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Game freezes even with latest patch plus other weird behavior

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Sep 5, 2012
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  • Naval War: Arctic Circle
Just when the game gets interesting, the interface locks you out! The computer seems to still be "playing" however, and when it's ready it will let you join back in but then everything happens so fast you can't possibly issue orders to your units fast enough to effect the outcome and once again you are defeated. Here's what I have tried:

  1. Latest patches for Steam and NWAC
  2. Re-install and patch Steam and NWAC several times
  3. Shut down all other software
  4. Disable and stop all unnecessary processes (this is a whole post in itself)
  5. Change CPU priority for the NWAC process to "above normal"
  6. Set the affinity for the NWAC process to different cores than the Steam process
  7. Disable the 3-D viewer
  8. Start Steam in off-line mode
  9. Motherboard and Video card have latest drivers and no other issues (and are well cooled)
I am playing the game with a water-cooled Athlon II 4-core 2.6GHz 64-bit processor + 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) + 1GB ATI 5450 PCIe running Windows 7 x64

So much effort went into the details of this game- it's sad that it's not very playable because of poor programming. I would like to create custom scenarios but not until there is a major overhaul of the core code. Good games can last for years if players contribute maps and missions but I would be embarrassed to recommend this to any of my friends the way it plays right now. I hope that maybe if enough other people also complain, Paradox will put some money into fixing this game. Also- sometimes the mission descriptions disappear and sometimes I can only play one of the alliances. Occasionally the game will lock up and never "come back" and I have to use Task Manager to end it.

Thanks for reading my whining and complaining! :mad:
 
Upvote 0
Here's the code I run to disable and shutdown background processes:

SC CONFIG "AMD External Events Utility" start= disabled
SC CONFIG "AMD FUEL Service" start= disabled
SC CONFIG "FLEXnet Licensing Service" start= disabled
SC CONFIG "PowerAlert Agent" start= disabled
SC CONFIG "VMware NAT Service" start= disabled
SC CONFIG BFE start= disabled
SC CONFIG BITS start= disabled
SC CONFIG BROWSER start= disabled
SC CONFIG CryptSvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG DHCP start= disabled
SC CONFIG DNSCache start= disabled
SC CONFIG DPS start= disabled
SC CONFIG EventSystem start= disabled
SC CONFIG FDPHost start= disabled
SC CONFIG FDResPub start= disabled
SC CONFIG FontCache start= disabled
SC CONFIG FontCache3.0.0.0 start= disabled
SC CONFIG HomeGroupListener start= disabled
SC CONFIG HomeGroupProvider start= disabled
SC CONFIG IKEEXT start= disabled
SC CONFIG IPHlpSvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG LanManServer start= disabled
SC CONFIG LanManWorkStation start= disabled
SC CONFIG lmhosts start= disabled
SC CONFIG MpsSvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG NetMan start= disabled
SC CONFIG NetProFM start= disabled
SC CONFIG NLASvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG NSI start= disabled
SC CONFIG p2pimsvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG P2Psvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG PNRPsvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG PolicyAgent start= disabled
SC CONFIG SENS start= disabled
SC CONFIG ShellHWDetection start= disabled
SC CONFIG Spooler start= disabled
SC CONFIG SSDPSRV start= disabled
SC CONFIG STIsvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG SysMain start= disabled
SC CONFIG TeamViewer7 start= disabled
SC CONFIG TermService start= disabled
SC CONFIG TrkWks start= disabled
SC CONFIG upnphost start= disabled
SC CONFIG VMAuthdService start= disabled
SC CONFIG VMnetDHCP start= disabled
SC CONFIG VMwareHostd start= disabled
SC CONFIG VMwareServerWebAccess start= disabled
SC CONFIG wcncsvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG WDIServiceHost start= disabled
SC CONFIG windows7FirewallService start= disabled
SC CONFIG WMPNetworkSvc start= disabled
SC CONFIG WSCSVC start= disabled
SC CONFIG WSearch start= disabled
SC CONFIG WUAUserv start= disabled

NET STOP "AMD External Events Utility"
NET STOP "AMD FUEL Service"
NET STOP "Background Intelligent Transfer Service"
NET STOP "Base Filtering Engine" /Y
NET STOP "COM+ Event System" /Y
NET STOP "Diagnostic Policy Service"
NET STOP "Diagnostic Service Host"
NET STOP "Network Connections"
NET STOP "Network List Service" /Y
NET STOP "Network Location Awareness" /Y
NET STOP "Network Store Interface Service" /Y
NET STOP "Cryptographic Services"
NET STOP "Distributed Link Tracking Client"
NET STOP "PowerAlert Agent"
NET STOP "FLEXnet Licensing Service"
NET STOP "Function Discovery Provider Host" /Y
NET STOP "Function Discovery Resource Publication"
NET STOP "IP Helper"
NET STOP "Windows Search"
NET STOP "Windows Update"
NET STOP HomeGroupListener
NET STOP HomeGroupProvider
NET STOP SuperFetch
NET STOP TeamViewer7
NET STOP "Computer Browser"
NET STOP Server /Y
NET STOP WorkStation /Y
NET STOP "Peer Name Resolution Protocol" /Y
NET STOP "Peer Networking Grouping"
NET STOP "Peer Networking Identity Manager"
NET STOP "Security Center"
NET STOP "Shell Hardware Detection" /Y
NET STOP "SSDP Discovery" /Y
NET STOP "TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper"
NET STOP "UPnP Device Host"
NET STOP VMAuthdService /Y
NET STOP VMnetDHCP
NET STOP VMwareHostd
NET STOP VMwareServerWebAccess
NET STOP "VMware NAT Service"
NET STOP "Remote Desktop Services"
NET STOP "DNS Client"
NET STOP "DHCP Client" /Y
NET STOP "Print Spooler"
NET STOP Windows7FirewallService
NET STOP "Windows Connect Now - Config Registrar"
NET STOP "Windows Font Cache Service"
NET STOP "Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)"
NET STOP "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service"
NET STOP "Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0"

