Okay, what'd I do?

[frau kaleun]

Need some help with mods, please!

Running GWX3 Gold, SH3 Commander. Had started a career via Commander, ran successful 1st patrol in a VIIB 1-2 Aug 1939, 7th Flotilla out of Konigsberg. No mods installed yet, made no changes to anything the game gave me as far as u-boat, crew, equipment, etc. Saved career after returning to base. When I went back into SH3 Commander, all career info was there and updated to reflect status after 1st patrol. So far so good.

Added desired mods with JSGME to try out (in what I thought was right order where necessary.) Went back in tonight to start 2nd patrol (via Commander), went into saved career, clicked on last save which puts me in base after completing 1st patrol. In HQ screen clicked on Mission and hit Start. Game started to load, but about halfway through that I get my first taste of the "Silent Hunter III has encountered an error and needs to close" thing.

Closed game and tried to load same saved career without going through Commander, same deal. Tried to start new career, same deal. Tried to load single mission, same deal.

Started disabling mods one at a time to see if that helped. It did, finally.




Here are the mods I had enabled:

1. GWX 3 St Naz and Schleuse
2. WB's GWX campaign with 23 additional ships
3. -remove Titanic
4. -add Q ships

(can't remember official names of those last two, but they were options that came with WB's 23 add'l ships mod, which I enabled after installing it)



Then:

• GWX Alternate Loadscreen Full Circle
• GWX Integrated Orders
• GWX No Medals on Crew
• GWX Open Hatch Mod
• GWX VIIC41 Player Sub
• Scire-Tikigod-repeated order
• VIIB WAR SKIN II
• Das Boot Clothes

I'm not totally sure about the order in which I enabled that last batch, but to the best of my recollection that's it. I know I went down the list of GWX mods and enabled the ones I wanted from there first, before adding anything else.

I also had WB's GWX Mid-Patrol Radio Orders enabled in SH3 Commander, and had enabled the North Atlantic mod from that for the current patrol.

The game continued to err out when trying to load a saved career or mission until I had disabled everything except the GWX St Naz and Schleuse mod, which was the first one I had added because I thought WB's instructions for the add'l 23 ships mod said the St Naz & Schleuse mod had to be there first.

Is there a different St Naz/Schleuse mod that I should have used, or did I have some other conflict going on? Or is my system just not gonna run the game with everything enabled that I was trying to use?

I'm running Windows XP Pro 32 bit
AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8 GHz AM3 Processor
Asus M3A78-EM motherboard
ATI Radeon HD4650 1 GB PCIe graphics card
Asus Xonar DX PCIe sound card
6 GB DDR2 RAM (of which Windows recognizes about 3.8 G, but I had the sticks so they're in there)

if any of that matters to my dilemma.

Thanks in advance for any advice/answers etc.!

[FIREWALL]

Did you tick Save and Exit or End patrol right before leaving game ?

[frau kaleun]

Um... I dunno? Lol.

I completed the mission objectives, hit Esc, clicked return to base, and IIRC clicked Save first. Then I think I clicked Save and Exit to get out. It was the first time I'd ever had anything I *wanted* to save, so I'm not exactly sure what I did since I hadn't been through that procedure before.

But the patrol and the career were definitely saved at the point I exited the game, as far as I can tell, because all the correct info for both is there in both SH3 and in Commander. I could go into the game (whether using Commander or not) and choose career mode and that saved career, just couldn't get it to load so I could actually start playing. I couldn't load a career OR a single mission with all those mods enabled the way I had them set up.

Since I disabled all the mods but the first one on the list above, I can go back in and load the last save from that career and go successfully right back into it, loading the save that has me in base after completing the first patrol, and start a second patrol on the date that corresponds to the "time in base" option I selected in Commander. I've tried that and it loads the career fine and starts out with me in position to take the boat out of the harbour for the next patrol.

[frau kaleun]

Looking at the list of mods I had enabled, does the Das Boot Clothes mod conflict with the No Medals on Crew mod? Just wondering since they're both doing something to the appearance of the crew in-game.

I also have some other mods in the MODS folder, they just weren't enabled at the time the errors were occuring. But I had enabled and disabled some of them prior to disabling all mods before starting the current career, and then re-enabled the ones I wanted after I got the first patrol completed and saved. I don't know if that makes any difference.

[Bosje]

edit: never mind i was talking nonsense due to having had some scotch

ps welcome to the pack, frau kaleun (a lot of posts already but never saw you here before, somehow

[FIREWALL]

It's not a good idea to save and then swap mods around eeven if you come back to port.

Better to do a clean exit.

Shcommander will show if you are back in base or in a save I think.

I hate it not knowing for sure.

Good Luck frau.k.

[sergei]

Yes that's right Firewall. Commander tells me my captain is either
In base before patrol2
or
At sea during patrol 3.
Obviously I make sure it's the former for enabling mods.

It sounds like you are doing everything right.
The only thing I can suggest is maybe enable the mods one at a time. The first one that crashes the game may be corrupt, try re downloading it.

