Has WWII online been fixed yet? I mean, is it mostly working/worth buying? I want it, but I have NO PATIENTCE FOR BUGS!

It works well in its limited state. I have played for 4 hours plus in one go, with no drops, and little lag. The laggy places are crowded cities, but the map is so huge it is usually easy to find a moderately populated place.

My specs: 600 mhz, 128 ram, tnt2, cable

The load times are still painful (10 minutes before you play), but more ram will fix that.

People are having fun playing capture the flag(s). But the game will be a lot more meaningful when they have only one world. I would wait to purchase after they set that up.

Has it been fixed yet? You're kidding, right? With all respect to Rob (and hell, I've enjoyed the way too many hours I've spent on the game so far, too) this game does not "work well in its limited state." The 3D engine is terrible, or at least terribly flawed. Lag varies from nonexistent to horrible, with planes hanging in mid air. I'll agree it's better than a lot of games, mostly, but when you have a big battle--and the game is about big battles--it can be a problem.

The game does actually "work" on a dialup, in as much as it works at all. But every gaming session has a mix of problems: falling through the world, flipping tanks, aircraft flying through stuff including the ground, pitch-black night, false dawns, phantom spawning, random lock-ups and crashes, and more.

Then there are the gameplay problems. Without the resource, rank, and supply system, THERE IS NO GAME. I'll repeat that: THERE IS NO GAME here. What you have is, as Rob pointed out, a CTF match--with crappy graphics, poor performance, and a clunky interface. And it's unbalanced. Spawn camping is endemic. Everyone is a tank, pretty much, and all you have to do is not capture a town but sit there instead and shoot enemy tanks as they spawn. It takes forever to load, and every four hours the 30 minute darkness descends making play pretty much impossible.

Then there is the issue of futility. Without the metagame, there is no reason to do any of this. Who cares if you take or hold Sedan? They'll reset everything in a bit anyhow, and the servers have no fixed identity. They're trying to get a test server working with "unlimited" players, but at best it's hit 1700 and even then it crashed and burned for some reason.


The problems with this game are legion, and far too many to go into unless you really want to be bored. I do love the idea. I do play it. I'm pretty damn good at killing tanks. But it's a huge waste of money for anyone to buy right now.

It does not work. It is an unfinished product being sold for $40. IMO.

"Has it been fixed yet? You're kidding, right?"

I suppose my perspective is pretty screwed up. I am playing three games currently:

WW2OL
Anarchy Online
Diablo2 Expansion

Of these three games, WW2OL is giving me my most technically pleasant experience. Well you say, I have heard how Anarchy Online is a steaming lump of excrement when it comes to its current state of playability, but Diablo2???? Its Blizzard for goodness sake. They release finished products! Well, for some reason I have an error called "Unhandled Exception (C00000005)" that kills my game. I have really been enjoying D2 Exp the last two days, but just around Act 2, the game crashes, and in the first case my entire account was erased, and in the second my 13th level assassin is inaccessible. Ugh! I have lost 2 really fun chars, and the Blizzard help desk is taking its time responding to me with a solution.

Yes WW2OL is 1/10th of the way towards being what it is advertised as. I don't drive tanks anymore because I tend to flip them when driving near ANYTHING. But at least I can play, and I don't have to worry about the game crashing or losing my carefully built chars.


ps. Anyone else start looking over their shoulder when someone mentions a Char?

Rob,

Geez, you're a glutton for punishment! :-) I've had zero trouble with D2:LOD, but then I've seen a few things on other machines. How much RAM do you have? On a work machine with 128MB, running D2:LOD crashed if other programs were open (ok, it was a LOT other programs), but on our home 256MB machines we've had no problems. I'd definitely nag Blizzard about the issues--it would frustrate me to no end.

And I agree about getting into WWIIOL--I have, usually, no trouble firing up a game. Once there, I often ask myself "Why?" though....

