Horizons/Vista problem

[LittleMagica]

Have Vista too, 64 Bit...
have tried out all and nothing...
Then i install it on a blank FAT32 Partition...start it...and it works....wow...

But today...my computer has make a reboot...cry
Horizons didnt start, a reinstall dont help...
I cant play...

Cry
SP1 isnt available for me

[Spirit]

Have Vista too, 64 Bit...
have tried out all and nothing...
Then i install it on a blank FAT32 Partition...start it...and it works....wow...

But today...my computer has make a reboot...cry
Horizons didnt start, a reinstall dont help...
I cant play...

Cry
SP1 isnt available for me

Indeed... as soon as Vista patches itself to something other than how you installed it, it seems to break. I remember Tramsan saying something about some C components (I think) that were updated and removed support for something that Horizons needs? Bleugh I'm the wrong one to ask...

I hope Vitrium can fix this.

Rakku

[gopher65]

SP1 goes into public release soon. Hopefully that will fix some of those launch problems.

EDIT: On my website Vista use has been slowly climbing. Out of ~17000 hits so far this month 18.4% are using Vista. For browsers: 43.7 % are using IE (30.8% for IE7, and 12.8% for IE6), 47.2 % for Firefox, almost all using the latest version.

I'd strongly suggest making your launch site Firefox friendly. As you can see, vista use is still fairly low (though climbing as people upgrade their computers obviously), but Firefox usage has been surging hugely in the past 6 months. Only a few months ago FF2 usage was in the 20% range.

[Spirit]

SP1 goes into public release soon. Hopefully that will fix some of those launch problems.

EDIT: On my website Vista use has been slowly climbing. Out of ~17000 hits so far this month 18.4% are using Vista. For browsers: 43.7 % are using IE (30.8% for IE7, and 12.8% for IE6), 47.2 % for Firefox, almost all using the latest version.

I'd strongly suggest making your launch site Firefox friendly. As you can see, vista use is still fairly low (though climbing as people upgrade their computers obviously), but Firefox usage has been surging hugely in the past 6 months. Only a few months ago FF2 usage was in the 20% range.

I'm still using IE6 lol... sure my Vista has IE7, but I hate it. I can't say I got on with Firefox either. Plus the two main sites I use for work are not compatible. But yet from those figures Firefox support would seem to be wise ... but every Xp machine out there will have IE6 anyway so I'd hope the game working on Vista would be higher priority.

Rakku

[gopher65]

I'm still using IE6 lol... sure my Vista has IE7, but I hate it. I can't say I got on with Firefox either. Plus the two main sites I use for work are not compatible. But yet from those figures Firefox support would seem to be wise ... but every Xp machine out there will have IE6 anyway so I'd hope the game working on Vista would be higher priority.

? My XP machine automatically updated to IE7 right when it came out.

I checked the overall usage numbers (that someone puts out) and FF2 currently stands at ~36% of all browser use overall. So my site's numbers are a bit higher than normal. But then, it's best to remember that that 60%+ that they count as using IE5/6/7 includes 90 year old grandmas and 3 year old kids who have no clue what they are doing and couldn't change if they knew that it was possible to do so; none of those people are likely to play HZ. That also includes schools and businesses, some of which have to use IE for their custom software. So that's probably why my numbers are skewed toward Firefox. Most of my traffic comes to me from forums. But... forum users are probably more likely to be the type of people who are playing MMOGs. So I suspect my numbers are probably closer to what Vi's target audience is using.

If I were Vi I'd look at my target audience: Nerdy, but not necessarily technophile, 20 to 50 year olds. How likely is it that that audience is using IE6 (the ONLY browser that is fully compatible with the HZ site off the shelf with factory settings - 5 and 7 need tweaking for most people, if they work at all)? This is one of those things that, if it were me running things, I'd have on my "Warning: Urgent!" list of things that need to be fixed.

I used 'that' entirely too many times in that post.

[Nidhoggr]

Its not that 100% use IE6.0 its not 100% of the market has IE 6.0 (or better) installed as they have Windows 2000/XP... or Vista.

Vi doesn't have the resources (guessing) to change the site to work with the Mozilla engine. Also its not a urgent problem because even if you use Firefox you may still load up IE 6.0 to access the site for five seconds.

IE 7.0 works with the site with no tweaks. Technically IE 5.5 should work without the .NET patcher, but I am not going to test that.

[Spirit]

? My XP machine automatically updated to IE7 right when it came out.
...
How likely is it that that audience is using IE6 (the ONLY browser that is fully compatible with the HZ site off the shelf with factory settings - 5 and 7 need tweaking for most people, if they work at all)? This is one of those things that, if it were me running things, I'd have on my "Warning: Urgent!" list of things that need to be fixed.

