Menu Problems

[Annuminas (OP)]

Hello everyone,

I am new here and have been playing Aurora for about a month now and I have just colonized my first planet outside Sol.  However, I have a problem.  When I enter into the colony production window, I can see all of my colonized planets in Sol in the expanded menu, however my new planet in Proxima Centauri is hidden because the menu has been shrunk and a small "+" is next to it.  Obviously hitting the plus will extend the menu stack and I can see my new colony, only when I go to hit the plus, nothing happens.  I click it over and over and over and nothing happens.  If I click on the name "Proxima Centauri" it takes me to the System Information menu, not the production menu.  I cannot seem to get it to work. 

Problem number 2 is when I attempt to use the Fleet Organization tab, when I create a new branch, everything disappears and is covered in grey boxes.  Only closing the window and opening it again will fix this.  Then when I hit the plus in order to expand from Fleet Command, nothing happens again.  Its as if the "+" does nothing. 

I cannot play the game until this is fixed because I cannot access any of my extrasolar planets production menus. 

I thank everyone in advance for your help, I love this game and I really hope to fix this problem. 

[Erik L]

Are you using Windows 8?

[Annuminas (OP)]

As a matter of fact I am.  XD

Is this a problem?

[Erik L]

Buried in one of the Bug report threads is something about the VB6 tree control not playing nice in Win8. I'm not sure if there was a workaround/fix found for that yet.

[Annuminas (OP)]

Who would be the one to ask about any work around?

Could compatibility mode work?

[Annuminas (OP)]

Sorry for the double post, I am just wondering if there is any fix for this or any idea what might be wrong? The game is pretty much unplayable since I cannot access my extrasolar colony menus. 

I have the game run as administrator and in compatibility mode for Windows XP.  I've tried switching mice and I've attempted to look for any key that might open the menu tree but to no avail. 

I thank you all in advance for your help.  I hope there is some solution because this is probably my favorite game of all time and I would love to continue playing. 

[MarcAFK]

It's a windows 8 issue, I'm finding a lot of information about this through google but not having access to a windows 8 pc right now I can't test anything:
There might be a patch here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896559 .
Try searching "Windows 8 Visual basic tree control bug", and good luck.

[Annuminas (OP)]

Thank you very much! I'll try it out and see if it fixes it. 

[Annuminas (OP)]

UPDATE:

I've spent nearly an hour combing through every thread on google related to this problem that I could find.  I have installed every patch they have recommended, I unregistered and reregistered the MSCOMCTL. OCX dll file in the registry.  I also tried placing a legacy file in there, registering and unregistering that and then reregistering the original MSCOMCTL. OSX file.  All of this to no avail.  Microsoft has ended support for this thing. 

Is there a possibility of changing out Treeview for something else? I will say my abilities at coding and such are rather limited, so this question might be a silly one.  I dont think there is a fix coming from Microsoft on this. 

Would Steve be able to offer some insight on this?

The game cannot be played because I cannot extend any menus with the plus icon.  I cannot do it in the minerals tab, the fleet organization tab or the colony information tab to see my colonies in another system. 

Any help is appreciated, I am willing to try anything to get this resolved so others dont have the problem. 

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Have you tried working around the tree views? An alternate way to reach the population/production view for a colony is to right click it on the system map and select 'Populations'.  You can also do this from the galaxy map

You will also be denied from using the Combat Overview, unfortunately.  The only way around that that I know is to use the combat settings in the Ship screen. Possible, but arduous.

[andrewas]

There is at least one project that replaces the VB6 controls, so Steve should be able to fix this relatively easily. 

Short of waiting for that, a virtual machine running XP should let you play the game. 

[sloanjh]

And as for when it's likely to get fixed: When Steve buys a Windows 8 box

Seriously, this is a game that Steve writes for himself and shares with the rest of us, so if something is a lot of work to do (which replacing all the tree dialogues probably would be, even if it is easy to replace each one) for no gain for him, then it's low on the priority list.  If it's a high pain issue for him (like not being able to play on his brand new Windows 8 box) then it's high on the list.

Note that there have been some cases in the past where Steve has done projects for the community that aren't causing him pain - the reduced size windows for laptops is the one that comes to mind, so there's a chance that as more people buy Windows 8 he'll fix it.

John

[Annuminas (OP)]

I completely understand that this is his own personal project.  I think its absolutely wonderful! Eventually though he will have to update to Windows 8 and this will be waiting for him.  I heard of the possibility of replacing the controls but I dont know how to do it myself.  I also dont know how to set up a virtual machine, though I'd be willing to try. 

Thanks everyone for your replies, this is literally the only thing standing in the way of me playing the game.  I understand Steve has a busy life and that this is his personal project, i just hope if he has a chance to look at it.