I have had a couple of problems with D2:LOD. The most bothersome (and recurring) problem is starting the game using Start>Programs>Diablo II>D2:LOD. My dvd and hard drive lights come on and stay on, but the game does not load. I have also had the game hang a couple of times exiting, but nothing to the extent described by Rob. Both of these problems require me to restart my PC. Inserting the CD and letting autorun take its course seems to work fine everytime.

-DavidCPA

Darn! I just typed a longish post, and the message board ate it.

To sum up: Blizzard has a FAQ question dedicated to the Unhandled Exception (C0000005) problem. It looks fairly serious. They had me do the usual (uninstall, defrag, reinstall) and when that didn't work they had me email in some files that had been created when the game crashed. Blizzard emailed me and said they were working on a solution, so maybe I'll get a patch or something in a day or two.

True, WW2OL is fun only in a pretty basic way right now (teaming up is good, intense one shot kill excitement, running through sniper infested towns), but like most people, I am most looking forward to the potential being realized. I like the idea of working on taking over a city one night, going to work the next day, and then logging in again the next night to see if we still hold onto it, and then going back in to fight for my side.

Here is what Blizzard is telling me (I especially like the part where they tell me that Diable causes the computer to work really hard):

"{DT440}
If you are getting the error "Unhandled Exception: Access Violation
C0000005:

So far, we have been unable to find any problems in the game code that cause
this problem. However, we have received numerous reports from users who are
dealing with this problem, and many of them have found ways to fix this
problem. Here are some of the things that I have found in my experience:
This problem seems most prominent with users using an AMD K6 processor, but
it is not necessarily limited to those users. Of the reports I have
received, the most common fix reported was lowering the clock speed of the
processor by 33Mhz or so. If you have an overclocked processor, then you
should definitely try lowering the clock speed. Blizzard cannot help with
changing your clock speed settings, so we do not recommend it on our
website, but I wanted to let you know that many users have found that to be
helpful.

Also, mismatched RAM could cause this problem. By mismatched, I mean
different speeds or types, not sizes. For example, one PC133 DIMM and one
PC100 DIMM, etc.

Finally, you may have noticed that Diablo II causes the computer to work
really hard. This is largely due to the many textures that are being used by
the game at any given time, especially in 3D modes. Because of this,
sometimes users who have this problem do not have trouble with any other
programs. Sometimes this error will occur if your computer gets too hot, so
anything you can do to lower the operating temperature of your computer
might be useful. Lowering the clock speed will lower the operating
temperature. You should also make sure that your processor is adequately
cooled with a cooling fan and heatsink. AMD has specific recommendations for
cooling fans for some of their chips, and other processor manufacturers may
also.

Again, I should state that Blizzard cannot assist with the things I
mentioned above, but I hope that this information may prove helpful."


Basically, I'm f'ed.

That's weird, Rob. I'd be pissed too. I hate those "gee, we're sorry, but it doesn't happen to us so what the hell" messages from customer support. Arrrgggh.

WWIIOL is growing more and more annoying, and I find myself wanting to play it less and less. The tech problems and missing game elements are compounded now by the influx of assholes and scumbags, most of whom I'm sure either pirated the game or stole it from Wal*Mart.

I haven't played WW2OL in a few days, so I can't comment on the A-holes, but I can give you a quick snippet on Anarchy Online. I played this morning for over an hour with out dropping once! I actually had to choose "quit" to get to the desktop. The latest patch appears solid, although there aren't many people clogging up the bandwidth either. Still, an improvement.

I've decided to play Diablo in short snippets in order to keep the heat down on my machine. I've never had overheating problems before (no overclocking or anything), but in both crashes I had been playing for over 3 or 4 hours when the game crapped out. Their post seems to indicate it could be a heat thing. I guess this will self regulate my D2 play (the girl will like that).

Get some dielectric compound (available at Radio Shack and other "electronics" stores), and smear it on your heatsink, where it hits the processor. This should keep your heat within "safe" levels, and it should keep working for awhile. (I had some minor heating problems, because my fan was dying and I didn't know it. This helped me for about two weeks per application.) Alternately, you can check this bios and see how hot your processor is running, and if it's running really hot, maybe get a new fan.

