Crashing to desktop problem

[macphegf]

The problem I'm getting is CTD when trying to load a previous save game not while actually saving it. It basically makes the game unplayable. I have tried changing graphics settings but does not make a difference.

[veelad]

Im afraid that save game will be corrupted, from previous posts, I dont think anyone has managed to load one.

The only thing i can suggest is make sure you are manually saving and save often in different slots.

[Deleted User]

I am not sure what's happening here but I experienced a CTD whilst just generally trading on my way to Atreus' cloud. This must be the fourth or fifth time I have done this but I haven't ever experienced a CTD before.

OK, it's my own fault - I should save more often and I lost about 3 hours of gameplay because...

Having had the CTD I restarted and had an autosave at the station prior to the crash. When I tried to restore my game from the autosave entry, that also crashed.

However, whilst writing this note, I decided I would make sure the game as a whole was OK and went back in to start a new one. That worked fine.

But now - because I entered another station - the original offending autosave has gone! So I cannot recreate the problem for you guys.

This is one of those formative experiences, right? I'll not make the same mistake(s) again.

But can you please suggest to the developers a major improvement to the game (other than increasing profit margins!)? That suggestion is to make sure each autosave goes to a unique file/slot? In that way, many hours of well-spent effort won't be lost. And if a CDT does then occur at least there's basic debugging data for the developers to work from.

But having seen the list of 'what to do' and 'what not to do' it does seem that the PC platform can't be the easiest in the world to work with as a developer!

For example, I've just updated my video card drivers and installed a new joystick - within the last 24 hrs. But it seems one cannot win. On the one hand we are told to bring everything bang up to date. And then - when that doesn't work - you tell us to back it all out again.

Ah well, the joys of conjoining X2 and PCs, eh?

Cheers,

Mark

[veelad]

Yes, its a nuicance, I had 3 CTD in one day yesterday in black hole sun on manual save, but again, i had only lost 5 mins of play each time, so it wasnt a big issue for me.

The devs are looking into the CTD issue, and hopefully they will be able to fathom it out.

there are some tips here if you wish to look, http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25361

cheers

veelad

[Crusader+]

I still get a lot of CTDs but a couple of things have slowed the rate of crashing enough that I can get some enjoyment from the game:

1) Never speedtype your way through the menu system to get to the section you want. Allow 1 second minimum after each menu page changes before switching to the next page you want. Especially true when you've just docked at a station. Lots of queued up commands and quick sequences of commands seem to CTD 90% of the time.

2) Try to avoid having Autopilot and SETA on at the same time, especially when docking with anything (gates, stations, anything). I use SETA and manual control to get across a system then Autopilot without SETA to dock when I'm within 3km. That has reduced my CTD rate when docking by about 80%.

[veelad]

do you use autosave or manual? crusader, and which did you use when you used seta with autopilot on? , just curious bud

cheers
veelad

[crustyloafer]

I have just bought the UK version of the game and got it installed ok. When it comes to loading the game up it displays the NVidia logo, then the Deep Silver Logo, then the EgoSoft Logo, then the "Random Quotation" but after that fades away it crashes to desktop. I don't even know what the first menu screen looks like. I am appalled at the apparent amount of problems people are having with this piece of software. I for one will be taking it straight back to the shop for a refund. I may consider purchasing it again in about 6 months time when issues have been ironed out but at the moment it comes across as an incomplete product.

[veelad]

Crusty

Before you go back to the shop, have you tried any of the suggestions on here.

http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25361

then after you read that, I had same problem as you when i first got the game, see my thread and what i did to fix it, here

http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtop ... ght=veelad

Im sure it will be either codec, graphic driver, or both

good luck, hope it sorts it out

cheers[/url]

[Avonack]

Had the game for a week or so (UK version) and I've had two CDTs before, once when manually saving, and once when lodaing that save.

Now, just 5 mins before writing I've tried playing. I manuall save after evey mission or trade run I do, and I save in a new slot evey time, and thus all the slots are full of many many hours gameplay. Now I can't load any of them, it just goes to the loading screen (with the screen shot) and then CTDs. My sepc is:

Win XP
AMD Athlon XP 1800+, MMX, 3DNow, ~15GHz
512MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 (driver version: 6.14.00.10.5303)

And that's all I know. I CAN start a new game or play the simulators, but can't load any saves. I am yet to try saving in a new game.

