Random but persistent crash when targeting an object.

DaveAshton · Post by **DaveAshton** » Fri, 4. Nov 05, 23:10

Like so many of you I have found that the game CTD's whenever I target something. If I bring up the sector map and target something I get the speech and the game then only crashes when I exit the menu. The CTD is therefore not linked toa sound problem associated with the speech. Like the rest of you the game worked fine for the first 20 hours or so of playing time. I am now so fed up with the crashes that I am going to stop playing it until egosoft come up with a fix for the problem. Further to that if they don't do it fairly sharpish then I'll be asking for a refund (good thing I kept the receipt). It would be a frightful shame as the game itself is brilliant when it works, the first 20 hours had me awestruck at what they had accomplished.

Scoob · Post by **Scoob** » Fri, 4. Nov 05, 23:15

Ok, while I could re-create the Factory Placement & hub crash I'm now less sure if the two are really related.

As rebuilding my wheat farms failed, I reloaded to before I'd even bought them. The game way playing fine, all things working as they should. I chose to fly back down to Ore Belt where I had some ships stashed & go about upgrading them. I did a little remote trading in the meantime, as well as sending a ship to pick up some goods for me.

The time it took me to do all this was probably a similar amount of time it took me previously to get to Queens space. Thing is, when I finally docked, saved & reloaded at the Argon Equipment dock in Ore Belt, I got a CTD when I had 2 mini-monitors up & pressed Esc (or Return) to get the menu once more.

Maybe it's just the fact that I've been playing a long time (playing time listed as 3-10:35, my original now unplayabile using the Hud game was a couple of days more), have explored 114 sectors has led to some sort of overflow problem, who knows.

Think I may have to hold off playing until the patch, which is difficult, but at least then I can hopefully resume my original game.

Scoob.

Scoob · Post by **Scoob** » Fri, 4. Nov 05, 23:22

DaveAshton,

I'm betting that if you turned your HUD off (shift+h) and targeted something via he sector map then exited it wouldn't crash until you turned the hud on again. This is what most of us on this thread are getting and appears to be the last & most inavoidable in a line of things that'll make a game crash.

Fingers crossed that 1.3 will address this problem, cos like you say the game is amazing which just makes the dissapointment that much greater when play stops due to CTDs.

Hang in there, you know you'll regret returning it cos knowing the Egosoft guys they'll have this problem cracked before too long.

*Edit* Incidentally I []did[/i] notice that there were enemies in sector just before my Ore Belt save, I'd been watching the fight remotely & saved once it was over. It was reloading after this I & doing the above test I got a CTD.

Scoob.

KnightHawk · Post by **KnightHawk** » Fri, 4. Nov 05, 23:38

I am having the same problem. It started around the 03-10-00 ish mark too.

I have backed up and deleted my saves and reinstalled X3 and the patch. I'm now trying a new start to see how it goes, but i've got a bad feelling it will start again.

It was all going so well up till then, frame rate was good and my machine isn't top of the line.

AMD 64 3000+
NForce3 Board
1GB ram
Radeon 9800 pro
Audigy 2 ex platinum.

Post by **bogatzky** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 00:09

Same problem here, greetings from germany!

Game worked fine for 5 days, ingametime is now 3:11:00 and i`m facing the same problems.
I`m waiting for a fast fix now.

Scoob · Post by **Scoob** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 00:42

I'd resigned myself to playing the role of a peaceful trader and build up my empire a little. Strictly NOT using the hud, or involving myself in anything other than autopilot combat.

Was feeling quite happy in this more relaxed role having bought another wheat farm to add to my existing complex of two in Queens Space. Now I've placed that extra factory trying to bring up the Universe map has started causing a CTD

Time playing 4-17:13 on my latest save. Game Date 764-11-05.

Think I may be forced to stop playing all together as I really can't navigate easily or use my jumpdrive without the universe map view

Plus even trying to save causes the CTD now. Waaaaa!

Anyone from Egosoft care to look at my saved games? They're pure 1.2 saves with no modding done - I discarded my reverted game where I used scripts to get back to the same level.

Scoob.

Umpa Lumpa · Post by **Umpa Lumpa** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 00:46

Im beginning to think its a time issue. Im at 3:06:25. I started getting the problem a few days ago and thought it was a problem with autosave. I turned it off and reverted to an old save and it worked again, thought Id cracked it but once the clock rolled around to 3:00:00 (most likely) its started again.

If so oddest error ever

mac.wheeler · Post by **mac.wheeler** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 03:02

Interesting to see more and more people with this problem, I definately think it has something to do with the time played, it will be intereesting to see if the fresh game I started does it, I'm thinking it will.

rehen · Post by **rehen** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 05:09

Ok I have had this crash problem before around 4 -00:00 into the game but after leaving my comp at 10x for a fue hours oddly it went away. Due too the power of x10 game play im now 29-08:37 into the game and the problem has come back with avengence and wont go away. The system i was in when it happened was my main system it already had 30 odd of my stations in it in about 4 complexes but i had just finished a new complex and was placing turrets around it when the problem first started.
Also i just changed the names of my stations in the system.

My system is :
AMD 4000+
Gigabyte Geforce 7800 GTX 256MB
2 gig of ram
Abit AN8 nforce 4 SLi MB

The problem happens when i click on any object in space, so has made the game unplayable. As mentioned before if i load a old save or start a new game the problem isent there.

I have also had the problem with the the pointer info sticking too the screen and staying there and being saved in the saved files, what gets realy enoying due to after a while it starts to cover parts of the screen

PS sorry for teh spelling

RGanB · Post by **RGanB** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 12:09

I've got a the same problem
but curusly it only occured after I bought my Argon Centaur
before that everything was fine.
Could it have something to do with the number of ships u own?

tass_bur · Post by **tass_bur** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 12:23

RGanB wrote:I've got a the same problem
but curusly it only occured after I bought my Argon Centaur
before that everything was fine.
Could it have something to do with the number of ships u own?

