[PROGRAM] X Plugin Manager : V1.87 : 2024-01-06

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

Found out what was causing my problem with having readtext901-107 line in AL, it appears to be Advanced Complex Hub Mk2 (would have never thought), which along with aforementioned problems seems to screw EMP wares list built in plugin manager, which causes missing custom ware names on stations and wares not added/being recognized by some mods.
Tested it on fresh install with following mods installed (in order)
1. TC 2.2a plots to AP 3.1
2. MARS
3. Complex Cleaner 4.09

Either problem with the Advanced hub or possibly conflict with complex cleaner. Will post my findings in Complex Hub thread.

[DrBullwinkle]

Page 901 is the Plugin Manager's strings.

Not any of the mods that you have listed.

If the Plugin Manager is installed (and used) correctly then there should be a 0901-L0xx.pck file in your addon\t folder. It is created by the Plugin Manager. It contains the string 107 which gives the name for the AL Plugin.

You must close the Plugin Manager before starting the game. That is when the PM does its magic.

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

Yes, I did close it, yetnow Im getting completely inconsistent results, and it seems that Advanced Hub mk2 might not be the issue, but plugin manager itself. To illustrate my point best way possible, let me describe step by step what I did exactly.

1. Fresh install of AP
2. Launched plugin manager, enabled modified to load all nessesary libraries, closed, started the game to make sure readtext error not there (it is related to export game data line in AL btw). Everything is fine.
3. Quit game, launch PM, install TC plots in AP. Quith PM, launch game, pick Argon patriot start, everything looks fine, save at station, reload, just in case, everything ok, save again and quit.
4. Installing MARS via PM, quit PM, load game, save, load, everything fine, quit the game.
5. Doing same as above for Complex Cleaner, everything is fine.
6. Installing Advanced Complex Hub Mk2 via PM
7. Installing no tubes (keine komplex roehren) repacked into zip for PM,
PM gives me error message that dat couldnt be installed. Assuming that it might be because 0kb file size, uninstalling no tubes entry from PM completely, manually adding fake patch files.
Now things start to go weird, upon closing PM it crashes. Ok, launhing the game, assuming that since all libraries and files are in place, crash is irrelevant, and upon loading a save i immediately get readtext901-107 line in AL menu. Quit the game.
8. manually remove fake patch no tubes mod, launch, still see readtext, quit the game.
9. launch PM, remove advanced complex hub mk2 via it (using uninstall and not disable), quit pm, load game - readtext is gone. quit the game.
10. installing advanced complex hub MK2 again just to make sure, quit PM, load game, readtext is there. quit game, going on forum to share my discovery =)
11. uninstall complex hub mk2 via PM, quit pm, manually add no tubes fake patch, load game and.... readtex is back....ooook... quit the game.
12. read your post on forum.
13. manually remove no tubes fake patch, which leaves me with 3 mods (TCAP, MARS and Complex Cleaner) which were stable previously in this test. Load save, and see readtext again ... getting really confused at this point which greatlly adds to my willingness to throw 50euros at Elite Dangerous and forget X3 for good.
14. started PM, quit PM, made sure the pck file is in place, loaded save - readtext is gone, everything looks fine.
15. installed complex hub mk2 via pm, quit pm, loaded game expecting to see readtext again, and it wasnt there, everything looks and works fine. saved in new slot, loaded, everything still works fine
16. manually installed no tubes fake patch, loaded the game, everything looks fine, no readtext problem

Currently I feel rather confused as why it was so inconsistent even though steps were taking in exact order. Gonna install other scripts and see how it goes.
sorry for being perhaps too detailed, I just wanted to make sure there is least amount of misunderstanding and unnessesary questions with it. Any ideas what might be causing inconsistency?

[DrBullwinkle]

14. started PM, quit PM, made sure the pck file is in place, loaded save - readtext is gone, everything looks fine.

Yes. Exactly as expected.

15. installed complex hub mk2 via pm, quit pm, loaded game expecting to see readtext again, and it wasnt there, everything looks and works fine. saved in new slot, loaded, everything still works fine

In case you needed proof, there it is.


There is nothing inconsistent about it.

