Storm
Eagle Studios
Distant
Guns: The Russo-Japanese War at Sea FAQ
(Frequently
Asked Questions)
The FAQ contains questions related to the
Game DISTANT GUNS: The Russo-Japanese War at Sea. If you click on a question that
is underlined, the document will automatically jump to the answer!
If your question is not listed, please email support@stormeaglestudios.com
and we will Endeavour to answer it!
08.17.2007
Click
a topic directly below to jump to that area
30 Day Trial Version and Pre-Sales Questions
Game
License, Unlock Codes, and Re-Authorization
What are the minimum PC requirements?
Will
Distant Guns run on my Vista Machine?
I tried to buy Distant Guns and my credit card was declined
with an error code 204.
Now that I purchased the game, how do I download it? Do I
download the free 30 day trial?
Do I have to download and install the 30 Day Trial Version
before I buy?
The Installer will not complete the install.
Do I have to
have an Internet connection to play Distant Guns?
Is there a limit to how many times I can play Distant Guns
during the 30 Day trial?
I don’t have a high speed internet connection. Can I
purchase a 30 Day Trial Version CD?
What features are available in
the 30 Day Trial Version?
Where do I put in my Discount Code?
How do I activate the 30 Day Trial
Version?
When I try to activate Distant Guns, I get an Error
message.
Can I move the game to my Laptop so I can take it on the
road?
When I transfer the license, does the 2nd machine need to be
connected to the internet?
What happens if my hard drive crashes?
What happens if Storm Eagle Studios goes out of Business?
Can I move the game to my Laptop so I
can take it on the road?
When I transfer the license, does the 2nd
machine need to be connected to the internet?
What kind of drives can I use to transfer a license?
Can I sell or transfer the Game License
to someone else?
Will my game License work if
I use HARD DISK CLONING SOFTWARE, used to make a copy of my hard drive?
Can I Install the game on an external hard drive?
Is Distant Guns a full blown 3D
real time game?
Can I control each individual
ship?
Do I have to have a super high
powered 3D Graphics Card?
Can I play Distant Guns with other gamers live via the Internet?
Do I have to
have an Internet connection to play Distant Guns?
Can I play
Distant Guns on a Windows 98 or Windows ME computer system?
How
historically accurate are the ship models in the game?
How
realistic is Distant Guns?
I am having difficulty plotting turns.
When I scroll the screen forward and backward or when I
pan the camera, the screen moves.
Coastal guns and bombardment missions, can you bombard
enemy ships in ports and/or coastal guns?
Repair times for ships in ports?
How do I move ships around inside a Task Force?
When I play the
campaign game, I sometimes get instability, graphic anomalies, or a game crash.
I made a change to my display options or
other options and now Distant Guns will not run.
A: You must have the following
Windows XP installed on your PC
An Internet Connection with a valid email address
PC that is at least 1.5 GHz Intel or
Minimum of 512MB of Ram
A 3D Video Card capable of running Direct X 9
275 MB of Hard Drive space.
If you
have any doubts about Distant Guns running on your system, download the FREE 30
Day trial version and take it for a test run!
A. Our method of selling Distant Guns is quite
new to the credit card industry. As a result, some card companies initially
treat the transaction as questionable. If you receive this error, you may have
to call your credit card company and tell them that the transaction is
legitimate.
A: If you have purchased the game, but have not
downloaded it yet, go to our download page and under the Distant Guns Heading,
select one of the mirror site links to Download the 30
Day Trial Version.
Once
you have downloaded and installed it, run the game and enter your id and code
in the activation window. At this point the game will contact our server and
unlock the full version for you.
Here is the link http://stormeaglestudios.com/public/html/se_downloads.html
A:
Storm Eagle Studios recommends that all
gamers obtain and install the 30 day trial version of Distant Guns before
purchasing the game license. This will insure that any compatibility issues are
addressed in advance.
A. Microsoft introduced some incompatibilities
with the Install Shield Program that we use for installation. This problem
normally shows up if you have Windows XP Media Edition installed on your
system. Go to Microsoft.com and search on the following two topics for updates
that you can download.
