Star Trek Armada II - Requesting Modding Help & Crashing Err

posted on August 29th, 2010, 5:30 am

Star Trek Armada II - Requesting Modding Help & Crashing Errors Help – Thread 1

In this thread, I will be describing two different crashing errors. Each of the following threads in this part will continue with the other crashing errors in my Star Trek Armada II Mod. Each one will only list two crashing errors. The more important errors will appear in the first threads and then work their way up to the errors that I don’t think are as important but still are important in their own ways.

**********THE CRASHING ERRORS**********

1. This error started on 8/26/2010 when I added the mod this mod from Armada2Files, it is called Star Trek Armada II - Armada III (3) Concept Species 8472 1.0 and ever since installing this mod I was actually hoping to turn Species 8472 into an actual playable race by trying to make them as strong as the other races would be without that many additions since there really isn’t that much for them. Things though haven’t worked out to plan with wanting to do this. After I installed them to my game, I couldn't play Instant Action games anymore. Clicking on the Borg cube to get to the menu to set up an Instant Action game would actually crash the game. I removed Species 8472 from my races.odf file and guess what, I was able to get to the Instant Action menu without a crash and I could even get into an Instant Action game until my Trading Stations error for all races kicked in and crashed the game because the AI built a Trading Station. Well that isn't the problem I'm coming to you about. I added your mod to the game because I wanted to play as Species 8472 in Instant Action because of the crashing error that your mod is causing I can't even start an Instant Action game. I’m not sure if Vanilla Ultimate might be causing this because the mod said to install it to an unmodded Armada II install, but who really now a days has an unmodded Armada II install or wouldn’t be actually creating a mod using them? Well this error isn’t just limited to Species 8472 because every other race that I add to the game after race10 (The Dominion in my mod) doesn’t show up in the game’s Instant Action menu, but Species 8472 is the only race even preventing getting to the Instant Action setup menu because the game crashes the moment the Borg Cube is clicked on. 

2. This actually ties in and was started in Error # 1. As stated the races added to Star Trek Armada II after Race # 9 don’t show up in the Instant Action Menu at all. I know Star Trek Armada I was designed to hold only 6 Races when modded but Star Trek Armada II was designed to hold 13. In a mod that I’ve played that I happen to know works just fine, there was a race.odf file that looked like this:
numberOfRaces = 14
race0 = "borg.odf"
race1 = "fed.odf"
race2 = "kling.odf"
race3 = "rom.odf"
race4 = "card.odf"
race5 = "fer.odf"
race6 = "species8472.odf"
race7 = "dominion.odf"
race8 = "breen.odf"
race9 = "rebel.odf"
race10 = "empire.odf"
race11 = "Andromeda.odf"
race12 = "maquis.odf"
// this one is 'uninhabited' for planets
race13 = "norace.odf"

Now, this is what my race.odf file looks like right now and it doesn’t have the other races after # 9 (The Dominion) showing up in Instant Action at all:
numberOfRaces = 14
race0 = "borg.odf"
race1 = "fed.odf"
race2 = "kling.odf"
race3 = "rom.odf"
race4 = "card.odf"
race5 = "tholian.odf"
race6 = "reman.odf"
// this for a certain reman special weapon
race7 = "terran.odf"
race8 = "vulcan.odf"
race9 = "dominion.odf"
race10 = "sona"
race11 = “gorn”
race12 = "species8472.odf"
// this one is 'uninhabited' for planets
race13= "norace.odf"

posted on August 29th, 2010, 6:10 am

Its strange indeed.  Not sure exactly how the game scans the files as you click on the Instant action button, but the only thing I can think of is there is something wrong with the species1234 odf.

Sorry I can't be of more help here.

PS: 5 threads??? I suggested starting with 2 or 3 of your most important ones.

posted on August 30th, 2010, 1:14 am

look in your race odfs and make sure their instantactionslot numbers are correct.  when they are, they should all work.  all this means is that your races after the dominion have incorrect numbers.

posted on August 30th, 2010, 3:26 am

Its strange indeed.  Not sure exactly how the game scans the files as you click on the Instant action button, but the only thing I can think of is there is something wrong with the species1234 odf.

Sorry I can't be of more help here.

PS: 5 threads??? I suggested starting with 2 or 3 of your most important ones.

All 5 threads are the most important errors especially since I'm on a timeline for this.

Here is the Species 8472 ODf File, all the ships listed as standard units are already in the game, because I filled the additional ones in myself after I put them into the games folders.

Attachments

[The extension has been deactivated and can no longer be displayed.]

