Star Trek Armada II - Requesting Modding Help & Crashing Err

posted on August 29th, 2010, 5:36 am

Star Trek Armada II - Requesting Modding Help & Crashing Errors Help – Thread 3

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 (since this one is longer, I’ll leave it at one error). 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 last September so I was forced to uninstall and reinstall my game because I couldn’t figure out the reason why it was happening and since I wasn’t getting any help at Armada2Files’ forums I had to resort to starting my mod over which ended up putting me behind schedule. This first happened when I installed the Dominion (The Dominion Ultimate Mods). Since I didn’t want this to happen again and also wanted to find out if the Dominion was causing it, the first race I added to the game was the Dominion and I didn’t have this crashing error happen again until two weeks ago.
The Trading Stations for ever race in the game after they are built end up crashing the game. Sometimes this happens when trying to use them, other times it happens after they’re built but since it happens to the AI, its mostly when they are built. First I’d like to say this error just started happening and I haven’t even edited the Trading Stations fully (except to try arming them but I since removed that feature and the crashing still happens).
To get more information on this error, I decided to test the problem in the Map Editor in a map that I made for such testing moments titled “Battle Test”. For my test, I added the Trading Stations of all the races in the game and switched over by using the “CTRL-A” method and the game didn’t crash but then I found out that the Trading Stations for all the races are missing their button that activates their Trade Menus. These buttons were there one moment well testing the game for a Klingon ship I added, I went to use the Klingon Trading Station and the game crashed, then after that once they were built the game would crash. From the Map Editor Test, I know that their buttons totally don’t show up (along with the Cargo ships for all races), in the Map Editor the game didn’t crash. Before I close on this crashing issue, I’d like to add that on loading for the Second Federation Campaign Mission (involving Trading Stations) the game crashes on loading).

posted on August 29th, 2010, 6:30 am

One thing that is amazing me is the sheer number of problems you are having.

As I suggested in the other thread, have you tried implementing similar changes (or making similar maps) for the unmodified game?

Your testing should be as follows:

1) Does it work if I do/make/add this in stock A2?
2) Does it work if I do/make/add this in stock A2 with patch project?
3) Then why doesn't this work in my mod IF it works in the above?

Again, your mod looks to be absolutely huge in content and there are only a few random thoughts that I can come up with.

1) Your computer.  Is it up to loading so many ODFs.  What is your processor and memory?  I know A2 isn't very resource intensive when compared with modern games but are you hitting some sort of game engine limitation?  I find it hard to imagine you have more ODFs than some people may have but...
2) Have you scanned the memory for issues?
3) Have you defragged your hard drive (just to help with performance a little)
4) Have you checked your hard disk for errors and bad sectors?
5) What OS are you running?

posted on August 30th, 2010, 3:05 am

One thing that is amazing me is the sheer number of problems you are having.

As I suggested in the other thread, have you tried implementing similar changes (or making similar maps) for the unmodified game?

Your testing should be as follows:

1) Does it work if I do/make/add this in stock A2?
2) Does it work if I do/make/add this in stock A2 with patch project?
3) Then why doesn't this work in my mod IF it works in the above?

Again, your mod looks to be absolutely huge in content and there are only a few random thoughts that I can come up with.

1) Your computer.  Is it up to loading so many ODFs.  What is your processor and memory?  I know A2 isn't very resource intensive when compared with modern games but are you hitting some sort of game engine limitation?  I find it hard to imagine you have more ODFs than some people may have but...
2) Have you scanned the memory for issues?
3) Have you defragged your hard drive (just to help with performance a little)
4) Have you checked your hard disk for errors and bad sectors?
5) What OS are you running?

1) My computer is a laptop designed by Toshiba ans its a Satellite L350 Series. For the specs of my computer system, please see the attachment.
2) There are actaully no problems with my laptop or its mempry and every other program on it is working just fine including Star Trek Legacy and Battlestations MidWay.
3) I have defraged my hard drive, but it was before the crashing error started. After that it still happened.
4) There are no errors on my hard disk and not bad sectors to the disc at all, my computer would actually alert me to that if there was, I have somethings set to tell if there are any problems.
5) My Computer's Operating System is Windows Vista Home Premium 32 Bit.

Actatually, the same problems have happened in stock Armada II and a patched version. I ahve narroewed down all problems to being with the downloaded mods in question, I've checked for errros that I may have caused but there are none that I can see.