XP
Update KB896344
XP
A: Yes. Each time you boot up the game to play,
a dialog box will appear and ask you to purchase the game license, continue
your evaluation, or activate the game with a purchased license number. The box
will also display how many plays you have left during the trial period.
A: Yes. We have Trial Version Game CDs that can
be mailed directly to you. The price includes the cost of the CD, Shipping and
Handling. Currently North
America only.
A: All game features are available in the trial
version except the Random Battle Generator. The Campaign Game and any
additional add-ons are also not included. One scenario,
A: After you make your selections and have your
items in the shopping cart, you can then proceed to the checkout page. Here you
can enter your Discount Code in a box located in the lower right corner or the checkout
screen. Only one Discount Code is allowed per invoice.
A: After you download and install the Trial
Version, double click on the Distant Guns Icon on your desktop to load the
game. The first time it boots up, you are asked to put in your name and a valid
email address. This information is then sent to our servers where a
conformation email containing your Trial activation code is returned to the
email address you entered. You can play the game the first time you boot it up
without sending this information to us. After that, the game will not function
until you do. If you are using spam blockers or suspect email checkers, the
return email from Storm Eagle may be intercepted by these. In this case, you may
have to look in these folders, located in your email software, to find our
return message.
A. The following game activation error messages
are followed by the cause and solution.
Error
#1 - Invalid LicenseID - Check the number on your
Invoice and re-enter
Error
#2 - Invalid Password – Check the password on your invoice and re-enter
A: Storm Eagle Studios wants to deliver the
smoothest possible game experience to you. To assure your satisfaction with the
game, we strongly suggest that you download and try the 30 Day Trial Version of
Distant Guns.
After
you have evaluated the game and tested it for compatibility with your system,
all you have to do is select the purchase option in the box that appears when
you first boot up the game. This will take you to our secure servers, where you
can use you VISA or MASTERCARD to obtain a permanent License Activation Code.
Select
the Main Game item from the catalog page. You then proceed to the checkout
page. Here you can then enter the required info to complete your purchase.
An invoice is then generated containing your
Customer ID and License Activation number, along with an email containing the
invoice, will also be sent to your listed email address. The next time you boot
the game up, you can then select Activate Online on enter the License
Activation Code when it asked for it!
A: The manual is contained inside the game
directory and can be accessed via the start menu, located in the Storm Eagle
Studios List.
A: Yes, you may print out the manual for your
own use.
A: Storm Eagle Studios has developed a state of
the art electronic software distribution system. One of the key features of our
new approach is automated updates. The game will check for updates on its own
and notify you if any are available. All you have to do is click yes, and it
downloads and self installs! No more hunting down the right update to match
your version!
Game
License, Unlock Codes, and Re-Authorization
A. If your hard drive crashes, we will
re-authorize the same computer.
A. In the unlikely event that Storm Eagle
Studios goes out of business, most likely it’s the end of the world. In the
event we do go belly up, we will most likely release a final code update to
remove the copy protection from the game.
A: Yes! We have provided an easy to use feature
that makes moving the game a snap! It can only be played on one machine at a
time, but you can use SHIFT F-12 feature from your game start menu item to
transfer the authorization from one machine to another. The SHIFT F-12 will
send the Licesne back to our server until you are
ready to activate it on a new machine.
A: Yes. Currently, a fresh install or License
Transfer must connect to the internet at least once to be validated. You must
use the SHIFT F-12 feature to move your License from your current machine back
to our server for storage until you are ready to activate the new machine. You
must have the 30 Day Trial Version installed and updated to the latest version
on the 2nd computer before you use the SHIFT F-12 transfer feature.
A: You cannot use anything but the SHIFT F-12
feature to transfer the License. The old manual License transfer utility is no
longer supported and we are not responsible for its use. Any attempt to
transfer the License by any method other than the Shift F-12 could damage your
install. We will not replace your license if you lose or damage it with
un-authorized transfer attempts. All attempts and activation requests are
logged on our server. The License will not transfer unless both your PC and our
server are successful. It is impossible for the success flags to fly on both
ends of the transfer unless it actually happens.
A. Due to problems and abuse attempts, the old manual transfer utility is no longer supported. If you do not use the SHIFT F-12 Feature to transfer your License, will not replace it if you lose it using the old manual utility.
