Updates and Patches

What is your current version of DA? SDC should update it to 1.8e, you can then manually download the unofficial 1.8g from the forums. Look for a thread by CariElf, 'fleet movement bug'.

Thank you. How do I find out which version I have? It's straight out of the box, Gold Edition, Galactic Civilizations II Dread Lords includes Dark Avatar Expansion. I've never added anything to what came out of the box. I can't find anything anywhere on the box or in any screen or the manual that tells what version I have.

Well if you haven't updated it from the box then it is definately out of date. You need to install Stardock Central from the downloads section, create a stardock.net account, and register your DL and DA serial numbers with the account. Then when you start SDC it will show your purchased games under the 'games' section, and allow you to patch them. You will also see what version you have now, but you can always access that information as it is at the top of your debug.err file.

The version number is also shown in the lower left corner ingame, on the main menu screen.

Thanks, everyone. I had installed Stardock Central but had not clicked on Games because I thought that would only be a list of their products and that Updates would be an item of its own. Anyway, now I have installed the voluminous updates including the Heightmap whatever that is. I'm hoping this won't screw up the good game I have already been playing and enjoying so much.

Generally patches and updates don't erm, screw things up, as much as they make things better and eliminate pesky bugs and problems. So, enjoy the updates and new features!

except for 1.8e...which has been broken for over 1 month.

I've had no problems with it...

I'm curious... it says I can update DA to 1.8g, however any attempts to do so fail. That is, it says it worked, but then it still says I'm at 1.8e and I can still update to 1.8g. So I'll just stay with 1.8e for now. I was able to update to the latest version of Twilight of the Arnor Beta and GalCiv II (.93[b].002 and 1.50.133 respectively).

I think that's a stardock central bug. If you ran the update, and it looks like it worked... it did...

I am using the latest build that Cari has on offer in the pathfinder thread and it is the most stable version of the game i have ever used.

I recommend updating to it guys if you have not already, though as always archive your current version and make backups.

Depends.

It has often been noted that any update can really mess up a game in progress - so it is always better to finish a current game before updating the code base of the game.

And it has also been observed that an update can introduce new problems and bugs, even though fixing others.

I too am having problems with the game such as random freezing during game play and would like to know where patches can be downloaded.

If there is any question about the capacity of your PC system you might try what they call a "clean boot" if you have not already done so. I'm far from a techie and cannot give anyone tech advice, but when I was playing Oblivion before I upgraded my Nvidia card, they told me to try starting up with a clean boot. I got the instructions how to do that from Microsoft home pages, and it was easy to do. It worked fine and eliminated crashes and freezes. Of course you also scale down some of your video settings to go along with the clean boot.

I am sooooooooooooo glad the update information was in the docs. (Serious sarcasm) I am not a techno-geek and never want to be. My Husband is the Uber-Geek, and he is not a gamer. I am the gamer in the family and my PC is for games only. I really hate to have to call someone (or type a question into a forum that might never get answered) to fix my game. Now, to find out the answer to my question, I have to come back in a couple of days to see if anyone answered it.

OK, Is there any documentation that I can find to refer to once in a while so I can find the specific place download the updates? I am running GCII right out of the box because I could never find the updates. I just want to play the damn game. I do not want to play tech support for my PC all day long.

Yes, it was impossible to find anything about an update on the Stardock Central site. I downloaded Stardock Central but that was useless because it does not point you to anything except other software you sell. Where are the updates?

Why do I have to download and run 'SmartException' from the website??? Couldn't you just put it as part of the initial update or in the initial load? This is a pain. I don't want to debug your software. That is not what I paid for and not what I want to spend days and days trying to fix something.

It appears that the company is purposefully hiding the updates in the user forum. That is the equilivent of Chevy hiding the user manual for a camaro under the carpet in the trunk of the car, or Maytag placing the user manual for their washing machine inside the back of the machine. If this is not the case, then where are the directions for the rest of the world who are not IT people?

