Age of Empires Forums

Age 3 / Warchiefs FAQ – Part 1

We are working on fixes for Age of Empires 3, and we are committed to supporting our fans. As a way to help everyone, here is an FAQ that should give you a place to start if you are having technical problems.

_________Index________

• General Information
  
• Installation
  
• Sound & Music
  
• Video
  
• Miscellaneous Tech Questions
  
• Common Game Questions
  
• Performance
  
• Unsupported Video Cards
  
• Latest Patch Questions

_____General Information_____

Q. Is there going to be another patch? When will it be released?
Yes. As we finalize the contents of a new patch we will post them on the web site. Each new patch will be released when it is done. It is our policy to not state dates, since to many things can affect the release of a patch.

Q. What are some common Troubleshooting tips?
Computer games can function differently on different systems because no system is the same. However these steps should be taken before playing Age of Empires 3 to ensure that you are playing on a stable system.

• Make sure your system supports the minimum requirements. You can find these on the box or at the Age of Empires 3 requirements page.
  
• Make sure that your video card, sound card, and network card drivers, as well as router firmware are up to date. Visit you manufacture's website for more information.
  
• When you install be sure to turn off any anti-virus software, and make sure the game is not blocked by any security software while you are playing online.
  
• Download and install the latest patch from the Game updates pages Age3 and TWC.
  
• If you are installing the full version of the game make sure that you have uninstalled the demo first.
  
• A clean boot can often resolve problems. (US MS support article)
  
• For additional support please visit Microsoft Games Support

Q. I found a bug what should I do?
A. We have created an e-mail address to collect your bugs from the demo. If you encounter anything please send an e-mail to age3.bugs@ensemblestudios.com. Be aware, if you are using a hotmail or other free e-mail address it may bounce your e-mail.

Be sure to include as much information as possible about your system, any logs you received as well as error messages. A good example would be

System OS: WinXP
Video Card: NVidia 6600
Memory : 1 Gig
Hard Disk Space\Free: 100 Gigs\30 Gigs Free
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Sound Card

When writing about the issue please be as specific as possible and include as many details as you can. Reproductions steps and details about how often and when the issue occurs can help us track down any bugs that remain quickly.

If you experience sound or video issue run DXDiag (or DirectX Diagnostic) and send the appropriate information with the tab associated with your issue.

1. To Run DXDiag Click on the Start Button and Go to Run
2. Type dxdiag and hit enter
3. Find the appropriate tab associated with your issue or

You can copy and paste information from the tabs or save out information in a text file.
Thanks for you help.

Q. I crashed, what should I do?
First, send the report in when asked. If continue to crash repeatedly when you do something, please send a bug report in (See above question) and try some of the general suggestions and or contact/visit Microsoft Games Support

Q. I am having issues after patching?
We are asking that if you encounter a problem after patching please run our new file check utility and include the results in any emails or forum posts you make about your problem.

File Check Utility
This tool checks several key age3 files to verify they are the correct verison.
Instructions:

1) Patch to the latest game version
2) Save this file to your desktop
3) Launch the esage3filechecker.exe from your desktop
4) After the process is completed open the ESAge3Results.txt file (should also be placed on your desktop)
5) Open this file to view results which could include any combination of the following results: Invalid (corrupt file), Invalid Version, Not Found, & Version Correct.
6) A successful installation should return all listed as Version Correct.

Q. How do I create a user.cfg file?
1. Using “windows explorer” browse to my documents\my games\age of empires 3\startup
2. Click on "Tools" at the top of the window, select folder options
3. Click on the view tab
4. In the advanced settings list, look for the line "Hide extensions for known file type"
5. If checked, uncheck it.
6. Click Apply at the bottom of the options window,
7. If you want to set this for all folders, then click apply to all folders
8. Click ok.
9. Open notepad
10. As a test add nointrocinematics to the first line
11. Click file => save as
12. In the save window browse to my documents\my games\age of empires 3\startup
13. File name = user.cfg , Save as type = all files , click ok
14. Back in windows explorer verify the file exists. Then launch the game. If done correctly the opening movies should not play, instead you should load directly to the main game menu.