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

ok, after painstalkingly installing and cheking ingame each script one by one, everything looks to be in order more or less, except 1 thing - somewhy Boarding transporter device from Improved boarding (your hacked version) is being displayed as ZA_EMP_BlANK_WARE_CUSTOM16_13. I could assume that it could be shifted ware IDs in ware library, but the strange thing is that proper name for device have appeared, then dissaperaed again. let me explain:
Installed improved boarding script. Cheked universal buy, found it below as ZA ware name. flew to split equipment dock in family pride, couldnt dock there because of low rep, but saw in info window that, boarding transporter there was also named ZA_EMPware. Docked in neigbouring sector at teladi station, saved, loaded, cheked universal buy locator - boarding transporter appeared to be named normally. Ok, thought I and continued installing scripts one buy one. After being done, I cheked universal buy to see that boarding transporter again named as ZA ware. Flew to split equipment dock in family Why, checked info panel - name was ZA ware. Docked there, save-load, boarding transporter device appeared normally. Undocked, cheked universal best buy - it said ZA ware, checked info panel of EQ dock I just undocked - ZA WARE, landed there again - ZA WARE. Any ideas? note that I did start-close PM to merge TWare

EDIT: So basically here is how it is - when I dock to station, ZA WARE changes to proper ware name and stays like that. As soon as I load the game, boarding transporter again becomes ZA WARE, and I have to undock and dock again to fix it. Not sure if it resets up changing sectors - just cheked and yes, name ramains after sector change, but not after game load. Any ideas?

EDIT2: Is there a way to generate a new TWareT.pck? maybe that will fix the problem. I tried removing it, but PM doesnt generate a new one.

[DrBullwinkle]

It is a quirk that I think has something to do with the order in which language files load. Theoretically, file 0901 should load before others, and the other files should override anything that uses the same page and ID.

But it doesn't always work that way. Cycrow may know more about why.

Anyway, that's the correct ware. So it should work.

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

I think there might be a problem that at some point PM stops generating new TWareT and 901 text file, hence all the errors. In my case I think it was because of manually installed last pair of cat/dat files that I somewhy couldnt install with PM despite proper zip packing (issue with 0kb dat file size I think). Upon removing that cat/dat pair, PM has properly generated new 901 and TWaresT files and everything seems to be working now.... hopefully

[Cycrow]

Its a problem i have never quite figured out. I've tried lots of ways to sort it, but sometimes the game just seems to over right the text files.

for the cat/dat files, if you want to install them manually, the best way would be to open the plugin manager, then put the cat/dat files into the game, then close the pm. This will cause it to recreate all its files based on the new files you have added.

when you run the plugin manager it moves its generated files away from the game until you close it again

[Notarius]

1st - thanx for plugin manager and all the work was done for x-series
2nd - i have "a little" problem how to modify ships - is there any manual for plugin manager?

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

Its a problem i have never quite figured out. I've tried lots of ways to sort it, but sometimes the game just seems to over right the text files.

for the cat/dat files, if you want to install them manually, the best way would be to open the plugin manager, then put the cat/dat files into the game, then close the pm. This will cause it to recreate all its files based on the new files you have added.

when you run the plugin manager it moves its generated files away from the game until you close it again

Somewhy it was the opposite in my case. Untill I removed manually installed cat/dat pair, PM didnt recreated 901 and TWareT files, leading to missing wares and text lines in game. In my case the workaround was easy since the only manual cat/dat pair was no tubes mod, which does not relate to TWare or has any text lines, thus can be simply removed upon using PM, and then put back in place after closing PM.

[Notarius]

From unknown reason PM crushed - yesterday everything fine .. today i cant install anything.
http://www.imghosting.cz/view-82201534_151714.jpg
and when i try to close PM:

Description:
Stopped working

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: XPluginManager.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 50103bc6
Fault Module Name: spk.dll
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 50103b7a
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00017d3a
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1051


And yes ... I try uninstall/reinstall PM, everything what was installed previously was disabled and uninstalled .... any help?

[Cycrow]

it looks like its struggling to write to the game directory, you could check the game directories permissions to see if its being blocked, or possibly trying to run the plugin manager in admin mode

[Notarius]

Thanx, I try even uninstall x3TC/AP ... thank god i dont use steam version but boxed one. It work again .. I dont know what helped ... i try both things you suggested. Funny think is what has changed since yesterday. Looks like what work one day - there is no guarantee it will work 24 hours later with same settings.
But anyway ... thanx for help.

