buttercup

Well guys, time has come for me to say goodbye. I'm moving on to other tasks. Its been great, this is definately the least hostile board and community I have had the pleasure of serving (what little I did). Rumor has it, though, a few other Westwoodians have been poking around here...Come out Come out..wherever you are! Keep the email coming to the tech support address and contests, because operators are standing by. Thanks. Cya! -Mary

The only new release I am aware of is Red Alert 2, due for release in mid-late October. Like I said, people are onto me, and aren't talking much... As far as I know, the RA2 engine as similar, if not the same as, TS. I agree with Havoc525, not enough teams in the mainstream RTS games. More sides to choose from is definately a feature to be expanded on. (V)echa[ )ragon, I agree. How could any company possibly capture everything the saga has to offer in a game or two? Too complex... ExAtreides, Kyrandia wasn't international either, but we made 3 of the series. I still get email from people wanting to know where to find it. On a side note...one of my coworkers recently noticed my postings here. He's quite a gamer, so I don't doubt he plays often. Funny he would check the message boards though... Keep the posts coming! -Mary

Any other changes you've made recently to the system? Spill anything on the CD? Any problems with other games or programs? If you haven't had any other changes or problems on the system, and Dune 2000 won't properly uninstall/reinstall, contact warrenty at 650-628-1900, by email at: warranty@ea.com, or by mail at: Westwood Customer Warranty P.O Box 9025 Redwood City, CA 94063-9025 -Mary

Still no word about any Dune projects in the making. No one is willing to talk to me. It's as if they know I'm posting. Maybe they have secret spys out to get me. I bet Gobalopper isn't even his real name. Anywho, I have started posting a couple times a week at http://www.westwood.com/westwoodonline/tournaments/ . I'll be posting information and news about contests, winners, my new "cheater-catcher" tally and other tournament news. Just scroll down a bit, you'll see it on that page. Cya online! -Mary

I assume you are not running Win2K or NT. Do you have the latest DirectX Driver? You need no less than 6.5 (I believe), although the newest is 7.x. TS will not run without current drivers. It could be TS tried to read and fix the drivers you had, and when it was done, the other games weren't used to it. Try going to www.microsoft.com/directx, downloading the latest DirectX. While your at it, you should probably visit your video and sound card manufacturers websites as well, get the latest drivers for your cards. Then uninstall/reinstall TS. If you are still having a problem, email me at MBeal@Westwood.com, and I will personally see to it you get help. -Mary

True, I'm not in that line of work, so I don't know. I will do some nosing around, see if I can find out anything for you though. I usually don't get involved until the games are in beta.

We re-vamped our Technical Support system a couple months back. Yes, you still get the FAQ (solves about 90% of the technical issues experianced by our customers), but the email address included in the FAQ (if your problem was not solved) goes straight to a humans desk. And when you get an answer back (allow up to 2 working days), rest assured it was answered by a living, breathing, possibly over-caffinated person. -Mary, a real, over-caffinated human

Out of Sync errors are usually caused by 1 of 2 things: Corrupt files (especially cheats) or slow internet connection. Slow internet connection can be solved 1 of 2 ways, depending on the circumstances. If you have a high connection speed (cable, for instance), and your opponant is connected via a 33.3 modem, you should slow your speed down. If you are using a 33.3 modem, you may consider upgrading. If your connection is the same or similar to that of your opponant, it is likely one of you has a corrupt file (especially cheats): You need to completely uninstall Dune2000. Run the uninstallation of the game first. Then go into your Windows Explorer and delete the Westwood Dune2000 folder. Make sure you save your saved game files to a temporary directory first. After that, click on Start, Run and type Regedit. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWestwood and delete the Dune2000 folder(s). Reinstall the game after that. Try getting the auto-update (patch) from joining the Internet part of the game. If you are still having problems, let me know by sending an emial to TechHelp@Westwood.com, and include Dune 2000 in the subject field.