Where can I find additional contact information?
The Contact page of the website has a list of additional contact emails.
[Edited on 12/25/2006]

_____Installation & Patch_____

Q. Is Windows 2000 supported?
Windows 2000 is not a supported operating system for Age of Empires 3.

Q. I am encountering error code messages when I try to install, what should I do?
Below is a list of error codes as well as some information about each code. For additional assistance please visit Microsoft Games support.

1603
Generally means the user doesn't have enough temporary disk space to conduct the install. InstallShield (MSI actually as well are parts of IS) requires a significant amount of temp file space to do the install. It has to copy it's runtime to the temp dir, install the IS engine into the Program Files folder, then use temp space to extract files from the cabs. So the users either has to free up space in their temp dir, or move the temp dir to a drive with more space.

1607
Which is failure to install the IScript engine (above). To work around this in the task manager you can find one or more instances of msiexec.exe running, or under C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32 you'll see IDriver.exe which might still be loaded when IS tries to update it to the current version (or it's write protected). Renaming that file sometimes fixes the 1607, or killing the msiexec.exe's running in task manager or killing IDriver.exe if it's running in task manager (under Processes).

1935
Is an assembly error and may be coming from the msxml4 installation. The user can probably download the msxml4 stand alone installer to get around it, or reboot and return the install.

1335 and 1305
Are file read errors. 1335 indicates a corrupt cab file and might be a bad disk, bad CD-Rom reader. The test is to try to copy the entire contents of the CD to the hard drive (xcopy is best). If it fails to copy you either have a bad drive or bad CD-Rom.

1305
Is an error trying to read from a file and may also be due to a corrupt cab file or other corrupted file on the CD, or file that's copied to the temp dir that hits a flakey sector. If it's not the CD-Rom or the CD-drive, then move the temp location

Q. I keep getting a msg MSXML 4.0 is not installed correctly, what should I do?
You will need to install MSXML. Please refer to this MS support artic le.

Q. How much free space will I need to patch Age of Empires 3?
You will need around 1.4 gigs of free space to successfully patch the game

Q. I am updating the game and it seems to freeze at 6%
Wait a few minutes. It is updating large files so it may take awhile.

Q. I waited and nothing happened or I encountered an error?
There are a few things that may help out:

• Make sure you have enough free space. The patch needs approximately 1.5gig of free space to work with during the installation.
  
• Defrag your hard disks before installing.
  
• Undo any edits that have been made to any age3 game files in the installation folder; default c:\program files\age of empires 3\. Then restart the patch process.
  
• Disable any applications running in the background such as; virus scanners, spyware stoppers, etc.
  
• Make a backup before of the My Documents\My games\Age3 folder then delete it, and restart the patch process.
  
• Try logging into WindowsXP with a different Administrator account than the one you first tried. You may have to create a brand new administrator user.
  
• Completely uninstall the game, remove all game folders from My Documents, then reboot your computer. Log in with an admin user, install the game then launch and update.

Also these work arounds have helped some users:
1. Extract corrupted file (I.e. art1.bar, sound.bar, etc.) from the .cab files located on disks 1-3. Overwrite the file(s) in the corresponding directory in your game folder(s). Download the patch 1.01 from this website. Reboot computer and start in safe mode. Run the patch.
...and/or...
2. Install game. Set read-write permissions on the age of empires 3 folder (and sub folders) to NOT read only. Run the patch through the game utility or manually.

Q. I encounter "Age of Empires III was not installed for allusers or the current user. Please log in with the correct account. This setup will exit." error, when installing WarChief's. What can I do?
1. Right-Click the Start button and select "Explore"
2. Navigate to the "All Users" directory, then "Start Menu", then "Programs"
3. Create a directory called "Microsoft Games"
4. In that directory, create another directory called "Age of Empires III"
5. Re-Run the War Chiefs install program.

Q. Do I need to install the previous patches first, before the latest one.
No you do not. You should be able to patch up to the latest patch from a fresh installation, or from any previous patch.

Q. Just after patching I have started crashing or experience odd behavior.
Many times our patches will not play nice with current user mods that users might have installed, resulting in odd behavior or crashing. We recommend removing any mods before patching the game.
[Edited on 11/5/2006]

_____Sound & Music_____

Q. I have both an onboard and a PCI sound card, and am having a problem.
If you have an on board sound card and a second PCI sound card you should disable the on board sound card and run off the PCI card.

