trade window and army setup glitches

[dhanegan]

Spartan usually runs fine for me, but after playing a campaign for a while I eventually develop two technical glitches. These glitches have cropped up repeatedly in several different scenarios, they are not isolated incidents. I can clear them by quitting and restarting the game, but they are quite annoying.

The first is in the trade window. When this glitch takes effect, clicking on either the plus or minus symbols to adjust a resource's buy and sell amounts no longer has the normal effect. Instead, any click on the plus or minus symbols causes the associated resource's trade amount setting to change sign. I.e., a -12 becomes a +12, a +43 becomes a -43. Clicking again on either symbol flips the sign again. It doesn't matter if I left click, right click, shift or control click, any click flips the sign without changing the absolute value. When this glitch crops up it effectively makes the game unplayable, trade management is crucial to the game.

The second glitch is in the army setup window. This glitch manifests by tying units together in groups so that they cannot be moved individually. It is in effect the instant the window opens, I will start with multiple units selected as though I had picked them up with a group selection box but I haven't. And they won't unselect normally. I have a couple of times managed to get this to clear by repeated random left-right-shift-control click combinations on one or more of the units involved, but I was very frustrated during these incidents and don't really remember what I did that cleared the problem. This isn't quite as game stopping as the trade window glitch, but tends to cause a lot of casualties I could avoid if I could set up my units properly.

I am not 100% certain, but I suspect this might have something to do with my habit of occasionally using ctrl-esc to drop out of the game window to my desktop. I have tried to keep track a couple of times and it seemed I was able to play normally for quite a few turns but then I wanted to check a game forum or something and a few turns after reenterring the game one of the glitches crops up again. I know ctrl-esc has caused problems with stability in other games I have played.

[dhanegan]

Incidentally, I wouldn't be using ctrl-esc nearly as much if the game manual was available in game. I don't quite understand why it isn't, it's already been loaded on my computer, is it that hard to tie a text display program to the game engine? I hate having to drop my game window to use the manual.

Of course a printed game manual would have been nice; I felt a bit ripped off when I shelled out 10 extra dollars for a physical copy of the game but only got a disk with no manual.

[IainMcNeil]

If you hold down Ctrl and click it multiplies the number by 100, so it takes you from your max selling to max buying value. You could have a key stuck on the computer.

[pipfromslitherine]

Using ALT-TAB to switch to the manual should also prevent this problem from occuring...

Cheers

Pip

[IainMcNeil]

Where did you get the game? We ship boxes with the manual in the UK?

[dhanegan]

The trade window glitch isn't that simple. Every click flips the sign, even repeated clicks on the same button. If this was a glitch that simply added or subtracted 100 units, repeated clicks on the same button could only flip the sign a maximum of one time.


I bought the game from Matrix. The deal was for a digital download plus a followup physical copy by snailmail, priced at US $29.95. The physical copy consists of a thin black plastic DVD style box with a CD ROM disk inside. The box is printed with professional graphics front and back, but there is no internal paperwork. The digital download loaded the manual in adobe format on my computer. I have not actually checked the disk to see what files are on it.

[dhanegan]

I wasn't aware of the alt-tab key combo, thanks for the tip. I'll let you know if it seems to clear things up.

[kyle]

do you have a windows key?

The windows key should be located to the right of your ctrl key

[DEB]

Spartan usually runs fine for me, but after playing a campaign for a while I eventually develop two technical glitches. These glitches have cropped up repeatedly in several different scenarios, they are not isolated incidents. I can clear them by quitting and restarting the game, but they are quite annoying.

The first is in the trade window. When this glitch takes effect, clicking on either the plus or minus symbols to adjust a resource's buy and sell amounts no longer has the normal effect. Instead, any click on the plus or minus symbols causes the associated resource's trade amount setting to change sign. I.e., a -12 becomes a +12, a +43 becomes a -43. Clicking again on either symbol flips the sign again. It doesn't matter if I left click, right click, shift or control click, any click flips the sign without changing the absolute value. When this glitch crops up it effectively makes the game unplayable, trade management is crucial to the game.

The second glitch is in the army setup window. This glitch manifests by tying units together in groups so that they cannot be moved individually. It is in effect the instant the window opens, I will start with multiple units selected as though I had picked them up with a group selection box but I haven't. And they won't unselect normally. I have a couple of times managed to get this to clear by repeated random left-right-shift-control click combinations on one or more of the units involved, but I was very frustrated during these incidents and don't really remember what I did that cleared the problem. This isn't quite as game stopping as the trade window glitch, but tends to cause a lot of casualties I could avoid if I could set up my units properly.

I am not 100% certain, but I suspect this might have something to do with my habit of occasionally using ctrl-esc to drop out of the game window to my desktop. I have tried to keep track a couple of times and it seemed I was able to play normally for quite a few turns but then I wanted to check a game forum or something and a few turns after reenterring the game one of the glitches crops up again. I know ctrl-esc has caused problems with stability in other games I have played.

I had these problems too. You are correct - they are caused by your use of Ctrl-Esc ( to drop the game to the Task Bar ).

To correct this : Press Ctrl ( after restoring the game to full screen ). This reverses the initial Ctrl usage.

[ NB : Do not however, use Ctrl-Esc during an actual Battle, as it corrupts the Battle's ( Unit Sprite ) graphics. ]

[ NBB : If you use Ctrl-Esc and do not reverse it before commencing an actual Battle, then the Battle's ( Unit Sprite ) Graphics will also be corrupted. ]

[DEB]

Using ALT-TAB to switch to the manual should also prevent this problem from occuring...

Cheers

Pip

This may well be the case - but it also causes the games Battle ( Unit Sprite ) Graphics to become corrupted...

With Ctrl-Esc , I believe you can correct this problem by pressing Ctrl after the battle ( during it may work also - I cannot recall now if it does or not ).

[ I am unaware how to reverse the Graphics effects of Alt-Tab ( or if it can be reversed at all ). ]