Technical Issue: Final patrol won't load - Page 2

propbeanie · 04-05-19, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mios 4Me

Just lost another extremely successful patrol, this time in 1.5 with LAA and 16 GB of RAM. In this case, it immediately fails to load instead of keeping me waiting. I'd experienced the "hundreds of destroyers" issue again, south of Kyushu once more, and was trying to limp home as the system could not go past 1580 compression speed. Made it to the Banda Sea, where the game tempted me into one last convoy, all tankers...

Are you running any mods, or Stock?

Mios 4Me · 04-05-19, 09:16 AM

Oops, meant to include that. I'm on the old laptop now, so going from memory:

I'm using most of Berbster's GFO mega-mod along with Cheap & Early Torpedoes and the Balao Midway mod. Possibly the elite crew mod too.

propbeanie · 04-05-19, 10:06 AM

Keep in mind that any changes you make to the game with mods will affect the Save game folder. If you started with THEBERBSTER's basic mix of GFO and play the game, then decide that you want to add-in the Balao mod you speak of, you have to empty your C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4 folder each time you change the base game, then re-set all your play options, screen resolution, etc., just because of the fact that the game uses that Save folder to run the game from. A mod activation will overwrite files in the game's folder, but not in the Save folder, and the game will not overwrite a file in the Save folder, if it already exists. That can lead to what you describe. Throw in the fact that some mods overwrite some important parts of the mods previously activated, and you could be introducing even more trouble. I would either post in THEBERBSTER's thread, or send him a PM and ask him if he knows which of the mods you want to use are compatible with his mix. Just be sure you clear the save folder between mod changes.

Mios 4Me · 04-05-19, 11:55 AM

I'll ping him about the compatibility issues, though I installed all the mods before beginning the career, of which the lost patrol was number 11.

I started to write that this was the first issue I had in 1.5 but then recalled one bizarre incident in patrol 9 or so. Two destroyers in camera view were cavorting from right to left, spinning along their keels, completely upside down at times. On another contact, a destroyer and a freighter had been...um, in flagrante delicto, apparently spawning a convoy of their own.

Sniper297 · 04-05-19, 04:37 PM

Curious, are you overwriting the same save game each time, or saving with a new name then later deleting the ones you no longer need?

One thing I found was overwriting a save game instead of deleting and then saving as new seemed to be a common cause of corruption, so I quit overwriting.

When playing a career I save as (for example) 1PAT1, 1PAT2. 1PAT3, and so on. Next patrol starts as 2PAT1, and when you save there's an option to delete saved games, so after saving 2PAT1 at the beginning of the second patrol, I'll delete all the odd numbers from the first patrol. By the time I get to the 4th patrol I'll delete all but one or two from the first and second patrols.

Main thing is if 5PAT14 is corrupted and crashes the game every time, I can load 5PAT13 and head back to base instead of losing the entire patrol.

mikesn9 · 04-06-19, 05:16 AM

sniper, I do my saves the same way, a new name every time. I keep the last known good save, until I load from a more recent save, then that one becomes the 'last good save'.

I usually name mine as a reminder to where I was a the time, Like: "in zone", or " tanker down 4 torps left", etc.

Mios 4Me · 04-06-19, 12:34 PM

That's an excellent idea, sniper - can't believe I hadn't thought of it.

Mios 4Me · 04-06-19, 06:02 PM

And now the game is crashing in the Missions section. Twice now I've begun an attack off Midway only for the system to shut down.

That's surprising because the Balao and early torpedoes mods don't appear to be present in the Missions parameters.

propbeanie · 04-06-19, 06:56 PM

If you added mods to the game between Saves, you will often ruin the compatibility of the Save. Remove any changed mods, and it might play. Then again, the Save often gets cross-contaminated by the changes. YMMV...