Q. The game says "Age of Empires III Error: The Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec (l3codecx.ax) cannot be found" Whats wrong?

The missing file is one that comes standard with windows. It may have been deleted by the user, or possibly with the installation of a codec pack. Here is what you can do to restore the missing Fraunhofer codec (l3codecx.ax):

1. Insert your Windows XP disk.
2. Go to Start->run
3. run: expand e:\i386\l3codecx.ax_ c:\Windows\system32\l3codecx.ax
4. run: regsvr32 l3codecx.ax

Substituting the proper drive letter and system path.

Alternatively, you can copy the file from another machine (from the Windows\system32 directory) and then do step 4.

Q. My sound cuts out or is choppy.
A. Turning off hardware acceleration may help. You can do that by following these steps.

1. Click on Start and Run
2. Type in DXDiag and hit Enter
3. Select the Sound tab and turn the hardware acceleration slider all the way to the left

Also check your hard drive for heavy fragmentation. Make sure that it is not fragmented by running defrag found in your system tools. This may take awhile but it will help sound and system performance.

Q. My sound cuts out and then my game crashed.
First update your game to the latest version.
If you continue to have problems you can try either, this:
1. Open Program Files and Microsoft Games folder
2. Navigate the Age of Empires III folder to Sound and Music and then Standard
3. Right Click on the LeisurelyBrows.mp3 and go to properties
4. Toward the bottom of the menu uncheck the Read Only option and click on Apply and OK
5. You can also delete the LeisurelyBrows.mp3 if that does not work.

Or you can try this:

1. Open your My Documents\My Games\Age of Empires 3\Startup folder
2. Create a user.cfg file
3. Add the line +nosound or +nomusic save and exit
4. Play the game

This will turn off the music or the sound depending on which one you have added. This is a temporary work around and we looking into this issue.

Certain sound codecs will also cause issues on some systems. Check your third party codecs.

_____Video_____

Make sure that you have the latest video drivers and have DirectX9.0c installed before following these trouble shooting steps.

Q. I am getting Direct 3D or D3D Errors and Initialization Errors, my screen is all black, or I am getting a error about "refresh rates", what can I do?
A. You game may be running at an unsupported resolution and refresh rate.

First, make sure your monitor is running at a supported resolution and refresh rate. Try changing your desktop resolution to 1024 x 768 at 75 hertz. one of the following fixes.
Then:

1) Create or edit the file My Documents\My Games\Age of Empires 3\Startup\user.cfg
2) On a new line add the word "window", without the quotes
3) Restart the game

Second try this:

1) Identify your current working resolution and refresh rate (or one that you know works) through your Display Property settings (i.e. 1024 x 768, 60 Hz)
2) For vanilla Age3 Open the following file for editing: My Documents\My Games\Age of Empires 3\Users\NewProfile.xml
3) Go to the resolution setting line (around line 30) that says this:

1024 x 768

4) Edit the resolution text to match the working resolution you identified earlier.
5) Go to the refresh rate setting line (around line 67) that says this:

75

6) Edit the refresh rate value to the working rate you identified earlier
7) Restart the game

NOTE: Be very careful editing NewProfile.xml as it can be easy to put invalid text in many of these settings. If during this process you feel you may have messed up this file, you can delete it and it will regenerate to default settings.

For TWC you will need to edit \My Documents\My Games\Age of Empires 3\Users2\NewProfile2.xml

Q. When I am starting my game I am getting an “Initialization Failure” error message
A. Some extended driver software and third party software causing this problem. Look for 2 programs on your system. Refreshlock and Refreshforce are causing this problem. If you remove the software then it should fix this problem. You can also user the software to change your monitor Hertz to 75 and it should work. You may have to tweak the software and experiment.


