Help! I can't bring up the cheat menu...

[AdmiralSirJohn]

Okay, I need some help.

I've tried both the CTRL+ALT+C and CTRL+Windows+ALT+C combinations, but neither of them bring up the cheat window.

I need to use the Magic bulldozer to clear a radio tower, but I can't get to it.

Any suggestions?

[Eddi]

i don't know what's wrong with your system, maybe another application intercepts both key combinations.

but if you are lucky, and you are using recent nightly or 1.1-beta, then you could check hotkeys.cfg, if the key combination for cheats is in there, and change it to something different.

[AdmiralSirJohn]

I'm not running a beta. I'm running 1.0.5

I've found that every version since 1.0.3 has had this problem.

[planetmaker]

seems to be a clear indicator that it is your system which catches those key combinations. Nothing changed there for a LOOONG time.

[AdmiralSirJohn]

That's very strange, since there are no TSR programs that use that combination.

Here's the list of TSR programs:

Yahoo Messenger
Klipfolio
Yahoo Widgets
Ultramon
AVG Free Edition
Lexmark Imaging Studio
Logitech Desktop Manager
Logitech Webcam Monitor
Gadwin Printscreen
TM Control
Realtek HD Audio Manager


The desktop is running Vista Home Premium.

CTRL+WIN+ALT+C does work on the Netbook, which is running Win7 Starter. It's running only AVG and Yahoo Widgets.

I don't know what could be intercepting both key combinations...

[planetmaker]

Things like desktop managers are a good guess. But you already stated yourself which combinations don't exhibit that behaviour on your notebook. And which combination of (additional) programmes on your desktop prevent the key combination(s) to work. Eliminate those TSR one by one by killing them in one session subsequently and check after each subsequent process being killed and you'll find out.

[AdmiralSirJohn]

Okay, I feel about that tall right now.

It was the Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse manager.

Thanks for the help!

[Rustinpeace]

I have a suggestion which may allow you to skip the cheat menu. Edit the scenario and remove the tower while editing. You could save it under a different name which makes you have two versions of the scenario and you haven't used any cheat for it.

[planetmaker]

Nice that the problem seems solved, AdmiralSirJohn - if you indeed update to the current beta3 you might want to re-configure the keys for the cheat menu, then you can continue to use all your TSR programmes (though it looks to me like A LOT of unneeded balast which just slows down your computer).

Why is it desirable to avoid using a cheat, Rustinpeace? Your way is more complicated and effectively the same cheat... so... you still cheat yourself, if you're worried about cheats at all.

[AdmiralSirJohn]

I don't mind using the cheats, as I play strictly solo (not even against AI). I see TTD in general as a "casual" game, rather than a competitive one.

And the TSR stuff really doesn't slow the machine down, or at least not noticeably. The real drag when playing is my secondary hard drive, which likes to go into sleep mode (it's part of the hardware - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB), but that's something that's only a minor annoyance.

Despite the fact that this machine (64-bit Core2 Duo) is such a step up from my previous one (an Athlon XP-based system), the only things I have that even approach system capabilities is FSX and Lightwave 9.

Though, for some reason, I can't use Skype at all on this desktop. It bluescreens me every time...

[Zuu]

Despite the fact that this machine (64-bit Core2 Duo) is such a step up from my previous one (an Athlon XP-based system), the only things I have that even approach system capabilities is FSX and Lightwave 9.

Sounds that you need a larger OpenTTD network. Try maxing out trains, road vehicles, aircrafts and ships (use YAPF for ships ). Build many redundant paths for your trains and road vehicles so that the pathfinder get to work more. You might also want to raise the vehicle limits from 500 to 5000 per type in advanced settings.

Keep in mind that OpenTTD will only hog one of your CPU cores, so take that in mind while watching the CPU usage.

[AdmiralSirJohn]

I've got all my vehicles set at 500, and my stations at 50.

Didn't know about the cores. That could be useful. I do notice that the ambient temp rises, but I suspect its due to the graphics card. I'll probably swap that out in a few months for a newer one that doesn't generate quite as much heat. (It reacts the same way to the Zynga games on Facebook, too.)