Does this could fix the in-games "back to desktop" crashes along with loading crashes ? 'cause crashing in the middle of a 2 hours LAN game is indeed frustating ><.
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Does this could fix the in-games "back to desktop" crashes along with loading crashes ? 'cause crashing in the middle of a 2 hours LAN game is indeed frustating ><.
Wow this is one of the best mods I ever played! And much better than stock HW2. This must have been incredibly much work for you guys. Kudos to all involved in designing and testing!
Got a few minor issues. Do you plan to keep this "feature" that the explosions of cap ships do damage to close by enemy ships? It makes micro managing of fighters and corvettes much worse. Losing 14 or so laser corvs in just one second because they got too close to a carrier that got killed by my BC can be really annoying.
On some maps the asteroids of a patch are a bit too close to each other, so resourcers can get stuck. They seem to have enough room but they just sit there without moving, just trembling a bit. If I tell them to move, and then to harvest again, they resume to their job but can get stuck again later.
Some maps are littered with chunks of scrap (dunno how to call them, "resource containers"?), anyway, on some of these maps are large debris hulks blocking the ways of the collectors to these scrap pieces. The collectors seem to ignore the hulks and try to move right through them -> *poof* bye bye collector.
The biggest problem for me, however, is performance. Most of your player vs cpu maps are rather large. With increasing amounts of ships and scrap the framerate gets very bad, most of the maps become unplayable in late game. My cpu is an Athlon 2500+, there are 1 Gig RAM, and a 6800GT graphics card. Is there any way to improve the performance other than by purchasing new hardware? I mean, I can perfectly play 3D games like Half-Life2 or FarCry with all the eye candy fully enabled. Is this due to bugs or is it just the code of HW2 that could use some optimizing (which will never happen of course)?
Sorry if I repeated stuff that other people most probably mentioned before, I didnt have the time nor the mood to study those 107 pages of this thread ;-)
Again, thanks to you guys and keep on your fantastic work!
Skandalos: Try setting Hw2.log in your Homeworld 2\Bin\Release folder to 'Read only.' (You can erase whatever is in the file already if you like). This seems to help tremendously with the lag.
I have an AMD Athlon 2600, a Geforce FX 5600 and only 512 mb of ram (lol below the minimum for Complex I know), and the game runs okay, even in multiplayer with other people and 4-5 CPU's. Once it gets late in the game however, the lag get's pretty bad... I'm sure if I had more (and faster) memory, I'd be much better off though.
I'm kinda mixed on the capital ship explosions... I think it does make sense for small ships to be damaged or destroyed by the explosions, but it does seem a tiiiny bit too much currently. Then again I always make sure to pull back my small stuff now... Once in a while I do forget lol.
I set that log file on read only (like it says in the readme) when I installed Complex 5.4, so I cant say what it gains. The main culprit for the bad performance seems to be the debris from destroyed ships. In Complex not only the maps are bigger, and the games longer (more resources * more time = more debris^2), but now the frigates leave debris, too (= debris^3).
Besides the late game performance drop I also get a strange split-second hanger pretty much exactly every five seconds, and from the beginning of a game. But thats not much of a problem compared with the late game 0.9 fps or so.
BTW I had a similar performance drop with large maps in the PDS mod, so it is hardly a problem due to bugs in Complex.
I think a good solution to the cap ship damaging explosion effect is to reduce it to a short range, light to medium damage shockwave effect.
And then if you can do this too, I don't know it might be a little too hard or be too much of a special effect for the game to handle or something... The debris that is normally left behind after the explosion, make it to where the debris flies out a good distance WHEN the ship explodes in sort of a scatter shot effect, and they destroy any smaller ships they collide with, and damage larger ships they hit. Also when debris collides with something larger than itself the debris will be destroyed also giving a minor solution to the current problem of there being too much debris floating around late game.
Again, I dunno if it can be done, it's just a thought.
Or at least make an upgrade possible that protects fighters / corvettes from that damage or reduces it.
Apropos Juggernaut: I captured one and tried to use it against its sender. Didnt know how to use it first, then I simply scuttled it when it was next to the enemy MS. However, it did no damage at all to none of the enemy stuff. Is it intended to be that way?
I didn't want to stress the performance problem. ... but now, when you mentioned it ...: During the weekend I got really surprised: I re-loaded a saved game, which I played the day before with normal fps (frames per second) - at least this is it, what I thought and it suddenly came up with 7-8 fps! And that's a pure horror - as you all know. (Before you cry, my pc is up to date, with a, say, acceptable configuration, i.e. a Pentium IV, 3.2GHz, 1GB ram and a Radeon X850XT, and no, there were no new installations, demanding resident programs or viruses).