[sergei]

One other thing. The St Naz mod to be enabled before Von Dos ships is

GWX_3StNaz+Schluese+shipsV4.7

[Kaleun Cook]

Sounds a bit like the problem me and others have:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=160394

Maybe that^^ wasn't a Win 7 issue at all since you report the same bevaviour with WinXP.

[frau kaleun]

thanks, guys.

after I finished the first patrol, Cdr was showing me in base, so I'm not sure what went wrong. the St Naz/Schleuse mod was the first one I put in, then the ships mod, so I don't think that was the issue.

will try setting things up again and play with mods one at a time to see what happens.

[Wreford-Brown]

Frau K,

You won't be able to load a saved mission/patrol because both St Naz and Schleuse and my mod rewrite the campaign files, both the scripted campaign and the random one.

You should be able to start a new career, and if you'd exited the game by returning to base than you would be able to start the next patrol with the new mods enabled.

If you're desperate to complete that mission, I recommend disabling all mods, complete your mission, return to base and then enable any mods that you want to.

Enabling anything mid-patrol is asking for CTDs!

[HundertzehnGustav]

Saved career after returning to base. When I went back into SH3 Commander, all career info was there and updated to reflect status after 1st patrol. So far so good.

Added desired mods with JSGME to try out (in what I thought was right order where necessary.) Went back in tonight to start 2nd patrol (via Commander), went into saved career, clicked on last save which puts me in base after completing 1st patrol.

Madam was back at port, and she was between patrols when the shyt hit the fan?

But it is true - only enable mods after/before a patrol, back at home base.

[Wreford-Brown]

Sorry - eyes were watering with the long post .

The thing that's got me foxed is the CTD mid-load. Campaign issues tend to cause CTD right at the end, just before the 'not so long ago...' message.

Most mid-load CTDs seem to be happening with Win 7 but that's not the case here . Maybe someone who knows a hell of a lot more about SH3 than me can tell us what causes mid-load crashes.

[frau kaleun]

Okay, thanks all. I guess I was/am a little confused about when I can/should enable mods or not.

Since I'd only done one patrol in one career and wasn't concerned about having to start a new one, I just did a fresh install of SH3/GWX/Commander so I could start over from scratch and try to get it right this time. Also something I did in the course of trying to get something, anything, to load up after getting the initial error message really screwed up things in Commander, so it seemed like the safest option. My refrigerator magnets hadn't fallen off yet, but it was probably only a matter of time.

So - I have a fresh install of all three, have not opened the game or extracted and enabled any mods whatsover.

If I understand things correctly, I can go in now and extract/enable the mods I want (including the Mid-Patrol Radio Orders that has to be enabled in Commander itself), then open Commander and start a new career from there, then load the game and select that career, just don't make any changes in the SH3 screens to my boat, crew, etc. Go out on one patrol, complete it, return to base, and exit the game, and then when I go back into Commander all the info for that career should be there, and I can go back into it from there, and from then on I can use the in-game screens to upgrade boat & equipment using whatever renown I have. Crew management I can do from Commander.

The other thing that confuses is me is the whole Save/Exit/Save & Exit thing because the game gives so many options. Once I return to base, the game auto-saves the career, so if I've finished the patrol and returned to base, I don't need to do anything but exit, right?

So I should just hit Esc, say 'yes,' and click on 'return to base' and then exit the game and my career will be saved with me in base after that patrol, ready to go out again. I can check that by selecting the career within the game and the last save should show me in base after finishing the most recent patrol.

When I go back in through Commander to resume that career, I select that last auto-save and start from there. And as long as I was back in base when I exited the game, I can enable or disable mods before going back into the game.

BUT - if I do a save when I'm NOT in base, then I shouldn't make any changes to mods until I go back in, start from that save point, and play until I finish up that patrol and am back in base again.

Please let me know if I have all this right.

[HundertzehnGustav]

Let me read and take care to understand all you say...

I can now and extract/enable the mods I want
open Commander and start a new career,
load the game and select that career,
Go out on one patrol, complete it, return to base, and exit the game,

the "complete patrol, return to base and exit", THAT is what you do.
You want to enable mods? Do it before you start a career or when you are at home. And ONLY there.

-Tip. your crew has few qualifications when they start their war. Make of your first patrol a very short one, dont even leave the harbor area. Then you can "manage your crew" in commander and give more qualifications.

The other thing that confuses is me
Once I return to base, the game auto-saves the career, so if I've finished the patrol and returned to base, I don't need to do anything but exit, right?

no...?

The game does not autosave anything.
You do the saving.
Either somewhere in the ocean, in the middle of the action
Or Once you return to base, (within a couple of miles of the harbor) you hit the escape button.
The question is then asked:

• you wanna exit simply
  (lose all progress since the last save point/the last time you were at your desk)
• or you wanna dock at your harbor XYZ (save your progress, and then walk off the Uboat and into your office, report to your boss and get the renown for your work )

BUT - if I do a save when I'm NOT in base, then I shouldn't make any changes to mods until I go back in, start from that save point, and play until I finish up that patrol and am back in base again.

correct. You not at home, dont touch any damn files!

*hands The Lady a cold Beer*