SH3 Commander: "Invalid argument to date encode"

[JScones]

By re-adding the career start dates, we progressed past the first issue, which then allowed SH3 Commander to create pre-career dates, pick an image, and save the details to the ini file. Hence why the first error message has disappeared and why the values in SH3Cmdr.ini are correct. You would have noticed that the prior picture this career had would have been the same as the next highest career in the option list (in other words, it never really had it's own image, it only got one after you re-added the career start dates).

However, as I mentioned above, the Summary will still fail because other key dates are missing in the Careers.cfg and Careers_0.cfg. Most importantly, the Flotilla0*, NbPatrolsInFlotilla0*, StartYearInFlotilla0, StartMonthInFlotilla0 and StartDayInFlotilla0 values tend to also be 0 if the career start dates are 0 (seems that any "start" type value is affected). The Career Summary needs these values to build the "U-Bootwaffe Postings" block of the Summary. What this means is, unless you're happy to do some surgery, you can write off ever getting a summary from this career.

*in some instances these fields do contain correct values.

Napileo, you may like to replicate again with this career what you did between patrol 1 and 2 and see whether that re-erases the data from the files. It may help to find the cause.

Originally Posted by Nopileo

Edit: Also note the date, which is now actually before he started the patrol.

This may be my fault - I made an educated guess as to the career start date in my earlier post (ie 1 Sep. 1940) - I may have been wrong. If so, I reckon this is causing your date differences.

[Nopileo]

Thanks for all the help so far, but I decided to start a fresh career. I deleted (but backed up) the Careers-folder, and started a new career using SH3 Commander. This time I started SH3 first and checked what boats where available, and what date the career started in, then I excited the game, so this information was not saved.

So now I've started in 1942, VIIC boat, flotilla 1 based in Brest. Starting date is April 1st 1942. I selected all this information in SH3 Commander before I started. I'll let you know if SH3 Commander recognises this when I return from the first patrol.

The Hans Rasch career was the first I have started using SH3 Commander, so if it happens again that it will not recognise this career, maybe this is it? You'll have to start a career through vanilla SH3 first, and use SH3 Commander after the first patrol or later?

Strangely enough the Hans Rasch career was listed in the in-game career menu even after I deleted the career folder, but there were no save games available (only the 'start new career' option). It was not listed in SH3 Commander though.


Anyway I'm sorry for not testing the Hans Rasch career further, but I wanted a 'working' career. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for all the help.

Regards,

Nopileo

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Nopileo

The Hans Rasch career was the first I have started using SH3 Commander, so if it happens again that it will not recognise this career, maybe this is it? You'll have to start a career through vanilla SH3 first, and use SH3 Commander after the first patrol or later?

Starting a new career through SH3 Commander will not be the cause as SH3 Commander does not write to any of your career files - the dates you enter are only used for copying files into SH3. Your career is still really started in SH3. I and presumably most others have all started new careers via SH3 Commander with no ill side effects.

Originally Posted by Nopileo

Strangely enough the Hans Rasch career was listed in the in-game career menu even after I deleted the career folder, but there were no save games available (only the 'start new career' option). It was not listed in SH3 Commander though.

Hans Rasch would still appear in SH3 as he was your last accessed career. Even though you deleted the career folder, the entry would still have been in your data copy of main.cfg.

[Nopileo]

Thank you.

Sorry for the late reply. I wanted to try a patrol in my new career, and then try to re-create what I did the last time before replying.

I've completed one patrol now, and exited the game like last time after giving the medals to the crew and upgrading the sub with the renown I got.

Then I fired up SH3 Commander, and selected 'Rollback SH3'. Then I edited the patrol_0.cfg file with some extra renown points like last time (I made a backup of the file just in case).

Then I started the game normally and verified the renown was there and everything else looked normal (I must confess I spent the renown on an Alberich).

Then I exited the game again and started SH3 Commander. Tried 'Summary' and everything else, and no error messages appeared. Started the game with SH3 Commander, and I'm now on patrol 2.

So I'm not sure what caused the previous error, but it works good now.

I remembered I did 'cheat' with dates on an earlier career (XXI) to be able to get the XXI when I wanted (this was basically a test career to try different XXI-tweaks), but I didn't get an error message on that career, and I didn't think that config files 'leaked' over to other career folders?

By the way, I've also put the subfoldes and files back into the 'flotillas' folder of SH3 Commander now. I had deleted them earlier to avoid the fatigue mod. Not sure if this is relevant.

Anyway it's good to be able to enjoy SH3, RUb and SH3 Commander without any 'interruptions' now, so I'm a happy puppy.

Thanks again for all the help.

Regards,

Nopileo