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[KrazeeXXL]

the tips already mentioned are very good, especially what Wicky wrote complies with my xp as well.

as it's a buggy game one of the best things to keep a game alive for a long time is to save very often. (my longest game lastet for 135 turns)

Although it seems that the game screws up the savegames as well from time to time... :S
So its good to have some savegames in stock. Especially in later game stages you should save the game every single turn. When it crashs reload a former savegame and do things differently - u can find out y it crashed and prevent the game from doing so.

An important thing is to plan on a long-term sight. I often had crashes in later game stages as I had to destroy a single thing here and there as I wanted to get some free space.
It often had trouble with the connectors imo. You can build them everywhere and even build new buildings over them. But the game doesn't like that. So you should plan your base very foresighted.

I tried almost any possible combinations of DosBox settings to prevent it from crashing. And I came up with nothing. :/ But I didn't try a new memory manager as yet. This may help a bit.

but you may ask your question again and even be able to get some help in the forum of http://www.maxr.org

It's a small but fine community which still is dedicated to this great old game. They may be able to help you more then I do as I didn't play the game in the last 3 years.

[Wicky]

Originally Posted by Bethrezen

wasn't there an unofficial fix or something that helped fix this issue ? im sure i remember reading about that somewhere around here ?

Yes, the 1.04a patch should have fixed this bug, but it didn't. It's similar to the 256 unit limit bug in Sid Meyer's Colonization. Guess we have to thank Bill Gates for his quote: "No human will ever need more than 640kb of RAM"

Some games just still rely on the 8-bit memory adressing which doesn't allow more than 256 units, or 16.384 with dword in total, and in MAX it counts for every single item be it a road/tank/debris/wall/factory etc.
You can proove that yourself, when the game crashes reload your last savegame and keep building until the crash happens again. At exact the same spot, it does not matter what you build, just 1 more thing of any type and it will always crash.

[Bethrezen]

I see so i take it this is not so much a bug in max as a design limitation of dos and by extension max as its based off of dos so the question is how does one get around this problem is there a way to extend the limit

edit

Ok this is interesting now I'm getting a second different crash here's a screen shot



any idea whats causing this one ? same problem that causing the first ?

dam the list of problems with this game just keeps on growing couple of addition things i noticed

1.) units becoming bugged upon reload this one happens if you attack a target but don't have enough shots to finish it upon your next turn the unit will automatically continue attacking the target but if for what ever reason you need to reload like for example the game crashes then there is a chance the unit will become bugged and will no longer be able to attack as its shot is frozen in mid air

2.) the auto pathing is also causing engineers to become bugged upon reload if ya use the path function to have an engineer build a road for example then there is a good chance upon reload and or possibly turn change that the unit will become bugged and will no longer be usable

3.) while patch 1.04 might fix some issues it introduces 2 fatal flaws 1 the computers wont fight each other anymore and possible 1 or more of the computers players will just sit there and wont do anything the gray computer is doing this on my current game 250+ turns and all its built is like 10 buildings and now it just spawns units from its tank factorys/air plant/naval yard and the other 2 computers wont come and fight me got a small bunch of alien gunboats on there coast and despite the fact I'm massive out numbered the computer wont come and fight me and this is on god mode to you would think the ai would be using all sorts of devious tricks to try and take me out but no it just sits there making very little effort god mode pah I might as well have it on clueless

tell ya i wish someone would make a patch to fix these issues I'd do it my self if only i was a programmer its a shame that maxr is only for online play and has no AI because this is frustrating and sucking the fun out of the game what a shame because max is a good game with so much potential

[voro13]

For people who are still interrested in this great game...
(sorry for my bad english)

My wish is to play against 3 god opponents (also MAX Reloaded does not fit my attendees)

The biggest issue is wellknown crash at ~100th round : it can be fixed using PATCH 1.04 + Extended DOS4G (PMODEW, DOS4G 2.01, ...)

To proceed (you can find stuff on the web), I used DOS4G 2.01 as I read on web that it was the best dos extender for MAX
- "PMWBIND /U MAXRUN.EXE" => got unbound "MAXRUN.LE"
- "COPY /B DOS4G201.EXE+MAXRUN.LE /B MAXRUN.EXE" => got bound MAXRUN.EXE
Now startup shows "DOS4GW V2.01" rather than "DOS4GW V1.97"


But I am not happy of opponents behaviour :

- First I want them to be allied (3vs1). It is not the case in 1.03, but in 1.04 => OK

- Taking just one opponent (thinking first they were not allied in 1.04 and also just one would be harder than three not allied), I noticed that anytime you reload/restart, first round after reload/restart he does nothing
=> OK given that DOS4G 2.01 fixes crashes, so no need to reload/restart

Difference between 1.03 and 1.04 : 1.03 always end turn after 45 sec, what is a problem after ~200th round as opponent has a lot to do
I made following tests
Version.....................DosBox MemSize..1st rnd after load...............2nd rnd after load
MAX 1.03 + DOS 2.01..16MB.................stop before 45s.................stop at 45s
...............................64MB............... ..stop before 45s.................stop at 45s
MAX 1.04 + DOS 2.01..16MB.................stop before 45s.................last ~5-6 min
...............................64MB............... ..stop before 45s.................last ~5-6 min


- I think problem is inside AI, as he always looks for a weak point to attack
up to 250th round, he used to attack me some time to time (5-10 planes, sometimes sending an infiltrator, 2-3 tanks) at some weak point I had in my base
Since I strengthed this weak point, he does not want to attack anymore (rare exceptions where he sends 2-3 planes)

I used the "[MAXSPY]" cheat code to have a look at his base, and it is twice mine, with around 500 units, so he could have a chance to break my defense
It is right that I have a huge defense, as I built wall of turrets (alternating aircraft and missile), but he should take his chance as I am outnumbered !

=> I am interrested in any other experience on this game


To answer previous post, what was my first intention

Originally Posted by Bethrezen

3.) while patch 1.04 might fix some issues it introduces 2 fatal flaws 1 the computers wont fight each other anymore and possible 1 or more of the computers players will just sit there and wont do anything the gray computer is doing this on my current game 250+ turns and all its built is like 10 buildings and now it just spawns units from its tank factorys/air plant/naval yard and the other 2 computers wont come and fight me got a small bunch of alien gunboats on there coast and despite the fact I'm massive out numbered the computer wont come and fight me and this is on god mode to you would think the ai would be using all sorts of devious tricks to try and take me out but no it just sits there making very little effort god mode pah I might as well have it on clueless

tell ya i wish someone would make a patch to fix these issues I'd do it my self if only i was a programmer its a shame that maxr is only for online play and has no AI because this is frustrating and sucking the fun out of the game what a shame because max is a good game with so much potential

I think using any DOS Extended rather than DOS4GW should fix issue of inactivity after 250+
If you want them to fight each other, you have to use 1.03, but he will always respect the 45 sec, so will not have enough time for development

I found V1.56 on the web, unbound it and bound it with DOS4G 2.01
Opponents are not allied anymore, for those who are interested
I do not know which issues are fixed, as there are no attached log

I stop here with this game, despite of its huge potential, as I am not satisfied by AI anymore