This guide was created first in the Patrician 3 discord, when I wanted to help out everyone joining. Over the past 3 years or so I have helped a LOT of people and I keep seeing *new* issues pop up every time (Its like a pandora's box haha), so i tried to document them.

Feel free to join we have an amazing modest community of 1500 people as of September 2023. Including people who talk English, Spanish (our largest community), Italian, and German.

See you there!

https://discord.gg/6BHaRZm

There are usually many errors people experience and that require separate solutions. Here is a quick list of things to check before you begin installing:

Problems with solutions:

❌ DUAL MONITORS & Windowed mode - Requires a special program called "DxWnd" to run Patrician III in "windowed mode". Generally when installing, make sure the game works on 1 monitor first and then try make it work with dual/multiple setup (one problem at a time). In the discord they know better than me how to make DxWnd work so I wont include a guide on it for now.
❌ Resolution mod pack - When downloading the resolution mod pack and using the STEAM version for Patrician III, the 2560x1440 resolution causes issues. If your monitor is 2560x1440, then use the 1920x1080 and it will look fine with no issues.

Things to check before installing:

❌ Windows 10 - This guide is focused on windows 10. Windows 11 may have a whole set of own unique problems, but this guide focuses only on issues I have seen other players have in windows 10.
❌ Windows Scaling - See images below. Should be set as "100% (recommended)" in "scale and layout". This is the default option unless you changed it manually.
❌ Screen resolution 800 x 600 should be available - Laptops have this problem - See images below. There is no need to change your resolution here, just see if the 800 x 600 option is available as the main menu of Patrician III is in this resolution, so if your screen doesn't offer the option, then you can't play the game.


➡️ Type "display settings" and should be the first thing that pops up

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📋 Check the 800x600 option is there. No need to change it though.
❌ If it doesn't appear, sadly, you can't play the game as the main menu is in this resolution. The resolution mod only affects in-game. Laptops have this problem.

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📋 Check scaling is "100% (recommended)". If its not 100%, then this messes with the game resolution and you won't be able to run the game properly.

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• Credit to one of the members of our discord for finding this.
  
• You gotta exclude both PatricianIII.exe and P3Setup.exe from Data Execution Preventation by:
  
• Right click Computer > Properties > Advanced System Options > Performance > Data Execution Preventation tab -> add button, and then add both patrician3.exe and p3hardwaresettings.exe
  
• More info: https://steamproxy.net/app/33570/discussions/0/1753520281132537017/
  
• The only difference is that the member of our disord didn't add the two files as exceptions but just turning the prevention to "only windows files" (just in case)

Buy the game.


Steam library -> Right click patrician 3 -> open file location. Here you will find the patrician3.exe and p3setup.exe.


To enable compatibility with windows 10 and avoid issues:
➡️ Go to the P3 the folder and look for the patrician3.exe (and P3setup)
➡️ Right click to go to properties,



➡️ Then go to the "compatibility" tab
➡️ Set compatibility mode: "Windows XP (Service pack 3)".




Find P3Setup.exe



This is important to run as it checks the resolutions. The resolutions below are the important ones to test for:

🔵 "800x600x16" - 1st one (this is the resolution the main menu of the game is in)
🔵 "1024x768x32" - 4th one (this is the in-game resolution. When installing the 1920x1080 mod resolution, the 4th option will still say 1024x768x32 but in reality it will be 1920x1080)

Make sure these say OK. The rest doesn't really matter. When testing, it will do weird things and show you an image. If you were able to view press "Yes" and once you are done press OK to close.

All credit to Raydell, the author of this mod. Go ahead and check it out where you will find the files. Remember to leave him a like and favorite!

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=382413909
Link for the lazy:

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Zw811YZELST3p5QmNnQVhlQ2s/view

This resolution mod pack:

• 📋 Contains the 1.1b patch
  
• 📋 This patch fixes some bugs which caused the game to crash.
  
• 📋 Does not affect the main menu, only actual game. (!)
  
• ✅ This 1.1b patch is compatible with the Steam version.

Note from author:

• "The 1.1b patch should be compatible with the Steam version, however if you run into issues, you can also download my first resolution pack which uses the original Patrician3.exe" - Raydell
  
• Found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Zw811YZELSdHpVMkU4M21fUms/view

❌ IMPORTANT: 2560x1440 resolution causes issues with the STEAM version. If your monitor is 2560x1440, then use the 1920x1080 option and it will look fine.

Once the resolution mod above is downloaded, you'll have to choose the folder with your desired resolution and copy & replace contents into the main p3 folder.

For example, choose the 1920x1080 folder if your monitor has that resolution. In your chosen folder there should be:

🔵 Images folder
🔵 Scripts folder
🔵 How to install notepad
🔵 Patrician3.exe

Copy-paste these items inside the main Patrician III folder and replace all files. You can save a copy of the original patrician3.exe in another folder if you want to.


See the previous section on how to enable compatibility.
For the patrician3.exe, check that compatibility is set to: "Windows XP (Service pack 3)"


Run the game. Whilst launching it might go black and or do weird stuff, just let it load to main menu.

➡️ It should ask to run as admin. If not, right click the Patrician3.exe and select "run as admin"
➡️ In the main menu, go into options and select the 1024x768 resolution - this is what activates the custom resolution
📋 Note: the 1024x768 setting has been edited out and replaced with the new resolution so it's 1024x768 in name only now.
📋 Note: The resolution mod pack only applies to the in-game and not the main menu so don't panic


In the Patrician III folder, delete the "trailer.bik" file


Uninstall the game entirely and START AGAIN -- trust me we've all f*cked up haha

Yes! This game has multiplayer. The most common ways to play multiplayer is via GameRanger or Hamachi. Join the discord to find others to play with :) Link at the top of this guide.

❌ Naval combat - Whenever a "you're being attacked" message pops up (for example: being attacked by a pirate), make sure to hit the "X" button to close it very quickly or else the game will slow down to naval combat speed forever. It is a pain but the only known solution is to save very frequently and load the games back if that happens.

Tip: Only do naval combat in "Player vs Player" and avoid "Player vs AI"

Automatic saves - It has been reported in the Italian community that disabling this feature helps reduce the amount of times the game freezes. Yet to be fully confirmed.


GameRanger is an online platform to play with others that simulates a LAN party to be able to play in "Local" multiplayer. This is what I have used to play with others in this discord.

• Download & Install - Official site: https://www.gameranger.com/
  
• Create an account
  
• Open or join a game - To find a Patrician III game, search by "My Games" or "strategy".

From wiki: Hamachi is a virtual private network application developed and released in 2004 by Alex Pankratov. It is capable of establishing direct links between computers that are behind network address translation firewalls without requiring reconfiguration.

Safety warning: Ensure you play with people you trust. In theory it should be safe but use with caution and do your research.

• Download & Install - Official site: https://vpn.net/
  
• Create an account
  
• Follow tutorials on how to set up

Not sure how, but I know its possible