Administrators AWS Posted April 28, 2013 Administrators Posted April 28, 2013 Dear Microsoft, Do bear in mind I am 68 years old, have Rheumatoid Arthritis and that I did not have computers from grades 1 through my B.A. in History. What little I know about computers I have had to learn by rote, because computer language IS a foreign language to me. Many instructions I get for doing downloads and upgrades are gibberish to me. I have been a wargamer since 1950 when I was five. That's a full decade before metal-cast, historically accurate, military miniatures were available in the U.S.A. coming mostly from the U.K., but now from everywhere! Along comes computer technology and quickly RTS military strategy and tactical games are available as CDs and downloads. I've been gaming "Age of Sail II" and "Age of Sail II: Privateer's Bounty" by Global Star Software and Talonsoft, the American marketers, and Akella, the Russian company that created the games around 2000-2003. I have always had video stability issues trying to use these games with my Windows XP system (Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 3. I'm also using an Intel ® Core 2 Duo CPU, E 7300 @ 2.66 GHz and with 2.67 GHz, 1.99 GB of Ram). Do I enjoy naval games about the Age of Sail? I know more about the nomenclature and my way around a sailing vessel than I do about automobiles! I have been the winchman of a yacht racing crew, because I had the fastest hands. Now I have R.A., and have to write slow to be legable and have to be extra careful cooking, shaving and driving. I want to fix the video stability issues I have with these two programs in particular, since I enjoy them the most. As much as I have enjoyed all the Age of Empires games by Microsoft, none of the naval vessels in these programs move like real sailing ships under real sailing conditions with realistic sailing crews like these Russian made ones. There really isn't any excuse for this. Microsoft should at least be able to duplicate any Russian achievement in anything, if not surpass it. This oversight might just be a way of Microsoft condescending to the intelligence of their American customers. I challenge Microsoft to surpass these Russian made beauties, ie, allow me more latitude in the creation of a hypothetical sailing combat squadron and include the performance characteristics of Polynesian catamarans and the ability of schooners and fore and aft rigged vessels to sail closer to the eye of the wind that square riggers could and allow for square rigged ships to "lock in irons" much of the time, if they're dumb enough to try to tack instead of wear around! I am an old salt of the U.S. Navy, having served aboard the USS Charles F. Adams (DDG-2), that gave its name to the entire class of DDG Missile Destroyers. The Adams is also about to leave the mothball fleet in Philadelphia and be made into a floating museum in Jacksonville, Florida. The Hollywood movie, "The Bedford Incident" was shot using one of these DDGs as the Bedford. I had the honor to be part of a "crack" crew aboard the Adams and we raised the bar on anti-aircraft fire and shore bombardment standards. I was almost in a Bedford-style incident with a Russian nuclear sub in the Mediterranean in 1967. The Russians backed off or there would no longer be an Algiers, Palma, Majorca, or Marseilles, France and the rest of us would all be living in the conditions of the 19th Century, if not the Stone Age after WWIII was finished! I've tried to download Windows XP 9, but I don't even know how to see if it worked, but, for openers, I need the XP's best upgrade. Then, with your help, we can address these video stability issuses I'm having gaming the Age of Sail. Thanks for your attention and help, Michael England Grapevine, Texas View this thread
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