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

From unknown reason PM crushed - yesterday everything fine .. today i cant install anything.
http://www.imghosting.cz/view-82201534_151714.jpg
and when i try to close PM:

Description:
Stopped working

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: XPluginManager.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 50103bc6
Fault Module Name: spk.dll
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 50103b7a
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00017d3a
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1051


And yes ... I try uninstall/reinstall PM, everything what was installed previously was disabled and uninstalled .... any help?

have you installed any cat/dat pairs manually?
If you did, check your game folder to see if you didnt end up with something like this after PM uninstalled all your mods
01cat/dat
02
03
04
09cat/dat

I had PM crashing when after switching in vanilla and back to modified when I tried to enable previously installed mods, because of manually cat/dat pair leftover like in example above.
If that is the case, temporally remove manually installed cat/dat pair, install everything with PM, install non PM compatible cat/dat pairs manually, renumber fake patches if nessesary and close PM. If you gonna install/remove fake patches in the future via PM, make sure to do everything described above in reverse order before installing/uninstalling cat/dat pairs with PM.

Also after closing PM, make sure it generated new 0901-l044.pck in /t folder and new TWareT.pkc in Types folder (i.e. file modified timestamp should be the same time as you closed PM last time). I had a problem with manually installed cat/dat pair preventing that for some reason, leading to problems like missing text strings and wares in game.

[Notarius]

No...it wasnt problem with cat/dat. Thats for sure. No mod like xtended or xrm etc ... Just X3ap, v3.0 + PM + ships installed through PM /just for editing - more hull, less speed from xsp ships - and always only 1 ships installed at a time - just in case/. Probably it was problem with admin rights - if it was admin access of x3 or PM couldnt say. Just dont understand whats happen during 8 hours sleep because it worked before i go to sleep - funny things start happen when i wake up. Probably some gremlins play x3 during night

[Cycrow]

there could be any number of things happening that blocked the install. However, its most likely nothing to do with the actual game, and more likely something else on your computer interfering, perhaps even windows.

its possible a virus scanner had locked the directory for some reason and didn't release it.
i've had similar problems with Visual studio in the past, where a virus scanner blocked the build directory preventing me from compiling anything

if it was just a permissions problem, it wouldn't just start working suddenly.

if it happens again, you could try rebooting and seeing if that fixes it

[Darth Stark]

This seems the right place to post this.

Maybe this has been asked before, maybe not, with 138 pages of posts... yeah :')

I'm running Win 8.1 64bit.

So I have only just started modding X3:AP (I have the full edition) and I am having some issues with the Plugin Manager. When I load the program it just loads up a window saying "Open" sits there, nothing at all like any of the screen shots. Furthermore when I try to search for the SPK file I know I have downloaded (because the package explorer can find it) it doesn't appear. Can anyone give me some advice on what's up? Cheers!

[Edit] I am a dumb, the open thing was to select the AP file directory, derp.

[GlassDeviant]

I tried asking this in the Mobile Ship Repairs thread, but nobody seems to be home and besides it might be more relevant here.

For a few days now I have been trying to get a nicely modded game of AP 3.1 rolling, and had to deal with a few issues and several clean restarts along the way. For most of it, Mobile Ship Repairs v1.07 installed and worked properly (once I figured out how to make it work), but now I can't even get it installed with X Plugin Manager. Whether I use the spk file or the rar archive, XPM says it installed it but it doesn't appear in the Installed Package or Installed Archives list, and doesn't run in-game.

I'm familiar with mod managers from Skyrim, and as far as I can tell I'm using it correctly, but this hurdle has me pulling what little hair I have left out.

Should I just manually install the mod into the addons folder and not worry about it? Is there an order that some mods have to be put in, in order to work right? I can paste a list of what I'm using if that's needed.

Edit: Peeked in the game folders and found all the scripts and t files installed, but not the cat or dat file, so I copied them into addons and made them 07.cat and 07.dat, now I'm going to fire it up and see if I've done something right for a change.

[Cycrow]

if its a mod file, rather than a fake patch. Ie the cat/dat files have a name rather than a number. Then its installed in a seperate section of the plugin manager.

you will find it in the Mod Selector (open view the menu), only one mod can be active at a time from here

[GlassDeviant]

Strangely enough, it didn't work until I manually put the cat/dat files into the addon folder. But at least I found the mods that did not seem to install with Plugin Manager in that ModSelector option, and I can try activating the 4 that are in there (which aren't showing in-game).

Hopefully I can get them to work, as I've trimmed down my mod list to the ones I really wanted, without any of the "this might be cool" ones.