I cannot play SH3. The game freezes my entire PC within minutes, leaving me no other option but a power cycle. Resolution and detail levels make no difference, it crashes at the highest and lowest resolutions, plus anywhere inbetween. It crashes on low detail, medium, high and ultra. It crashes in windowed mode, in compatibility mode, in every way remotely imaginable.

Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7 3930k
RAM: 16GB DDR3 RAM
GPU: ASUS HD7970DC2T
Mobo: ASUS Rampage 4 Formula


I've read that you are planning to no longer write patches for this game. I do hope you will fix this one or refund me the game, this is unacceptable on any level.

Hi MueR

Have you tried verifying game cache? Sometimes there might be a corrupted file causing these problems.

I have reinstalled the game five times, I verified the cache at least twice per install, I defragmented the installation.. Nothing helps. The problem lies in the game, not in Steam or the computer.

I'm not the only one with the problem either: see http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2821242

No response? Nothing?

Aside from verifying your game cache and checking your connection with Steam, you may also need to manually run secondary installers required by this game.

Exit Steam entirely.

Browse to your Stronghold 3 installation folder (Usually C:\Program files\Steam\Steamapps\common\stronghold3\)

Run the following installers:

...\Steamapps\common\stronghold3\resources\directx\DXSETUP.exe
...\Steamapps\common\stronghold3\resources\dotNetFx40\dotNetFx_Full_x86_x64.exe
...\Steamapps\common\stronghold3\resources\redist\vcredist_x86.exe
...\Steamapps\common\stronghold3\resources\redist\vcredist_2008_x86.exe

Reboot your computer and test any issues again.

This does not work. I've tried and tried again. Installs, reinstalls, manual installation, different drivers, different settings. The game just does not work with the HD7x series graphics cards.

Is your graphics card overclocked? We wondering if the problem could be linked to overheating.

One of the programmers of Stronghold 3 uses the HD7870 card and has been using it since the game started development.

It is overclocked, but that is a factory default overclock. It's the http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/HD7970DC2T3GD5/

Stronghold 3 does not like to be played overclocked

I don't like game developers telling me a factory default high-end videocard is unsupported. Your point being? Are you seriously suggesting that I downclock my card (which, again, is factory default) because Firefly cannot write their software properly? Seriously, half the gaming industry works with some form of overclocked system.

How is stronghold even going to tell the difference between an overclocked system, or newer hardware which is even faster? Seriously, if a factory default of a whopping 75 MHz (meaning stable) overclock is causing problems, what kind of issues are you expecting to get from newer cards? And here's another newsflash: factory default overclocks are not new. Every major hardware manufacturer supplies graphics cards in three versions: reference model, high-end model and overclocked model. Asus, XFX, Sapphire, MSI, Club3D, they all do it. Are you seriously planning on telling all gamers who buy high-end hardware that they cannot play your apparently poorly written game because of their factory default card?

Every game I own runs perfectly on my system, except SH3. Now, if I can play over 50 games properly and one crashes my system, what is more likely:
1) The game is faulty and needs to be fixed.
2) The system is faulty.

I'll give you a hint: it ain't number 2. So, either fix the game, or refund it. Don't get me wrong, I would love to play this game. However, at the moment, I cannot due to software issues which you can fix. If you refuse, I can only ask for a refund.