This is extremely annoying, and I have never had any problems with any of the 50+ games I have owned as bag as this.

[veelad]

That sounds bad news, dont like the idea of ALL saved games being corrupted. eeerm, best thing i can suggest is to find the smallest saved game that dont work, and make a copy.

zip it up, and send me a pm with the file size of the zipped duff save, and i will pm you back with my business email addy, as it should take a large file email (it will be tomorrow when i next log on to this forum, so dont think i have dissapeared LOL).

then you can send me the file, and i will try it on my X2 setup, see if we can eliminate weather its the saved games that are at fault, or X2 itself.

cheers

veelad

[Crusader+]

do you use autosave or manual? crusader, and which did you use when you used seta with autopilot on? , just curious bud

cheers
veelad

I use both auto and manual saves, mostly manual with auto as a backup in case it crashes while saving manually. I rarely get a crash from autosaving and its saved me some lost time when manual saves have crashed. I save in a new slot 99% of the time (unless I made a one second fix to the previous save eg. I forgot to switch ships). I make backups of my savegames also in case everything goes fubar.

I'm getting lots of CTDs today, no idea why, nothing has changed since yesterday when I played 10hrs+ with only one CTD, including capturing 3 ships and destroying another 4 (all pirates). Today just moving between stations in the same system has a CTD before I reach the destination (and thats in my 540 Octopus). I avoid SETA like the plague now, only use it when docked at a station and always save before using it, causes so many CTDs.

This game is winding me up chronically, one day its fine and I really start to enjoy building my empire and the next its unplayably unstable and I can do nothing but sit in a station docked and manage ships remotely. Sadly it feels as if this game has inherited the curse of the doomed sequels to Elite that were plagued with bugs themselves. No other game except Frontier: First Encounters has been so prone to instant crashing with no error messages in my experience.

It does make every docking maneuver a tense heart-stopping moment, but for all the wrong reasons. If it wasn't so good when it was working I'd have gone back to swearing at Prince of Persia long ago.

[veelad]

No doubt you have read the CTD sticky at the top of this tech forum, if so, and its still happening, have a peek at this thread.

http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27781

I dont know if you renamed any of your captured ships, if so, are the names "too long"

this is just a shot in the dark, dont know if it will help in any way, but have a look for nothing.

[Crusader+]

No doubt you have read the CTD sticky at the top of this tech forum, if so, and its still happening, have a peek at this thread.

http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27781

I dont know if you renamed any of your captured ships, if so, are the names "too long"

this is just a shot in the dark, dont know if it will help in any way, but have a look for nothing.

Yup read the sticky and tried as many solutions as were applicable, no luck

Haven't had any corrupt savegames except when the game has crashed during saving, so I presume my names have been ok. I think the longest name I have is Majority Share (all my transports have suitably capitalist names apart from the first one)

I managed another couple of hours crash free this afternoon, including fighting and winning. Either it needed my room to warm up so my system runs at 53C maximum temp during gameplay (it was at 48 earlier in the crashfest) or I have to avoid autopilot on its own, and not just with SETA. I didn't use autopilot once and didn't crash once, and only used SETA when docked.

[veelad]

Well, i recieved the x13.sav , and it loaded just fine, I flew around in the boron manta for a while and redocked, tried it again, and there was no ctd, nor was the game corrupted

As i said, i have the US version, you have the UK, but that shouldnt mean jacksh*t

I suppose it shows that your save games arnt being corrupted, but something in X2 itself is causing the problem.

It would need someone more qualified than me to understand what would stop a good uncorrupted save from loading and-or crashing

[coulterk]

I have a regular problem with CTD and can only get about 30 mins of game time before it crashes. I have followed the posts on this website and tried each recommendation with no success. I have reinstalled XP and then X2 trying the game and gradually introducing updated drivers, DirectX versions, the different Codecs etc, but nothing helped. I have access to both an ATI 9800 card and an Nvida card - both did the same. I have tried 2 machines and 2 different motherboard configurations.

I can see that some people have it working fine but it is fairly clear that there are quite a few with problems. I have spent considerable time trying to resolve the problem and I now feel that the problem lies with the actual game itself. If so many people have the sort of problems reported on this forum that I can also see myself and I have very few problems with other games of like complexity.

