Elemental will completely freeze the entire computer if it is launched when a firewall that monitors outbound connections is up. ZoneAlarm is a firewall that does (and it's pretty popular, too) and normally when an unidentified program tries to access the internet from your machine, it pops up a little message saying "are you sure you want this program to access the internet." In most games, once you've tried to connect, you Alt-Tab, put the check mark in "don't ask again" and say "yes."
Elemental however hangs when waiting for a connection to go through. You cannot alt-tab. You cannot ctrl-alt-del, you cannot swap the focus, you cannot crash the program or issue any commands to it. You cannot send any commands to your computer. The *only* way to get Elemental to stop hanging is to actually unplug your computer. This is a pretty disasterous bug.
Steps to recreate
1) download and install Zone Alarm http://download.cnet.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-10435_4-10039884.html?part=dl-69168&subj=dl&tag=button2) Try to run Elemental
I have only tested this on Windows XP, but I have tested it on four different computers. This actually also happens with Sins of a Solar Empire, but not with any other game I've played. ZoneAlarm comes by default on the PC I bought.
** Update **
* affects windows xp 32 bit* does not affect windows 7 64 bit* known to affect zone alarm installations* known to affect comodo firewall installations* Powering off your computer abruptly can cause hardware failure! Excercise caution, as I learned from experience
To add a data point:
With win7 64, Free ZA works normally with Elemental -- with ZA not set for Elemental, start Elemental, it waits, TAB out to be able to see the AZ popup, set it to allow both trusted and internet, and it works ok. (I also set it to not allow it to act as a server trusted/internet and still works fine).
I had been using VistaFirewallControl (a free firewall that allows setting in&outbound, similar to ZA) while waiting for free ZA to be compatable with win7 64, and with VFC not set for Elemental, after starting elemental it'd stop loading after a few seconds and I'd get a message something along the order of 'can't connect to internet, make sure you have a connection, impulse is connected and no av/firewall is blocking'. Set VFC to allow in&out and all was fine.
So it seems that ZA's a problem with winXP but not win7 (both ZA and VFC worked for me)
I noticed that instead of calling it 'elemental' many programs call it 'turn based strategy game' (VFC, ZA, windows standard error message).
I tried posting a bit ago, it didn't show after `15 minutes, so if there's a previous post with partial info, that's why.
Anyone have any word as to whether this happens on windows Vista? / Win7 32 bit?
That's two products now (VFC) that Elemental will crash the heck out on.
Starting elemental without setting in&out permission in VFC only caused an elemental message to popup saying it couldn't connect and to make sure I was connected, no firewall/av conflicts, etc. There was no crash/freeze/etc. I was able to TAB out to VFC and set permissions, and all worked fine from then on.
I used VFC with elemental beta since day 1. I just switched today to ZA free (didn't realize it was now compatible with win7) after seeing your post.
Both ZA free and VFC cause no problems with win7 64. It appears so far that it's an issue with XP.
I have found that you can't Launch Elemental if you unplug your Internet. I have not said anything for fear of the panic it might set off in some. A .dll needs to be pulled down to run the .exe.
I have (might still have) a screen shot of the error if anyone, is curious.
Thanks for the update, Hughes and Nick.
I do hope they fix this. Every time the game gets patched, the firewall checks to see if it's allowed to patch again.
I don't think it doesn't has anything to do with fetching the .dll you mention. This also happens with Sins - seems like something in the network code. There's no "hang up if no one answers" it's just "keep dialing forever."
Having to kill the power to my hard drive on a regular basis is going to kill it eventually.
I'm having the hang problem with 1Z5, Comodo Firewall, WinXP 32-bit.
Update: Still happening as of 0805.
The having to power off my computer abruptly has finally killed my hard drive and required me to replace it. Excercise caution (and/or always run the game in windowed mode and remove the shortcuts) if this issue affects you!
How do you run the game in windowed mode?
My game is also crashing/hanging at load and I have to use the restart button on my rig to get out. Here is a link to my main post for details:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/386702
I did however add Elemental to the Windows XP firewall exception list. And then I also diabled the firewall completely. No luck with eitheir of those two methods.
Either go to the options menu in the game, graphics options, uncheck fullscreen, and exit the game. Then restart the game.
Or edit the prefs.ini file in the Documents\My Games\Elemental directory, and change the Fullscreen=1 line to Fullscreen=0. Then start the game.
You can also right-click the shortcut on your desktop and add a /w to end of the text in the target field, like this:
"C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Elemental\Elemental.exe" /w
That will always launch the program windowed, even if you autoupdate and your old preferences get overwritten.
Do you have a router with a firewall enabled?
TCores:
To answer your question I am not sure if my router has a firewall enabled. As I understand all routers act as incoming firewalls in some sense. I have a NETGEAR CG814WG, if that helps. I think I can create exceptions in the router settings using "Port-forwarding" but I would need explicit directions from the DEVs pertaining to Elemental and/or Impulse in order to do that. I also think that isnt the problem because I succesfully ran BETA 2. The hangs only started after updating to BETA 3 (805).
And thanks for the tip about windowed mode! That is very helpful to know for any game
Please let me know if any one has any other suggestions.
Many Thanks,
Sara
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