[OM] A victim of the "Turmumbau-desaster"

[GlobalExplorer]

No I think there is nothing wrong with the game crashing per se when it encounters a dangling reference (dangling as in: use type7b.tower2 ; but there is no such object).

I think the real problem is the way in which the cfg files were designed, almost nothing uses the exact same format, they seem to have started to read in simple ini-files and then by demand added more and more, until they had database-like functionality. What results is quite a mess imo, but at least it does the job. It still should have been in XML or even better, a database.

Everyone who starts working with this stuff should prepare for very tedious editing of text, with many pitfalls if everything is not 100% correct. The engine does not tolerate spelling mistakes / typos or general sloppy work..

That's why I suggested a validator which tests all references in the cfg data. Such a tool would be absolutely feasible, but it'd be a lot of work with so many different formats. It's a pity no one ever wanted to do the work, I am sure the game would be extremely stable that way.

[skidman]

Just to give You an update on the Turmumbau-desaster:

It has happened again. I finally reinstalled SH4 (again) with the mods listed in the first post, found a saved game that could be used as a donor for rank, tonnage, medals and crew. A saved game from a new career (same flotilla, almost same date) was used as transplant host and I could continue my career. In May 1944 I was "awarded" the conning tower III for Typ VIIc and the result was: Crew slots missing, no propulsion, end of career again. I repeated transplantation of saved game components into a new dummy and continued patrolling until July 1944.

Now I`m stuck in the Rade de Brest, the allies have already landed in the Normandy, and I would happily move to Bergen if the game would let me:

Patrol No. 25, July 11th 1944: Heading for home base which is under heavy attack from allied aircraft -> SH4 crashes, luckily I had saved when approaching pointe St Mathieu (Before the game had crashed!!!).

The saved game loads fine, I happily enter the base (make changes to crew, make changes to equipment, accept/decline the crippled Typ XXIII the BdU is offering, change flotilla/home base), start a new mission and

ALL GAMES SAVED AFTER LEAVING THE BASE FAIL TO LOAD ->ctd

Two possible reasons: 1) The crash has rendered files, that were created before, useless (Don't laugh, it has happened before, see first post for reference). 2) Another very nasty bug in OM/OMEGU

So I reckon I have to fiddle about with the last valid save and a new dummy (11th flotilla, December 44, Bergen seems suitable) again. This is ridiculous. It's a pity I enjoy playing OM so much.

[in_vino_vomitus]

I'm having a similar problem. Strangely enough I was fine playing a Type II, but when I tried a Type IX I've had huge problems with saved games crashing - If there's a fix for this I can't wait to learn it.....

[in_vino_vomitus]

Reading through the documentation it says OM should be installed last, then the OMEGU readme says that OMEGU should be installed after OM - Plus it seems there's a lot of optional stuff in OMEGU that needs to be installed separately - anyway I'm in the process of reinstalling the whole package. If it works I'll post details here in case anyone else is having similar issues. I assume that although these mods are compatible with TMO etc. there's no problem adding them to a clean game?

Also any hints and tips would be greatly appreciated. I really, really really like this mod - I want to make it work......

[skidman]

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

Reading through the documentation it says OM should be installed last, then the OMEGU readme says that OMEGU should be installed after OM

Yes, that's the right order: OM -> OM Update -> OM patch -> OMEGU -> OMEGU patch -> everything else

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

- Plus it seems there's a lot of optional stuff in OMEGU that needs to be installed separately - anyway I'm in the process of reinstalling the whole package.

I have deactivated OMEGU by now and not a single crash ever since. The eye candy that comes with OMEGU is nice, but not worth the trouble it causes. YMMV.

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

If it works I'll post details here in case anyone else is having similar issues. I assume that although these mods are compatible with TMO etc. there's no problem adding them to a clean game?

No problem at all. But it's a good idea to have separate installs of SH4 for different mega mods anyway. Use Multi SH4:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...=1110&act=down

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

Also any hints and tips would be greatly appreciated. I really, really really like this mod - I want to make it work......

A saved file that fails to load can be rescued by transplanting a valid ActivePlayerUnit file into the saved games folder of the faulty save. You can even keep your crew with all special abilities by editing the APU (copy the old crew entries into the new file, use wordpad).

Maybe you fancy playing a Typ IX career start to finish (= end of war)? Cause each new conning tower (for Typ VII) has cause hick ups for me and I'd like to know if the conning tower upgrade for Typ IX brings about the same side effects.

[in_vino_vomitus]

You know I'm ashamed to say this, but I completely messed up the original install. OM and OMEGU come in packaged folders, which I completely failed to unpack into the mods folder. I did the RTFM thing and this became painfully obvious, so now I have the game properly installed. It has crashed a couple of times but so far the last saved position has loaded fine and I'm saving pretty frequently now. I've got multiple installs and I've started keeping each versions saved games in its own folder, which I rename before changing games. So far doing it this way has given me zero hassle. If I make it as far as a conning tower upgrade, I'll let you know how it goes

[GlobalExplorer]

Wouldn't a solution be to keep the same Turm for the whole game?

The changes to the dates at which conning towers appear can be made quite easily. For example, for type VIIC this would be in:

submarine/NSS_Uboat7c/NSS_Uboat7c.upcge

IDLinkUnitPartIntervalDefault1=NULL, 1941-06-15, Turm_VIIC_1
IDLinkUnitPartIntervalDefault2=1941-06-16, 1941-12-10, Turm_VIIC_2
IDLinkUnitPartIntervalDefault3=1941-12-11, NULL, Turm_VIIC_3

Here I set the dates so that VIIC boats either:
a) keep Turm 1 for the whole game
or
b) get Turm 3 at the earliest date (for type VIIC that's Feb/1941).
with option b) I think you also receive a radar warning receiver automaticallly, and this could be a gameplay breaker.

I also:

make corresponding changes in
UPCDataGE/UPCUnitsData/UnitParts6VIIC.upc
but I don't think it's necessary.

and delete my MyFiles/SH4 directory, so that the game must create a new one. The reason I think this may be necessary is because the game creates copies of the relevant files, so there may be conflicts with copies made before the changes.

Could this solve the problem? Everything works without problem, but I have never played more than 2,3 patrols.