Dominions 4 Troubleshooting Guide Thread - Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

If you experience problems with Dominions 4, try to solve your problem using the steps outlined in this thread first. They should solve most of the common issues experienced by new users. If the steps here do not help, post a separate thread or ask for help in the general troubleshooting questions thread.

MANUAL & OTHER DOCUMENTATION

Dominions is a game where it really pays to read the manual. The other documentation is also useful. You can find all the game manuals and other official documentation on the Illwinter Dominions 4 page under the heading Manuals.

DESURA KEY FOR DOMINIONS 4

You can find your Desura key for Dominions 4 by logging into Desura and then going to your Desura collection where all of your games are listed. Click the appropriate key link to see your key.

INSTALLATION WITH DESURA CLIENT

You can install Dominions 4 through the Desura client, in which case it is installed in the default location specified by the client.

INSTALLATION WITHOUT DESURA CLIENT

You can also install the game without the Desura client by going to your Desura collection where all of your games are listed. Click the appropriate download link and you will be presented with a list of installers. Pick the one that is appropriate for your operating system. A standalone installation will not automatically update itself. When a new patch comes out, you must download the full new installer and then install on top of your old installation. If you modified the GUI, make backups of those files because the new install will replace them with the default GUI.

INSTALLATION DIRECTORIES

If you are a Windows user DO NOT install Dominions 4 anywhere in the C:\Program Files\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\ directories! Use something like C:\Games\Dominions4\ instead, or you may run into several different kinds of problems. These problems are usually caused by the fact that the Program Files directories in modern Windows operating systems are subject to greater restrictions than other directories (e.g. users do not have write access unless they run programs as administrator). It is not a Dominions 4 problem, but a Windows problem and there is nothing Illwinter can do about it.

The C:\Program Files\ directories are known in Dominions troubleshooting parlance as The Void, so if someone tells you not to install the game into the Void, this is what they mean.

INSTALLING MODS & MAPS

When using custom made maps and mods, you need to install them into the correct directory. You can find the Dominions 4 data directories by going from the Main Menu to Game Tools > Open User Data Directory, which opens the data directory in a separate file browser window. In Windows this is a hidden directory, but you can just copy the mod and map files into the appropriate subdirectory. If you have placed maps both here and in the maps directory under the game install directory, they will show up twice in the map list when creating a new game.

See the modding and mapmaking manuals for more detailed information.

GAME REFUSES TO RUN

There are several different issues that may cause Dominions 4 to not run properly on your computer. Most of them are related to graphics card, screen resolution, antivirus software and not running with sufficient privileges (if installed into the Void).

You should ALWAYS do these steps (in order) if Dominions does not start properly:

• Update your graphics card drivers (ATI drivers, Nvidia drivers, Intel drivers, or check your computer manufacturer's support page for driver downloads)
• Run the game in windowed mode (modify the shortcut by adding -w to the end of the target field)
• Run the game with custom resolution (if you have unusual screen resolution, add -r X Y to target path to force resolution)
• Update any other drivers on your PC (always a good idea)
• Disconnect from the internet, turn off your antivirus and see if the game runs correctly (Comodo is notorious for preventing Dominions 4 from running properly, but other AV programs may cause similar issues)
• Update the BIOS on your computer (if you don't know how, ask an expert, because a botched BIOS update can break your computer). BIOS updates can often improve general system stability and fix other issues, so they are useful and thankfully they are also largely automated in brand name machines (e.g. HP).

DOMINIONS RUNS VERY SLOWLY

Turn down the frame rate and battle graphics detail and disable animated background and light effects. These can cause slowdowns even on computers that are relatively powerful compared to the minimum system requirements. They are the number one reason (in addition to out of date graphics drivers and truculent antivirus) for performance problems. Then ratchet them up one at a time to see when the game slows down again and you will have the culprit.

If this does not help, it requires a more thorough examination.

NÅGOT GICK FEL!

If Dominions crashes and you get this error, write down the rest of the message, because that is the actual error code that describes what precisely went wrong. "Något gick fel!" is Swedish and means simply "Something went wrong!" The error code is the important thing.

DEBUG MODE

If you cannot fix the problem with the steps in the previous section and your game keeps crashing, you can get a debug log of the game by running it in debug mode. Debug mode is activated by starting the game with the command line switch -d enabled (ad it to the end of the shortcut). The more d in the switch, the more detailed the log. If you run with -d, you get a basic log. If you run with -dd, you get a more detailed log. If you use -ddddd, you get an insanely detailed log.

Using the debug mode will cause the game to run much more slowly than usual (the more detailed, the slower) because all that detailed information is written into the log file.

Dominions writes the debug log into a log.txt file in the game installation directory. The contents of the file can look rather cryptic and are not always easy to interpret. It takes a good amount of experience to become proficient at reading the logs, but if you're posting portions of the log as part of a bug report, the people who read it will know what everything means.

Usually you need only the last 20 to 50 rows of the log file for a bug report, because those lines will tell what went wrong and where exactly a crash occurred. If you're investigating something that is not a crash bug, ask for expert help on the forum.

A good way of testing things (especially spells) is to run Dominions in debug mode and using the Debug Mod, which sets all spells to level 0 research for you to play around with.

REQUIRED INFORMATION WHEN REPORTING CRASH BUGS OR PROBLEMS WITH STARTING THE GAME

If you post a thread saying "Why does my Dominions not run?" and do not provide any other information, you are not going to get any useful answers. What you will probably get is a number of very terse questions for more detailed information that helps narrow down what could be causing your problem and possibly some guesstimate suggestions of "Try this, or maybe that, or perhaps the other thing, something might work or it might not" if the person responding is feeling charitable. Either way, it's not very useful for you or the person responding and all it does is waste time.

To avoid that kind of frustration, please include the following system information about your computer in any bug reports concerning crashes or when the game refuses to run, or starts behaving oddly. It will save everyone a lot of time, effort and nerves and you will give a much better impression of yourself, which is always useful.

• Operating system and version (including service packs on Windows)
• Make and model of computer (if brand machine)
• Graphics card model and driver version (try updating this first)
• Antivirus software and version

Edited by: Edirr