As some of you may know, 32-bit Windows XP users only see 2GB of memory no matter how much memory they have installed.
Windows 7 users see 3GB of memory IF they're running a 32-bit version and 4GB if they're running 64-bit -- as far as Fallen Enchantress is concerned (native 64-bit programs can see effectively unlimited amounts of memory).
The #1 thing holding us back on having "more" stuff is memory. We've been optimizing memory a lot in the past month so that we can stuff more but it sure would be nice to have even another 500 megs to play with.
If you are using Windows XP, I would really recommend upgrading to Windows 7 soon. FE will probably be the last game we make that supports XP.
XP users who can't afford to upgrade to Win 7 64 have their priorities wrong. What's more important, gaming or food?
I use Vista. I upgraded from Millennium Edition to Vista and now I am hoping for Windows 8. Probably the worst OS's of all time.
You ever use Windows 2.0? You're probably too young.
I have three gaming computers in the house (mine my girlfriends and a guest computer). They all run win 7 64bit. I don’t even see a reason to by a 32bit system anymore or not have the latest O.S... I’ve been looking forward to developers making games for 64bit ever since the O.S. has been out. And quite frankly this game should have a 64bit version. So let’s do it already!!!! For the love of all things that are sacred. I’m sitting at home with 3 top pc builds and no games that are using the hard ware. What gives?( besides my wallet)
Really I’m not angry I’m excited Please make 64bit. Your games are so fun and you guy would be perfect for this.
This is the correct opinion.
200$ is the starting price for a full license copy(189$+shipping if you wanna split hairs). Ya you can get an OEM for less.. but legally speaking that license is tied to your motherboard.. and if you reactivate it after switching motherboards you're a pirate.
Further more, I run XP pro.. so in order to get all the functionality I'm used to I would have to drop even more down on win 7 pro. All for what? Like I said.. as fast as MS likes to do release cycles I may as well wait and see if windows 9 is worth it before I drop that kind of money down on a new OS since MS is going to charge me about the same amount regardless if the OS was released 5 years ago or yesterday.
So in a few years when frogboy is bugging us all to upgrade to windows 9 because it has direct x 13 which windows 7 and 8 don't get then i'll revisit the issue.
OEM is the way to go for Win7. Win8 will be out soon. After that fails, there will be a Windows Mojave out in 6 months at full price. Better to get an OEM for Win7 and wait for the 200 dollar patch to fix what went wrong with Win8. I may have a slightly cynical view of Windows OS, but I see no desirable alternative. It just takes some smart buying to wait for a good version to happen.
Sounds entirely plausible to me ! ... ... oh, but wait -- Microsoft will probably have to "tweak" Windows Mojave, shortly after release, "to enhance the user's experience" . If they decide to tweak the name of it too, I expect they will probably rename it: " Windows Death Valley ". After all, Microsoft is always going to do right, by you !
You're doin' it wrong Sean. Don't you know that you should only get every OTHER Microsoft operating system?
Win 95 Garbage, Win 98 Good, ME Garbage, XP was good, Vista garbage, 7 good, 8 is going to be garbage. Wait for Windows 9 or get 7.
I figure it is a moot point if I call Microsoft support for a new installation code, I blatantly tell the dude I have a new motherboard, and he gives me the code anyway.
Ever think of upgrade version? http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Home-Premium-Upgrade/dp/B002DHLUWK
Finally, if you want Win 7 that badly (legally, again) I am sure there are people with whom you can speak. PM me if you run out of ideas.
I know, I am buying every other version. The problem is I would need to skip a version to get on the good track or buy a new computer sooner than I need it. Neither option really gives me what I want, which is my money's worth for an OS. Still the best OS on the planet though. I really hope that OS's become a more common market. 2 OS's and Linux is an odd consumer choice considering how many users would rather not but Mac or Windows due to past customer experiences. My personal hope is that smart phone OS's open the door to many more companies making full PC OS products.
Of course the problem we already have with PC's is that there are too many configurations of PC, making compatibility a developer's nightmare. Maybe what we really need is a PC Guild or Consulate to regulate compatibility and ensure a free market.
I really don't think folks who haven't gone to 64-but yet are folks who buy many, if any new games. Companies really shouldn't be catering to them unless it's at a minimal cost.
In regards to the poorer folks using XP still, I'm guessing much of the XP use is business machines, also, would folks who haven't bought a new PC in the past 3+ years be the folks who buy TBS games? I think Brad said himself a few years back one reason he got into making TBS games was that those folks tended to have more money, so they pirated less on one of his DRM statements (this was years ago, but it made sense)
While I do think making a game for the top 10% of PC's is terrible business, making it for the bottom 10% at a serious cost is also a poor decision.
Then again, if Wal-Mart customers are a large chunk of Stardock's game business- that might mean more lower-end PC's then usual, but FE will be a DD game, so no Wal-Mart sales this time.
Trying to think about this from the perspective of what's cost effective, which is hard because I don't know what the dev costs are for XP, and what the true percentage of XP users are for potential FE customers. (you also have to count potential future Elemental post-FE content, there is a 2nd expansion promised)
This sounds like the Star trek movie, ST1 shitty ST2 wow ST3 beurk st4 cool and so on and so forth.. Think Bill is a Star trek fan?
I have one XP 32 and I have a Win 7 64 bit system.
I like win 7 it's pretty cool.
On the first statement, based on my own experience, I think you're wrong. Just a few years ago many gamers preferred XP because of the greater compatibility with older games and lower resource use. XP was the hardcore gamer's preference. It's only in the last few years that the momentem has shifted to Win 7 and the 64 bit version in particular. But, there are still gamers out there with XP because they haven't hit their system upgrade cycle yet. I'm one of them.
