Base archetypes used as auxillary docks for a base

Moonhead

Hmm this is peculiar: If I leave the 4 auxillary docks for Rh01_18, but instead take out the 2 for Rh01_03, the game works fine…

So, it presumably is not something in my code. But because you (Adoxa) have 16 such aux docks around Manhattan, it is also not some game limit.

Or, maybe the limit is somewhat more complex, like not possible to have more than 2 if you do it for more than one base. But does that really make sense?

Also, oddly, the crash seems to be triggered by the unmodified* Rh01_05 and Rh01_06 (the Dortmund area). It happens when I take the tradelane to that region, and also when I cruise to it.

*(Well, not entirely: The mBase section for Rh01_06 now also has gcs_refer_base_Rh01_05_Base- for the msg_id_prefix. So, they are now both called ‘Dortmund’, and I use Essen for the new station. But that’s just a sound file. I don’t think it is relevant here. Also, it is that way also in the cases that the game doesn’t crash, with some aux docks removed.)

Moonhead

The forum seemed to be having some problems earlier today? (I kept the above post in notepad.)

Meanwhile I replaced the 4 space_police01 archs for 2 space_shipping archs. That works fine, even though they have 4 (or 8, depending on your setting in SolarArch.ini) docking points.

The base looks better for it, but I’m still curious regarding the cause for the issue. As I’m likely to add some more aux docks in this star system, I presume I might run into it again.

adoxa

It would be helpful to have the crash address - run Event Viewer and look for a suitable “Application Error”; I want the “Faulting module name” and “Fault offset”. Alternatively, the system file would be helpful so I can crash FL myself, but only if you think I could get the system working in vanilla.

Moonhead

Where can I find Event Viewer? (I’m sorta pressed on time, going to my weekend cottage; I do have some limited internet there though)

adoxa

Start typing [c]Event[/c] in Windows Search, or use the Run dialog and enter [c]eventvwr.msc[/c].

Moonhead

Adoxa I’m at my laptop now and I just reproduced the crash.

I usually do my mdding on my PC with Win10, but when I’m away from home I use the laptop with Win7. Unfortunately that laptop has a Dutch Windows version so I hope I’ll be getting the proper results. (Even though Dutch is my native language I always want my software in English because there must be like 100 web sites in English for 1 in Dutch when I need to google stuff. So, I’m not much at home in yhe Dutch language Windows as I always install the English version; I bought this computer from an acquaintance.)

I’m getting this as general info (translated by me into English, so the jargon might be incorrect; in Dutch both ‘error’ and ‘fault’ are “fout” so I just guessed when to use ‘error’ or ‘fault’.)

Name of application with Error: Freelancer.exe, version: 1.0.1223.11, timestamp: 0x00534d69
Name of module with error: Content.dll, version: 1.0.1254.11, timestamp: 0x3ecbb142
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000c458f
Id of process with fault: 0xc94
starting type of application with error: 0x01d3559b1db9fc21
Pad to application with error: E:\GAMES\FL\Freelancer\EXE\Freelancer.exe
Pad to module with error: E:\GAMES\FL\Freelancer\dlls\bin\Content.dll

and this as ‘Event Data’ under ‘details’

Freelancer.exe     
1.0.1223.11     
00534d69     
Content.dll     
1.0.1254.11     
3ecbb142    
c0000005     
000c458f     
c94     
01d3559b1db9fc21     
E:\GAMES\FL\Freelancer\EXE\Freelancer.exe     
E:\GAMES\FL\Freelancer\dlls\bin\Content.dll     
6ebf3e7f-c18e-11e7-a2eb-206a8a1dbcb9

Does this make some sense to you?

(Btw I realized that for my Rh01_03 there are some more ‘aux docks’, which are eventually to be separate stations withing the The Ring complex. I don’t think these are any different than the others, but for completeness’ sake I mention them.)

adoxa

It’s C458F again.

Moonhead

adoxa wrote:
It’s C458F again.

Is that a notorious one?

What does the game try to do what it cannot accomplish?

adoxa

Select a dock…

Moonhead

adoxa wrote:
Select a dock…

Lol, that does makes sense of course.

What doesn’t make good sense, is the seemingly arbitrary extent of what it can and cannot handle.