TASKKILL /F /IM Windows7FirewallControl.exe
TASKKILL /IM TEAMVIEWER.EXE /F
TASKKILL /IM TEAMVIEWER_SERVICE.EXE /F
TASKKILL /IM SIDEBAR.EXE /F
TASKKILL /IM AQUASNAP.DAEMON.EXE /F
TASKKILL /IM AQUASNAP.DAEMON.X64.EXE /F
TASKKILL /IM MAGICTUNE.EXE /F
TASKKILL /IM GAMMATRAY.EXE /F
TASKKILL /IM WINMAIL.EXE /F

These commands are broken up into 6 batch files, and then I have 6 "opposites" which enable and restart everything. Note that some of these processes and programs are unique to my system. "SC", "NET" and "TaskKill" are native Windows commands. Also note that doing all this STILL DOESN'T STOP NWAC FROM LOCKING UP!!!!!!

(Don't use this code unless you understand what you're doing and only if you don't care about messing up your system)

 
zenred1 said:
  1. Latest patches for Steam and NWAC
  2. Re-install and patch Steam and NWAC several times
  3. Shut down all other software
  4. Disable and stop all unnecessary processes (this is a whole post in itself)
  5. Change CPU priority for the NWAC process to "above normal"
  6. Set the affinity for the NWAC process to different cores than the Steam process
  7. Disable the 3-D viewer
  8. Start Steam in off-line mode
  9. Motherboard and Video card have latest drivers and no other issues (and are well cooled)
[/SIZE]I am playing the game with a water-cooled Athlon II 4-core 2.6GHz 64-bit processor + 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) + 1GB ATI 5450 PCIe running Windows 7 x64

So much effort went into the details of this game- it's sad that it's not very playable because of poor programming. I would like to create custom scenarios but not until there is a major overhaul of the core code. Good games can last for years if players contribute maps and missions but I would be embarrassed to recommend this to any of my friends the way it plays right now. I hope that maybe if enough other people also complain, Paradox will put some money into fixing this game.
Click to expand...


I commend you on your tenacity and attention to detail. Many of your suggestions such as shutting down unnecessary functions has already been tried. You can check out some other suggestions at: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...ferent-PCs&p=14261126&viewfull=1#post14261126

I have one additional suggestion not covered in the video. Once you start your game, you can actually use the Task Manager to SHUT DOWN Steam.exe entirely. I have tried this on occasion and the game will still run. I do not know if this actually helps or not. I still end with a crash bug after playing for a long time.

As you can see, this forum is riddled with other users complaining about the same bugs as you report to no avail. I would not hold my breath awaiting a fix from either Paradox or TTG.
 
I posted this complaint 02/02/2012 but still am waiting to see any patch I can download.... I have to think there is an error in the code so drastic that the company doesn't want to pay the overtime to fix it! Right now, the game is "running" in the background- Task Manager says it is using 25% of the CPU. If I wait long enough, it will come back, but most of my units will have been shot down. The problem seems to revolve around lots of missiles being fired by the AI player. If no missiles get fired, then I never have any problems. Usually when it freezes and I check Task Manager, CPU usage is at zero. In that case, I right-click on the process "NWAC.exe *32" then end it.

Is there a patch that can be downloaded?
 
zenred1 said:
I posted this complaint 02/02/2012 but still am waiting to see any patch I can download.... I have to think there is an error in the code so drastic that the company doesn't want to pay the overtime to fix it! Right now, the game is "running" in the background- Task Manager says it is using 25% of the CPU. If I wait long enough, it will come back, but most of my units will have been shot down. The problem seems to revolve around lots of missiles being fired by the AI player. If no missiles get fired, then I never have any problems. Usually when it freezes and I check Task Manager, CPU usage is at zero. In that case, I right-click on the process "NWAC.exe *32" then end it.

Is there a patch that can be downloaded?
Click to expand...

Sorry to say this, but you (and everyone else who paid for this game) have been had. TurboTape haven't bothered to patch this problem, and have since abandoned the game and will not be releasing any further patches.

A user with software testing experience took a look at it and found that it would likely occur on any platform as it was written into the program architecture, which makes it very unlikely that TurboTape weren't aware of it before release, and may well have been somewhat disingenuous when they claimed that they could not reproduce the problem. At any rate, since many players showed them exactly how to reproduce the problem they had no excuse for claiming that they couldn't do it.

In fact, instead of working on the game, they tried to fob us off with claims that they couldn't do anything due to family bereavement and other causes. This claim may be true for a single member of their staff, but does not explain or excuse TurboTape's failure to fix this problem.

But hey, what do you expect from a bunch of people who released a game without a save-game feature (something so standard that no-one would think of omitting it) without telling anyone, and with an obvious fault that they failed to fix?
 
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