[jetnova16]

posted on August 30th, 2010, 3:30 am

Last edited by jetnova16 on August 30th, 2010, 3:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

look in your race odfs and make sure their instantactionslot numbers are correct.  when they are, they should all work.  all this means is that your races after the dominion have incorrect numbers.

Species 8472 was the race after the Dominion, there was no other race after them at the time. Because they caused the game to crash even before being able to set up and Instant Action game, I went on to the Son'a and they wouldn't show up in game at all as the playable races (Species 8472 had been commented out). The same problem happened with the Gorn with both the Son'a and Species 8472 commented out.

I'll put all three races after the Dominion in the order of what the final ODF file is to look like (the one in my first posting) and see if the game crashes before getting the chance to set up an Instant Action game  or if it allows me to get that far and then if the other races show up to play as in game.

posted on August 31st, 2010, 2:52 am

look in your race odfs and make sure their instantactionslot numbers are correct.  when they are, they should all work.  all this means is that your races after the dominion have incorrect numbers.

I tried your idea, and it totally didn't work. The game still crashes before I can even set up an Instant Action game when ever Species 8472 is even set to be the next playable race. The game works fine when giving them a previous asigned number because the race already using that number shows up in the race selection for Instant Action. Also the Son'a, and the Gorn aren't showing up in the game either after trying your suggestion, but that is the same as before when I added them into the game. Those two races though, like before, never seem to cause the game to crash before even getting to the Instant Action Race Selection Menu.

Its getting to the point where I'm going to have to do something I don't want to have to do, and that is to remove the Armada III Concept Species 8472 Mod.

Here is a link to the mod on Armada2Files and all the other Species 8472 Mods that I've decided to use. The texture one here actually got rid of the textures on the ships and stations and the special weapons so I added them back in. This I found out happens through the Map Editor. Also maybe trying all the Species 8472 mods there might be the better option because I have used all of them (except the texture packs)  but these errors began after installing the Aramda III Concept of Species 8472 which was last.

Species 8472 Armada 3 Concept 1.0 Mod Download, Star Trek: Armada 2 Mods
Species 8472 Father Download, Star Trek: Armada 2 Ships
Species 8472 Juggernaut Command Battleship 1.0 Download, Star Trek: Armada 2 Ships
Species 8472 Re-Textures Download, Star Trek: Armada 2 Miscellaneous
8472 Hero Ships Download, Star Trek: Armada 2 Ships
http://armada2.filefront.com/file/8472_ ... ught;34555

posted on September 10th, 2010, 4:30 am

I ran a few more tests with the crashing problem involving Species 8472, I subtracted some of the units in their standard units slots in species8472.odf and now they don't crash

the game when trying to use the Map Editor with them as a playable race, but they still cause the crash when clicking on the Borg Cube to even try and set up an Instant Action

Game.

As I previously stated, this problem only started occurring right after adding the Armada 3 Concept Mod Species 8472. The ships that are extra from this mod actually work and

show up in the Map Editor when set onto a map. I still don't know why Species 8472 is causing this error or why it starts with them, but any race after race 9 (The Dominion)

seem to cause the game to crash whenever trying to set up an Instant Action Game.
I do believe that this error is also interfering with the Campaign though because some of the Federation missions that feature Species 8472 crash the Map Editor before I can

even get to the map, the same happens for the Klingon and Borg Campaigns.

This is all I can report on this error because this is all I can find out about it. I was going to remove the Armada 3 Concept Mod Species 8472 but if the extra ships from it

can work in the Map Editor after subtracting out a few of the races Standard Units, it just can't be the problem even though the crashing error started after adding them. Given

this information, does anyone know why this could be happening?

posted on September 12th, 2010, 3:33 am

Crashing Error # 1 & 2 has been fixed without any help from any of you, all through the process of elimination, the other crashing errors aren't being solved through this means though and all I've asked for is your help and I haven't gotten it yet. I hope that this just proves to you that I'm only interested in solving the Crashing Errors in my game and am at least trying to do just that. NOW WILL ANYONE KINDLY OFFER SOME HELP?

*****

This is the one error that was always causing my game to crash before even being able to set up any Instant Action Game. This error led to many countless uninstalls and reinstalls and then having to start over just for it to happen again and again and again. All the time starting over was a waste of time since this would always occur. Thus uninstalling and reinstalling the game and starting the mod over isn't always the answer, no instead all problems have a solution if you look hard enough and this just proves that even more.

