Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all doing well and staying safe. Wanted to ask if the community had any insights into a game freeze bug I'm encountering in the GOG version of EAW. I'm trying to run a 1943 German campaign, and our FW190s are equipped with rockets. The game is hard freezing when the AI begin to release their rockets. Not immediately, but within the few seconds of the rockets being fired, the game locks up and I have to ctrl-alt-delete out of the sim and force quit it. Some distant part of my memory seems to recall something happening with the rockets in the sim... is there a workaround? Other than some sounds and Max188's graphics, there are no mods in the sim. Thanks so much in advance.

Cheers!

Like the Capt I remember this bug from way back. Suggest a good search of threads here, because I'm certain there was a fix for it.

Hi Moggy,

Agree with you mate. I checked through the threads 8 years back and I can't locate anything. The search function on SimHQ isn't super accurate. I'm wondering if there is just an issue with the campaigns in general - not sure how many EAW players are focused on grinding out single player campaigns, vs single missions or online play. Still seeing lockups even in the vanilla GOG version.

Cheers!

I bet it's something to do with the rocket motor sprite.

I had a hair pulling episode a few years back when I upgraded a bunch of planes with gun sight sprites that are available on Talley-ho (I forget the author).

Kept getting CTD's which I assumed were related to one of my 3dz files. After a few days of swapping in different files and trying all sorts of machinations it turned out to be the German Revi gun sight.

You wouldn't think such a small thing would cause hard freezes but lesson learned.

Ray is right. It's the rocket smoke sprite.

I have drilled down into some 17 year old Code Group posts at The Gen, the problem was known as "the rocket freeze". Sydbod discovered that it was the smoke sprite:



Was this a glitch in the default 1.2, which is why it is showing in the GOG exe?

Could you do me a favor and e-mail my wife with this news?

She wouldn't want me to encourage you

Hi Moggy! Thanks for sorting this one out. Yes, it's the stock GOG version of the game - 1.2. Still getting it in other versions as well, but it's less frequent. Almost always happens on bomber intercept missions in 43 with the Germans. Is there a file I can replace the sprite smoke with?

Thanks again - this is a huge help!

Just spitballing here.

What happens if you turn down the detail level?

I like the simplicity Rotton! I'll give it a go later today and report back. Thanks!

Simple is my middle name.

This I don't know, though I suspect someone has made an alternative for this sprite.

Knock on wood, but I think this did the trick across all versions I'm playing (I have OAW 1.28 as a separate install). Seems to be working! Thank you again!

Cheers!

To paraphrase Forrest Gump's mom, simple is as simple does.