When a processor gets too hot, all sorts of weird things can happen...But if it gets serious, you'll know.

Heat sucks. I overclocked a Celeron on my previous machine, from 300 to 450; it's still working with my sister, but after a year it got flaky and you now have to run it with the fact place off and another fan blowing into the case--and this is with a CPU fan/heatsink and an internal 3" fan exhausting heat. The symptoms are the same as you're getting, Rob--crashing after X amount of time running.

Wow... I just posted in another thread about my current 300A at 450, Bob. No problems in two years of use.

--Dave

Overclocking is risky. If you want a faster processor...Well, then buy a faster processor.

I don't regret my overclocking one bit, because for about 18 months of constant use I got a faster computer for dirt cheap. It's still working, for my sister and her family, albeit with the odd crash now and again. Not bad for a $70 processor . But I'd not do it again.

Yeah, if it works, spectacular. And I'd never look down on anyone for doing it, or anything like that. But it's hard on your system. I seem to remember reading somewhere that an overclocked system will "die" 25-40% faster than a non-overclocked (I think I just invented a new word) one. Undue stress, if you ask me.

I'm with Rob and Dave, at least in personal experience with overclocking. Still running a 300A at 450, no problems for two years now. Occasional lock-ups, yes, but I think that's from software. I don't know how I'd have played half the games I have without the overclocking and without buying a new system.

But I will by buying a new CPU soon. Where's a good place to buy Pentium III slot 1 chips?

I am running in my house:

A 200 Pentium Pro at 233.
A 266 Celeron at 333.
A 300A Celeron at 450.
A 500 Athlon K7 at 750.
A 900 Athlon T-Bird at 1 Ghz.

No problems from any of them. I will probably pick up a cheap 1 Ghz or 1.2 Ghz chip and overclock it next. Considering 1 Ghz chips are $85 and 1.4 Ghz are $160 it seems like a no brainer even if you only end up at 1.33 with the 1 Ghz chip. Half price for almost the same to better performance sounds good to me.

Then it sounds like you have far more experience with overclocking than I do! Perhaps I'll just shut up. ;-)

I've heard that it's stressful for your system, but have no real-life experience to share. Maybe one day I'll try it myself. (Probably not, but maybe...) If I do, I know who to ask!

Oh, it's stressful, but given that for me the average system lasts under two years before I have to upgrade, who cares? :-)

But I am too lazy, generally, to futz with it.

I have overclocked my 1.2 up to about 1.4 mhz... where it gets very unstable (my fan is avg and ram is mixed pc 133 with one pc 100 dimm). but really i keep it at about 1.25 ghz ... and its rock solid. I can prolly work it solid to 1.33 ghz if i tweaked around a bit, but i dont seem to need the extra speed really...

"But I will by buying a new CPU soon. Where's a good place to buy Pentium III slot 1 chips"

I think youd be better off with an amd athlon... it costs the same and clocked is faster.. only its just a tad bit hotter. I was going to get a p3 one gig, i was afraid of VIA compabilities... but after reading the the newer via drivers for the athlons were solid i went ahead and got an amd... anyway, i think if you look on pricewatch you can find a place that sells what youre looking for...

etc

A bump: the answer is still no.

I was just checking out the WW2OL forum, and they have the worst spammer guy in the world. Its really, really awful. He must have 75% of the board covered with his own posts. Sad.

Also sad is that the diehards are trying to create their own "one world" instead of waiting for the Rats to do it. Understandably they're tired of pointless battle after pointless battle, and I guess they've been trying to organize weekly "scrimages" until the real war begins. I wish'em the best of luck, but its ridiculous that the Rats don't help these guys out more (a nice bulletin board filled with server info, nightly targets, battle reports, etc. would be make things more interesting).

