(windows XP, using zone-alarm as firewall - not sure how other software firewalls work)

Every time a new patch comes out, I have to do the following.

Hunt down the elemental .ini file

Change the mode to windowed.  Launch the game - after adjusting the firewall program, change back to full screen mode.

If I fail to do this after a patch, the game blocks waiting for zone-alarm, and for some reason I cannot alt-tab - forcing me to reboot the pc, and then do the above steps.

There are at least two possible solutions for this that would make life for those of us using zone-alarm much easier.

1) always use windowed mode the first time Elemental (or any game) attempts to make a new type of network connection (sending or listening port).  Then switch the user defined screen mode.

or

2) Give us an option (I'm sure not everyone would want this) to auto-change the screen mode to windowed whenever a patch is applied - we can change it back to full screen after we have things configured.

I'm sure there are an infinate of other ways to solve this - but I really hope you do something about it - and if/when you do change it - let us know so we can stop manually editing the .ini file.

Thanks !

For those of you who do not understand this feature of zone-alarm - ZoneAlarm checks that the executable that you have previously granted access to the internet has not changed - if it does change, you have to re-approve the application.  I find this a very nice feature to help avoid un-wanted network traffic from corrupted(hacked) programs.  The only drawback is that it blocks (instead of refuses) the connection - so if you are unable to 'accept' the change, your program, and most likely your pc, is stuck.