Base archetypes used as auxillary docks for a base

Quite some time ago I came up with the idea of using base archetypes (most commonly the space_police01 because of its modular form, but I also use the shipping01 and the prison) as auxillary (extra) docks of larger bases.

I have no idea whether or not this is a recommended practice. I hope some response to this thread will enlighten me.

Sofar the results I’ve had with it have been mixed.

Usually it seems to be no problem for the game. I used to comment out the base = line, but as long as you make sure that the archetype you want as a main base is above the auxillary one(s) (in the system’s .ini file I mean) that one will be used as the main base (the player will depart from there, even though he entered the base through the aux dock). So, it works virtually the same with the base = line not commented out.

The code then quite resembles that of the average docking fixture.

Example:

[Object]
nickname = Rh01_03_Aux_Dock_NE
ids_name = 0;GENERATESTRRES("Ring Citadel, NE Docks")
;bp = 52350, 0, 10150
pos = 52850, 0, 9650
rotate = 0, -135, 0
Archetype = space_police01_NoNavMap
ids_info = 65699
dock_with = Rh01_03_Base
base = Rh01_03_Base
reputation = rh_p_grp
behavior = NOTHING
voice = atc_leg_f01a
space_costume = , robot_body_C
difficulty_level = 11
loadout = space_police01_rh_01
pilot = pilot_solar_hard

(NB The peculiar ids_name is because I use the XML option (I have not yet bothered to come up with a proper ids_info), and the space_police01_NoNavMap is a variation of the space_police01 arch with no NavMap picture assigned to it.)

The above entry works fine, and does not destabilize my system. He even has a counterpart in another auxillary dock pointing to the same base, and a nearby base also has one. No problem.

I just made a new base, with 4 of such auxillary docks, but they make the game crash as soon as a dock at a nearby TL (this time it’s not a path, lol). When I delete 2 out of the 4 aux docks, the game works fine again. No crashes.

So, what could this mean?

[olist]* Is it bad practice that should be avoided anyway, and I just was lucky that it didn’t crash with the first few?

• Is 5 docking points too much for a base? (but the Outpost arch has 8, and Argh’s version 12! They’re all in one arch though)
• Can there maybe be only so much docking points in a star system?[/olist]

Must be a cool sight

Anyway if you say it should work, I can give it some more effort.

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.)

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.

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 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 wrote:
It’s C458F again.

Is that a notorious one?

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

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.

@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?

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.

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

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.