Even more interesting and sad, it appears that the Rats have answered these guys, and they appear to have not even thought of this until now. Here is the guy's response, and I'll paste the link below:


"This is a great idea. In fact we are working on a training arena that will be up on training nights and brought back down after training is over. The concepts here fit very well into using that server and such for things other than training.

I would suggest that we develop the idea a bit more and come up with specific objectives for each night and we can run �mini-scenarios� each night we do run it. So we can have �Sedan breakout�, �Dinant river crossing�, �Anhee bridgehead�, etc. I�ll be working on what is needed to get those thing running.

Right now we can open a server for a specified amount of time and have the results �graded� after that time limit has run out. We�ll need people who would be willing to referee and score these events just like a Warbirds S3 or an Air Warrior scenario."


Is it just me, or isn't this the type of creative thinking these guys should have been working with for the last couple of months, instead of having the fanbois come up with it? It isn't that I don't like the Rats, but unless they actually come up with a one continuous world, I would think they would have had a comparable Plan B. Ugh. No wonder I'm so cranky about gaming lately.

Link: http://www5.playnet.com/bv/wwiiol/dg_message.jsp?page=6&forumOID=8802&forum=Gameplay+Discussion&msgID=516162&BV_SessionID=

Very sad, Rob. Rat's post just reinforces my feat that they're in over their heads. WW2OL really is a stark example of game design at its worst. It's one of the most ambitious, misguided, disappointing products I've ever seen. I wasn't exaggerating when I lumped in the same category as BC3k, Outpost, and Falcon4.

Fortunately, it's not indicative of all games. WW2OL is a worst case scenario, contrasted nicely by the games being bandied about as 'bests of the year' in another thread.

-Tom

I guess I'm also bitter because Diablo crashes on me, and I can't patch Flashpoint because it won't read my cd. I swear that if BGII crashes on me and I can't finish it, I'm going to go back to Magic the Gathering.

I think we're going to find in another year or two that only the big publishers can do persistent world games properly. Small dev teams simply will not be able to compete with the kinds of games that Sony Online and one or two others will put out.

I just want to know when I will finally get my cornered rat approved name. I have tried at least 10 times to request my new now nazified name and it fails everytime.

I dream at night over what name they have created for me. For a while I was pretty sure it was going to be mach113 but now I have a gut feeling it will be tanker88. The anticipation is killing me.

Chet

WWII Online is fun but without any "real" longterm objectives the game just gets old. They need to get the persistant world up before it will get interesting to me again.

You can only practice so long.

Jeff

Update:

I dont' know if anyone else is keeping up with this, but I checked in the last two days and here is what I found:

1. Much, much, much less lag. At 1300 people I had little lag, and at 700 I had none. Zilch. Thats much better.

2. The environment is looking prettier. More stand alone trees that give the game a feeling of depth perception.

3. A new german armored car. Nearly useless but fun to drive. Its the panzer II, really a light tank.

4. Mostly cooperative fun players.

So things are looking up here. I'll give you my anarchyonline update sooner or later.

Thanks Rob, for soldiering on and playing these buggy games. I'm happy to have the updates.

You are a brave man, I finally got a new name after weeks of that not working - and noticed i had to give a credit card.

Sorry. Any company that can't seem to handle the simplest of things is not getting my credit card. Why in the hell would I think that is the one thing not buggy? The last thing I want to do is fight some mysterious charge of $5000 on my credit card. I am only tempted to see what new name they gave me. I was begining to lean towards tanker88. I must fight the urge.

Chet

One other comment: I always play German (for consistency) and yesterday I spawned in the town of Phillipsville. Everything was quiet, and people were chatting up an attack on the town of Somzee (just north of Pville), mostly in German. So I walk out of the base and watched the most organized assembly of troops I've seen in WW2OL. There were 8 or 10 tanks lined up on the road bristling with infantry riding on the sides. It was awesome. As soon as they had their squad together off they went to the attack. It was so cool. Of course, I bit it as soon as I jumped off my tank and ran towards my objective, but it was neat while it lasted.