So I started to scuttle the ships, squadron by squadron. Each one brought about 1-2 fps, which is quite normal, I think. Then, the battle cruisers (uuuh, I hate that!). There where two, say A and B. Scuttling A brought almost nothing. Scuttling B, however, was a gain of more than 10fps which is a lot! These were my only bcs, so I tried it the other way round (naturally, after a re-load): scuttle B and again a gain of 10-11 fps. Then A - as before: nothing.
Maybe, I should add that these two bcs were identically equipped and both did nothing, were just hanging around near mom.
What's the conclusion? Some ships occupy more memory than others do? Is there any algorithmic work which has to be done, even if a ship is sleeping. May be subsystems doing odd things ...
Would be glad for any idea.
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That's a good idea, shockwave-resistant armor upgrade...
question, will any trainers work with complex 5.4?
can other ships from other people be added to the MOD? IF so how does one add them?
Also any game that I play vs the AI and has a mining base crashes. All other maps are fine so far.
CAn anyone suggest how to get ahead of the Vagyr AI playing Hig. I keep losing b/c I get overwhelmed by frigates, wave after wave and I can't repair/replace loses fast enough. Hig. Frigates are such a waste they go down so fast they make my head spin. I build tons of corvettes but they eventually get blown up. Missile Frigates take out my science and crew stations and all is over. :-(
I think that the crew and science ships should be merged into one larger ship with a few more defenses. This would save time building and money too, I also think that they should have hyperspace module and defense shield upgrades too so we can jump it out when the battle gets ugly. I also suggest reducing the number of crew for collectors to 1 and all platforms to 1 to allow more fighting ships to be built under pop cap. Other ideas are maybe make all science upgrades the same cost instead of doubling or more ship types opened in the first science module.
Just thoughts
thanks
GQ
DJ: Review page 104 of this thread, there's lots of input there for your problem.
Question about this mod: Is the Higgy Juggernaught functional in this version? I know the shuttle isn't, but the juggernaught won't fire. When i issue an attack order it just closes slowly on the target and then sits there. What's up with that.
The Juggernaught should work... They don't have any guns remember, they're simply a flying bomb Aggro. Press Ctrl S a few times, then you'll see :P. (They have 3 explosions, death explosion, and then the 2 'nuclear' ones).
That's odd that that your Juggernaught didn't do anything Skandalos... Was it JUST a Mothership in the area? How far out was it approximately? I know that an unupgraded Juggernaught, on the edge of it's range (I think it's 4800 unupgraded???) won't do much to a Mothership\Flagship. But every bit closer you get, it seems to be more effective. They don't seem to deal much subsystem damage though...
I've seen 4 Juggernaughts detonated at point blank range take out a fairly well upgraded Flagship and multiple nearby destroyers. (Not to mention every last collector and platform in the area)
DJGspinNHitz: If you're really desperate for that win vs Vaygr, hit their first fighters hard and fast. Then work over his workers immediately. Be sure you don't stray too far from the workers and into the flagship\platforms... This seems to put even an expert Vaygr into a defensive 'vegetative' (as my friend puts it lol) state, and delays their frigate fleet for quite some time, if not indefinitely.
It was a Hig Mothership with the usuall stuff around it, research and crew module, lots of platforms and resourcers. The Juggernaut was literally touching the MS. It did no damage at all to any of these units.
So, the interest in performance problems isn't that high ... well and anyway, I would like to add a small PS (you may read my post from yesterday, some messages above): if I move battle cruiser B a little away from the mothership, then a subsequent scuttling results in a constant(!) gain of more than 20 fps! Firstly, this is truly amazing, secondly, as said, I don't have any idea how this is motivated.
What race did you play, Babbo? I usually play Vaygr and the number of BCs doesnt matter here. I notice a fps gain when I lose a squadron of 14 fighters or corvettes but not when I lose a capital ship. I also noticed that my AI opponents, even on expert level, hardly ever build BCs.
Games on 6 player maps usually drop below 10 fps as soon as I reach the 3rd crew upgrade. I couldnt finish one of these yet, either due to extrem lag or due to CTD.
Thanks shadow, I'll test that one out and see how much damage it really can do.
Another small issue i've encountered: The higgy bc's Ion battery doesn't seem to fire. I'm assuming it'll only fire in a foreward axis, like the trinity cannon or whatever, but the BC just turns its stern towards the target (slowly) and fires all of its other turrets. The obscene amount of ion beams and mass drivers (and I suppose the rapid sweepers too) do enough damage, but I have a penchant for apocalyptic overkill. Is something wrong, or should i just keep trying?
Kudos to the makers of this mod... the screenshots look great. I have been looking for something better than the HW2EX mod for some time. It would be nice though if I could get windows to modify the shortcut. When I try to change it, it says that the "Name in the target box is not valid", but it is identical to what you guys have listed in the readme...
