Allegiance Known Issues - Jan. 19th Please remember that this is a beta, not a demo. You're playing the game because we need help testing & solving any unforeseen issues before we go live. We certainly appreciate any help you can offer, but our highest priority is finding and resolving bugs. WE NEED YOU TO REPORT BUGS! 1) BUG REPORTING Each time you have a problem, use machine.exe to get information on your system (you should do it each time you submit a bug report or series of bugs). In general, we don't need to know the servers are down. We do, however, need to know issues such as: this piece of art from this faction looks strange from a certain position, or, when I fly this way and press this key and do this thing it crashes my client, etc. Any time you get a crash dump or log, send us all of the information (along with the log file from running machine.exe). Before submitting bugs, it's important that you follow the instructions outlined on the following URL: http://zone.com/allegiance/news/themachine.asp 2) KERNEL CRASH Any time you see a KERNEL crash; it's probably a system or driver problem. You can try and remedy this by trying the following: a) Make sure you have DirectX7 installed. You can download DirectX7 from: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/download.asp b) DISABLE hardware sound acceleration. c) Download the most up-to-date sound, video, and input drivers. This is very important! d) Turn sound quality to LOW. 3) MISSING WSOCK.DLL If you get a message stating that you are missing wsock.dll, you need to install Windows Sockets. It is also referred to as Winsock. If you have either the Beta 0 or Beta 1 CD, Winsock Proxy is on the CD. If you do not have the CD, you can find Winsock Proxy here: http://zone.com/allegiance/downloads.asp 4) SERVER CRASHING There is a new, serious bug on the server that causes it to lag & crash over time. We're working on a patch right now that will hopefully resolve the problem, but we do not have a fix yet. These are the types of issues that inevitably result from open beta testing, so please be patient. This issue is of highest priority, and we will keep you posted on our progress. 5) CONNECTION PROBLEMS We have a little more data about some of the networking problems people are experiencing. You should be able to run behind a firewall or a proxy if you have the correct ports opened up. Please read the following resource material for assistance on running Allegiance from behind a firewall or proxy: http://research.microsoft.com/joeld/allnetwork.htm You might not be able to run Allegiance if you're running your client behind a network address translation package (NAT) like ICS. If you get it to work, we would be very interested in finding out how you solved this problem. Please email instructions on how you did it to alhq@microsoft.com and specifically ask them to forward the message to the MSR dev team. 6) PATCH FOR CD VERSIONS (BETA 0 & BETA 1) Patch 1829a is for BETA 0 and BETA 1 people only. These are beta testers who received their CD in the mail. If you downloaded the Open Beta, you should never run 1829a patch or ANY patch for that matter. We will always auto-update you to the most current version. BETA 0 and BETA 1 people should only run the patch if they have never logged in since build 1829. For the latest patches, please see the Allegiance downloads page on the Zone at: http://zone.com/allegiance/downloads.asp 7) JOYSTICK PROBLEMS Some joysticks roll uncontrollably. To stop this from occurring, go to KEYBOARD CONFIG and un-map ROLL on the joystick. 9) TRAINING MISSIONS The training missions will help get you into the game quickly. We strongly recommend that you download and play through them. You can get them from the Allegiance downloads section at: http://zone.com/allegiance/downloads.asp 10) DISRUPTIVE PLAYERS As with virtually every online game, there will be those players that choose to disrupt the gaming experience of others. If any players try to ruin your experience, try having them booted by your team leader. Once they are booted from the game and are thrown back to the lobby, the mission owner can enter #BAN followed by a space and the player's ID and they won't be able to re-enter the game. 11) MORE INFORMATION If your problems do not match any of the issues listed in this document, please visit the following Allegiance Web site for assistance: http://bugs.zone.com/allegiance/ZBugs_main.htm Additionally, please be sure to ask your peers for support on the various newsgroups, some of which are listed here: http://zone.msn.com/allegiance/links.asp If no information on your problem exists, please report the bug at the Report Bugs Here Web site.