Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Mssrs.,

A word to the wise, don't upgrade to Vista unless you have an extremely compelling reason to do so. In my case, my PC was dying so I had to get new hardware, but, alas, by the time I scraped the necessary funds only Vista machines were available.[:(]

So far I have installed Eckmuhl & Jena on my Vista machine and encountered the following problems:[B)]

"White Map" - While playing an Eckmuhl game every time I move a unit an appreciable distance (E.g., full move on a road) the map "whites" out. The screen is restored if I click anywhere on the map, but it is extremely annoying and appreciably slows my movement of units. Happily this problem has not occurred with the Jena engine.

No replay - In both games if I elect to watch the replay the game crashes. If I skip the replay, the games proceed normally, but this could make things difficult as a battle progresses.

Starting "next battle" in Campaign game - After concluding the 1st battle in an Eck Campaign, I exchanged the cpf files in which my opponent and I made our strategic choices for the next encounter. That routine went fine, but when I reached the point that the next scenario is loaded, after getting the "Campaign message" for my side, the program had an "error reading xxx.scn". [xx(] After several tries, I had to load the file into my old PC so I could get the next battle started. Since it ran fine on the old PC there was obviously nothing wrong with the file itself.

I have notified Rich and I am sure that the folks at HPS will do their best to solve these problems (All of which are solely attributable to Microsoft[:(!]), but in the meantime I would strongly encourage everyone to hold off on migrating to the Vista OS. My next computer will definitely be a Mac!

Regards,

Paco

<i>Maréchal</i> M. Francisco Palomo
<i>Prince d'Essling, Grande Duc d'Abrantes et
Comte de Marseille
Commandant - Division de Cavalerie de la Vieille Garde </i>

Read 6 months ago in PC World Vista stunk the big one. They gave it horrible ratings. Said that the only good thing was some options in office.

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General der Infanterie Scott Prinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Allenstein-Dennewitz
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Generalquartiermeister der Preußischen Armee
Kommandeur Garde-Grenadier-Korps
Königlich Preußische Armee am Niederrhein
Webmaster & Club Cabinet - Public Relations Officer

Vorwärts Meine Kinder, Vorwärts!!

[url="http://www.prussianarmy.com/"]Königliche Preußische Armee[/url]

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[url="http://napoleonicwargaming.com"]Napoleonic Wargaming - INWC[/url]</center>

Paco

Can you not just uninstall Vista and go back to an earlier version of Winblows ?

<center>
[img]</center>
<center>Monsieur le Marechal Baron John Corbin
Duc de Paive
Commanding the Division de Cavalerie de la Jeune Garde
NWC President</center>

John,

My lovely new machine came with Vista already installed. I'm no programer, but I'm sure that removing its original OS and installing XP instead would bring its own load of troubles.[B)]

Regards,

Paco

<i>Maréchal</i> M. Francisco Palomo
<i>Prince d'Essling, Grande Duc d'Abrantes et
Comte de Marseille
Commandant - Division de Cavalerie de la Vieille Garde </i>

What means Vista? I'm new.

Kadet Maarten Roggeveen
Battaillon Jagers No27
1e brigade, 2de divisie
1e Corps
Anglo-Allied Army

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by maarten</i>
<br />What means Vista? I'm new.

Kadet Maarten Roggeveen
Battaillon Jagers No27
1e brigade, 2de divisie
1e Corps
Anglo-Allied Army

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Vista is Micrsoft's latest version of Windows...


<center>
[img]</center>
<center>Monsieur le Marechal Baron John Corbin
Duc de Paive
Commanding the Division de Cavalerie de la Jeune Garde
NWC President</center>

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by John Corbin</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by maarten</i>
<br />What means Vista? I'm new.

Kadet Maarten Roggeveen
Battaillon Jagers No27
1e brigade, 2de divisie
1e Corps
Anglo-Allied Army

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Vista is Micrsoft's latest version of Windows...


<center>
[img]</center>
<center>Monsieur le Marechal Baron John Corbin
Duc de Paive
Commanding the Division de Cavalerie de la Jeune Garde
NWC President</center>
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Allright.[:)]

Kadet Maarten Roggeveen
Battaillon Jagers No27
1e brigade, 2de divisie
1e Corps
Anglo-Allied Army

Having only recently upgraded to XP, I'm hardly at the leading edge of OS technology, but I encountered the "no replay problem" before -- I'm pretty sure it was with a Nap game -- probably Eckmuhl. In any case I think the problem ended up being a game file corruption issue. I was able to edit out the redundant information and get back to normal, but alas the details, where the devil resides, allude me.

Good luck.

