Game is broken since Lords of the West update, crashes at start of games without fail every skirmish game

Age of Empires II: DE Ask for Help
21

One more thing.

I also had a few crashes (to desktop) after latest build (and before the latest hotfix). Then I checked my saved games folder which also contains replays. I disabled the replay functionality before already because of some issues in previous build (2 builds ago) in regard to experiencing more lag and stutter, so totally forgot about to check further into that. So I found over 500 files in that folder (replays and save games) which I deleted all, after that in the load game section I manually had to delete all saved games that were still left or synced back, but all replays were gone (so it saved some time).

I do also run 20H2 and it’s fine for me at the moment without LOTW DLC purchased.

22

@Drakenlol , don’t pay attention to those saying it is something with your PC. Let me tell you right away, with 99% accuracy, it is not you and your PC, especially if game worked fine before the patch, and that is what you said. Game works for some even with 4GB RAM (Those are Minimal Requirements), but some still want to blame others, and not those who made a mistake with DLC and patch.

Last DLC broke the game for many people. On a discord AOE group, many of my friends have the same issues, with new build PC-s, with 16-32GB RAM, and graphic cards that can play all new games on Max settings. So RAM, graphic card or bad PC, that is not the problem, the problem is in game, with bad coding, or something else they did.

Simple, they broke the game somehow, didn’t test it enough, and it doesn’t work for many people. Many with better PC-s maybe even don’t pay attention that their CPU/GPU is much higher since last patch, but game works for them, so they don’t care too much. For others, it crashes in Menu, for others when they start playing the game, for some when selecting Sicilians or Burgundians, for others while clicking to go to Castle Age, others have sync issues, and so on.

So, once again, 99% it is not up to you, and those “try installing updates, upgrading drivers, virtual memory change, disable antivirus” and other suggestions are 99% of the time just bla, bla suggestions that don’t help, especially when people who are having issues played the game normally in past few moths. So, logic is simple, if game was broken after installing DLC and latest patch, problem is with DLC and latest patch, no excuses.

PC: Yes, you need to have all your drivers up to date, same as Windows, close all unnecessary programs, close all programs that go up on startup, uninstall unnecessary programs, delete files, movies, videos that you are not using to save space, close antivirus (if you have it) while playing game, especially with low end PC-s, but still, in these cases where game worked fine before, and is not working now, it can hardly be something with your PC, especially when it happens to people with much better PC-s.

4 Likes
23

The forum is full with the same posts so I can’t argue against that, except that 2004 build will reach EOL October this year so if you got the time to move up, do it. Also updating to latest available WHQL approved drivers is always a good thing to do.

I didn’t buy the new DLC yet and had crashes too, as well end process as ordinary crashes to desktop.

MS store version, not Steam without new DLC.

Where humans work, there are always excuses.

1 Like
24

Even those that didn’t buy DLC have issues and it is simple because of new things they added with new patch. So with or without DLC, it is the same, apart from those issues happening only with new civilizations. We had issues before as well, even many professional players, with bad sync, lag, freeze in late game, but last patch really ruined it for many people, and many can’t even start a game.

In my case, everything is working fine, GPU and CPU are a bit higher than before, especially in Menu (Which is a strange thing), but I play normally, with every civ, every mod. I had 0 crashes so far, but hearing all people complain, here, on Reddit, many of my friends, with new PC-s, that really hurts me, because it seems like they don’t respect their customers.

So all we can do is hope that they can fix this soon, because they should do it ASAP.

1 Like
25

I agree 100% on that. Yes, it hurts to see things going badly. But it tells me too they are actually doing a lot of rework on the old code and engine. It’s with leap steps ahead and then two steps back sometimes, but that’s the way thing go in a coder’s life.

I’m also sure that they will tackle current problems again. And in these anxious lockdown times having patience is hard I know, but that counts for all of us, also the developers.

1 Like
26

So I used the workaround (disabling everything except the last core) that was mentioned on the steam forum, and it actually made the game not crash (only tested into mid feudal age)
Sadly, it’s so slow that it hurts my eyes, and it’s functionally unplayable because of the low fps.

27

The workaround in most cases is for devs to fix the game, because, in most cases, issues is with game coding and errors that they missed. I suggest you do only basic stuff like cleaning your PC, uninstalling unnecessary programs, disabling antivirus, updating drivers, windows. Like I said, issues is not on your side, so playing with cores can in some cases (rarely) even ruin your PC, so no need for those kind of things.

Just contact support, send them your Dxdiag and hope they will use it the right way and that you will get a different answer instead “You need a better PC”, because game is not working on better PC as well :).

28

I seem to only crash whenever i play the new campaigns with the new civs. the british campaign was flawless no crashes.

29

I have very good one specs too, but still having crashes. I can’t start a skirmish or campaign

30

Just come here to update.

I’ve installed the latest patch, and although the game seems to run smoother now, I’m still unable to play even a single game of Skirmish. This is completely unacceptable.

1 Like
31

Got a new help request ticked (after the hotfix), they asked me to re do all the fixes, not funny, the problem is still here

32

Same issue here. I can’t play the game.
It simply crashes to desktop when I start a campaign or any skirmish scenario.

I have Ryzen 5 1600, 16GB of RAM and a GTX 1060. Most recent drivers.

I also tried to reinstall the game. It keeps crashing to desktop when the scenario starts.

Plz help.