Maybe? how many do you own?

myself i have 10 or so ..and 2 stations...no m6 and up

Netzhaut · Post by **Netzhaut** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 13:55

I have excatly the same problem and in my opinion I think two things are for sure. It's related to the hud and has nothing to do with sound problems or not proper working hardware. The second thing is that it is coming up more often the more advanced a game is. So I think for finding the error we should keep eyes open on in game "milestones"...

Here are some facts regarding my game:

played time: 2-14
account: about 1 mio
way travelled: 19474 km
owned stations: 2 (solar m, wheat m)
plot progress: just before searching for Don Marianis daughter at the trading station in thuruks pride
owned ships: 5 ( dolphin, mercury, buster, harrier and the free mamba)

I think it is possible that the problem started after I got the...

Spoiler

Show

free mamba in LooManckStrat's Legacy

boggle · Post by **boggle** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 14:01

ok i can confirm that if you target an object while the mini monitor is active in top left of screen then open cago bay and try to eject a sattelite or evengo to the menu it will CTD.i have tried this several ways,with different gfx settings etc and it does it every time.this has only started to happen since last night.
to remedy this all you need to do is either turn mini monitor off or minimise it while you do whatever it is you want to do thta involves menu use.also switching of the HUD will avoid the CTD.
on a side note im getting 60+ fps with the HUD off and around 28-30 with it on. i have a GF6800gt 256mb card and it rocks with all sectors playable with no noticble slowdown in fights(and ive had a few ).
ok i know its not a total fix for the problem but at least you can still play the game,which is most awesome i might add.

for the DEVS looking into the bug list i was in menalaus paradise around 30k from the west gate when i tried to drop an advanced sattelite while targeted on a pirate harrier.i opened the cargo bay and as soon as i pressed f it CTD.also it CTD if you try to enter any menu at this point.HUD off is fine so is mini monitor off or minimised.also if you have no target (as no monitor showing)its fine.

ive tried to be constructive here and not go down the Egosoft bashing route because theres way to much of that around here already.this game is very complex and absolutley brilliant(so were the other games in the X series of which i have all),it is no surprise to me that with the nature of this game its will take a couple of patches to get to the point where everyone is happy(everyone happy? yeah an pigs might fly too-oh look a flying pork chop express) anyway thats my 2 pence and to Egosoft please keep up the good work with this franchise as i will always play these type of games and i know im not alone.

sorry for posting this twice i missed this thread the first time
i also have the mamba from loomanckstrats legacy, i will have to try a different ship and see if it still happens

Post by **CBJ** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 14:02

Just to save you some effort, we have a reasonable idea what is causing this. Those of you whose game has been through more save-load cycles will probably get this more than those whose games have only been loaded from savegames a few times. Feel free to confirm this amongst yourselves if you like.

Netzhaut · Post by **Netzhaut** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 14:08

When I reload the savegame before I got the mamba everything works fine! After I go and get it the problem comes back.

Your load/save theory sounds "interessting"...

rehen · Post by **rehen** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 15:35

CBJ wrote:Just to save you some effort, we have a reasonable idea what is causing this. Those of you whose game has been through more save-load cycles will probably get this more than those whose games have only been loaded from savegames a few times. Feel free to confirm this amongst yourselves if you like.

YAY dose this mean it will be fixed in next patch then :

Scoob · Post by **Scoob** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 15:53

That's positive news CBJ, thanks for the update. I for one save every time I enter a station pretty much & usually dock & save a few times along the way if on a particularly long trip. One session of playing will often lead me to cycle through the available save slots several times so your idea sounds bang on. By the looks of it many people here appear to be hitting that critcal number of saves around the 3-00:00 and above mark, so it all starting to make a little more sense now. It's quite ironic really as we all probably save often just incase something goes wrong!

If you require a saved game to aid your testing I'm sure we'd all be happy to oblige

My latest is at the terminal "can't save anymore" stage incidentally.

One question though, do you feel confident that applying the patch will actually []i]fix[/i] our current saved games? I know that in previous patches for X2 a certain degree of saved game conversion happened when you first reloaded a save from a prior version.

Scoob.

Post by **CBJ** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 16:00

This is tricky to explain but saving isn't the issue.

When you play the game, you start at 0-00:00 on the clock. At the end of each session of playing you save, and at the start of the next session you load the same game to continue. The more often you go through this cycle, the more likely you are to hit this problem.

So saving 50 times in one session won't make any difference, no matter how many different slots you use, but saving your game, loading the same savegame again, playing it for a while, saving it again, and so on, might.

Savegame compatibility is, as always, high on our list of priorities. If it is at all possible to "fix" savegames that are causing problems then we will try to do so.

Hob Anagerik · Post by **Hob Anagerik** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 16:30

That sounds more like it. So is there likely to be a fix for peoples save games released? If not will it be integrated into the next patch?

veridiac · Post by **veridiac** » Sat, 5. Nov 05, 16:31

Hmm there seem to be two threads on what I think is the same problem? Anyway I think I have the same bug, and I too didn't notice it coming up until now that I'm several game-days in, however I just did an experiment....

I started a brand new game and the very moment I got control of my ship I mashed page-up over and over as fast as I could... crashed in no time flat.

Could someone else please try this too? I don't know maybe there are two different crash-on-target bugs, or the very fact of having savegames in the directory has an effect (maybe the number of save-slots you used? - I know the more you have the longer it takes to bring up the load screen - maybe there is a bug in there somewhere)

Maybe I'll try moving my savegames elsewhere and starting a new game and see what happens.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Random but persistent crash when targeting an object.