Major General Sir Bob Breen KT

1st (The King's) Dragoon Guards
Commanding 71st Highlanders
Commandant, RMA

Paco (et all),

We are working on the stuff, so eventually fixes will be out, but to address this specific topic.

If you are licensed to run a version of a Microsoft product, such as Windows Vista here, then you can run an older version without any extra cost or license infringement. So you should easily be able to load XP on your new machine, if you can get ahold of a copy of the software.

For those purchasing new computers - you do have a choice between the OS's, even if the web page doesn't say so...and in the off chance Dell or someone isn't shipping XP anymore (which is completely studpid) then there are plenty of other vendors out there...heck, try out your local system builder. I've been building custom systems for people for years and I have complete control over which OS goes on a box.

Oh, and buying a MAC will open up a whole new set of problems...[B)][:0]

Maréchal Hamilton, Baron d'Barbancon
21st Division
VII Corps, ADR

Saxon Leib-Garde, de la Jeune Garde, Garde Impériale

Paco - have you looked over at the HPS website? There is a possible solution to your problem on that site at:

http://www.hpssims.com/vistahelp.htm

And there is a page on running our programs on a Mac at:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/v ... =virtualpc

[:D][:D]

I would like to hear feedback on those that have Macs and use this software to fun the HPS games. Did it work?

Bill Peters
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt and ... more to come)

[url="http://www.fireandmelee.net"]Fire and Melee Wargame site[/url]

did you install HPS game AFTER installing vista or did
you just upgrade from XP to vista over the old system ?
have you tried reinstalling HPS game ?
Have you tried "yahoo widget engine" and a software called "top desk", they give you the same options as Vista, only running on XP, and they are free ...

Austrian Army
6th husaren Blankenstein
finally figured out how to have the signature inserted in the post

Bill,

Yes, I've already looked at the HPS site and the instructions for how to deal with the "Help" problems worked perfectly. Unfortunately, the "Alternative Scrolling" feature was never added to the Nap engines, every other Tiller game has it [B)] and my other problems aren't addressed at all for now.

Stephane,

I bought a new PC with VISTA already installed. Rich makes a valid point, I could have ordered a machine with XP rather than VISTA, but I needed a machine right away for my work and all the local retailers stocked only Vista machines.[:(]

The point of my post, aside from the need to vent a little, is to warn others about the potential problems. I guess I'll get to be the Vista guinea pig[:o)].

Regards,

Paco

<i>Maréchal</i> M. Francisco Palomo
<i>Prince d'Essling, Grande Duc d'Abrantes et
Comte de Marseille
Commandant - Division de Cavalerie de la Vieille Garde </i>

Mssrs,

I agree with Paco! I now am a firm believer in the principle of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Mind you I got burned the second last time I "upgraded" (about 18 months ago). The intention was to add a slave hard disk drive to my old machine and upgrade the RAM. End result was new motherboard, new RAM (the old stuff wouldn't work on the new motherboard!) and XP (from '97). Didn't get the new slave drive (and more RAM) until recently and have now plugged them in and the poor old dear whistles and squeaks away and collapses about every 45 minutes (on average)!

Next time I "upgrade", it'll be in exchange for a harp (or as some of the uncharitable among you may suggest, an asbestos suit!)

Buying a completely new and balanced system may occur somewhat sooner!

GdD Mark Oakford
III Light Cavalry Div
III Corps ADN

Is anyone having problems with the BG games? I get error with scenario messages with all my BG games (PTW, along with 4 CW titles). I reinstalled every game and still get the messages. I would check the game after the initial install and it would be fine. I would then check after applying the 16-bit update and it would be fine. Then, after the 32-bit update it would give me the messages.

I do prefer my HPS games but every once in awhile I like to fire up a BG battle. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Hauptmann Dale Lastowicka
Lobkowitz Jager Bn
2nd Division
III Armee Korps
Austrian Army

Gents,

Just wanted to give you an update on this. John found the problem with the campaign files this evening after multiple hours of work. I've tested it on my Vista machine and it appears the campaign issues have been nailed. I did the following:

* Started a new campaign and got a battle going.
* Opened up that turn as the next player and watched the replay, and was able to do the next turn.
* Opened up the existing campaign file sent in and was able to watch the replay and do the subsequent turn.
* Save a turn during mid play, close out of the program and go back in and continue without issue.

Also, the fix for the white map problem is already coded in.

So, the fix for both will be included with the next round of updates...don't have a specific date on when those will go out though.



Maréchal Hamilton, Baron d'Barbancon
21st Division
VII Corps, ADR

Saxon Leib-Garde, de la Jeune Garde, Garde Impériale