Start minimized?

[fafalone]

I've gone through the list of command line parameters and selected the option on the shortcut, but haven't had any success. Given the ~8 minute load time for a full plugin load it would be helpful to be able to do other things while the game loads. It doesn't respond to keyboard input until it's at the intro screen, when it's done loading.
Also being able to minimize while loading a city would be helpful too.

Any ideas on how to accomplish this?

[turtle]

you are not able to Alt+Tab out of the game? or using the windows key?

Personally, I can't get all the commandline functions to work properly, I think it needs to be exactly like it's posted in the first post of this thread: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=3683.0 (which I assume you're already using, so maybe you should direct your questions to there). I'm using windowed mode and a custom resolution just lower than the monitors native resolution for the same purpose, of being able to do other stuff easily while playing. That might work for you too

[fafalone]

Actually I can't even use windowed mode; get a can't initialize graphics driver error and crash. Old integrated laptop graphics suck,

It doesn't respond to alt tab or the windows key during game load and city load; that's when I want to do something else.. after the 8 minute load period I can switch at will but not before.

[turtle]

Well, I understand your problem, but I'm probably not the right guy to help you then (other than point you to the beforementioned thread). Does any of the command line parameters work for you?

[fafalone]

They all work (right now I use -gp -r1680x1050 -Intro:off -CPUCount:2); it's just my graphics card can't handle windowed mode at a decent resolution.