All of this is not a huge problem of course.

Moonhead

@Adoxa (and @other interested people of course):

Meanwhile I’m at the 7th base of my Ring compound. Another crash involving C458F. This time when I _un_dock from the base (I can dock at it, and other bases are not involved). I tried with two archetypes: same result.

But: I just moved that 7th base away from The Ring, to another part of the Star System, and then the undock crash doesn’t happen.

So, it seems like the game has a problem when there are too many docks concentrated at one place? Does that make sense?

Moonhead

I’ve removed all the auxillary docks from the The Ring compound, and now the base works as it should.

A bit pity though; some of these aux docks really made it more interesting. So I will do some trial-and-error research to see what I can get away with.

Gold_Sear

adoxa wrote:
It’s C458F again.

[c]content.dll C458F[/c] is most likely NPC patrol path spawning related - so, at a guess, patrol path end/start points are now within your new objects, causing spawned patrol path NPCs to be unable to have feasible waypoints, hence a crash. Updating patrol paths (yes I know that that could be a pain) or removing them should fix the issue.

Moonhead

Thanks, that makes sense!!

I actually started this project by moving patrol paths, but eventually I realized it wasn’t necessary. And I forgot all abou them. There are indeed at least two of them (iirc Police and Junkers that have start/end points nearby.

Still

Gold_Sear

Moonhead did it work? No more crashes?

Moonhead

Hello!

I’ve been out of it for some weeks, and don’t have the details on the top of my head, but I did indeed finish the New Berlin system without any issues (I would have remember the Great Evil of a possible crash — from within the Freelancer universe as devasting as a vacuum metastability event would be in ours )

Last problem that I had was with some enlarged race ring and its sur, but I recall having fixed that as well with Adoxa’s sur-tool.

After that I have finally succeeded (on the tech level al least, and for, say, 70% on the artistic level) of making custom audio files: names of bases, based on files already in the game. The next step of course is completely new files and make them sound like they fit.

OFF-TOPIC It’s nice to see that this site seems actually becoming more alive!! Or is that my skewed perception because Ihaven’t been here much the last few weeks?

Maybe it is Star Citizen that makes people remembering Freelancer ? To be honest I sofar find that a somewhat disappointing project, and although I did buy a ship (and the single player campaign) I will only look at it again if they actually make some progress. What they have now is some demo stuff, and tons of youtube movies about conventions, interviews etc. with all kinds of developers.

I have been playing a lot of SWTOR lately, and at present —don’t laugh!— Forge of Empires and Elvenar, for the heck of it. Oh, and the original SimCity (thru a DOS emulator).

Needless to say, Freelancer is always in my heart, and on my ambient playlist I hope to continue with my modding business somewhere next week.

Fenris_Wolf

The ‘original’ Sim City wasn’t dos based. You’ll have to go further back then that to the Commodore 64 version.

Jefferson001

Following the thread because I’m doing that rebuild of Toledo.

Wolf:
I found by Windows based Commodore 64/128 emulator with about every major title for it too. (First hard coding besides Air Force was 6510 machine language Real TAXing). Drop me a msg if you want a copy. Think you’re talking about "Itty-bitty Computer People)

Moon:

Just posted something in the Freelancer Discussion forum under the “Real Serious Facts” Topic that I hope you enjoy. I know where you avatar came from and think I found where Luminere (sp?) got his inspiration.

Moonhead

Fenris_Wolf wrote:
The ‘original’ Sim City wasn’t dos based. You’ll have to go further back then that to the Commodore 64 version.

You are right of course, my apologies.

Back in the days, Commodore 64 to me was ‘the opponent’, as I was a ZX Spectrum man Never played SimCity on that tho; it was the first-ever game on the PC that I got hooked on; hence, probably, my mistake.

Fenris_Wolf

Relooking at screenshots of the C64 version earlier was a nice reminder of how far we’ve come lol.
I try not to emulate games that old anymore, I waited too long for games to reach the level they’re at now. The only one I’ve had a urge to play lately is the old amiga classic Firepower, but I’ve held off because playing it will just make me want to remake and modernize the game, and I have enough projects already lol

Edit: Worth mentioning, if your into emulating old games is the collection at archive.org
https://archive.org/details/software
Most of which can be played directly in your web browser