A: While we make provisions for you to transfer
the game license to another PC, you cannot resell or transfer the Game License
to another individual or company.
A. NO, it will not work. You must use the
included SHIFT F-12 Feature to move the game to another hard rive.
Q. Can I install the game on an external hard
drive?
A. Technically yes, but if you move the drive
to another computer, the game will not work. It is bonded to the PC to which it
is installed. For this reason, we recommend that you do not install it on ANY
removable storage device.
Q. I have two OS partitions installed on
my PC, i.e. one Win XP and one Vista. Can I install on License to both
partitions?
A. NO. Each game license for a Storm Eagle
Studios game is for one OS partition only.
Game Play Q & A
A:
Yes it is. The gamer has total control of
the camera, including angle, height, time, etc. Distant Guns delivers a total 1:1 3D experience.
A: Distant
Guns takes realism to the new heights. Most 3D naval simulations are just
glorified arcade games and they cheat when it comes time to resolve shell fire,
etc. Distant Guns actually fires,
tracks, physically moves inside the world, and resolves every major shell fired
from 37mm and up. You can even select the shell cam and “ride” the shell all
the way to the target.
A: You
have as much or as little control of each ship as you choose. That’s the beauty
of the game! New comers moving up from online naval simulations that are
glorified arcade games, are not required to micro manage all the issues each
ship’s captain is faced with in order to play. BUT, if you are a control freak,
you can control the aspects of each ship.
A: No.
You need a 3D Card, but it does not have to the latest and greatest. A 3D
graphics card that is DirectX 9 compatible is all that’s required. If you do
have a super high powered 3D card, you will enjoy an enhanced battlefield
experience.
A:
Yes! Up to 16 players can play live,
providing each gamer has a legitimate copy.
A: An
Internet connection is required to register the 30 Day Trial Version, purchase
and register your copy, or check for updates. After that you do not have to
connect to the internet to play. Distant Guns will automatically check our
update server to keep your game up to date. If you choose not to check for
updates, the game will play normally.
A: No. Distant Guns requires Windows XP or
later. Microsoft has discontinued supporting Windows ME and will be dropping
support for Windows 98 very shortly.
A: No. Distant Guns makes a unique installation
on your computer.
A: Storm Eagle Studios has left no stone
unturned in the historical research department. Each ship model in Distant Guns was carefully created from
scratch, not just purchased from a model bank. Extensive photographs,
historical research, including eye witness descriptions, and experts in this
era of history were consulted. There are approximately 248 historically
accurate 3D ships included in the game!
A. It may be helpful to pause
the game when plotting movement. Pausing can be particularly useful if you have
a preference for very demanding display settings at the expense of frame rate.
Use f4 to toggle the frame rate display. The interface is much easier to use
when the frame rate is above 20fps.
A. Hold the CTRL key down at the same time you
move or pan the camera. This should slow it down.
A. Distant Guns has a feature in it that will
auto adjust the accelerator speed to a slower setting if it detects that your
system cannot move the required resources through the system fast enough. The
game will slow the acceleration back to a level that will not cause a system
resource overload. You can lower the resource through put of the game by
lowering one or more of the Display Settings.
A. Minesweeping in the RJW was accomplished, for
the most part, by small boats. Small, meaning they were expendable. Even laying
mines was a dangerous business. Both the Russians and Japanese lost ships to
their own mines in mine laying operations. Things will be different when we
move to WWI, but for this campaign it turns out that the best way to model
minesweeping was to assign rates of decay based upon whether or not mines are
in the vicinity of a naval base (thus, subject to active sweeping efforts). Minesweeping
in this game is automatic. Your role as player is limited to mine-laying, and
if you are satisfied with keeping the approaches to your bases mined, even that
is automatic. If you don't send your mine laying assets out on missions, they
will merrily mine away - increasing your local friendly fields to the maximum
and then maintaining them there.
A. We had originally intended to do this. After
all, such bombardments did occur in the RJW. But when we really looked into the
issue, it became apparent that absolutely nothing of any value was accomplished
by these bombardments in the RJW. And unlike WWI, where German bombardments of
English coastal towns will have serious political effects, there really isn't
any reason for coastal bombardments. Without any "reward" for
conducting bombardments, we realized that players were extremely unlikely to
engage in them - so we decided to skip on bombardments for the moment. They may
be added in a future campaign variant, particularly as the engine evolves to
handle WWI.