I will follow your testing suggestion with the other additions to the game though too.

Attachments

posted on August 30th, 2010, 3:09 am

The trading stations problem never happened in the stock or patched version though, anyways, it just randomly started happeing last September and the same thing happened now. Because it happened after adding the Dominion Ultimate Mods last time and now those mods have been in my game from the last time I reinstalled the game after uninstalling it back in March. This is randomly occuring because I haven't changed anything that involves Trading Stations and the same can be said about Cargo Ships.

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

Which is one of the reasons why i suspect some of your problems may not be directly related to the mod itself.

posted on August 30th, 2010, 9:56 am

every other program on it is working just fine including Star Trek Legacy...

ha not likely, you're running vista, legacy mp doesnt work on vista/7 at all. and the game itself should ctd every now and then just to annoy you.

[jetnova16]

posted on August 31st, 2010, 12:16 am

Last edited by jetnova16 on August 31st, 2010, 12:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

ha not likely, you're running vista, legacy mp doesnt work on vista/7 at all. and the game itself should ctd every now and then just to annoy you.

I was playing Star Trek Legacy earlier today with no problesm, it works perfectly fine on Windows Vista at least for me, but I also have both patches installed for it and it isn't modded at all.  I actually can't figure out how to beat the Stargazer's mission to save the planets and destroy the astroids, my ships aren't getting to many of the planets fast enough. Even the Multiplayer against the AI works. I don't know about Multi-Player online because just like Armada II, I can't seem to get online with Legacy either. Mostly because I've forgotten my GameSpy account password and for the other ways to set up an online game I'm confused about. Is it online you're talking about when it comes to Star Trek Legacy? I ask this because everything else about Legacy works, I've never had a crashing error with it yet and I've had it since late 2007 (installed on my old Compaq Presario laptop that was also running Vista and then installed onto my Toshiba when I got it).

posted on August 31st, 2010, 2:09 am

He is talking about offline against AI only.

Also its called a half-assed console port for a reason. You're wasting your time trying to get into multi on anything newer than xp system since Bethesda didn't take Vista into account for some unknown reason. No one does multi anyways anymore since a large majority of the players who have bought Legacy have all moved on elsewhere(back to A2/BC/onto STO).

posted on August 31st, 2010, 4:33 am

He is talking about offline against AI only.

Also its called a half-assed console port for a reason. You're wasting your time trying to get into multi on anything newer than xp system since Bethesda didn't take Vista into account for some unknown reason. No one does multi anyways anymore since a large majority of the players who have bought Legacy have all moved on elsewhere(back to A2/BC/onto STO).

I'm glad someone could tell I was talking about playing against the AI only, also I don't know how the game should be exsperiencing a crash because since I've had it I haven't had any problems with Star Trek Legacy.

I'll take that into advisement with what you're saying about Multi not working online with many newer games since Vista came out.

**************

Now by any chance, I would like to get back to the problem plaguing my Trading Stations and Cargo Ships of all the races in my Star Trek Armada II Mod. Thank you very much.

posted on August 31st, 2010, 12:23 pm

ha not likely, you're running vista, legacy mp doesnt work on vista/7 at all. and the game itself should ctd every now and then just to annoy you.

Not true.  I ran it on vista before 7, and now It runs just fine on 7 fine.  It is so graphics heavy, I cant understand how it would run on anything less.  Unless you own a super XP machine.

It works fine in multiplayer aswell.

[Anonymous]

posted on August 31st, 2010, 12:43 pm

Last edited by Anonymous on August 31st, 2010, 12:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

yes i was talking about online multiplayer not working at all in vista/7

in single player u have been very lucky indeed not to have it ctd every now and then.

it had such potential but was left unfinished and was an awful afterthought to a completely average console game.

also the nebulae were awful, i needed the no neb mod to complete the campaign.

for the stargazer mission:

yes its one of the most annoying missions in the game. but its doable.

firstly u willl go out to where the rocks are. take all your ships. put all on full weapons.

now attack the rocks with red brackets around them, they have red brackets in both 3d and 2d map view.

attack only those ships, dont attack any others. the others wont hit your planets, only the red ones will. even if it looks like a non red rock will hit a planet, it wont. ever.

after a while the clever people at that base will tell you they got some turrets ready.