Should I really have to do so much to get a game working (well I havn't actually managed that yet) that I have paid good money for where most other games work first time? Whether it is drivers, codecs or other 3rd party things, ultimately the game provider should be responsible for ensuring that the people who purchase the game will actually be able to play it successfully or be advised on how to do so through updated software of some description. Other games released have ensured this - although I may add that X2 is not alone in its problems.

At this point in time I have tried to get it working from advise from this forum, the ATI website, Nvida website and MS advice. Nothing has worked so all I can do now is to return the game to the reseller as not fit for purpose. The forum itself I think provides enough evidence to demonstrate that it is a hit and miss affair.

The game looks good and it is a shame that I will miss out.

[Delirium]

I also have the UK version 1.2

Installed the game played for 15 mins.. then a save CTD. restarted and played further 5 mins later a random CTD. Ok I thought time to test the system, reformated and built it back driver by driver all latest tested with prime 95, 3D mark, Dxdiag etc.. everything works fine on the system and yet I still cannot play for longer than about 15mins without one form or another of CTD. Some I appreciate are known issues.. The save bug etc. I have turned off all things as directed in the known issues/performance threads etc and still no joy.

I also believe after spending 3 days of nothing but building/rebuilding/testing my system and everything checking that the game still does not work to be something of a disappointment. I understand some people are running it fine, and this is even more frustrating as it means that its not something specific thats causing the issue but somethiung underlying which makes it even harder to find.

I love the game when I can play it. Please help as in its current state tbh its not realistically playable having to restart from a save every 10-15 mins. its very frustrating.


Please help and fix these problems! I am currently running a P4 3.06GHz, with 1 Gig of DDR 400, Geoforce 4 TI 4800 SE ( creative) Creative Labs SB live 5.1 Digital, S-ATA HDD's both WD with a Asus P4C800 Deluxe board. So well above the required spec, all currently vanilla in fact the ram is underclocked as its 433 DDR but causes issues running at such in prime 95 test so I clocked it down as the timing was too agressive. Cooling is well within normal as my rig has 12 fans in it, in fact it sounds like a airplane trying to take off.. but that my wifes moan

[coulterk]

Very similar experience to what I am having. CTD between 10-30mins. Spending most of the time docking to save the game.

I do not plan to play any further unless a patch is released as I am convinced it is a problem with the game for some people.

I have requested a return from where I bought the game and am now currently playing Call of Duty and XIII. I know they are very different games, but at least they work and are stunning in their own right.

I'll re-purchase X2 in 6 months or so if it has been patched.

[Juggernaut_NL]

The only CTD I have had has been to do with the auto save, so I switched it off and no more CTD.

Good for you,...


But because my last manual save was 24 hours ago, i just lost about half my game, 3 million, all captured ships, all stations i built, etc.

All i did was dock,... crash, save game file corrupt, crashes to desktop.

This happens about 2x a day now


Thanx to the manual save i can still load something, but each crash sets me back an hour or more....


And its VERY annoying to have to do the same bit over and over!

[antyrrian]

I experience CTD's during the cut seens following a plot link. First occurred during a cutseen on the second mission when you pick the Boron's up in Atreius clouds. I uninstalled and reinstalled to fix that one.

My latest CTD has occurred during the cutseen at Antiginous (probably spelt wrong) memorial at the end when you have discovered the new name for the AP Gunner and been told to get a LRF off the Paranids. At the end of that cut seen with the information finder a CTD occurs everytime.

I have no desire to have to uninstall and reinstall the game to fix this one!!!


Antyrrian

[Naranek]

I have a request which may seem a little obvious, and apologies if it's already been made, but - would it not be possible to have 2 autosave slots? I've just now lost a good couple of hours of play time due to a crash during the autosave on docking which isn't, of course, reloadable. And the last time I manually saved was a little while ago (naturally). But - if there were two autosave positions, e.g. alternating save positions, either both for when you arrive in a station or one arriving and one leaving, then having a crash happen on docking wouldn't matter so much unless you'd done a lot of in-space flight between times. It'd be a bit like in FPS that save an auto-slot for every new level, as well as when you ask it. Seems like a reasonable way to get round the problem?