Sniper297 · 04-06-19, 11:27 PM

Haven't played the quick missions very often (love the campaign career too much) but on creating my own found they're very touchy, and mods often give them indigestion. My guess is someone created a mission with a GATO class, install a mod that fixes the missing gauges and corrects some flaws with the GATO, and the mission has a spaz attack because it was expecting something different from what you have now. That's just a wild guess based on the fact that the quick missions didn't crash as often - cripes, was it 12 years ago? - when I first got the game. What might work is editing a quick mission, deleting then replacing the player sub and saving, got a backup file it's worth a try.

"That's an excellent idea, sniper"

Learned that the hard way with one of them dungeons and dragons role playing games back in the 80s - six save files are enough, just keep overwriting them in order. Hmmm, a shiny new piece of armor enchanted to reflect fire spells, try it on, works great! A week and several overwrites later my character is dead, the armor was cursed and can't be taken off without something to break the curse, I have no save games without that armor.

I learned from that if a game has a limited number of savegame slots, make occasional backups of the entire savegame folder just in case.

SH4 doesn't have that problem, it crashes from a savegame file that gets too big, but so far I haven't seen it crash from too many savegame files. Save just before and just after each attack, using numbers to make each save file different is the simplest way to keep track for me. Don't know if it's necessary to occasionally delete some of the older ones, I just do it to keep the list short. The "autosave on leaving (entering) base" files can also be handy, if you're in the habit of editing campaign missions the saves on patrol will crash because you changed something in a mission that was already loaded in the save, leaving the base after reloading an autosave loads all the missions along with the traffic or ships I edited from scratch.

After saving and exiting check the message that tells you how many ships and tons you've sunk so far in this patrol, I generally try to keep it under 400,000 tons per patrol so the megabytes don't bite.

04-05-19, 10:06 AM	#18
propbeanie CTD - it's not just a job Join Date: May 2016 Location: One hour from Music City USA! Posts: 10,098 Downloads: 451 Uploads: 2	Keep in mind that any changes you make to the game with mods will affect the Save game folder. If you started with THEBERBSTER's basic mix of GFO and play the game, then decide that you want to add-in the Balao mod you speak of, you have to empty your C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4 folder each time you change the base game, then re-set all your play options, screen resolution, etc., just because of the fact that the game uses that Save folder to run the game from. A mod activation will overwrite files in the game's folder, but not in the Save folder, and the game will not overwrite a file in the Save folder, if it already exists. That can lead to what you describe. Throw in the fact that some mods overwrite some important parts of the mods previously activated, and you could be introducing even more trouble. I would either post in THEBERBSTER's thread, or send him a PM and ask him if he knows which of the mods you want to use are compatible with his mix. Just be sure you clear the save folder between mod changes. __________________ "...and bollocks to the naysayers" - Jimbuna

04-06-19, 05:16 AM	#21
mikesn9 Sonar Guy Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Sarasota Florida Posts: 391 Downloads: 68 Uploads: 0	sniper, I do my saves the same way, a new name every time. I keep the last known good save, until I load from a more recent save, then that one becomes the 'last good save'. I usually name mine as a reminder to where I was a the time, Like: "in zone", or " tanker down 4 torps left", etc. __________________ I spent the cold war under water.

04-06-19, 06:56 PM	#24
propbeanie CTD - it's not just a job Join Date: May 2016 Location: One hour from Music City USA! Posts: 10,098 Downloads: 451 Uploads: 2	If you added mods to the game between Saves, you will often ruin the compatibility of the Save. Remove any changed mods, and it might play. Then again, the Save often gets cross-contaminated by the changes. YMMV... __________________ "...and bollocks to the naysayers" - Jimbuna

04-05-19, 09:16 AM	#17
Mios 4Me Sonar Guy Join Date: Feb 2019 Posts: 394 Downloads: 38 Uploads: 0	Oops, meant to include that. I'm on the old laptop now, so going from memory: I'm using most of Berbster's GFO mega-mod along with Cheap & Early Torpedoes and the Balao Midway mod. Possibly the elite crew mod too.

