Server crash - content.dll 000c458f

That’s interesting Helloween.

Under what circumstances might this situation happen?

Maybe…… forgot to change the mBase.ini file to remove li_p_grp?

cata123 wrote:
I`m asking a question for anyone who had problems with server crashes because of system resizing.
The crash appears when docking with a tradelane on that system.
Error shows this offset from content.dll :

AppName: flserver.exe	 AppVer: 2.5.1254.11	 ModName: content.dll ModVer: 1.0.1254.11	 Offset: 000c458f
```I just want to know the cause of crash, path or zone or whatever is it . Thanks !

I don’t know anything about running a server, but I have some experience with system resizing.

Vanilla systems are not always perfect. Sometimes patrol paths do not entirely touch; sometimes trade lane traffic zones do not precisely match the actual tradelane; things like that.

I you enlarge a system, you blow up these imperfections too. This might cause them to get big enough to give the game a hard time (which doesn’t necessary mean a crash - but it might make the game less stable, and that might catalyze a crash). E.g. If you enlarge your system 2.5 times, but leave the patrol_paths’ width the same (which would make sense - otherwise you’d have absurdly wide paths) then they might just get disconnected. Before the enlargement they were connected because relatively they were wider.

Trade lane traffic zones might deviate by a a few degrees (or, more likely, parts of a degree) When the tradelane gets longer, the deviation at the ends will increase.

I’m not 100% sure if these imperfections will definately cause a crash (actually I think the tradlance traffic zone does work outside of the lane but just looks silly), but I’ve experienced my systems became more stable when I fixed these things.

Btw have you rewritten your tradelanes? When a system is resized, the trade land rings’ distance will be weird, so I often recalculate the lane (that is: remove it and make a new one on the same place, with a more balanced distance between the rings). But that also might cause issues: there seems a limit of how many rings the game can handle, so if you enlagre a system by 4 you might have a problem. Also, lane_attack patrol paths are often connected to a certain ring; this connection may ne broken when the lane is redesigned; I don’t think this will trigger a crash though.

Suggestion:

Can you not use FL Explorer to check, delete and re-create your tradelanes and patrol paths after you resize your system?

You will need to recheck that it doesn’t change anything else, but it would save you a lot of time?

At the least you could then use the pos = values only, and transfer them into your own resized system file.

I use WinMerge to compare and update files, it’s fast and has a clear, easy interface.

i think Moonhead has a fair point, seems very likely that distances from dockable objects get too large.
would be interesting to know what scale cata123 used.
also, there might be a way to get around this issue with some hacks.
like this one:
25000000f in content.dll, 0x???, 0x1195D4 = square of the distance from the end of the patrol_path to the object over which patrol_path NPCs won’t dock with it (so far tested only with jumpgates; raising this may prevent PP crashes?) ~Vital

Moonhead wrote:

Vanilla systems are not always perfect. Sometimes patrol paths do not entirely touch; sometimes trade lane traffic zones do not precisely match the actual tradelane; things like that.

I you enlarge a system, you blow up these imperfections too. This might cause them to get big enough to give the game a hard time (which doesn’t necessary mean a crash - but it might make the game less stable, and that might catalyze a crash).

Sounds like an excellent candidate for a crash. If the patrol paths are disjoint you’ll experience crashes.

You could always go through your system before doing this and comment out all encounters - patrol paths, encounters in zones, tradelane traffic and the like.

If you still crash, you’ll know it is not related to this. If you don’t, you’ve found your likely cause.

An easy and simple way to start tracking down the errors

E:\contrib\games\Freelancer>whatis 2809742538
2809742538      bounty1
```You should update CreateID and/or CRCTool (both on [my site](http://adoxa.110mb.com/freelancer/)).

cata123 wrote:
wow 1 day and alot of replies , thanks guys .
The target system is Iw04 - cortez with 210% resize.
I found the crash offsets topic and i saw the 000c458f crash its very common. I used some patch from adoxa - content-000c458f.dll that identifies what causes the crash and i found problem is path = 2809742538 . Editing and adjusting all paths in FL mod studio didnt solved nothing , still same hash code path problem .
Now searching in all hash codes i didnt found what zone / patch / archetype or any entity with this name . Now i`m using a temporary patch with some register tweak in hex edit found in that topic .

Did you try commenting out all encounters of the system? I wrote a large thread once about identifying crashes, including when you are entering a trade lane…

cata123 wrote:
thank you , adoxa how i obtain hashes.dat ?
@chips maybe but i really hate the starport search engine ; always when i search for something i have to look over and over on all posts . Anyway FL mod studio doesent have tab for comment , so its automatically removed when saving system, i wanted to add to options right today but if you say it makes trouble then i let this way.

Now I remember why I went to the archive site

http://www.the-starport.net/archive/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=24781&p=17595&hilit=answers+to+crashes#p17595

That’s the thread, essentially (from memory) it will be an encounter that is causing your issue. Obviously this cannot be 100% certain, but I’d be 70% sure, especially if you changed nothing but the resize (however, I do not know how resize is handled). You can also crash trying to dock with a tradelane if the ring numbering is messed up. However, the fact the crash offset appears many times in various posts indicates that it’s a common cause throughout, and I’d pin money on encounters.

I’d urge you to drop the mod studio tool if it doesn’t allow for comments, and do it by hand using something like notepad++. You may find the solution nice and quickly, and may be able to remove the offending patrol path (if it is that, but it may have continuations on the other side of jumphole/gate and I don’t know how that is handled, so urge some caution).

The linked thread shows how to do this, although you may be able to just comment out the lines beginning with:

encounter = 
```to

;encounter =

A quick find and replace of the first with the second should do it ;) To remove afterwards, just find and replace all ; (if there were no commented out lines, or comments added, to the file - otherwise this may cause issues).

I should say, it's not an exact science - just a collection of issues i stumbled upon as I progressed :D

how i obtain hashes.dat ?

createid -sh

@@Startrader&Nexose

In my case i have constant difference between client and server and temporary healing solution is…
… neutral reputation between NPC factions and patch from Adoxa.

So at the moment all stable

and once again: the beauty of vanilla. apply why’s huge effects pack, make the missiles somewhat better seeking and fly to the orbit of New London. i love it. neutral npc relations? no way! xD

I used to like waiting in ambush by a pirate jumphole, blow them all, and pick up the loot with a pal with a big freighter. When we got better at it we had two shooting them up and several pals ferrying to sell.

Got fed up after about 20 days! lol

Unsure whether the crash culprit was found, but guess so.

@cata123 i do not see other exit from this problem yet (in my case it is server-side modding), anyway NPCs tax others NPCs and shoot each other when answer on tax is negative

Not tried yet, but this may fix content.dll 000c458f crashes:

content.dll 11BCF4 -0.6f = hostile docking reputation ~adoxa