Hi Mechag, thank you for your comments about singleplayer, glad to hear you're enjoying it.
This does sound unusual, did you try the stuff from the First Strike newspost some time ago that mentioned some common problems and fixes?
(From News Post)
CRASH WHEN CLICKING DEPLOY
When a map loads and you click the deploy button it can be one of a number of reasons.
1) The server is running a different version of First Strike. Check you are running the latest version of First Strike (1.5 at time of writing). As First Strike has the ability to download incremental builds produced by the development team, you must ensure you allow these to install. You can check which 'build number' you have installed by clicking on File, Preferences in the launcher window, the build number is displayed in the field 'Version'.
2) A recent patch has not yet been applied to the server you attempted to join, try a different server.
3) You have attempted to join the Development server. This server is used to test new content by the First Strike team. Attempting to join it using the publically released files will result in a crash to desktop.
Other crashes and game freezes can often be solved by clearing your cache, this is found in My Documents, Battlefield 2142, Mods, FirstStrike. Just delete everything in the cache folder. The game will repopulate with contents but it will cause you to load shaders again when you first start loading.
MAPS NOT LOADING, STOPPING AROUND 60%
1) Go to your BF2142 folder, eg C:Program FilesElectronic ArtsBattlefield 2142
2) Locate the file "radial.cdb"
If you do not see this file in the folder then you need to go to folder options tell Windows to show hidden files. You also (or instead) have to uncheck the box just a little bit below it, which is "Hide protected operating system files".
(For some reason this is a protected file and will not show if you ask to show normal hidden files.)
3) Rename the file to oldradial.cdb (or something similar so you know what it is) and start your game.
The game will create a new radial.cdb file on it's own.
(/news post)
Just to rule out some other issues, have you manually edited any files, eg to increase number of bots?
Did you delete First Strike 1.4 before installing First Strike 1.5? This should also include deleting the 1.4 FS launcher and installing the one bundled with 1.5.
You wrote that you have set preferences to widescreen +1, could you double check what you have entered in the launchers preferences window, you may have just posted a type. The correct entry should read +widescreen 1. Personally, I play in widescreen but rather than use +widescreen 1 I instead enter the correct resolution, this is written in the same area but in this form: +szx 1920 +szy 1080 (obviously change the figures to your own settings!).
Try those then report back, I shall have a think and see if I can come up with any other stuff.
Bite my shiny metal Tie Fighter!