u will need to tractor them. pick a fast ship. i think scouts cant tractor, so a destroyer is in order. if u only have cruisers then use the fastest cruiser. set it to full engines. and tractor the turrets around. all the while keep blowing up red rocks.

towing the turrets is difficult as u cant order the ship to tow to the white markers. u have to go near them on the 2d map
then adjust your height manually. which can be frustrating lol.

when all turrets are in place u will hear of a super big rock to kill. if u cheated to get loads of command points and u have 3 ambassadors then u can just attack it, run through your ships firing all their torps at it. after 2 or 3 cycles of all your torps it will die.

if u didnt cheat and u have random weaker ships then u need to use tractors. pick the fastest ship again and have it tractor any random close small rock, then tractor it straight into the big rock. do this several times and the rock breaks down, then finish it off with your whole fleet. that should end the mission.

@ captain zaxxon: i was talking about online not working with vista/7

single player works sometimes with vista/7 but has a lot of ctd. and has terrible everything in general lol

EDIT: it doesnt work in online multiplayer. it doesnt work for anyone in online multiplayer for vista/7. nobody in the legacy community can get it working online in vista/7 the people at ultimate universe just gave up on that aspect as its never gonna work short of a miracle.

posted on August 31st, 2010, 8:40 pm

yes i was talking about online multiplayer not working at all in vista/7

in single player u have been very lucky indeed not to have it ctd every now and then.

it had such potential but was left unfinished and was an awful afterthought to a completely average console game.

also the nebulae were awful, i needed the no neb mod to complete the campaign.

for the stargazer mission:

yes its one of the most annoying missions in the game. but its doable.

firstly u willl go out to where the rocks are. take all your ships. put all on full weapons.

now attack the rocks with red brackets around them, they have red brackets in both 3d and 2d map view.

attack only those ships, dont attack any others. the others wont hit your planets, only the red ones will. even if it looks like a non red rock will hit a planet, it wont. ever.

after a while the clever people at that base will tell you they got some turrets ready.

u will need to tractor them. pick a fast ship. i think scouts cant tractor, so a destroyer is in order. if u only have cruisers then use the fastest cruiser. set it to full engines. and tractor the turrets around. all the while keep blowing up red rocks.

towing the turrets is difficult as u cant order the ship to tow to the white markers. u have to go near them on the 2d map
then adjust your height manually. which can be frustrating lol.

when all turrets are in place u will hear of a super big rock to kill. if u cheated to get loads of command points and u have 3 ambassadors then u can just attack it, run through your ships firing all their torps at it. after 2 or 3 cycles of all your torps it will die.

if u didnt cheat and u have random weaker ships then u need to use tractors. pick the fastest ship again and have it tractor any random close small rock, then tractor it straight into the big rock. do this several times and the rock breaks down, then finish it off with your whole fleet. that should end the mission.

@ captain zaxxon: i was talking about online not working with vista/7

single player works sometimes with vista/7 but has a lot of ctd. and has terrible everything in general lol

EDIT: it doesnt work in online multiplayer. it doesnt work for anyone in online multiplayer for vista/7. nobody in the legacy community can get it working online in vista/7 the people at ultimate universe just gave up on that aspect as its never gonna work short of a miracle.

I'll try that for Legacy, but for now, I want to fix up teh problems with my Star Trek Armada II Mod.

posted on August 31st, 2010, 8:47 pm

I"m serious.  I have been able to do it.  I never got it to work at all in XP though.  I never got the multiplayer to work in win vista either, but it does work in win 7.  It did atleast  when I first tried it.

posted on August 31st, 2010, 10:10 pm

I"m serious.  I have been able to do it.  I never got it to work at all in XP though.  I never got the multiplayer to work in win vista either, but it does work in win 7.  It did atleast  when I first tried it.

u got online in win7? wow ive never heard of anyone doing that before. was this in xp mode?

posted on September 1st, 2010, 12:48 am

u got online in win7? wow ive never heard of anyone doing that before. was this in xp mode?

Can we please get back on track with what this thread is supposed to be about? I believe anything involving Star Trek Legacy is in a different thread, and I started this thread for one purpose, the Trading Station and Cargo SHip Crashing error plaguing all the race in my [b]Star Trek Armada II Game, NOT STAR TREK LEGACY[/b].

I think going here for any Star Trek Legacy Talk will be good:
Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations - Legacy Info