"The obscene amount of ion beams and mass drivers (and I suppose the rapid sweepers too) do enough damage, but I have a penchant for apocalyptic overkill."
Me too. :flamer: I certainly hope this is fixed by the time Windows Vista comes out, cuz that's when I'm gonna be getting myself a new comp and you'll be hearing my feedback then.
Skandalos - thanks -, I played Hiig. And you're right, battle cruisers from the opponents are a rare event. But wait: this (probably) only holds for the standard mode. (I've not yet tried to make higher demands on my humble playing style!)
I find it astonishing that there is no unified view on performance lags ... On the one hand, I can understand that, since alone the comparison of hardware equipments is almost an art, now, including graphics driver settings and, finally, game settings too, makes that quite a hopeless task. On the other hand, however, I believe that the developers of that mod are experienced enough to see and find connections between upgrade levels, number of ships, maps etc. and the general performance, even if they (naturally) don't have any insight in personal hardware or even driver settings.
Ah ... yes I read those performance hints on their side ... but I can't really catch them ... an ATI 9600XT for full detail in 1280x1024 sounds like utopia ... Note, that's no complaint but such a statement teases me for being such a naive pc user not being able to find the correct settings. Who wants to be naive? - It's a pity that we won't get any official - and above all - technical response. But to err is human and hope dies last. Oooops, that was to much poetry, am I correct ..., beghins? (And don't forget: we love that complex thing!)
To Capital Lancer: I would be glad to help, just post your link here and we'll find a way.
Babbo, I always play vs expert AI and still dont see lots of BCs. To be true I have some doubts about that "expert" level in Complex 5.4 anyway. I never had a problem to beat the AI with the first attempt.
The main reason for the relative indifference about the performance issue is probably that nobody can do much about it. No one will change the code, thats it.
As for the hardware requirements, it is true that you dont need a specially powerful graphics card to play this game. This game is a CPU hog, not a graphics hog. If you want to increase the performance of Complex mod buy a high end CPU.
Oh ... then I'll try some 5.4-expert challenge
Regarding your hog-assumptions below, ... well, they suggest an Athlon 3000 XP. Dosn't it run at 2.16GHz? And, even if I know about the GHz-comparison-issues between AMD and Intel, a PIV 3.2@3.5 GHz, shouldn't that be more than enough? Additionally, a X800Pro should be optimal. Man/girl, what I'm doing so wrong that I can't keep up with a X850XT@PE?
And with respect to RAM: running a (crazy) 7-fps-savegame, I have still about 3-400MBs of free system RAM ...
Skandalos, may I ask you about your hardware specs?
#1623
Maybe running services taking up RAM too, you know.
Even if Your systems might be comparable hardware-wise, (or at least waaay above and beyond some minimum specs) they are probably not configured the same way or have the same, or even similar, software load.
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I have a Athlon 2500+ (1,8Ghz), 1 Gig RAM, and I recently upgraded my graphics card from a GF4 TI4200 to a GF 6800GT wich brought no noticable gain in HW2 framerate.
Regarding resident programs, I don't have any, which are noteworthy. No firewall or virus guards during game time, since then, I'm not connected. Therefore, I mean that, if I see free system ram, free texture RAM, free and-so-on-RAM, and if I see that during the game-play (overlayed by the ATI Tray Tools), then I believe it cannot be a RAM problem.
Regarding other configurations, Home is definitely right: there must and there will be differences. The most appealing thing is the shutting down of services. Wouldn't that be a nice new thread? (Sad remark: I always wondered that here at RB there is hardly anyone who is interested in hardware and specific software settings, BIOS tweaks, overclocking and so on ...)
Skandalos, I feel sorry for your not-so-lucky-update - maybe it's a cold comfort for you if I tell you that I had one too (9800Pro to X850XT).
Anyone know if any new ships are in the works for Complex 6.0? I just discovered the PDS mods and there are tons of new ships but I enjoy the play style of complex more with its rank and crew instead of ship type limits.
ALSO is the transport pathed yet?
Can ships from other MODs be addedto this one? How does one do that?
thanks
GQ
Thanks Babbo.
This is what I get when I attempt to add the " -mod Complex54.big" onto the end of the exe line:
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1...titled1yv8.jpg
I guess you need to put the path name into quotes, like
"E:\Program Files\Sierra\...\Homeworld2.exe" -mod Complex54.big
This is because of the space in "Program Files". When theres no spaces in the path name you dont need the quotes.
Exactly, I would say the same. And be sure that your Complex54.big is in the \Data-directory.
#1630
Thirded...
Ciao, 5.5 testing concluded.
2 match against 4 Hiigaran (Expert), more then 70 game years withoun any crash and lag too (AMD 4200 Dual Core, GForce 7800 GT, 2GByte RAM).
log.txt now is clear, you no more need to set it on "read only".