04-05-19, 11:55 AM	#19
Mios 4Me Sonar Guy Join Date: Feb 2019 Posts: 394 Downloads: 38 Uploads: 0	I'll ping him about the compatibility issues, though I installed all the mods before beginning the career, of which the lost patrol was number 11. I started to write that this was the first issue I had in 1.5 but then recalled one bizarre incident in patrol 9 or so. Two destroyers in camera view were cavorting from right to left, spinning along their keels, completely upside down at times. On another contact, a destroyer and a freighter had been...um, in flagrante delicto, apparently spawning a convoy of their own.

04-05-19, 04:37 PM	#20
Sniper297 The Old Man Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Philadelphia Shipyard Brig Posts: 1,386 Downloads: 160 Uploads: 19	Curious, are you overwriting the same save game each time, or saving with a new name then later deleting the ones you no longer need? One thing I found was overwriting a save game instead of deleting and then saving as new seemed to be a common cause of corruption, so I quit overwriting. When playing a career I save as (for example) 1PAT1, 1PAT2. 1PAT3, and so on. Next patrol starts as 2PAT1, and when you save there's an option to delete saved games, so after saving 2PAT1 at the beginning of the second patrol, I'll delete all the odd numbers from the first patrol. By the time I get to the 4th patrol I'll delete all but one or two from the first and second patrols. Main thing is if 5PAT14 is corrupted and crashes the game every time, I can load 5PAT13 and head back to base instead of losing the entire patrol.

04-06-19, 12:34 PM	#22
Mios 4Me Sonar Guy Join Date: Feb 2019 Posts: 394 Downloads: 38 Uploads: 0	That's an excellent idea, sniper - can't believe I hadn't thought of it.

04-06-19, 06:02 PM	#23
Mios 4Me Sonar Guy Join Date: Feb 2019 Posts: 394 Downloads: 38 Uploads: 0	And now the game is crashing in the Missions section. Twice now I've begun an attack off Midway only for the system to shut down. That's surprising because the Balao and early torpedoes mods don't appear to be present in the Missions parameters.

04-06-19, 11:27 PM	#25
Sniper297 The Old Man Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Philadelphia Shipyard Brig Posts: 1,386 Downloads: 160 Uploads: 19	Haven't played the quick missions very often (love the campaign career too much) but on creating my own found they're very touchy, and mods often give them indigestion. My guess is someone created a mission with a GATO class, install a mod that fixes the missing gauges and corrects some flaws with the GATO, and the mission has a spaz attack because it was expecting something different from what you have now. That's just a wild guess based on the fact that the quick missions didn't crash as often - cripes, was it 12 years ago? - when I first got the game. What might work is editing a quick mission, deleting then replacing the player sub and saving, got a backup file it's worth a try. "That's an excellent idea, sniper" Learned that the hard way with one of them dungeons and dragons role playing games back in the 80s - six save files are enough, just keep overwriting them in order. Hmmm, a shiny new piece of armor enchanted to reflect fire spells, try it on, works great! A week and several overwrites later my character is dead, the armor was cursed and can't be taken off without something to break the curse, I have no save games without that armor. I learned from that if a game has a limited number of savegame slots, make occasional backups of the entire savegame folder just in case. SH4 doesn't have that problem, it crashes from a savegame file that gets too big, but so far I haven't seen it crash from too many savegame files. Save just before and just after each attack, using numbers to make each save file different is the simplest way to keep track for me. Don't know if it's necessary to occasionally delete some of the older ones, I just do it to keep the list short. The "autosave on leaving (entering) base" files can also be handy, if you're in the habit of editing campaign missions the saves on patrol will crash because you changed something in a mission that was already loaded in the save, leaving the base after reloading an autosave loads all the missions along with the traffic or ships I edited from scratch. After saving and exiting check the message that tells you how many ships and tons you've sunk so far in this patrol, I generally try to keep it under 400,000 tons per patrol so the megabytes don't bite.