Playing Antietam for first time, half the troops on both sides aren't shooting

[Vossiewulf]

I'm about 90 minutes into first play of The Bloodiest Day battle (Union side), and about ten minutes ago most of the troops on both sides stopped firing at each other. Since I'm guessing that a Sudden Peace Breaks Out function doesn't exist, it seems something is wrong. The target lists show the units believe enemies are in range, but they're not shooting, and none of the confederate units are shooting. A few regiments here and there are still firing (interestingly including all of the units armed with repeaters) and chewing away on confederate regiments which are just standing there being shot to pieces.

I tried exiting a few times and reloading the save game to no avail. I've tried moving units around, again no effect.

Anyone seen this or have any ideas?

[Jack ONeill]

WOW! This IS a first. I've never seen anything like that. Have to get away from NapMod and play it.

Jack B)

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Is this an army vs army scenario? If so, that behavior shows up when there are too many troops involved in combat for your computer to handle. Everything just grinds to a halt. The only solution in that case is a bigger and better computer.

[RebBugler]

A few regiments here and there are still firing (interestingly including all of the units armed with repeaters) and chewing away on confederate regiments which are just standing there being shot to pieces.

This is normal for the long range repeaters since the Rebs don't have the musket range to fight back. However, they should automatically lie down...not that it helps much (this issue is submitted).

Also, check the ammo levels, maybe their ammo supply is zero, which would be about par for 90 minutes of play.

Still, probably MTG's observation, not enough CPU or memory strength.

I was concerned about this when I designed the scenario, but my old machine, dual 2.8 with 3GB of Ram, including the dual Graphic Cards, handled it. They stuttered at times, but kept on afightin'. :cheer:

[Vossiewulf]

Thanks guys for the suggestions, but so far none make much sense. My machine is an i7/950 with a Nvidia GTX270 card and 8GB RAM which can drive Skyrim at near max settings. My OS is Win7 x64 Pro.

I'm also an experienced player of these games going back to 2nd Mannassas, have played the hell out of all of them and have checked all the obvious things (like AI on/off, ammo, etc). Besides in my experience troops in range of enemies with no ammo will at best proceed on an orderly retreat regardless of what you tell them to do, if not break and start running for the next county.

What I'm seeing is a few dozen Union and Confed regiments standing nose to nose at <150 yards and doing nothing at all, in a couple of cases Confederate regiments are getting chewed to pieces by US sharpshooters without the slightest apparent concern. I currently see no Confederate regiments or artillery firing, and only about 10% of the Union regiments are firing.

I can send the saved game to someone if they're interested in taking a look.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Even though your specs look fine, what you describe is the classic behavior of too many men on the field. If you are running in windowed mode with a lot of other processes going on in the background, you may be limited to smaller oobs. Try this, play in full screen mode if you are not already doing so. If still no joy, choose a sandbox game with army vs army size. If the game once again freezes, then you'll have to determine what is hogging all your resources.

[Little Powell]

Although I am by no means ruling out your assessment MTG, I have played the game on several different machines of varying performance levels, and have never experienced an issue like that. I'd be curious to see a saved game.

Vossiewulf - Can you please zip one up, and email to sowsupport at norbsoftware dot com with a detailed description of the problem, which units to select etc. Thanks.

Edit - Better yet, what RebBugler said... Send the saved game to him.

[RebBugler]

I would like to check out a saved game. Select one of the units within engagement range that is not engaging and save.

Zip and send saved game to prkeen at drumsandbugles dot com. Thanks!

[Vossiewulf]

Save game sent.

[RebBugler]

Received and replied...yep, we've got an ugly to solve here. Hope it's an isolated issue. Probably along the lines of what MTG reported, but we've never seen it in a scenario, just in an overwhelmed sandbox BIG army vs army situation. Thanks