Lag reduced up to 30%.
I think to release it this Friday.
Ciao.
Nice can't wait then, I love this mod cause it adds a level of diffcultly and makes better uses of your skills which are pushed to the limit XD
Wait .. this is thursday .. so 5.5 will come tomorrow already!!
Capital Lancer
- http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/...ntitled1yv8.jpg - this screenshot is taken from what windows? Vista, early version?
#1635
Naa, dont think so. A styled XP probably. I do it all the time, specially on my laptop. To show off.
Seems to have a fare amount of some nice Apple Features.
Skandalos: Yes, that was it - thanks. I thought the quotes would need to hold the entire address for it to work.
Godman: No it is XP Professional with Style XP and Desktop Sidebar, plus some other odds and ends like the clock mod.
Question: Is there any way to get the maps that I already had to work with this mod? I really miss some of my monsterously huge maps to play on, since almost all of the maps in this mod are small.
Yeah, that was that quotes you needed.
I have GANT shellpack ;o)
Just thoughts. If there were a BFship, with huge (or mountable) amount of laser or pulsar guns (maybe , a'la corvette minegun turrets) or maybe pulsar or gun platforms (why not all together by upgrades) and at late game with ion guns, that will be nice against fighters, corvettes, frigates, and in late game - capital ships. Or, if it would be build against frigates - it can't be upgraded with ions. Just new ship for vaygr, maybe?
(edited)
I just have a strategy to build fast upgradable corvettes (later pulsar) and with them i can fight against vaygr first waves - till bigger ships arrives. Then tuwlar frigates with all the upgrades, and i'm unstopable(In last game i lose, because hiiagaran Juggernaut came and destroyed most of my corvettes
(/edited)
If this was foolish, i'm sorry
And for my english 2
Last edited by godman; 13th Oct 06 at 7:37 AM.
Hmm... wasn't complex 5.5 suppose to be released friday? or is it next friday?
Seriously.
Also, how are you supposed to kill Vagyr battleships? They own my Higaran ones very quickly
OMG geez... you overwhelm them with several Battle cruisers and a combo of Destroyers and Ion Destroyers, and it helps if you concentrate fire on one ship at a time... it really helps to cripples the enemy ships. if a enemy battle cruiser shows up aim everything you got at it and make sure it's turned into space dust
But what if they have the same number of battlecruisers as I have? One on one, their battlecruisers seem to be much stronger than the higaran ones. Also, they can destroy destroyers very quickly
Destroyers are bait pretty much, they always get destroyed fairly quickly. Use them on your front line to serve as a distraction. Also use some common sense and strategy. Vaygr battlecruisers get there strength from the front, mainly the trinity. Come from behind them. Also, upgrade your battlecruisers, unupgraded they can be fairly useless. But wih the right module combination they are deadly.
Yep that's right, upgraded they stand a better chance, also like I said if you have say 4 Battle cruisers and at least the same number of enemy ships show up, concentrate on one ship at a time, concentrated fire is the way to go, it's gotten me out of impossible battles
Hmm, what module combination's do you suggest?
EDIT: I wish complex 5.5 would be releashed, I really want to have homeworld stop crashing randomly in the game
Drive modules are in my opinion the most useful, for both sides. I almost always have each BC with one. Also you can 'stack' Defense control modules on your BC's so that their HP's are increased. Just wondering, has anyone 'stacked' repair modules? How effective is it?
Be sure to equip atleast one with a Hyperspace module, and a Gravity Well wouldn't hurt either.
I haven't really had many crashes since 5.3, other than the occaisonal start-up crash. Though I wouldn't mind the '30%' lag reduction.
I'm sure beghins will fine tune the balance between the two BC's when he gets around to working on the Vaygr some more.
Alright been playing 1 on 1 as Hig vs Vagyr AI on hard and expert. Here are my suggestions to improve the game.
1. cost reduction of the research ship from 1800 to 1000
reason reduce cost of getting started and speed up game play
2 research upgrade cost reductions: instead of 2000-4000-8000 they would be 1000-3000-6000.
reason allows one to go on the offensive sooner
3 destroyer chassis build would be for both destroyers and you would pay for torpedo (standard) or Ion upgrades
Reason this should allow you to bring destroyers into the battle sooner and at less of a cost.
I am still working out other ideas
just thoughts
GQ
PS thanks for the great mod!
question, how do you disable game intro speech sequence:
-> The time of prophecy is on hand, now its the time...
and so on, it constantly freezes my computer
I don't think you can disable that, other than by not playing Hiigaran. Pretty sure that it doesn't say it if your Vaygr, unless you're playing a multiplayer game in which the host is Hiigaran.
Why would it freeze your computer, do you even know?
I'm not sure, but try to turn off Complex' help when creating a game.
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