Tactical Battle Problem with Mac OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite

[AgrippaHX]

This is a question for the Mac users out there, specifically those using Yosemite.

I'm having a truly obnoxious problem that makes the game unplayable for me. During tactical battles, the game constantly freezes for several seconds. During this time, the computer is entirely unresponsive, I can't switch applications or do anything. It completely destroys the pacing of combat and is unacceptable to me. It's irritating and boring.

I think this is a problem with the new OS X, which has issues with WindowServer, and if so, I would expect it to affect many players using Yosemite. What are your experiences?

I'm using a MacBook Pro 15-inch, mid-2010 with extra RAM (8 GiB total).

[x4000]

Hi there,

Hopefully this is an issue that Apple will sort out -- it seems like Yosemite is breaking a lot of applications all over the place, from what I can tell.  Why exactly it would cause temporary hanging here is really baffling to me.  Some random thoughts:

1. You might try launching the game directly, so it doesn't have the Steam overlay: https://steamcommunity.com/app/326410/discussions/0/620695877397113576/

2. You might try running in windowed mode, just in case this is a device exclusivity thing.

3. You might try enabling or disabling vsync, whichever is the opposite of what you have now.

4. You might try disabling music and/or sound (not turning the volume all the way down, but literally disabling them).

5. You could try disabling explosions and various other stuff, and trying other options from the Graphics tab.  You might set the fullscreen preferred refresh rate to 0, so that the OS can manage that on its own.

Those would get at all the major systems that I can think of that might be impacting things here.

If worst comes to absolute worst, I would also like to note that there is an auto-resolve option for tactical battles so that you can play the strategic game without having to be in the tactical side at all.  But it's hardly ideal to be _forced_ into that; that's meant to be an option for people who simply don't like that style of play.

Hope that helps!

[Sounds]

Hi there, I did a quick test on my mac and didn't hit this issue. However I only played it for ten minutes, so does it occur straight away for you?

Good game, but I tend to just auto-resolve even though its sub-optimal (the tactical battles just doesn't work for me beyond a few play throughs).

Just to verify, how long into the game before you encounter this issue?

[AgrippaHX]

Thanks for your replies, Chris and Sounds. Incidentally, Chris, a significant factor in my electing to purchase this game was the community and the unprecedented communication between the company and its customers. Way to go.

I didn't have access to my iMac when I wrote earlier as I was out of town. I have not yet updated my iMac to Yosemite, so I thought it'd be a great test. I got back today, and I loaded up Last Federation right away. It worked flawlessly, lovely and smooth. I strongly suspect that the problem lies with Yosemite, especially because the pauses lock-up the entire system.

Sounds, the problem manifests for me on my Yosemite MacBook Pro within seconds of entering any tactical battle. It's entirely consistent from the get-go. Is your Mac updated to Yosemite as well? If it's not affecting all Macs with Yosemite, maybe it's limited to only some installations. My MBP has shown the WindowServer issue, and I think issues with Last Federation might actually be WindowServer malfunctioning. Have you encountered the Yosemite WindowServer issue?

In case you've not encountered it, this is an issue where the WindowServer process malfunctions and begins eating up resources and CPU cycles. It can slow the machine to a crawl. While I wasn't experiencing this at the time I was playing Last Federation, I think there could be a relationship nonetheless.

In any case, I will try Chris's suggestions next time I load the game up on my MBP. Hopefully Apple will release a fix within the next six years.

[x4000]

Well, I'm glad to hear that it's working on your other machine, but that's crazy with the WindowServer thing.  I really hope Apple gets that fixed in general.  I tend to stay away from the latest apple releases except on their phones, heh.  Never had a solid reason for it, but this is the first time I have.

Anyway, glad I could at least provide some ideas, and hopefully one will work out this problem.

I'm going to be out of touch for the next couple of days given it's Christmas and I have a young one and all that, but I'll be back after that!

[AgrippaHX]

Have a great Christmas, Chris!

[x4000]

Thank you, you too!