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[Gobalopper]

Chris dropped by the official forums yesterday and posted a message about problems people might be having with the game and what could be the cause, check it out below:

Just wanted to point out a few quick things here. I do appeciate the honest feedback these forums provide, and also appreciate everyone's efforts to keep them civil, friendly & informative. :)

The truth is that a very very small percentage of customers ever experience a problem with Emperor. However, we do care about every customer with a problem, and that is why we do create patches, and answer customer support calls, emails, etc. via our customer support telephone numbers & email.

Its not from a lack of testing, or a lack of caring, or a lack of anything like that. 95% of all posted problems are solved by updating drivers. I wish the PC was not such a troublesome machine, but 3D gaming on a PC does require system updates: From DirectX updates, to video & audio driver updates, etc. Add to this, hundreds of manufacturers for a dozen system components, and there is no way anyone can test the millions of permuations that exist out there.

An example: a new version of DirectX comes out with features the public really wants, and performance enhancements we really want. So, we write code using the new functions. Meanwhile, the video card companies must update their drivers to support the new features. If you don't have the new drivers, the new features will not work as advertised, and thus .. the game will not work. (p.s. I just personally bought a new Geforce3 card from Company XXXXXX, and the drivers supplied with the card crashed my windows so bad, I had to reboot into safe mode several times before the newly internet downloaded drivers could be swapped in and restore normal operations.)

Anyone remember the DOS days, and the audio card problems? How about the days before the VESA standard drivers for video cards. Things are a lot better now, but 3D is one area that is bit like those old days. At least we are now down to primarily Direct3D and OpenGL standards, and Direct3D is most prevelent for games.

So, the release was actually a great success according the number of sales vs. number of support issues. I know that doesn't help those that have had to deal with hard to find video drivers and/or hardware conflicts. We have only a few unresolved issues left in our customer support database, and those entail specific hardware problems with their individual hardware. (i.e. with identical model#s & drivers & OS, we do not see the same problem). If you are still experiencing major issues, I strongly urge you to contact customer support (message-boards are not official support calls. Please visit www.westwood.com for official support phone numbers & email) and let us help you solve the problem. - LINK

As Chris mentions the best way to get help is to contact WW Tech Support and see what they say. That should be your first resource and if they can't help the messageboards would probably be your second best place to look.