War! Age of Imperialism Support

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If you have a problem installing or using War! Age of Imperialism, please consult the known issues listed below.
(Your problem may be fixed in a patch)

If you have a problem not covered on this list, please post a question to Donohoe Digital's Discussion Forum

Name	Patch 2 (for versions 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2)
Released	May 31, 2004
Download	Windows (16.7M) Mac (4.2M) Note: make the mac file ends with ".dmg" after you download it - some Mac users have reported that it gets saved as ".bin", which will cause errors. Linux (33.9M)
Install Notes	Just run the given installer and follow the prompts. You must install the patch in the same location as the original installation (the patch will not run on its own - it requires files from the original installer). Installation of this patch upgrades War! Age of Imperialism to 1.3. Note: The installer is for the retail version only (it does not work on the demo version of the game). Note: You do not need to install this patch if you purchased the downloadable version of War! Age of Imperialism after 5/31/2004. That version is 1.3 and already contains the contents of this patch. Note: Patch 2 includes all the changes in Patch 1.
Changes	Quick AI Battles - With this setting on, you no longer have to roll the dice for AI or Native land battles or for all-AI sea battles.   Territory Confirmation - Initial territory selections are now confirmed via a dialog box (which you can set never to display).   Re-register - You can re-register if desired (for example, if you mistyped your email address).   Chat background and text colors - Chat background is a solid gray and colors for some armies have been changed to be more readable.   Various UI Enhancements - Enhancements made for the new Donohoe Digital poker game were included in this patch: new spinner buttons (controlled via mouse wheel), tab-able buttons, scrollbar colors and other minor upgrades.   Online battle bug - In online games, when player A is attacking player B in multiple regions, a hang would occur if player A started the 2nd battle before player B clicked OK for the first battle. This is fixed.   Online game communication - Duplicate messages to the War! game server were detected via time stamps, which is error prone because people can change their clocks. This is changed in P2 to use sequence numbers.   Other online bug - Online game bugs like extra PPs, hangs due to evictions and other items resolved.

 

Name	Patch 1 (for version 1.0)
Released	December 9, 2003
Download	Please download Patch 2 (above). All of these changes are in Patch 2.
Changes	Auto Save Preference - With this setting on, a HotSeat game is automatically saved after every purchase, movement and exploration battle resolution. Note: You must perform the very first save (to name the file) or load from a previous save file.   Private Chat Messages - Chat messages sent to select individuals (i.e., not everyone) are now appended with the name of each recipient in parenthesis. This allows the sender and receiver to verify who exactly got the message.   AI Ship Attacks - The AI players will now send out their ships to attack other ships (including you!). Previously the AI would only fight battles if you built new ships in a region where they already had ships.   Switch Human/Computer (HotSeat only) - You may switch any player from computer to human and vice-versa. This is done via the Info window in the Player & AI tab.   Evict Online Player (host only) - The host of an online game may evict players from the game (similar to concede). This is helpful if a player is holding up the game. This is done via the Online Status window.   Native Marker House Rule - With this house rule on, you may mouse over any native marker which has been previously been seen to show what is on the flip side. This is for players with bad memories.   Bug Fixes - Fix bugs described below (noted where Fixed In row equals Patch 1). Also fixed a couple minor issues to make the game more robust.   Mac - double click save file, email invite - Mac users can now double click on save files and email invites to properly launch the game (requires latest version of Java from Apple).   Bulk Ship Moves - Right clicking on a Ship game piece (or CTRL-clicking) and selecting an individual ship will allow you to move all other ships that have the same movement range. For example, if you click on a ship that can move 2 spaces, then all ships that can move 2 spaces will be moved.   Tweak Amount Moving - After selecting a game piece to move, the <, A keys decrease quantity moving and the S, F, > keys increase the quantity moving. This works for all pieces, including ships. This is useful if you want to move an amount between one and the whole stack.   AI improvements - Starting games with low income (30PP or higher) or less than 3 regions is handled better by AI. In addition, starting games with empty region PP house rule now handled better by AI

Issue	After installing, you enter the activation number but are unable to connect to the War! Age of Imperialism server for verification (download version only).
Platform	Any
Cause	This is typically caused if you are running behind a corporate firewall and it disables access over port 8765 (the software uses HTTP over this port to access the activation server).
Solution	Configure your firewall to allow outgoing connections on this port.

Issue	After installing War, nothing happens when you click on the desktop icon or start it from the start menu. You may see an hour glass mouse icon for a second but nothing happens.
Platform	Any Windows
Cause	This problem is typically caused if you changed the location of installation from the default "war-aoi" to something else like "War!". You cannot include exclamation points in your folder name.
Solution	Reinstall in the default location or a location without "!" in the name.
Fixed In	N/A

 

