Introversion

Didn't get a blackbox file. (d'oh-check here: it should show up in the darwinia folder, right? I checked that and the savegame folder, didn't see one)

Since you're running the mac version, maybe another user could point me in the direction of a guide to de-patching a Steam game. Searches are coming up pretty empty, but I'm still looking.

Being the complex and bored person that I am, I took the time to check that Insurrection 1.17 works perfectly, at least as far as capturing the first control tower is concerned, in both 1.5.10 (steam) and 1.5.11 (regular retail patch).

The issue in hand is, in fact, reminiscent of those early days where typos and other mysterious beasts lay in wait. It sounds as though maybe it can't save the file successfully for whatever reason- could be a typo, could be a permissions issue, who knows. My advice would be to try making a new profile, and see if the issue persists. If it does, there may be a complicated (?) file access permissions issue at the heart of this. Well, that, or the magic typo fairy is haunting your PC...

Ah, permissions. I bet thats it. You know Vista, always with the [expletive deleted] permissions.



Which file(s) get written/modified when you capture a tower? Just so I know which ones to watch.

EDIT: Clarity.

EDIT2: Also, thanks for checking on that, Goldfish. That's one thing I know is working

If this is permissions, I would expect you to have this problem with ANY mod, and that more people would come across the problem, so it still may not be (somehow...) - I think it's related to a combination of default steam install dirs and vista. (and permissions)

Regardless, I'm not sure where exactly Vista keeps its save game data. Darwinia usually places them in etc\Darwinia\Users\ProfileName\ (and mods usually go in etc\Darwinia\mods\modname\, so maybe there'll be a diametric...) in which go game.txt and the missions files which make up your profile. Darwinia will need rights to do pretty much anything in that folder, wherever it may be, be it create files, delete files, append, modify etc.

When eg a tower is fully captured, Darwinia initiates a save game, which will almost always be game.txt as well as probably the mission files that have been changed. Previously (many moons ago), it crashed because of some typos in game.txt, which the game refused to then save into a game.txt file for the profile, but I imagine the same would occur if it was unable to make the file.

You might like to try searching for "NewUser", as that's the default profile name Darwinia uses, it might make finding the correct folder easier.

Given that there seems to be some confusion, I'll list what I've found about directories and locations in steam on vista:

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\[SteamID]\darwinia:

darwinia.exe
d3dxd_32.dll
language.dat
main.dat
patch.dat
sounds.dat
xinput1_3.dll


C:\Users\[WindowsUser]\Saved Games\Darwinia:

mods folder
users folder
preferences.txt
user_input_preferences.txt


The users folder appear to be set up the same as in any other installation, and the mods folder is in the right place too, as far as I can tell. EnemyWithinPart1 works fine, but Part2 crashes consistently in Visitorlobby. I think the crash is just as the second mission is starting, since the second mission is visible in the map, but not selectable as a destination if I start it up after a crash.

I'm thinking about crossposting this into the windows issue forum, since it appears to be a steam/vista combo-problem. If you guys have any ideas, post away. Am I the first steam/vista user to try this mod, or is this problem limited to my computer alone?

Bobman42 wrote:Am I the first steam/vista user to try this mod, or is this problem limited to my computer alone?

Really, this is the most important question, to which I can only respond with the following...

TO THE VISTA CAVE O___O

I'll get back to you... heh

OK, GOOD NEWS; it TOTALLY CRASHED. Thus, you're not insane. However, it is now my job to find out why the hell it crashed, I guess!

OK, I have a fully workable solution: Before you capture the tower, select something to put research points into from the research menu. This prevented the crash for me!

In Vista, for whatever reason;
CurrentResearch none
turns into;
CurrentResearch 
in XP it does uhhhm...
CurrentResearch 
Maybe that's the same! Either way, it just gets very angry on vista, but not XP o_O

The GoldFish wrote:TO THE VISTA CAVE O___O

Is that anything like a wuss cave?

The GoldFish wrote:I'll get back to you... heh

OK, GOOD NEWS; it TOTALLY CRASHED. Thus, you're not insane. However, it is now my job to find out why the hell it crashed, I guess!

OK, I have a fully workable solution: Before you capture the tower, select something to put research points into from the research menu. This prevented the crash for me.

In Vista, for whatever reason;
CurrentResearch none
turns into;
CurrentResearch 
in XP it does uhhhm...
CurrentResearch 
Maybe that's the same! Either way, it just gets very angry on vista, but not XP o_O

Arg. How annoying. I initially had DGs set as research target in Insurrection, but changed that when people complained that their DGs were getting 'nades, and that they were wasting research points where they didn't want them. It sounds like XP doesn't like that. Perhaps I will change it back at some point.

xander

I'm just downloading the 1.5.11 patch/directX to see if it behaves any differently in Vista. Interestingly (or not), that character is a CRAZY L in vista, and just a box in XP. Probably font related...

Interestingly, and perhaps, obviously, 1.42 changed none to read:
CurrentResearch Officer
And didn't crash when the tower was captured.
1.5.11 did however.

Jist is, the vista versions, when on vista, end up with:


So, your game.txt is fine, but as soon as you re enter the map, it tries to allocate points to whaever a  is, and the came crashes. For some reason, 1.5.x on XP, while doing the exact same thing apparently, does not crash. Ultimately, the jist is, why don't you just change current research in the mod's game.txt to be officer? o_O

Yep, that works. Changed research to engineer as soon as I made one, and I captured the tower fine.




So, we learned that Vista is ca-razy. Now I get to finally give the mod a shot!

Thanks a ton Xander and Goldfish. I'd still be trying to find the right sized mallet to fix the computer if it wasn't for you two.

No sweat. What concerns me though, is that the vista version of Darwinia has been out for over a year or so, and you're the first person to report this.

If the issue with EW persists, I'll help look into that too... drop a post by trickfred's thread, in that case (for a start he might have an answer!)

Bobman42 wrote:EnemyWithinPart1 works fine, but Part2 crashes consistently in Visitorlobby. I think the crash is just as the second mission is starting, since the second mission is visible in the map, but not selectable as a destination if I start it up after a crash.

I don't have Vista, but if I get some time this week, I'll go over the mod again. House hunting sucks.

Well, until I know what I'm looking for I'm not going to comb through EW2 trying to find the cause of the alleged problem - you can if you like, though! :P

Hi all

I didn't know where to ask so i'll try it here.

I've just installed insurrection 1.1.7 which works fine. Except i cannot have more than one task at a time. This means that in the level where you have to get the squad from one side of the map to the other, i cannot create an engineer (the task is already used by the squad). Since i cannot create a engineer, i cannot reprogram the radar dish which would let the squad travel such as it should. This leads to the following conclusion : i cannot finish this map...

Is this normal ?

I'm running under linux and had no trouble playing to the original.

Thanks a lot !!

jy wrote:Hi all

I didn't know where to ask so i'll try it here.

I've just installed insurrection 1.1.7 which works fine. Except i cannot have more than one task at a time. This means that in the level where you have to get the squad from one side of the map to the other, i cannot create an engineer (the task is already used by the squad). Since i cannot create a engineer, i cannot reprogram the radar dish which would let the squad travel such as it should. This leads to the following conclusion : i cannot finish this map... :-(

Is this normal ?

I'm running under linux and had no trouble playing to the original.

Thanks a lot !!

That is expected. You may need to go somewhere else to upgrade the Task Manager before you finish that level.

xander

That's what i thought ...

The first level were already quite harder than the the original game. but this one was becoming outragously difficult !!!

Thanks a lot (and by the way i love the scenario, it's great) !!