Is something corrupt?

Hi guys.

I have a problem/query. I just did some more work on my mod… lol… project and I undocked from manhattan, and somehow got the planet selected. Anyway, I viewed the infocard, and herein lies the problem. It shows various entries from my mod-introduced .dll all the way down the list. Some new ship names, weapon names (and infocard entries for them) etc. The original manhattan info is right at the bottom if I scroll down.

I’ve done all the usual stuff. Scanned it with everything, made sure it was error-free and manually checked the ids_info entry for manhattan. It all checks out. So i’m puzzled now with what might be the cause. Is this a corrupt mod .dll? What is the likelihood of a .dll with text resources in screwing up? Anyone had a similar issue before? I only ever used FLEd-IDS, as I have heard reshacker can screw them up. Any ideas?

Cheers (once again) guys

I implemented a load of infocard stuff earlier so I thought that might be the cause. So I reverted back to a backup from the other day, and i’m having the same problem. I’ve found this is a problem on every infocard for every base/planet. The first bit shows up ok, like the planet stats, followed by a load of garbage that shouldn’t be there (resources from within my mod .dll?!!) and then finally at the bottom it shows the equipment for sale and the planet/base infocard as normal. But where is all this crap coming from? Have I royally messed up somewhere on a critical .ini somewhere?

Let me illustrate as you’re probably still thinking wtf!:

The top:
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5859/31596529yy9.jpg

The garbage starts:
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/8520/97099907wo2.jpg

Some more…:
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9492/83986244ai5.jpg

You get the idea:
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6237/30941415fy1.jpg

And finally, the last bit is there as normal:
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8256/24298889lr7.jpg

And it’s like for every damn base. Although it seems to be the same ‘garbage text’ showing up in them. I checked infocardmap.ini to see if anything had happened in there, but that is all ok. Same with universe.ini (as I’ve heard that can be problematic with certain things). It’s all fine… except that. I’m thinking major .dll corruption, although I can’t see how. And if that’s the case, i’ve spent a ton of time on something that is now pretty much wasted. That spoils all of it

Thanks guys… sorry for double-post

No. It’s a comepletely seperate .dll i’m using for all new mod text resources, and that placed them at well above 450000, as opposed to the 60xxx-ish range of most vanilla stuff. If that’s what you mean anyway.

What I have done a lot of though is use the same ID for ids_name and ids_info in some cases. Not always for the same section/entry, but I have done it. For example, I might have 488010 as ids_name for a weapon called “Super-mega-gun”. but then have that ids number used again later on, but for ids_info for maybe “this is a description for a capital ship to go”. In the tuts I read initially to learn how to do all this, it said you can use the same number for name and info entries, and up to now I have done so with absolutely no issues whatsoever.

So i’m not sure it is anything to do with that then you see. Everything seems fine. I’m just stalled with it now. It’s all in a bit of mess

EDIT

I just commented out my mod .dll in freelancer.ini completely just to rule that out as the sole cause. Now a load of the garbage from that is gone (obviously, because it’s located in that .dll), but I still have this:

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2013/commentedoutii2.jpg

Under the first few commodities, I get a load of rubbish as you can see. I’ve done nothing with commodities by the way, just if you’re wondering… now this has perplexed me completely… no errors in ‘any’ scanner, nothing major really done to the files, et voila… this

Yeah. But I commented out my .dll completely so that isn’t even loaded, as thus none of my new text resources. I’m on a vanilla base, in a vanilla system, and it’s still playing up… ???

After you mentioned XML Lancer, I was thinking “could it be that I have forgot a closing brace <> or something when i’ve added an ids_info entry”. But that can’t possibly be the case, because i’ve just tried it without that .dll, and that is the only one I ever alter…

Yeah thanks for typing all that out mate. I’m aware of all of that though. Checked that initially. That number I stated was just for example purposes. I have it all in the first ‘new’ range, above 458752 but below 524287. I’m wondering if I have messed up somewhere in the xml format (which Lancer prompted me to think). But how on earth will I be able to identify where I have made that mistake? Suppose I missed a closing bracket or a slash in there….

As of the moment I have no additional entries in infocardmap.ini, and I have ‘never’ had any problems with having it blank like this. Everything has always been fine with new systems, bases, planets etc. I also reinstalled and moved various files around (especially .dll’s) in an attempt to find the issue, and I can’t. Like I out above, even when I ‘remove’ my mod .dll (I only have the one atm) it still screws up with garbled text. And I definately haven’t knowingly altered anything in the vanilla .dlls.

Are there any .inis that you might suggest I look at? Because after all the testing i’ve done, I fail to see how it could possibly be a .dll issue. Damn this is annoying

Yeh I reinstalled the lot, and tried it on a second PC.

I’ll try out fldev. I’ve never used it.

And this is wierd. Just checking out random entries I have in my Li01 system…:
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/4015/errorsp4.jpg

Even though this resides in the .dll I commented out/removed, it’s still pretty wierd. Could this be corruption?

It does that when the .dll is present of course Only on that exact number. The ones either side work fine.

But yeah… Suppose the error did lie in an entry in say my Li01 system .ini, then would this still cause a problem when not in that system? Do all system .inis get parsed on the main menu or when loading in-game, or only on system-access?

Ok, your fldev kicks a$$ Fixed several xml errors (wierd missing braces at the beginning) which I assume must have been caused by FLEd-IDS, because I sure as hell never left out them, I always checked them if nothing else. Only thing it doesn’t do is display the info ‘and’ name attached to the same number. For example, I might have a planet’s name on 458850 and a ship description (ids_info1) on 458850 too. This has always worked fine in the past (and Lancer just provided a confirmation of sorts for that), so that’s a little annoying, but not a problem ;D I’m about to retest, to see if any of that dll (and some system ids re-arranging) has helped.

If not, I guess i’m back to the drawing board

Yeah. Understood. Still, this is defo some error in one of my .ini’s, that’s the only explanation for a vanilla base showing up as completely screwed on it’s infocard. I’ll have to go through all of it and track it down.

When I visit a base, land or whatever, it parses the second entry in infocardmap.ini right to display the actual text part of the infocard… and it also parses the market files… goods entries etc too right? To obtain the list of ‘stuff’ sold at that base… so could it be a screwed up info entry for one of my goods? Referring back to my pictures before… I think it’s either 3 or 4… it shows it starting to screw up part way down the commodities or equipment list… could that be why… :-X

Cheers!

OMFG! Check this shiz out guys… The cause seems to be either certain equipment having a price of $0. I take it, this aint possible… After I fixed up all my equipment that had a price of 0, things seemed to settle down. All that garbage disappeared. I also found a goods entry (a commodity) that had an ids_name of 0. I can’t see this as being the problem, but that resulted in the olde ‘Object Unknown’ text… hmm this may well be fixed. And it wasn’t because i’m tieing an infocard and a name to the number after all…