Readme

Free Allegiance Readme File

April 2010

Original Document © Microsoft Corporation, 2000. All rights reserved.

Welcome to Microsoft® Allegiance™!

Thank you for installing Microsoft Allegiance. This readme file contains the most recent information concerning Allegiance. It also includes late-breaking information not contained in the manual or in-game Help.

MOST COMMONLY ASKED

• Community Forum accounts are not the same as Gameplay accounts. The account you used to view the forums and download the game cannot be used to play. To create a new gameplay or “ASGS” account, go to http://asgs.alleg.net/asgsnet/newaccount.aspx
• Do NOT use your account on a friend’s computer. Doing so will result in your accounts being linked, and you won’t be able to play at the same time anymore. This is a feature required to ensure a secure system.
• Allegiance is a TEAM-based game. Players must work together to complete goals, and commanders may eject players who are not contributing to their teams to make space for other players who will.
• All new players will have a number appended to their name for the first few weeks. This shows everyone that you are inexperienced, and thus they can be more lenient. The more you play, the faster you'll lose it.
• After training, learn basic gameplay and technology on the Newbie servers. Learn how to contribute to a team and how to use the technology. Once you've mastered the basics, join the vets and don't look back. Bad habits are formed when learning from the inexperienced.
• Do not join a real game when trying to "figure out the controls" or "learn how to play." That is what the Newbie servers are for. Only join real games if you are able to contribute to your team.
• You must spend time to learn the game. Reading the Academy and joining the @Cadet classes significantly reduces the amount of learning time needed in game. You can find the academy at http://www.alleg-academy.org
• Use the built-in display censor. The censor converts profanity to useless characters (e.g. !@#$!). If you don’t want to see it, don’t disable it.
• Games with an imbalanced skill are NOT fun. If you're new, don't join the team with the most new players. If you're skilled, don't join the team with all of the @Squad players. Stacking the skill on one side removes the fun for 2/3 of the players.
• Don’t let the “bad apples” ruin your fun. As with all communities, Allegiance has "good apples" and "bad apples." If you feel that someone is targeting you specifically to cause you discomfort, report them to an Administrator or Chancellor.

ONLINE ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

There are several great sources for answers to any questions you might have about Allegiance.

Allegiance Product Support

If you have questions about Allegiance (such as on installation, graphics issues, and so forth), open your browser and go to http://www.freeallegiance.org/forums and visit the helpline forum. Be sure to read the post entitled, “Read Me First”.

Allegiance Administrators

You will notice administrators in Allegiance with a plus sign (+) at the beginning of their names. Administrators are there to enforce the Rules of Conduct. Members of the Allegiance Administrators team are may also be able to assist you with account and registration issues.

Allegiance Chancellors

You will notice chancellors in Allegiance with @Alleg at the end and a question mark (?) at the beginning of their names. Chancellors are there to offer help to players in Allegiance as well as to enforce the Rules of Conduct. Members of the Allegiance Chancellor team are volunteers that are familiar with Allegiance and they may be able to help get you started.

TROUBLESHOOTING

If you experience any problem playing Allegiance, you may be able to immediately resolve it by starting Allegiance in a mode other than full screen or with modified options.

• To Run Allegiance in Window Mode: Use the –windowed command line option.
• To Run Allegiance with Checkfiles: Use the –checkfiles command line option. This command to force Allegiance to go through the auto-update process. This command will make sure that all of your Allegiance files are up to date.Only run Allegiance in this mode if for some reason you think your game is not correctly auto-updating, as this mode will increase the time it takes to get to the Games List.

AUTO-UPDATE ISSUES

Allegiance features auto-updating, which allows changes to be made to the game files on your computer after you have logged in.

• Auto-update fails with Netscape Navigator as the default browser: It is possible for Allegiance to fail to connect or fail to auto-update if you are using Netscape Navigator as your default browser. This happens when you also have Internet Explorer installed but configured to use a proxy server different than that used by Netscape Navigator. By setting your Internet Explorer proxy settings to be the same as Netscape Navigator, you can avoid this problem.
• To change your Internet Explorer proxy settings
  • Click Start on your taskbar, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  • Double-click Internet Options, click Connections, and then click LAN Settings.
  • Enter the same proxy server information as is used in Netscape Navigator.

CONFIGURATION ISSUES

Any known hardware and operating system configuration issues (except 3D card and connectivity issues) are listed in this section. 3D card and connectivity issues are listed later in this Readme file.

• Training mission load time is long: Some systems may experience a wait of a minute or more when the training missions are loading. This is caused by a number of factors, such as the amount of memory your machine has, disk fragmentation, and so on.
• Joystick rolls upon entering the game: With some joysticks, you may be rolling from the time you first enter the game. To fix this, reconfigure the default roll control on your joystick to a new control. To do this, press ESC, G, C, scroll to the bottom of the Configure Controls dialog box, double-click Roll, and then follow the instructions at the top of the dialog box.