Q. I am getting blocky smoke and/or units.
A. If you set your Shader options to low it will fix this problem

1. Click on Help and Options and Select the Options tab
2. Select the Graphic Options tab and set Shader Quality to Low


Q. My game is crashing on startup and I think it is caused by the video.
Driver controlled Anti Aliasing will try and force the game into AA mode. This can cause the game to become unstable. Turn off anti-aliasing (or set it to application controlled) from the video driver control panel

Q. I an Nvidia SLI system and there is a green bar on my screen, what should I do?
1. Open the NVIDIA control panel
2. Select the "SLI multi-GPU" tab
3. Uncheck the "Show GPU load balancing" box
4. Click "OK"
[Edited on 12/5/2006]

_____Miscellaneous Tech Questions_____

Q. When I try and run Age of Empires 3 or The Warchiefs under vista I encounter the error message "Protection stub has stop working"; what can I do?
Your system may have DEP enabled for all programs and you need to add age3.exe or age3x.exe into the DEP exception list.

• Open the system properties in the control panel.
  
• Click on "Advance System Settings"
  
• In the window that opens, click the settings button in the Performance section
  
• Go to the Data Execution Prevention tab
  
• Click Add..., and browse to Age3.exe and/or Age3x.exe, select the file and click open.
  
• when you are done adding programs, click ok.
  
• You may need to restart your computer, do so then try running the game.

Q. Who is the leader of the ES clan?
Strobe is the current leader; he's the lead ESO programmer. However, he rarely if ever plays online so there isn't much to see in his profile.

Q. How do I load a custom scenario in Multiplayer?
Currently you can not play custom scenarios in multiplayer. We are currently investigating the addition of this into the game.

Q. Why can I only play Supremacy or Deathmatch games but not both?
You need to make sure you have selected a home city that matches this game type you want to play. Check the select Home city screen to select the Home city you want to play, or if you need to create a new city to match the game type you want to play.

Q. Why can I not advance to the Imperial Age?
It depends on the type of game you are playing:
1. If you are playing the campaign, this age is not available in every scenario.
2. In Deathmatch Imperial age is not available, unless the game starts in, or after the age.
3. In Supremacy players should either start in Imperial or be able to advance to it normally.

Q. How do I un-pause / resume a save game?
First install the latest patch. After you patch you should be able to resume a paused game by:

• Pressing the Pause/break key on your keyboard. On most keyboards this is located near the "scroll lock" and "page up" keys. Some keyboards require a multi key combination or function key to be pressed inorder to gain the "pause/break" functionality; please refer to you keyboard or computer documentation.
• Pressing the hotkey assigned to pause/resume. By default hotkey editor assigns F7 to this function but you can remap this if you like.
• Clicking on the cancel button on the “game paused” window.

Q. Can I use my ESO HC in single player? Can I use my Single player/ LAN homecity on ESO?
NO. Your Single player/LAN home cities are completely separate from your ESO home cities.

Q. How do I delete savegames?
You can not delete savegame files from within the game. To delete them:
1. Close age 3
2. Manually browse to my documents\my games\age of empires 3\savegame
3. Select the file you want to delete and deleted it.

Q. How do I watch recorded games?
1. Place the recorded game file in your My Documents\my games\age of empires 3\savegames folder.
2. Launch the game.
3. Select Help and Tools from the main menu.
4. Click on Recorded Games
5. Select the file you want to watch and click load.

Q. How do I view screenshots?
1. Browse to your My Documents\my games\age of empires 3\screenshots folder.
2. open the file you want to view in an application that can view .jpg files.

Q. How do rotate the camera?
First turn the "rotate camera" option on in the options, then in game you can rotate using either ctrl+(left or right)arrow keys, or Shift+mousewheel.

Q. How can I map the TAB key? How can I manually edit my hotkeys?
The reason we made TAB a reserved key is that it is used to cycle between the selected unit groups in the unit selection panel. Allowing it to be remapped would cause both the cycle and the new action to happen. That said, I'm sure there are a few people don't mind this (obviously if you had previously remapped the TAB key), so you'll be relieved to know there is still a way to work around this.

When you change a key's mapping, a new entry is added to the NewProfile.xml file (in MyDocuments\MyGames\Age of Empires 3\Users). You can modify this entry.

1. Go into the hotkey editor, change the function you want to some open key and say ok.
2. Exit the game.
3. Edit NewProfile.xml
4. Look at the bottom of the file and find the proper group under "KeyMapGroups"
5. Change the * to tab (* = whatever you temporarily mapped it to.)
6. Save and close the file
7. Run the game

It's a little more complex than before, but should get you back to the most of the keys you are used to.
[Edited on 2/12/2007]

____Common Game Questions_____

Q. Why are the maps so small?
We played many games of AOE3 every day and iterated on map size until it felt right to us. We wanted resources to be contested, not infinite as well as wanting players to have the ability to get across the map quickly enough to help out an ally rather than just losing the game if you didn't happen to be in the right place at the right time.