Issue	Installation fails. One instance is where the installer never gets past the "Choose Shortcut Folder" step. As soon as you click Next, the installation stops and exits.
Platform	Any Windows, but older systems like Windows 98 are more susceptible (especially those upgraded from Windows 3.1 or Windows 95).
Cause	This problem is a relatively rare problem usually caused when Java crashes because it can't process older fonts on your system (usually fonts from pre-Windows 98). There are other possible causes Determining what these issues is somewhat involved. Please follow these steps to get debug information to help us identify the problem (this only works if you are using the war-aoi-1-3.exe installer or the war-p2.exe patch). Use Windows Explorer to open the following directory: C:\Documents and Settings\[your user name]\Local Settings\Temp Sort the directory list by date and look for the most recent folder with a name similar to I1085769334. (starting with a capital I and followed by a sequence of numbers). Open this directory and then the Windows sub-directory. In the Windows sub-directory, there should be two files named warerr.txt and warout.txt. These files (probably the err one) contain the output of the installer and should contain a useful error message. Post the error files to Donohoe Digital's Discussion Forum so we can help you resolve the problem. If there is an error in the file that starts with has line "Current Java thread: at sun.awt.font.NativeFontWrapper.registerFonts(Native Method)" then you have bad fonts on your system. To identify them, follow the steps below to turn on Java font debugging, run the installer again and look at the contents of the error files (as described above - you will need to look for a new "I" directory). Create a temp directory like c:/wartmp Copy the war-aoi-1-3.exe (or war-p2.exe) you downloaded to c:/wartmp Open a DOS prompt (various ways to do this -- you can Start->Run and enter "command" or find it in the Accessories start menu) and then enter these commands: cd c:\wartmp set JAVA2D_DEBUGFONTS=1 Start the installer (war-aoi-1-3.exe or war-p2.exe, depending on which you have) Proceed until you encounter the failure than then follow the steps above to look at the output (remember to always look for the most recent "I" directory). The last font listed is usually the bad one. You can delete it or move it from c:\Windows\Fonts and try again.
Solution	We are working on a permanent solution.
Fixed In	N/A

 

Issue	A "DDHELP" error before or after running the game
Platform	Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows 2000
Graphics Card	7500 Radeon, other
Details	An error message similar to the one displayed below occurs before or running War! Age of Imperialism: DDHELP caused an invalid page fault in module <unknown> at 0000:b00dd632. More information on Sun's Java Forums and the Java 1.4.1 release notes.
Cause	The problem is a bug in how the Java implementation interacts with DirectDraw and Direct3D.
Solution	The solution is to disable Java's use of Direct3D, which won't effect the application. Follow these steps: 1. Start Notepad (from the Start menu, choose "Run...", type notepad in the Open: textbox and click OK. 2. Choose File -> Open from the menu and then navigate to C:\Program Files\war-aoi (this is the default installation folder - if you installed elsewhere, open up the folder where you installed War! Age of Imperialism). 3. Choose All Files in the Files of Type combo box. 4. Choose the war-aoi.lax file from the list and click Open. 5. Change the line that looks like this (approximately line 78): lax.nl.java.option.additional=-Xms32m -Xmx96m to this (make sure it is all on the same line): lax.nl.java.option.additional=-Xms32m -Xmx96m -Dsun.java2d.d3d=false 6. Do not change any other line! 7. Save file and Exit Notepad. 8. Reboot (just to make sure any previous errors are cleared) 9. Start War! Age of Imperialism
Fixed In	Patch 1

 

Issue	Blank screen when running in Full Screen mode
Platform	Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Graphics Card	Various
Details	A blank screen appears after clicking "Full Screen" on the splash screen. Moving the mouse around may cause buttons to appear.
Cause	The problem is a bug in how the Java implementation implements full screen applications.
Solution	The solution is to run the application using Window mode.
Fixed In	N/A

Issue	The game "freezes" after you finish moving. You cannot continue to play, but can save/exit the game.
Platform	All
Details	This problem is related to moving an explorer from a non-adjacent region into a native region (i.e., 2 or more spaces) that also contains army pieces (other than a leader) or an engineer (causing a native battle instead of an exploration). You will see an error in the war-aoi.log file similar to the following: 10/12 18:35:21.770 [AWT-EventQueue-0] WARN GameEngine - GameEngine - ApplicationError caught processing phase CommitMoves 10/12 18:35:21.770 [AWT-EventQueue-0] WARN GameEngine - Error #1001, Message: ASSERTION FAILURE: Unexpected null value - No movedata, Details: Europe:Russia(land) 100% 10/12 18:35:21.770 [AWT-EventQueue-0] WARN GameEngine - Error #1001, Message: ASSERTION FAILURE: Unexpected null value - No movedata, Details: Europe:Russia(land) 100% at com.donohoedigital.base.ApplicationError.assertNotNull at com.donohoedigital.games.war.CommitMoves.markDirtyFromRegions at com.donohoedigital.games.war.CommitMoves.makePermanent at com.donohoedigital.games.war.CommitMoves.process
Solution	Do not move an explorer into a region where a native battle is occurring. This sometimes occurs when a Cavalry unit is accidentally moved instead of a Leader.
Fixed In	Patch 1

 

Windows:

Windows Log files (war-aoi.log, err.txt and out.txt) are located in the C:\Program Files\war-aoi\log folder.

Save files (e.g., save.000000.egwarsave) are located in the C:\Program Files\war-aoi\save folder.

Note: If you installed in something other than the default location, substitute C:\Program Files\ with that location.

Mac:

Mac log files are little more complicated to reach because of the way applications are packaged. Go to the location where you installed War! Age of Imperialism and follow these steps:

CTRL-click (or right click if you have a two button mouse) on the War! Age of Imperialism icon and select Show Package Contents. A finder window will open with a folder called Contents. Navigate into the following folders:

Contents -> Resources -> Java.

Mac Log files (war-aoi.log) are in the log sub-folder.

Save files (e.g., save.000000.egwarsave) are in the save sub-folder.

Linux:

Linux log files (war-aoi.log) are located in the <install location>/war-aoi/log folder.

Save files (e.g., save.000000.egwarsave) are located in the <install location>/war-aoi/save folder.

Note: The default installation location is your home directory.