I couldn't stand Windows Update deciding to run while I was playing a game. The first time I witnessed it was on an old 800mhz machine and I simply couldn't play. I changed the update notification so it has to ask me before downloading/installing and, having been using IE7 on my dad's Xp, I told it to never install that update and never ask me again. They're still patching IE6 anyway. With Vista, the security centre seems to go ap3$hit when I use a similar tactic (notification bubbles and warning icons) so I've left auto-updates on. However I think IE7 works properly... even though the game is borked for me, the login site has worked just fine so far. The anti-competition mob tried to stop IE being bundled with Windows, but at least any new players should be able to set up their account on IE and then use the Launcher to play the game.

The launch site does need an overhaul... and the launcher itself, while functional, needs some serious interface overhaul. It would be great if the launcher could create a new account. Hell why not make the launcher have an IE window within it, so it didn't matter what the user browsed the web with.

I think solving the problems to get new players ingame without having to seek tech support within 10 minutes is paramount. Certainly get the game Vista compatible, then fix the login page so new players can breeze ingame regardless of their browser choice.

Rakku

[gopher65]

IE 7.0 works with the site with no tweaks. Technically IE 5.5 should work without the .NET patcher, but I am not going to test that.

No it doesn't. For a few people IE7 just works (on my new computer it did). For a good number of people they have to add HZ to their trusted sites. For a few people they have to go through their security settings one at a time to see which one is stopping the HZ launch site from working:P (that happened on my old XP computer).

I wonder if IE7 imports some of the security settings from IE6 when you upgrade? Or maybe it's just funkiness with IE acting differently depending on what type of Firewall you have. Or no firewall.

But even though most people can get HZ working before they just give up in frustration, that's not a good thing. I remember when I first turned on LOTRO. It just went. Poof. No fiddling, no nothing. EVE on the other hand required some tweaking, and I *almost* gave up on it before I got it working. CoV gave me a lot of trouble. Once I finally got it working, I logged into the game, and the tutorial slightly annoyed me. Normally that wouldn't have been a big deal, but because the game had already ticked me off, I uninstalled it on the spot and cancelled my account. I never went back. And that was nowhere near the level of trouble that some people have with HZ.

My point is that the barrier to entry has to be as low as it can possibly be. If people have any degree of trouble logging in the first time, they'll just leave.

EDIT: I guess I should have said, "on my new computer the *patcher* just went". It is Vista, so the game itself wouldn't launch.

[Spirit]

I think you're right there gopher... on my old pc (my dad's now) that had IE6, upgraded itself to IE7, then the Horizons launcher control wouldn't work. Then I had to go in and edit settings... couldn't make it work, so at that time I rolled back to IE6. I wonder if all IE6-IE7 upgrades go wrong with the Hz's site, and all Vista IE7's work correctly. Might be something screwy going on that MS should fix.

I can totally relate to your experience with Lotro... it just works. I don't mind a little messing about to get a game to work, but I'm fairly technically minded and I used to code. Perhaps I should download the client and get my brother to try it to witness his experience. He has XP though, but very likely has IE7/Firefox. He's probably a typical customer, as the uptake on Vista has been (quite rightly) lousy. I wouldn't have it if it wasn't for a new pc having it preinstalled.

Rakku

[Syndic]

Hell why not make the launcher have an IE window within it, so it didn't matter what the user browsed the web with.

That still wouldn't really solve the problem. They use IE for it's ActiveX controls which are IE specific, any apps with a browser section in it would need to be able to install and run this activeX control, no point reinventing the wheel. Although I do agree that if they gave the stand alone launcher full control over launching the game it would help.

[Spirit]

That still wouldn't really solve the problem. They use IE for it's ActiveX controls which are IE specific, any apps with a browser section in it would need to be able to install and run this activeX control, no point reinventing the wheel. Although I do agree that if they gave the stand alone launcher full control over launching the game it would help.

Yeah those with the IE7 problem would just hit the same problem. I wonder what the launcher control actually does? If I recall correctly, you can't actually invoke an executable file from a browser window due to the obvious security risks if this ability was misused. So the control, like a Shockwave/ActiveX control for example, is the middle-man to starting the game?

Perhaps the website launch options should be scrapped, and the website purely used for account management. The icon the game installs on your desktop would run the launcher we already have, but perhaps with an additional button for Account Managment which would take you to the site (automatically if your account had expired?).

Downside is those with the install cd's would get the original shortcuts, but the online download version would be up to date. To be honest I didn't use my cd's last time I installed; I used the downloaded version. Haven't seen the box on a store shelf for years either, so this isn't really a current issue I suppose.

Rakku

[Nidhoggr]

Still has an copy of Horizons on CD, lol

[Spirit]

Still has an copy of Horizons on CD, lol

If you do install with the cd's... after it patches and shows you the file list of what is going to be deleted, look for a few more unusual filenames to do with corregated iron sheds and f-16's..

I wonder what they were doing in testing lol...

Rakku