Why would I want to buy anything from this company again? I didn't get a shareware copy off the internet, I bought GCII and expect better support than a user forum. Who wants to take days to figure out were the updates are, when with nearly all the other games I have integrate updates into their software to help their 'paying customers' who are not techies to get their software to run!

I am a customer who paid hard earned money to buy GCII. I worked extra hours to buy this and I bought it because I was told it was a good game. Well, from what I have been able to play, it is a good game (when it runs) but I am not happy.

Enough with the rant.

Now, to my problem, which is repeated crashes, over and over again. The information from the event viewer states:

Faulting application GC2DarkAvatar.exe, version 1.5.0.0, time stamp 0x45abef0d, faulting module d3d9.dll, version 6.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bcc1, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0010fb69, process id 0x594, application start time 0x01c84d61f557a634.

Faulting application GC2DarkAvatar.exe, version 1.5.0.0, time stamp 0x45abef0d, faulting module msvcrt.dll, version 7.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bd61, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0000a4ed, process id 0xd60, application start time 0x01c84d62ff6cb6f4.

Faulting application GC2DarkAvatar.exe, version 1.5.0.0, time stamp 0x45abef0d, faulting module msvcrt.dll, version 7.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bd61, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00009b54, process id 0x151c, application start time 0x01c84da0a2855238.

Faulting application GC2DarkAvatar.exe, version 1.5.0.0, time stamp 0x45abef0d, faulting module msvcrt.dll, version 7.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bd61, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00009b54, process id 0x11ec, application start time 0x01c84d93792a63b8.

Faulting application GC2DarkAvatar.exe, version 1.5.0.0, time stamp 0x45abef0d, faulting module msvcrt.dll, version 7.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bd61, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00009b54, process id 0x1200, application start time 0x01c84d9f0eaa05c8.

Faulting application GC2DarkAvatar.exe, version 1.5.0.0, time stamp 0x45abef0d, faulting module msvcrt.dll, version 7.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bd61, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00009b54, process id 0x151c, application start time 0x01c84da0a2855238.

Just pick GalCiv2 in the Games section of SDC and click the Update button that appears (you need to have the game registered first if you don't already). For DA, click the + next to GalCiv2 and you'll find it. If you haven't registered, you can do so in SDC: Pick Register Product from the Tools menu, pick the game in the list, and enter the key/email, or you can register via the link at the footer of this page.



If you've got any questions or are confused about anything, don't worry about digging for answers--you need only ask. I make rounds quite often and most questions get answered within hours, and not infrequently even within minutes. You'll find that we have a much bigger presence on our forums than most companies, so they're a quick and simple means of interacting directly with us.

Greetings Lady-Mutare,

If I didn't know better I'd say you were a writer. Thank you for a most interesting introduction of yourself into our little world here.

I understand your frustration, but I'd like to point out that this forum is not just comprised of geeks who talk about, well, whatever minutiae geeks squeal about in little girly voices. (No offense to geeks, for whom I have the deepest respect and admiration) No, we are a community of gamers who have a wide variety of interests and personalities of which you have now become a part of. Work the phrase "kicking and screaming against your will" in there somewhere and I've made my point.   

Welcome, and don't be a stranger.

Qui-Gon

Welcome to the world of Gal Civ II Lady-Mutare

try not to get to frustrated we`ll help all we can and yes it is worth all your hard earn money you have spent on the game

Please ask your question and we`ll try to answer all your issues Kryo one of the best at getting back to you right a way and 99% of the time has the answer too

Nasty

Lady Mutara, give the forum a chance - the fans and devs are very helpful here. Stardock Central is also a very good tool for keeping games up to date (at least, the games you can purchase through it). It makes life so much easier, since you can download patches with a click, and not look them up on third party download sites, and try to determine if you're installing the patches in the right order, or if you have the latest patch available (not that I've gone through this with any games... )

I posted this on another thread, but I'll repeat one question:

With my dial-up connection I only got to 78% of the DA update. When I resume will it start over (from 0%) or from 78%?

SDC should resume disconnected downloads, but it may not if you've completely closed it between attempts.

Should I purge some temp directory before I reattempt? Or just try it againa and see what happens?