A. Full documentation probably isn't worthwhile.
The game logic tries to simulate actual repairs, which is a complicated
business. All players really need (or want) to know is that damage is repaired
only when a task for is at rest, that small ships are repaired more rapidly
than large ships, and that the destroyed weapon repair is based on daily random
checks against the size of the weapon - with the chance of repair being very
low for large weapons.
A
few details: "Permanent" flooding damage is repaired at an
approximate rate of 100 tons per day. Although damage is presented to you in
terms of percentage, it is actually tracked in terms of "damaged
tons" internally.
Things
like destroyers, if they survive to be repaired, are repaired quickly. Heavily
damaged battleships can take months. Weapons repair is based on the size of the
weapon. "Destroyed" small weapons are replaced quickly, but large
weapons (like battleship main guns) may be out of commission for the duration
of the war. There is a random factor, compared to the weight of the shell.
Unlike the slow, steady repair of flooding damage, weapon repair is a hit or
miss affair. So in practical terms, it makes sense to keep large ships at rest
to repair flooding damage but there is no real accumulation of repair for
weapons. It is always possible for any weapon to be restored from destroyed
status, but if it hasn't happened by the time any accumulated permanent
flooding damage has been repaired you may as well feel free to use the ship as
is - there's no telling when the big guns might be repaired.
A. Troops are definitely moving, but they are
going where the generals want. As naval commander, your role would be limited
to following orders – issuing orders to transports to move from port to port.
It did not really seem like a fun thing for players to have to deal with.
Except for the initial landings at Chemulpo (which
have already occurred as the campaign begins), Japanese troop movements were
generally accomplished on a ship by ship basis (no convoys). That's why the
Russians were able to inflict some fairly painful losses on the Japanese army
by intercepting transports at sea – not a Japanese warship in sight. Troops convoys are an interesting issue. The belief in the
first part of the century was that transports were safer moving individually.
This did not really change until the latter half of WWI. Halpern's
"A Naval History of World War I" has quite a bit of detail on the
early 20th century arguments about convoys. In some ways, given the benefit of
several years of intensive analysis, books on WWI shed more light on the RJW
than RJW books do.
The
short answer though, for this game, is that the players' roles in troop and
supply transport in the RJW are doctrinally limited to maintaining or
contesting control of transport lanes.
A. In order to assign a ship to a
division in the middle window, you have to drag the ship from the window on the
right, where the ship is currently, onto the desired division in the middle
window (where the TF formation is shown).
Troubleshooting Q & A
A: If you enter the
game, you will find that the "About" button is active. Select it to
open the "About" dialog. There is a "Change User Contact
Information" button in the dialog. Hit that to reenter your contact info
and transmit it to our server.
If the info displayed in the dialog appears to be valid and you have not
received your code, make sure you don't have some kind of spam trapper
disposing of the email.
In any case, you can always re-enter the contact info to prompt the server to
send out another code to your specified email.
A. This issue may occur if one or more of the
following files are missing or damaged: Config.nt, Autoexec.nt, Command.com
Here
is the link to the Microsoft Site and explanation on how to fix your Autoexec.nt file.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767
After
you fix this system file, try and run the install again.
A. You have one or more of
your graphics display settings set too high.
Make sure
you have updated your Graphic Card Drivers. This is a must and will reduce
other possible problems.
Select the display options from the main game start screen or
select the options button to go to the main game start screen, then the display
options. Lower one or more of the graphic settings until the problem stops.
This may take a few adjustments.
NOTE: Some systems may require rebooting to work properly. Some
systems cannot use the
There is a two edged sword that goes
along with the 3D environment. Most 3D historical/strategy games and a large
number of the first person shooters limit the graphics resolution to either
1024x768 or 1280x1024.