3D CARD ISSUES

There are a number of known issues for 3D graphics accelerators. If a problem affects all or most cards of a particular chipset, the chipset is listed, but if it only affects specific cards of a chipset, then the card name and chipset are listed.

• Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro: With this card you may not be able to see the debris graphics in space. Try turning off Environment and Posters in the game’s options menu (press ESC, O, E and ESC, O, P, respectively). If that doesn’t work, contact your hardware manufacturer for the latest drivers.
• 3Dlabs Permedia3 Create!: With this card, sometimes Allegiance will hang right as your ship prepares to launch from the hangar. Contact your hardware manufacturer for the latest drivers.
• Elsa Erazor III (TnT 2): When changing the game resolution with the retail drivers installed, the sound and graphics will stutter a bit. Upgrade to the latest drivers to fix this problem.
• Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor (TnT 2): When changing the game resolution when the retail drivers are installed, the sound and graphics will stutter a bit. Upgrade to the latest drivers to fix this problem.
• 3D Blaster Savage 4: Purple veins appear on textures at a resolution of 1600 x 1200. Upgrade to the latest drivers to fix this problem.
• Creative Blaster Voodoo 2: With this card, the game may crash when changing to a resolution higher than 800 x 600. Upgrade to the latest drivers to fix this problem.
• 3dfx Velocity 100/200: Raising the game resolution above 1024 x 768 causes the screen to go black. Do not raise the resolution above 1024 x 768 with this card.
• Graphics Blaster Extreme: Raising the game resolution above 800 x 600 causes the screen to go black. Do not raise the resolution above 800 x 600 with this card.

3D CARD DRIVERS AND MANUFACTURERS

Make sure that you have the latest drivers from the manufacturer of your video card. Many of the issues listed in Section F, “3D Card Issues” and in many cases issues that are not listed will be resolved if you install your video card's latest drivers. Listed below are some common video card manufacturers' Web sites. Please note that some or all of the cards produced by a particular manufacturer may not be supported by Allegiance.

3D/fx Interactive -- http://www.3dfx.com/

3Dlabs -- http://www.3dlabs.com/

AccelGraphics -- http://www.accelgraphics.com/

Asus -- http://www.asus.com/

ATI -- http://support.atitech.ca/

California Graphics -- http://www.calgraph.com/

Canopus -- http://www.canopuscorp.com/

Creative Labs -- http://www.creativelabs.com/

Deltron Flash 3D -- http://www.deltrontech.com/

Deltron Technology -- http://www.deltrontech.com/

Diamond Multimedia -- http://www.diamondmm.com/

Elsa Technology -- http://www.elsa.de/

Gateway 2000 -- http://www.gw2k.com/

Genoa -- http://www.genoasys.com/

Guillemot -- http://www.guillemot.com/

Hercules -- http://www.hercules.com/

I/O Magic -- http://www.iomagic.com/

Intergraph -- http://www.intergraph.com/

Ixmicro -- http://www.ixmicro.com/

Jaton -- http://www.jaton.com/

Jazz Multimedia -- http://www.jazzmm.com/

Leadtek -- http://www.leadtek.com/

Matrox -- http://www.matrox.com/

Metabyte -- http://www.metabyte.com/

Miro -- http://www.miro.de/

NewCom -- http://www.newcominc.com/

Number Nine -- http://www.nine.com/

NVIDIA -- http://www.nvidia.com/

Orchid -- http://www.orchid.com/

Quantum3D Obsidian -- http://www.quantum3d.com/

Real3D -- http://www.real3d.com/

S3 Incorporated -- http://www.s3.com/

Sierra On-Line -- http://www.sierra.com/

Skywell Magic 3D -- http://www.magic-3d.com/

STB -- http://www.stb.com/

TechWorks -- http://www.techworks.com/

Tseng Labs -- http://www.tseng.com/

VideoLogic -- http://www.videologic.com/

SOFTWARE INCOMPATIBILITIES

Microsoft NetMeeting® not compatible with Allegiance: Allegiance will not start or run properly if NetMeeting is also running. Do not start Allegiance or NetMeeting while the other program is already running.

CONNECTIVITY ISSUES

The most common connectivity issues are listed below.

• Proxy Server Configuration: If you are running a proxy server, you may need to configure the open ports, as described in “Firewall Port Configuration,” above. Additionally, you may need to give the DirectPlay client protocol permissions to access these ports.
• Windows 98 SE Internet Connection Sharing (ICS): Allegiance will not work behind ICS due to an incompatibility between DirectPlay and ICS. You must disable ICS to allow Allegiance to work properly.
• Network Address Translation (NAT) and IP Masquerading (IPmasq) Configuration: Allegiance does not work behind many NAT or IPmasq configurations. If Allegiance does not work behind your NAT or IPmasq configuration, you should change your configuration to connect directly to the network.

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