thing I can think of is that this is a timing or event based bug - i.e. something has to happen or you have to play for long enough to get the load-game bug to surface.

The music bug I mentioned is actually like this. The music seems to speed up after going to the "visit territory", watching a castle being constructed, or after watching a battle. The music starts speeding up after those events and over time keeps getting faster until it is going at hyperspeed. Again, perhaps the load game bug is something similar, where something has to occur or you play long enough and it surfaces? The reason it might not have reared its ugly head this time around (despite loading games where it had occurred) was that I did reinstall Boxer in Mac OS X, which might have reset something and I had never even tried playing Castles II in Win 7 before.

Playing In DosBox-Mac OS X these were the only two bugs I experienced and the first, more critical one I couldn't re-create. There was a third bug I found playing in DosBox-Win7 - when designing a castle and I then clicked the button to go to pre-made designs (click on territory > visit > design > designs), I would get a black screen. Following your directions and running as an administrator solved this particular issue in Win 7.

I hope this helps. I will try to recreate the load-game bug if I can.
Post edited March 27, 2011 by crazy_dave
Posted May 22, 2011
So I managed to replicate the load game bug and there does seem to be a way around it. Here is an e-mail I sent to GOG support:

I started a new game. I had never even tried to play on my Windows partition before, the time I encountered this problem was on my Mac partition. However, other users have had the problem on their Windows machines. Here is the save file I originally had trouble with on my Mac partition:

Interestingly the gather resources part still works, so you can gather resources, but you can't attack, etc ... the progress bar will reach the end and nothing will happen. In fact, you can pretty much run the game, sit back. and no one (even the AI players) will be doing anything: no attacks, no diplomats, no Pope messages, no intrigue plots.

The good news is I finally managed to reproduce the bug myself! I don't know though if this was how I encountered the bug in the first place or if there are other ways to get it. So if during the game you go to the Directory (Opts > Directory(Castle Icon)), then either try to start a new game or quit and save the game when it prompts you to, that saved game when loaded will suffer from this issue. That is how I got the following save game file to break:

This should be broken in the same fashion as David3.GAM. So saving the game with the Save button during the game under Options (Opts>Save), as far as I can tell, seems to be okay (though I can't be certain), but this method of saving seems to be broken. This was on my Mac partition and I'll try it this weekend on my Windows partition.

Have you been able to recreate the music bug? That one is fairly straightforward: At the beginning the music should be playing at normal speed, but then launch a few attacks and you'll begin to notice the music has noticeably sped up, launch a few more or visit a castle being built and by the end the music on the strategic map should be playing extremely fast.
Therefore doing a save from within the campaign should result in a good save file, but if you go to the main (home) screen and quit or start a new campaign etc ... and get prompted to save your game then, that will result in a bad save game. The music one you just have to quit out of the program and start the game again if it gets annoying.
Post edited May 22, 2011 by crazy_dave
Posted June 01, 2011
Hmm, I got the OP bug right from starting a new game...not tried loading a save yet...
I did only install C2, and left C1 out...Will try reinstalling fully.

Occasionally, the graphics go wonky oil-on-water coloured, but changing to castle design view, then back to main screen fixes it.

Creating DXDiag report now.
Posted June 01, 2011
OK, seems to have fixed the issue with "Run as Administrator" privileges, and the following Compatibities :

Disable Visual Themes
Disable Desktop Composition
Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.

Run in 256 causes DOSBox to die when loading :\
Posted June 01, 2011
avatar
Lone3wolf: OK, seems to have fixed the issue with "Run as Administrator" privileges, and the following Compatibities :

Disable Visual Themes
Disable Desktop Composition
Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.

Run in 256 causes DOSBox to die when loading :\
can you test with these settings, if you get the load game bug (see my last post right before yours)? or the music bug?
Posted June 01, 2011
avatar
crazy_dave: can you test with these settings, if you get the load game bug (see my last post right before yours)? or the music bug?
Music keeps "glitching", and plays a little fast, as does voice, but normal speed, but I rarely have game music on in any game, so that's not an issue, and TBH, I prefer the text in C2 than the voices - easier to know what you're agreeing, or refusing on randoms, and diplomacy.

