Waterloo issues. Does anyone else experience these?

I really wish I could play Waterloo, but for me the game just doesn’t work, in that I seem to lack basic functionality.  In particular leaders and individual units frequently do not accept my orders.   This occurs even when I am close to them and can see the couriers ride to them.  Of course I accept that plans go awry in the presence of the enemy, but all of the following can occur for me from the beginning of each game, and with the enemy nowhere near:

• Units and formations often don't accept orders.
  

• Where they do accept orders, units and formations frequently don't go where I order them, but somewhere else.
  

• When they do go where I tell them, they typically adopt a different facing to that ordered – normally 90 degrees clockwise.
  

• Road movement normally does not work for me – ie the units frequently do not follow the roads.  If a brigade is ordered to move by road, some units might do so, but most will not.  In this case I have to find the brigade and click on each battalion/squadron individually to use the road.  Even that does not always work.  For some reason batteries always stick to roads, but I have other problems with them!
  

• I am sometimes unable to TC leaders or units.  If I do succeed in TCing them, I am sometimes unable to un-TC them.
  

• Where I am able to TC a leader, it will sometimes automatically go un-TCd a minute or two later.  This will happen repeatedly.
  

• Where I am able to TC a leader or unit, it will sometimes not respond to orders – eg change formation or move – and send no couriers to subordinate units.
  

• Where I give a leader orders, they will sometimes send couriers to subordinate units, but those don’t respond.  Here is an example from my SP game today: I ordered an infantry brigade to advance.  The commander repeatedly sent couriers to each of his battalions but nothing happened.  They then re-spawned as if they had been killed, but the enemy were nowhere near.  Before I got tired of watching, several minutes had passed and a few hundred couriers had been sent.
  

• Artillery will frequently not move or unlimber when ordered – whether or not the battery commander is TCd
  

• I sometimes lose access to the Command map for lengthy periods.
  

I fear I’ve forgotten a few other issues, so the list is not exhaustive.  It is still pretty long however.  I’ve tried re-downloading the game twice, but with not discernable effect.

I would be very interested to know whether any other players have experienced any of these?  Also any suggestions welcome.  I would love to be able to play.

Martin (J)

This really sounds like a mess and my only conclusion is there is something corrupted in your game.

I presume you've tried uninstalling it, cleaning your registry of SoW entries and reinstalling it?

Does a very basic install with just the vanilla game give these issues or do they occur with mods?

That was my first thought, but I've now reinstalled it twice without any improvement.  Haven't cleaned the registry, so I'll do that before reinstalling again.  

Haven't tried with Vanilla game.  Yes it would be interesting to see how that works.  I'll try that before the other stuff.

Thanks for suggestions, Diggers.

Martin (J)

Where I am able to TC a leader, it will sometimes automatically go un-TCd a minute or two later. This will happen repeatedly.

If you play with couriers then TC-ing leader will not happen until the courier has reached the leader and if you clicked on the flag twice (let's say a minute later) the next courier will un-TC the leader. That would be my interpretation of what happened.

The game is quite "fragile" in this respect... takes some time and patience to learn better control over sub-units.. and the more units you control the more difficult is to master the art of command

Your issues almost sound like those that you run into when trying to fight a battle with a very large number of troops on the field. In tat case the lag makes it seem like the units are not responding to your commands. What fps do you see when you play the game? Try playing the scenario in multiplayer as it uses only one core and therefore runs much faster.

Sorry for belated response chaps.  Have been away for a few days.  Thanks for comments & suggestions.

Miko – yes I’m aware of the danger of double-clicking, as it’s also a risk in GB.  But it didn’t apply in this case, as I consciously did not do that, being aware of the issue.  I was working through units/leaders in rotation to avoid any lag effects.  Also, I was very close to them and could see the couriers ride over to them.

Kevin – you may be right.  It was a large game.  The largest I’ve tried to play by a country mile.  I just took a corps in an army-sized force.  But it was on one of the Murfreesboro maps so not too demanding on FPS on that front.  See numbers below.

So troop numbers probably were a factor, but the only feature I noticed that I have not experienced before was the infantry brigade commander spamming his battalions.  All the rest I’ve repeatedly suffered in a typical game with about 3 divisions per side.