On the second statement, Yes. Folks who haven't bought a new PC in the past 3+ years would indeed be the folks who buy TBS games. TBS players tend to have older systems because TBS games have generally had much lower requirements historically than other game types. That's because until a short time ago, most of the TBS titles tended to be 2D and not 3D. Though this is changing quickly, 2D strategy games like Dominions 3 and Conquest of Elysium 3 are still popular enough with the TBS crowd, as are roguelikes.
I plan to upgrade my system this spring. It's been 3 years and that's my upgrade cycle for new systems. I think there'll probably be a lot of turnover in PCs and folks migrating off of XP in the next year. Especially when Win8 comes out and stinks up the place with the Metro UI. Then Win7 will be the new XP and no one will want to upgrade off of it.
With all due respect, Alstein, I think your observations and reasoning (Reply #37 above) are mostly incorrect.
In fact, I think COLDsteel's response (Reply #39 above) is so Dead-On, that I wish I had written it ! ... (including the part about about a future Win8 -- ). (Please also see my Replies #20, and #33 above.)
I DO think that this discussion thread is especially relevant and useful. In fact, I wish that Mr. Wardell would go ahead and turn this into regular, multiple choice, "Friday Poll". I would be interested in the results, might learn I was wrong (it's possible), and would perhaps factor in the results, when considering my own upgrade cycle.
For now, I hold to my opinion that nearly half of Stardock's TRUE target audience (whether they know it, or not) will still be on 32-bit systems, regardless of whether their current OS is officially XP, Vista, or Win7.
And therefore, designing for the 2-Gig-memory audience, is still nearly a critical issue, for the success of FE. (And I dearly DO want FE to be successful -- the more so, the better!)
[ Late Edit : And please note, that even some of the most prominent Respondents on this site: seanw3 (see Reply #27 above), and Lord Xia (post, from another thread) are still acknowledged Win-Vista users. ]
I'm stuck with 32-bit Vista until this computer takes a dump and I'm forced to buy a new one. My upgrade cycle is TBD (knock on wood).
my main use machines are currently xp, but I am in the planning/buying stage for a NEW main monster machine that will have 32GB ram i72600k oc'd to at least 4ghz with water cooling, a 120gb sata 3 ssd, eight+ 2tb+ hdds, dvd writer,bl drive and one of the ati x850 gpu's along with a 750w to 850w psu and of course win7 64bit either pro or ultimate. all in a standard size midi tower case
and after I commission the new beast, frogboy will have to get a new frog box just to catch up to me
harpo
Well at home on my gaming pc I have Windows 7 64, my laptops both have windows 7, my wife has windows 7 64 on her gaming pc, and 7 on her laptop, at work I have XP on one computer and Ubuntu on my work laptop, and I manage about 20 computers with vista or 7 depending on the life cycle of the machine, you know what's ridiculous I'm not even in IT haha,
Basically all I'm saying is that I've never had the option to get away from any particular operating system, I have 2 copiers 9 printers a network a file server and 16 networked security cameras to manage at work with a variety of operating systems.
Question: does Stardock get to see with their Steam sales the specs of the machines who bought their games?
Seeing the Sins and GC2 numbers might lead to some insight.
That is a great and very interesting question!
OK, in doing some reading on this matter, and being a Vista user myself, I just wanted to point out something r.e. the 2 GB/32 Bit limit in windows, for those of us with 4 GB systems.
Apparently, unless told otherwise, 32 Bit Windows XP/Vista sets 50% of the memory to the kernel, and 50% to everything else. You can change this using the Userva feature. This allows you to allocate up to 3 GB to programs.
Here's the Microsoft page that explains this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff556232%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Once this parameter is adjusted, you may also need to set a flag in the game in question, notably for some older games, so that it is aware of the change. For example: with Sid Meier's Railroads, you edit the .exe file with the parameter change. Not sure if this would be necessary with Elemental, but if it is I'm sure the Stardock guys will be able to address this.
there is no point upgrading to win 7
yes i know and i tried it on other systems but my pc is quite old and xp runs PERFECTLY, nothing ever on earth worked that great and nothing will
win 7 is just more heavy and i cant afford it
once i get a new pc ill get win 7 (or 8)
As a tech support person I will tell you that there are a LOT of XP users that refuse to move to Windows 7 until their computer absolutely has to be replaced. All 32-bit version installations of XP/Vista/7 I've ever seen usually recognize around 3.2-3.4 GB of RAM (assuming more than 3GB physically installed) which varies based on chipset/BIOS/OS Tweaks between system boards. I have seen older motherboards that are able to show & use all 4GB in 32-bit windows (but rarely).
I think it would be a mistake not to provide support for XP users, though if they are using XP then some features would be sacrificed for performance.
I am still running XP on my desktop with a single core and 3GB and it works just fine for basically everything else I play. However, FE sometimes takes 30+ seconds to process a turn. I tried Seanw3's beta mod and that made it take 3-4 minutes per turn. My laptop is Win7 with 4GB and it processes turns fine, but the graphics are choppy. For now, that is where I sit (unless Seanw3 wants to donate the leftover funds from building his new monster system).
Well, I am still running on winXP and I dont plan on changing that for atleast a year or 2 (I must save enough money to buy a new rig in order to upgrade).
I am one of those people that basicly cannot afford to uprade the computer every year or so. Hell, I am STILL using an 10+ years old 5400rpm 40gig harddrive (yes, it still works, with some bad sectors... but it works ). Try living on living wage for 10+years and see how often you can upgrade your rig. (need to live on it for another 5 years)
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