I will mention the MentatBot problem to those involved with it's programming. Should that type of ban happen again, email me AccountHelp@Westwood.com, with the nickname you were using and a summary of what happened. Confirming D/Cers depends on a lot. What usually happens: I get a couple emails about "joeshmoe" disconnecting, send him an email "stop it or more action will be taken." If it continues, his points are dropped. If it contiues again, his name is banned (this is almost always done the last week of the month...explained below) and his points dropped to a shameful number (-300 seems to be pretty humiliating). If I recieve reports about him using another nickname to do the same thing, that is also disabled. It is VERY easy to cross reference accounts, only takes about 20 seconds to ban each account. Why its done at the end of the month (usually). First, I like to make sure I have as much info as possible. If I wait til the last week of the month to remove points, ban accounts, etc., I have all the complaints logged. Secondly, it's been my experiance these cheaters hate wasting time. Well, they waste no less than 3 minutes of your time in one game they D/C on. It takes me about 1 minute to read an email, about 10 seconds to copy/paste nicknames into my database. Once sorted, it takes about 20 seconds to ban an account. That's if I haven't had my morning coffee.... Meanwhile, "joeshmoe" the cheater has wasted 3 weeks of his time playing. And where does he end up? At the VERY bottom of the ladder, a marked man. We will ban IPs if absolutly necessary. But it is rare. The cheaters seem to REALLY dislike wasting month after month of playing..oops, I mean cheating...to get absolutely nowhere. They either practice and get good enough to win with skill, or they move on. Either way, YOU will have a fairer game. Hope that helps. -Mary/Buttercup

Unfortunately, this is a common problem with America Online. AOL does not seem to allow for UDP connections on most of their servers, which we use for some of our games. UDP is a specific type of TCP/IP connection which allows for faster data transfer and smaller packet sizes. Some of AOL's dial-up connections in some cities now seem to use this protocol, but chances are good that if you are having trouble connecting or registering, yours currently does not. Unfortunately, there is presently nothing we can do to help resolve this issue. If you still wish to attempt using AOL, we recommend trying during non-peak AOL hours, and you should be able to connect if you are persistent. However, we cannot guarantee that your connections will be stable, or that you will be able to play games to completion without disconnections. If Internet gameplay is your main reason for being online, we suggest that you might look into alternate Internet providers that support standard UDP connections. Or as Shaddam Corrino suggests, check out Heat.net

I will be looking over the D/C list you have going at that site, and compare it to my own. I realize you may have felt overlooked in the past, but we have reviewed and revamped our technical and customer support processes. Technical issues can be sent to TechHelp@Westwood.com, account/membership issues to AccountHelp@Westwood.com, and contest/tournament issues to Contests@Westwood.com. Virtual flowers and chocolate can be sent to MBeal@Westwood.com :) The registration and auto-update servers were down temporarily, but are functioning properly now. There is no page listing server or other Westwood related problems, as we are usually on top of the problem as soon as it is reported to us. Currently the clan pages are down for upgrades, file shifting, etc. It is expected to be up and running soon. If anyone notices any other problems, please feel free to report them to MBeal@Westwood.com. You can also visit us during our weekly live online Technical Support sessions. These are held Tuesdays at 11:00 AM PST, and Thursdays at 6:00 PM PST. Just join the channel "Tech_Support". Thx. -Mary/Buttercup

Hello to the quietest group of gamers I have ever met...My name is Mary, I work at Westwood in the Customer Service Department. I am also the ladder mistress (although some past cheaters have dubbed me "ladder lolita" since I've been known to cut down rank and points, even cut off their most prized nickname.) If you have any cheating or ladder issues, please feel free to email me at Contests@Westwood.com. Please include Dune 2000, and both players names. If you have anything else to report or chat about, you can either email me at mbeal@westwood.com, or post something. I'll be checking in to help in any way I can. Although I must say, I have heard barely a peep from this community. See you online! -Mary/Buttercup