Q. Are we ever going to see larger maps?
Yes. In patch 1.02 we released five new large versions of some existing maps and in the future we may release additional large maps.

Q. How do I chat to all players in a multiplayer game?
Start your chat message with a * and your message will be sent to all players.

Q. How do repair my buildings?
Select the building and click on the repair button. Note this button may not be active if you do not have enough resources to repair, or if the building is under attack.

Q. How do card bonuses stack?
We apply all the percentages to the base rate not the modified rate.

If your gathering rate is 0.5 and you get a 15% bonus, it becomes 0.575. Easy enough.

However, if you get an additional 15% bonus, it does not affect 0.575, but it is calculated based on 0.5 and then added to the existing bonus. So getting three different 15% bonuses would increase gathering from 0.5 to 0.725 (0.075 added three times) rather than 0.760 (which is what you get if you keep multiplying the product by 15%).

The reasons we do this are a little arcane, but they allow you to apply both addition and multiplications to rates without worrying about the order of operations.

Q. Can two teammates send the same Team card?
Two teammates using the same Civ should are not able to send the same team card. But you can send both the team and non-team versions of a card, see above for how they stack.

Q. Can we play with three teams in a game?
No, at this time you can only play 2 team or Free for all games.

Q. How did you chose which civs make it into the game?
There is no simple formula to how we choose to include a civ. It's a mixture of:

Historical relevance
Uniqueness
Fan expectations
Global prominence
Designer bias
Art time

We wanted to have the civs players expected, like the Spanish, but also to throw in some curve balls. The Ottomans and Germans were quite powerful during the time period and easily could have come to the New World with different leadership (as could a dozen other nations).

____Performance Tips_____

Q. What are some things I can do to improve performance?
A. There are several things you can do.

• Defragment your hard drives
• Make sure you have the latest windows updates
• Verify you have the latest Drivers for your hardware
• Verify you do not have any spyware or viruses
• Turn off other applications running in the background
• Adjust in game graphics settings.
• Upgrade your hardware

Q. What are the game size recommendations?
A. The following guidelines are recommended for a good multiplayer experience:
8 Players - Greater or equal to a P4 3.2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, and Cable/DSL, LAN
6 Players - Greater or equal to a P4 2.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM, and Cable/DSL, LAN
4 Players - Greater or equal to a P4 2.2 GHz, 512 MB RAM, and Cable/DSL, LAN
2 Players - Greater or equal to a P4 1.4 GHz, 256 MB RAM minimum (512 MB RAM recommended), and 56 KBps modem

Q. Where can I get more information about performance tips?
A. For more performance information please you can visit The Age 3 performance tips page
[Edited on 9/18/2006]

_____Unsupported Video Cards_____

This is a list of unsupported video cards. If you have one of these cards you may want to consider upgrading your system.

3D Labs Permedia 1

3DFX - All versions

ATI ES1000
Rage (all)
Radeon (original series)
Radeon 7000
Radeon 7000 IGP
Radeon 7200 (32 MB only)
Radeon 7500 (32 MB only)
Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP
Mobility Fire GL

Cirrus Logic - all versions

Matrox G100
Matrox G200
Matrox Millennium
Matrox Millennium II
Matrox Mystique

Geforce 2 (32 MB only)
Geforce(1)
TnT2
TnT(1)
nVidia Riva 128
nVidia Rica 128 zx

S3 Virge_VX
S3 Virge_MX/MV
S3 Virge_MX+
S3 Virge_MX
S3 Virge_GX2
S3 Virge_DX/GX
S3 Trio64V2_DX/GX
S3 Trio64UV+
S3 Aurora64V+
S3 Aurora128
S3 Savage 2000

Intel 945
Intel 945G:0x2773
Intel 945GM:0x27A3
Intel 915G:0x2583
Intel 915GM:0x2593
Intel 810 / 815
Intel 845
Intel 850
Intel 865
Intel i740

_____Latest Patch Questions_____ [Edited on 9/18/2006]