Saves/loads work as one would expect, even ones from before I made these settings in the shortcut properties.

Edit : damn wtf? double posted into itself :\
Post edited June 01, 2011 by Lone3wolf
Posted June 01, 2011
avatar
crazy_dave: can you test with these settings, if you get the load game bug (see my last post right before yours)? or the music bug?
avatar
Lone3wolf: Music keeps "glitching", and plays a little fast, as does voice, but normal speed, but I rarely have game music on in any game, so that's not an issue, and TBH, I prefer the text in C2 than the voices - easier to know what you're agreeing, or refusing on randoms, and diplomacy.

Saves/loads work as one would expect, even ones from before I made these settings in the shortcut properties.

Edit : damn wtf? double posted into itself :\
hmm ... what if you save a game following these directions: From inside the game you hit Opts then Directory (Castle Icon), then try to start a new game or quit out of the program. You will then be prompted to save the game. Do so. Quit out of Castles II and then try to load that game.
Posted June 02, 2011
avatar
Lone3wolf: Music keeps "glitching", and plays a little fast, as does voice, but normal speed, but I rarely have game music on in any game, so that's not an issue, and TBH, I prefer the text in C2 than the voices - easier to know what you're agreeing, or refusing on randoms, and diplomacy.

Saves/loads work as one would expect, even ones from before I made these settings in the shortcut properties.

Edit : damn wtf? double posted into itself :\
avatar
crazy_dave: hmm ... what if you save a game following these directions: From inside the game you hit Opts then Directory (Castle Icon), then try to start a new game or quit out of the program. You will then be prompted to save the game. Do so. Quit out of Castles II and then try to load that game.
Hmm, okay, that's bizarre.
Works around half the time. Stops battles and building castles the other half

O_o

Lemme play around the settings some more.
Posted June 02, 2011
Best I can make it out to be - Save manually in-game, then when quitting, click "Don't Save"...seems to be that "save on quit" that causes the bug.
Posted June 02, 2011
avatar
Lone3wolf: Best I can make it out to be - Save manually in-game, then when quitting, click "Don't Save"...seems to be that "save on quit" that causes the bug.
yup that's the same conclusion I came to ... at least it's consistent and avoidable, still slightly annoying though :/
Post edited June 02, 2011 by crazy_dave
Posted June 02, 2011
Indeed. I usually do things that way around anyway....so no biggie for me :D
Posted February 22, 2012
I tried firing this up in DOSBOX on my 64-bit Windows 7-running laptop (can't run it "normally" due to incompatibility) and it gave me a "CD-ROM not found!" message. That's a bit more...retro...than I would like, since I don't have the CD handy (although I might just have an old copy somewhere). Any advice?
Posted April 17, 2012
avatar
AMX: I tried firing this up in DOSBOX on my 64-bit Windows 7-running laptop (can't run it "normally" due to incompatibility) and it gave me a "CD-ROM not found!" message. That's a bit more...retro...than I would like, since I don't have the CD handy (although I might just have an old copy somewhere). Any advice?
Did you contact support?
Post edited April 17, 2012 by crazy_dave
Posted February 15, 2015
Yep, same problem here. Will try not using the exit-game save.
Posted May 21, 2016
Interesting, I saw this bug exactly once this far, in about a week since playing. Might be I used the exit game save, not sure, I normally do not. But what I want to add, I think I actually recovered from it, by saving anew from options->save (then exiting and restarting everything including windows, but that probably was excessive); on next load all was working again.

Will probably do some tests later.
Post edited May 21, 2016 by Enneagon
Pages:
1
2
This is my favourite topic
Community
Castles seriesTechnical Issues with Castles 2(30 posts)(30 posts)
(30 posts)