*****

I found out what was actually causing Species 8472, the Sona and the Gorn to crash the game, it wasn't the Armada 3 Concept Mod Species 8472, the Sona race or even the Gorn. In fact, I've gotten all these races to finally appear in the game. The problem was actually all realtated to the Sona and not the other two races. The Son'a seem to have a problem with their weapons, I commented out all their standard units except the 2 construction ships and the game loaded and also allowed me to set up an Instant Action game.

After getting the Son'a to work (still need to fix the weapons, might give them Dominion weapons) ,but I moved on to the Gorn and also commented out their main standard units just in case and the game still didn't crash. Did the same wtih Species 8472 and there also wasn't a crash. I believe this part of the described probelm for this thread is now officially fixed.

(I happend to come up with this fix just by running a small test, that all it was that lead t oit, but at least it worked.)

posted on September 12th, 2010, 8:55 am

[b]Crashing Error # 1 & 2 has been fixed without any help from any of you

Congratulations.  See you can do it.  We are such nasty people not helping you.  Bad forum members, bad!!!  >:(

posted on September 12th, 2010, 10:24 am

yes if u dont need our help, i wont tell you the solutions i devised to some of your other problems. you can find them alone.

BOLD WRITING ROFLCOPTERS!!!!1!eleven

posted on September 12th, 2010, 3:13 pm

Not that me and Loki didn't try to help.   But if you can solve them on your own then I will no longer attempt to help.  Unless you want help, in which case you should do as I said in the other thread and post a single bug here with as little detail as possible and let us ass questions to get the information. 

If you are willing to help us understand your problem, we would(I at least) be willing to help fix your problems.

posted on September 13th, 2010, 1:26 am

Congratulations.  See you can do it.  We are such nasty people not helping you.  Bad forum members, bad!!!  >:(

Thank you for that compliment, the only reason the fix I tried worked because I did a process of elimination of all the races after the Dominion and commented everything out of their respective race file for their standard starting units. That showed that for those three races (the Son'a, Gorn and Species 8472) that something isn't right with their ships and their weapons, thus now I know what needs to be worked on.

If people here were more nicer and respectful, it wouldn't have taken as long to find out what the problem was but at least well everyone here was being rude to me and suggesting last resort fixes I was actually working on the problem and coming up with possible causes and ways to fix it. Lucky for me, my last idea happenend to work and fixed the problem.

But I'm all out of ideas for the other ones and still haven't been able to try all of my ideas but the problems aren't located in the ODF files, that I have narrowed out as a possible cause.

[b]NOW I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP TRYING TO SOLVE THESE ERRORS PLEASE AND THANK YOU.[/b]

posted on September 13th, 2010, 4:50 am

Not that me and Loki didn't try to help.   But if you can solve them on your own then I will no longer attempt to help.  Unless you want help, in which case you should do as I said in the other thread and post a single bug here with as little detail as possible and let us ass questions to get the information. 

If you are willing to help us understand your problem, we would(I at least) be willing to help fix your problems.

I have been willing to have all of you understand the problems in my game and help me out in finding a way to fix them, but instead I feel your all out to attack me like those at Armada2Files and MSFC did. Everytime I told anyone the plan for my mod, they just stopped helping me or just didn't care that I was having problems with my game. I didn't want to mention it was for a college project there because I didn't want to be further attacked so I finally admit what the project is for, I still get attacked and all I'm still looking for is [b]Some Help With Fixing These Problems[/b].


So yes, I am willing to help you all understand the problems with my game, that is why I posted these detaled threads with the information so I wouldn't have to worry about not having an internet connection at times because you would all already have the important information and I wouldn't have to keep explaining it.

Will anyone please help me fix these problems and just stop all of this nonsense? This is the only thing I want, to get my game working smoothly or close to it as possible, that's all I ask and that is why I'm here.

posted on September 13th, 2010, 7:25 am

but instead I feel your all out to attack me like those at Armada2Files and MSFC did.

That's perfectly normal and healthy paranoia.  Don't worry about it, everybody is out to get you!!!! 

Everytime I told anyone the plan for my mod, they just stopped helping me or just didn't care that I was having problems with my game.

So, do you see a pattern emerging yet?  :detective:

posted on September 13th, 2010, 1:03 pm

Will anyone please help me fix these problems and just stop all of this nonsense? This is the only thing I want, to get my game working smoothly or close to it as possible, that's all I ask and that is why I'm here.

Sure, post a single problem here, no more than one paragraph(just a few sentences) describing the problem and I will try to help.  Something simple like, "This ship causes the game to crash when its built," or "This ship won't leave the ship yard when built"  or maybe, "This weapon causes the game to crash."  If I need more info, I'll ask certain questions in order to get things straight.  Too much info can be a deterrent to those trying to help, so you must be careful about that.


Do you think you can do that?