John Sherriff's Guide to The Oregon Trail on Facebook
Solving problems which prevent the game working properly
The game was released on Facebook on 2nd Feb 2011 so it's still fairly new and a few problems can be expected. The fixes shown here will often help other Facebook games also.
If I have problems I do the following in order:
- Running on the spot? Sometimes this happens. Your team are running but getting nowhere. Change their speed to a walk and back to fix it.
For other issues try:
- Refresh the browser page
- Clear the browser cache See http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache
- Do you have problems with energy or stamina not renewing? Check the date at the top left of the game page. Is it December 21st? If it is then click the 'Status' book icon at the lower right of the screen. In the page which opens click the 'Give up' icon at the bottom right to start again.
- Can you not see all of the game screen or see an uneven edge to it? A fix has been applied which should have cured this problem but if you still see it then try resetting the screen view size. First click in a blank area of the window. Then most browsers will let you reset the screen size by holding down Ctrl and tapping 0 (zero key). If this doesn't work in your browser try doing it in Google Chrome browser. You'll find this resets the screen size of Flash in all browsers.
- Is movement jerky and hunting/rafting very difficult to control (referred to as 'Lag')? Restart the browser completely. Make sure you close ALL browser windows before reloading the page.
- Clear the Flash cache at http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html
- Try a different browser. Chrome seems to work best; Internet Explorer seems to cause the most problems although Internet Explorer 9 has solved most of them.
- Check to see if it's a Facebook issue at http://developers.facebook.com/live_status
- Restart the computer
- Check to see if there is more than one version of Flash installed and delete any older versions. (Current version is 10.3.) If you are using a 64 bit browser then you may find things are helped by installing the 64 bit version of Flash available from Adobe at http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/000/6b3af6c9.html
- Check the page http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ This page tells you if you need to update your Flash player. If you right click in the Flash area (the bit that moves) you will get a menu which gives you the option to 'Show all'. Make sure 'Show all' is checked.
- Are you using Firefox and any add-ons? Mozilla have a web page about add-ons which slow down a browser. You should disable any of them you have installed to improve speed. The list is at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/performance/#addon-11
- If your browser is still slow then turn off the music, the sound effects and reduce the graphic quality using the game options (gear cog).
- Some people have found they can unfreeze their game by clicking a game link from TOT on your Home page. If there isn't one there try a recent stamina link from the discussion board http://www.facebook.com/board.php?uid=12790318726865
- If your game fails to load completely or you get a server error message - There are four servers hosting Oregon Trail. It's possible that one may need restarting.
If you find this problem affects you, try this:
a. Close down ALL BUT ONE browser window
b. In the last window log off Facebook
c. Shut down your computer
d. Re-start your router/modem - if that gets you a new IP address (does for most)
e. Restart everything, log on again and restart the game
Hopefully that will get you on a different server but you have a 25% chance of getting the same bad one so you may have to do it again :(
The same method MAY work if you are badly affected by lag.
The above steps fix most problems but if this doesn't work then:
- Panic and raise the problem on a discussion forum :)
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