Interesting comment re SP/MP.  I reloaded the scenario in both SP and MP, and am finding FPS is higher in SP.  Here are the numbers from identical map positions:

..........................          SP        MP
Looking at woods            33        23
Looking at troops            16        12

Norb has always said that there is no GB game constraint from high troop numbers.  The only constraint is players’ PC limitations.  Is that correct for Waterloo?

Martin

There is no limit on the size of the army the game can use, it's limited by the number of calculations your computer can do per unit time.

If you were fighting an army sized battles, (multiple corps on the field), then your problem with non-responsiveness is not unexpected. It's the sort of thing I see too if I have very large forces. Note that the fps measurement is not a reliable gauge of how fast your game is running in this circumstance. You can be looking at a piece of the battle where it appears nothing is happening and everything is non-responsive yet have a relatively high fps number. That's because on other parts of the battlefield, sprites are moving/fighting and the part of the battle you are looking at is waiting for its cpu access. In fact, I've seen some of the best fps numbers in SP when my game is overloaded.

Instead, try a single corps v corps and see if your problems go away. Also repeat the SP/MP measurement.

Interesting comment on FPS.  Thanks Kevin.  Always good to learn something new.

Re corps-sized battles, I think you missed this....

"So troop numbers probably were a factor, but the only feature I noticed that I have not experienced before was the infantry brigade commander spamming his battalions.  All the rest I’ve repeatedly suffered in a typical game with about 3 divisions per side."

Just to be clear, this is the only army level game I've ever tried.  All of the others have been at corps level.  I can accept that these problems are peculiar to me, but that's no incentive for me to waste any more time.  I will try Diggers' suggestion of a clean reinstall at some point.  If that doesn't work then I'm done.

Martin (J)

Martin, I remember you having all these problems when you first got the game. You then had your PC upgraded to a much more powerful configuration IIRC, so you're still seeing the same problems on the new rig?

Well-remembered Diggers, and you’re partly right.  I have had a troubled relationship with Waterloo from the outset .

As you implied, my old PC just wasn’t up to the job.  In MP games I was getting FPS in the 3-5 range.  The main in-game effect was that my mouse frequently became unresponsive.  So I could not move my avatar, and got no response when I clicked on leader or unit flags.  On those occasions when clicking did work, sometimes no arrow would appear.  So myself/leader/unit would start to move, but I didn’t know where exactly I was sending them.  The mouse issue was a particular problem with the courier pane.  Some of the time I couldn’t access it.  If I could, I often could not click on the intended recipient.  And if I could, I could then not get the message to send and the message screen to close.

So a very different, and in a way more fundamental, set of problems.

As you say, I then had my PC upgraded to a much more powerful configuration.  I now no longer have any of these problems.  I can always access leaders & unit flags, and can always send them couriers with orders.  Have no problem with the courier pane etc.  So that is an advance.  In a way.

However the problems I do have, listed at the head of this thread, are still sufficient that I have little real input to the game.   For much of the time I am like an actor in a play.  It matters not if you can click on a leader/unit and send a courier.  If the orders you send are not recognised, you still cannot play the game.

The odd thing is, that I have none of these issues with GB or its mods.  Yet I assume that much of the code for the two games was simply replicated.  Because of this, and the fact that my PC is now quite beefy, I can only speculate that my game is somehow corrupted.  But I have previously downloaded it again twice, and the issues remain.  That’s why I thought I’d try your suggestion and edit my registry before trying again.

Martin (J)

I'm experiencing similar things in my Waterloo game, but usually if I click the 'Take Command' button and repeat the order it does it without a problem.  So, I've just been putting it down to subordinate commander incompetence/prudence.

One of the problems I noticed during my practice HITS session last night was that my artillery seemed reluctant to deploy and get into action. It seemed to just be hovering around in the rear area's limbering and unlimbering and then shifting position again without firing a shot. In desperation I ordered one battery to move forward and deploy on the ridge i was standing on, and it did move forward and unlimbered, but then went back to this oscillating behaviour limbering moving a short distance and unlimbered and then limbering again without firing a shot. Very odd and annoying especially when the enemy seem not to have the same problem and are shelling your troops.