WAR beginnings

So Crimson and I got in on Warhammer Online for the launch and will be sharing our thoughts over the next few days.

I'm having a lot of fun playing the game, but, this post will deal with some technical issues we had getting the thing up and running. I'm sure these will all be ironed out in the near future, but just so people who are about to start playing it can run the thing:

1) Account creation problems. Many have had troubles signing up for an account. I experienced this myself. I'm fairly sure the problem is using Firefox without the latest version of java/flash/some other net language.

Internet explorer worked fine, I think because it comes with the latest versions of this stuff. Note that it may still issue a message that account creation failed - but it actually didn't, the account will be listed under your subscriptions, and you can still log in.

2) You need to enter your credit card even though the box comes with a month free. Apparently you won't be charged. Not a bug, but, hmmm.

3) The game on the CD doesn't actually work on a large number of machines/discs. Remember that error you get trying to run games from 1990 on modern pc's, out of conventional memory? Similar thing here. Apparently the WAR devs were recruited with some kind of time machine. The main file runs through DOS, and didn't even have an icon.

Anyway, this thread contains solutions to this and some similar problems (page 1, 2nd post, and page 3, last post (my settings are 15 posts per page... posters were xenoclix and Axzarc):

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96883

In a nutshell, get these 2 files and overwrite the ones in your Warhammer root directory:

http://files.filefront.com/warpatchexe/;11292885;/fileinfo.html
http://axzaril.googlepages.com/d3dx9_34.dl

4) My game discs didn't install direct x 9 properly. I had to install another game that a friend had (assassin's creed) to get the latest direct x (new machine). Could also download from microsoft website.

5) Firewall issues. This causes an error when you load into the game and the EULA appears. You won't actually see the error until you alt tab, where it will say some nonsense about a critical error and that the program has to close. Simply choosing to allow the program doesn't work on some machines with picky firewalls. You may have to mess around allowing particular ports. My advice: completely close your firewall program. Don't view any dodgy porn files until you put it up again ^^


There are HEAPS of other errors that I didn't personally encounter. Look here for people who will undoubtedly have the same problems:

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=129

In summary, despite what Mythic are claiming about this being the smoothest launch in MMO history, IMO it ranks as the most FAIL launch I've ever seen. Exe file not running at all on a brand new machine is ridiculous. The error message system in the game is woeful and gives zero information on what the problem may relate to.

Having said all that, the game is cool, and I'll get to that in the next blog. I can't wait until the official patch that fixes every one of these issues, I imagine that the population numbers will probably quadruple.