Firaxis: Please fix this bug that's been there since Day 1

zulu9812 · December 7, 2002, 06:42

This might be a technical issue, but it's not a request for help so I'm posting it here. I'm playing 1.14f PTW with 1.29f Civ3 on a Windows 2000 PC (750MHz PIII, 128 RAM, 64 meg Kyro II). When I start civ3 or PTW, the screen wil black out, lights at the bottom will flash orange and the screen won't come back on and I have to restart. This happens about 50% of the time. I figured out a way around this problem by adding the following lines to the Civilization3.ini file:

Keepres=1
Video Mode=1024
Refresh=60

Now that's all well and good, but each patch deletes this file and is only written again when you start up the game again. OF course I can then add the lines myself, but it's frustrating to install the patch, start the game, wait for the screen to black out, restart (which on W2K takes ages) and then add the lines myself. Every patch, including the PTW ones.

Would it be possible to either fix the bug completely, or at least have the patches NOT overwrite the .ini file?

EDIT: those 3 lines need to go in the Civilization3.ini and ptw.ini files.

Raion · December 7, 2002, 13:07

I have same system, did not have that problem. Did add lines though, although in PTW, now, opening video can be turned off, if one wants to.

PlayIntro=0
or
PlayIntro=1 if one wants the opening movie.

Raion · December 7, 2002, 13:10

I should have said that I have Windows 2000 Professional, but other things for video and memory.

Maybe video drivers should be upgraded or acceleration turned on all the way up on graphics performance, or something else, perhaps.

Anyway, PlayIntro=0 or 1 is what I use.
But both work on my system.

zulu9812 · December 7, 2002, 13:21

It's Windows 2000 Professional, Service Pack 3 (same thing happened with Service Pack 2) and fully updated video card drivers (I just updated them in order to play Medieval: Total War).

vmxa1 · December 7, 2002, 14:19

Win2000 is just not a good system for gamers.

Gen.Dragolen · December 7, 2002, 15:38

vmxa1,

Bite your tongue. I used to try playing games on an NT machine, and that was hell.

At least W2k can correctly interpret DirectX, despite it's pedigree... I am a systems analyst and fixing buggy desktops in NT is about 50% of the job. I have yet to encounter problems on systems running W2k, and I have been using W2k to play Civ III since the game came out.

It's not bullet proof, but it's able to take a crashed app better than anything in the non-*nix world so far. And no I haven't tried using XP yet: need a faster cpu and bigger hdd to accomodate that bloat-ware before I can test it...

zulu9812 · December 7, 2002, 18:49

btw, I'm not the only one - this guy has the same problem

Mad Bomber · December 7, 2002, 23:36

Zulu:

Good thread, but after reading it it seems that everyone who has had the same problem needed to update their video card drivers or (in one case) the drivers for their monitor. So for a longer termed solution check and make sure all your drivers are up to date.

zulu9812 · December 8, 2002, 05:50

I know they're up to date because I just updated them from the Hercules website in order to play Medieval: Total War