I am so frustrated i am going to break something!!

[fastfed]

I swear!! this happens every so often.. I load a game, wait the 3-5 minutes or whatever. and then "SH3 stopped working"

I must save 20 times during a patrol.. On the surface, going full speed, slow speed, at periscope depth. WHATEVER!

I SAVE A TON OF TIMES!

this morning I had the BEST!! DAMN patrol!!! A nice convoy on the way to the east coast of America, sunk 3 ships.. Spotted another 2 closer to the coast and sunk them..

Then it was time to leave, So I saved, alone with the other 18 saves..

I am down to saved game 10.. thats right!! ALL 8 of the others so far are giving me the SH3 stopped working message!! I CHANGED NOTHING!! NOTHING!! no new mods!! I tried loading with just SH3 no commander and commander (Which says patrol area NULL, now)

NONE WORK!!

I am going to throw this junk in the garbage.. Games should not get me frustrated!! but with the disaster of SH5, I would think SH3 should be somewhat stable!!

DAMN IT!!

There is an on going project to discover and fix save game issues.
Imagine my frustration while working on it.

[fastfed]

Originally Posted by privateer

There is an on going project to discover and fix save game issues.
Imagine my frustration while working on it.

IT REALLY SUCKS MAN!! I want to play dead is dead, because thats supposed to be more realistic right?? Well in real life the captain does go to sleep, only to find out he cant pull open the green curtains to his berth..

Or get up on the bridge and talk to his exc. and he is talking about how ... wait, I hear the game playing in the other room.. Gotta go

[Flaxpants]

Originally Posted by privateer

There is an on going project to discover and fix save game issues.
Imagine my frustration while working on it.

Any updates on the progress of this privateer?

[Gerald]

fastfed it's time to kick some ass

Originally Posted by Flaxpants

Any updates on the progress of this privateer?

I, and several others, know several facts which we have proved with
some very hardcore testing.

The Stock files with StarForce cause CTDs and Save Game errors.
The Reloaded hack approved by UbiSoft causes MORE CTDs and Save Game errors.
The files in the latest release of SH3 are PRE-StarForce and cause LESS CTDs and Save Game errors.

The 'Project' is a tough one!
We must decode files no one has decoded before.
And it all has to be done by studying the files in Hex.

So if a Sub is surfaced in port for test 1,
then submurged in the same port in test 2?
Where are the differences in the files and how do we read them?

Then we must go farther!
But one small step at a time till we figure things out.

Animations were opened this way.
One small bit of understanding at a time by many people.

My Goal is to develop an editor that will allow us to fix
corrupt Saves.

Not change them so a Ship not sunk is changed to a Ship sunk.
Just make the Save work!

[Flaxpants]

Originally Posted by privateer

I, and several others, know several facts which we have proved with
some very hardcore testing.

The Stock files with StarForce cause CTDs and Save Game errors.
The Reloaded hack approved by UbiSoft causes MORE CTDs and Save Game errors.
The files in the latest release of SH3 are PRE-StarForce and cause LESS CTDs and Save Game errors.

The 'Project' is a tough one!
We must decode files no one has decoded before.
And it all has to be done by studying the files in Hex.

So if a Sub is surfaced in port for test 1,
then submurged in the same port in test 2?
Where are the differences in the files and how do we read them?

Then we must go farther!
But one small step at a time till we figure things out.

Animations were opened this way.
One small bit of understanding at a time by many people.

My Goal is to develop an editor that will allow us to fix
corrupt Saves.

Not change them so a Ship not sunk is changed to a Ship sunk.
Just make the Save work!

Cheers mate! Sounds like you have your hands full. Keep us in the loop as I for one am intrigued by all this. And good luck.

[Capt. Morgan]

Originally Posted by privateer

I, and several others, know several facts which we have proved with
some very hardcore testing.

The Stock files with StarForce cause CTDs and Save Game errors.
The Reloaded hack approved by UbiSoft causes MORE CTDs and Save Game errors.
The files in the latest release of SH3 are PRE-StarForce and cause LESS CTDs and Save Game errors.

The 'Project' is a tough one!
We must decode files no one has decoded before.
And it all has to be done by studying the files in Hex.

So if a Sub is surfaced in port for test 1,
then submurged in the same port in test 2?
Where are the differences in the files and how do we read them?

Then we must go farther!
But one small step at a time till we figure things out.

Animations were opened this way.
One small bit of understanding at a time by many people.

My Goal is to develop an editor that will allow us to fix
corrupt Saves.

Not change them so a Ship not sunk is changed to a Ship sunk.
Just make the Save work!