This is done so that graphic anomalies and alt tab crashes are eliminated. Most
of these games do not allow you to play
in a Windowed mode at all. Should we allow the new model graphics cards
that feature bigger screen resolution or multi-monitor setups, such as a 3 Flat
Panel monitor setup in our recording studio (3840x1024! oh you should see DG on
it!) or limit the resolution to 1024x768 and assure that virtually everyone
will be free from graphic problems. It is almost impossible for most graphics
cards to run at 1920x1200 screen resolution and have the Distant Guns battle
damage set to high. The memory required for the texturing is 4x the medium
setting! If you keep raising the anti-aliasing level, the requirements continue
to climb!
The result is that some gamers are setting their graphic settings higher than
their machine can handle. Just because the graphics card supports the option
does not mean that their setup can handle 15 or 20 ships, complete with full
smoke and high battle damage.
This is our dilemma. Do what everyone else has done, limit the resolution and
settings or try and make sure the gamer is aware of the situation and hope they
try to find a graphic setting that will work all the time.
If you try and use the
We want to give gamers the options to push their systems to the limit, but they
must also be realistic as well.
A. The Campaign Game is
the most demanding part of Distant Guns. Because of the increased overhead
required, some systems may have to lower the display option settings,
especially the damage level and the wave animations. If you change the settings
on you display options and you receive a message that your settings may lead to
instability, you may continue to experience problems. If they persist, you
should lower them again.
Another possibility is your Microsoft Direct X installation. If
you are still having graphic issues, try re-installing Direct X9.0c
The Direct X Installer that we use is all Microsoft Code, we just
invoke it and after that Microsoft takes over.
A couple of things could be happening.
1. Direct X 9.c was already installed on your system before Distant Guns was
installed and one of the files is corrupted. When we invoked the direct X
installer, it checked your previous Direct X install and saw that it was the
latest so it did not install.
2. The other possibility is that your system is playing "DUALING
DLLs".
Sometimes, Video Card makers, copy over certain DX9 DLLs (Dynamically Linked
Libraries) and cause new problems to occur.
Here is two links for Microsoft Direct X 9.0c
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Browse.aspx?displaylang=en&categoryid=2
Select the DirectX End-User Runtime
Or the general DirectX page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.mspx
A. In the Distant Guns
install folder, delete the DG.cfg file. If your system has file extensions
hidden, you will have to turn this feature of Windows on. Use the Windows help
and search for hidden file extensions.
A. To play a random
scenario game multiplayer, you must email the other players the scenario file
and they have to place it in the folder with the other scenario files. Distant
Guns does not spawn to the other players. They must have a copy of the file.
Technical Q & A
A. Yes. The primary development machine was a hyperthreaded P4, so the game has always
"thought" is was running in a multi core environment, has probably
been exposed to most of the potential pitfalls during test, and the code is
written to take advantage of multi core environments. The "AI" module
in particular operates in its own thread, so in theory, a multi-core processor
could really pay off when playing against the AI.
However,
some users reporting problems with Distant Guns have
a Processor from the
It seems that there is a timing problem between the Processor and The latest
WINDOWS XP2 SDK (Software development kit) of which we use in developing
Distant Guns. While this bug is not ours, we believe it is responsible for a
large portion of reported problems, especially in the campaign game.
Here is the link to the
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/Setup.exe
You also may need to Update Your
It
appears that you may have to update the
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...1_9706,00.html
Look down the page for WIn XP driver 1.3.2
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/..._13118,00.html
Look down the page for WinXP 1.3.2.16
Mobile
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_11687,00.html
If you
are not sure if you have one of these, right click on the MYCOMPUTER icon on your
desktop, select properties and your processor will be listed in the lower
right-hand corner.
Contact
us at support@stormeaglestudios.com
Please
provide the following.
Customer
#
License
ID#
Processor
Graphics
Card
Display
Resolution
Description
of your issue.
Storm Eagle Studios Download Page http://stormeaglestudios.com/public/html/se_downloads.html
http://stormeaglestudios.com/public/html/se_support.html
http://stormeaglestudios.com/public/html/se_store.html
These
are forums and sites where Distant Guns Fans hang out. Exchange war stories,
find opponents,
and get hints, help and answers to various issues.
Gamesquad.com
-http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=245
The
Wargamer -
http://www.wargamer.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=208&p=&tmode=1&smode=1