WOW!

[JokerOfFate]

Originally Posted by Capt. Morgan

WOW!

lol is he smoking "weed"
(Can I say weed here or does that offend potheads?)

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by fastfed

I must save 20 times during a patrol.. On the surface, going full speed, slow speed, at periscope depth. WHATEVER!

I SAVE A TON OF TIMES!

I'll refer to my contribution to a thread on a similar topic:

Making saves regularly during a patrol may sound like you are ensuring that if something goes wrong one of the saves will come to your rescue. This is not always the case, unless you exit the game and reload the save each time you make one to verify they work OK, they may all be corrupt. As I understand it if you make a save but do not exit and that save is bad for some reason, then all subsequent saves will also be corrupt, like a chain reaction. I always save and exit after a session playing SH3 and each time I do this I save under a different name. That way if my most recent save goes bad, I know that the previous save did work. I lose a bit of progress but not the whole patrol.

Hopefully the project team looking at the save game problem will find the cause and a solution.

Nemo

[Flaxpants]

A couple of things I have noticed but not seen mentioned elsewhere are the save file dates given in the load game screen. These seem to get messed up from time to time, the dates/times getting corrupted. For example, I recently had a save game go bad on me and whilst loading the game I noticed that the save times given for 'In base after patrol' and 'In base before patrol' had gone bad, the earlier save showing a later date & time than a subsequent save.
Also, a couple of times I have noticed the save file name appearing in the loading screen- at the end of the monthly reports paper- same font and everything....
I'm probably wrong and usually am, but I can't help thinking that this saving issue has something to do with the use of time compression. It would be interesting to know if those of you who play the game at '1' speed have save games corrupting.

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by Flaxpants

Also, a couple of times I have noticed the save file name appearing in the loading screen- at the end of the monthly reports paper- same font and everything....

As Capt. Morgan said this is harmless. I believe it's an issue with how SH3 Commander works.

Nemo

[Capt. Morgan]

Originally Posted by Captain Nemo

...As I understand it if you make a save but do not exit and that save is bad for some reason, then all subsequent saves will also be corrupt, like a chain reaction. ...

Nemo

Thank you sir. This is new information to me. I guess I've been lucky with saves.


As I understand it, in SH3 you must not save:
1) while submerged (and note that in heavy seas you can often be momentarily submerged as a wave hits you)
2) If you are within 30km of any harbour.
3) If you are in contact with any other units - friendly or enemy - including aircraft.

Did I miss any other conditions? Following these 3, I've not experienced a bad save in about a year.

Much as I love SH3/GWX, I've just finished a couple of patrols with Operation Monsoon/OMEGU (SH4 v1.5), and for me, it's now almost as enjoyable to play as SH3 ( sorry for the blasphemy) Therr's a lot of good work that's gone into the SH4-ATO side of things.

Given the failings of SH5 (and SH3 too), I'm hoping that ATO modders will continue to focus on the more stable SH4. It was certainly nice not having to worry about these things for a while.

Originally Posted by Flaxpants

...
Also, a couple of times I have noticed the save file name appearing in the loading screen- at the end of the monthly reports paper- same font and everything....
.

I get that all the time. It's been harmless so far.

[Apache312]

Originally Posted by Capt. Morgan

it's now almost as enjoyable to play as SH3 ( sorry for the blasphemy) .

I too have started SH4, and I just cant seem to get into it. The AA crews are worthless, and believe it or not, I really miss the crew management. I like the stability, but somethings still missing from SH4. Any idea how to get my game to the points of your comment?

[Capt. Morgan]

Originally Posted by Apache312

I too have started SH4, and I just cant seem to get into it. The AA crews are worthless, and believe it or not, I really miss the crew management. I like the stability, but somethings still missing from SH4. Any idea how to get my game to the points of your comment?

I hear you. I'm back with SH3 too (Really like piloting my boat through the locks on a pitch-black night).

As to why I'm lucky with saves, I'm just religious about how I save. Never when submerged ( and always very careful not to be momentarily submerged in bad weather), never if any harbors or surface or air units are within 30Km (now 50Km), and always at zero time compression (forgot about that one, never save at a high TC)

If I can't meet those conditions and i need to leave, then I pause the game and alt-tab out of it. I've left it like that for hours without any ill effects.

I've also cut down on the number of Mods I load (I did have more problems when I was experimenting with every mod there was), and I've installed the 4GB [edit] patch which allows SH3 to access a lot more virtual memory.

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

I go get a beer while the game loads to the first menu, then drink it while the saved game loads.

Ale, Lager or Pilsner?