Random but persistent crash when targeting an object.

[veridiac]

Just tried moving my savegames elsewhere, no luck same problem. Someone else please try this too so i know if its my system, I can crash the game in under 10 seconds I've tried new games with both plotline enabled and disabled, and either way mashing pageup repeatedly crashes me in no time.

[Scoob]

CBJ: Yes, that makes sense. It's generally after loading a previous save which was made when the game appeared to be behaving its self, that I get problems. I guess the problem is that, depending on what features you use, you may not actually notice there's something wrong.

Like me losing the ability to bring the lower menu up when both mini-monitors are on, after loading a save that was fine before I reloaded it. A sure sign something is wrong, but just not something I ever did unless I was testing. Guess if you use the 2nd mini-monitor a lot you'd maybe get CTDs sooner. For most of us the mouse-targeting appears to be the killer where we first notice there's a problem.

I'm also guessing that those of us who like combat, but maybe haven't quite adapted to the new flight dynamics are typically gonna be those who save, save, save, Oops - load, save, save, darn it - load, etc. Saying that I probably shot myself in the foot to a certain degree while testing my "rolled back" saved games cos I was forever Save then right away Load to check it. Explains why that particular game failed so soon after loading while my "real" game survived another 2 days of play before breaking.

I guess this was just one of those bugs that will only manifest its self after many hours of play where you save & reload fairly regularly. Impossible to avoid or work around really.

Scoob.

[veridiac]

Hmmmmm I just rebooted my computer for the hell of it..... and now its not crashing. New games and old games. I guess the initial crash pissed off some driver or something? Very very strange....

From now on I'm rebooting even after just a CTD!

[mac.wheeler]

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.

CBJ, I know you are performing a thankless task by keeping all us forum hounds at bay and it is with sincere apologies that I request you give some indication of a) the priority of this problem and b) a likely timescale to fix?

In many ways this is worse than the startup issues with performance etc, because those of us loyal enough to push those issues to one side now face an awful lot of lost effort as a reward for that faith.

[gpz1100]

Do we know yet if any fix will also repair saved games. If I have to start all over again this thing is going in the bin

[CBJ]

I request you give some indication of a) the priority of this problem and b) a likely timescale to fix?

a) High.
b) Hopefully in 1.3 which should be in mid-November.

Do we know yet if any fix will also repair saved games. If I have to start all over again this thing is going in the bin

I already answered that.

[mac.wheeler]

Mid November eh? Do I get to bill Egosfot for the interest earned on my £24.99 for 2.5 weeks? Sound petty don't it? Multiply that by the amount of dissatisfied customers right now and it has several zeros.

Not your problem CBJ I know, forgive me for airing my opinion in such a negative fashion.

Probablt because the new game I started just began to do the same thing, right now I'm out of pocket for a game I cannot play, I hope you understand that leaves a bitter taste.

[CBJ]

Believe me we want to get it out as soon as possible, but coding and testing solutions to problems like this takes a finite amount of time. I do appreciate your position.

[Tulvral]

Currently I am suffering from this problem as well, and it suspiciouly happened right after I patched my Video drivers to the 81.85 (Nvidia). Not sure if its the problem or if its been mentioned.

[mac.wheeler]

I'm on .17 and same problem.

Also my 2nd PC that runs an ATI 9800XT also has the same problem, let';s stop looking to blame our hardware and get on the case of Egosoft, it's up to them to fix it and fix it in a timely fashion.

[Chluke]

I'm getting the same CTD, Leave station target something and bang thats itys CTD. Reloaded the game 4 times same thing booted pc again. If I don't target anything the game seem ok. Docked again fresh save restarted x3 left station and CTD again.

As with other ppl I've been playing x3 with few problems, I get the tooltips errors and now the ctd which is making x3 unplayable.

[hox]

If it is at all possible to "fix" savegames that are causing problems then we will try to do so.

I really hope it is !

[Tulvral]

Yeah I agree it's not the drivers fault, just rolled back my drivers and still getting the ctd.

[Chluke]

I'm getting the same CTD, Leave station target something and bang thats itys CTD. Reloaded the game 4 times same thing booted pc again. If I don't target anything the game seem ok. Docked again fresh save restarted x3 left station and CTD again.

As with other ppl I've been playing x3 with few problems, I get the tooltips errors and now the ctd which is making x3 unplayable.

X3 is now refusing to start soon as its start its crashing to desktop. Uninstalled x3 installed and applied patch 1.2 and itrs still crashing to desk top.

Fix best had fix save games as like many other ppl in this thread I've put in a few hours in this games and when you have a family those few hours a rare to come by.

[gpz1100]

Well it's now stopped the game completely. I'm in a station and as soon as I try to leave it the game crashes. Even if I click on sector map from inside the station it crashes. So no choice but to wait.

[veridiac]

In my opinion this bug is game-crippling, it simply makes the game unplayable, and usually right at the point where your really enjoying it. *Please* consider fixing this bug and immediatly releasing a patch for it, don't wait for whatever else is going to be in 1.3, pretty much everyone now needs or very soon will need a fix to this problem. The worst part is once it starts happening, if it really is related to save-load cycles, its just going to get worse faster and faster and faster because every time you crash, thats another save-load cycle

[Deleted User]

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.

Ok, sorry to be thick here... I'm confused!

You save in lot 0 first, then in slot 1 etc... Are you saying that if we save in slot 0, close the game, then next time we play we load from slot 0, that's a save-load cycle? Then obviously we'd next save in slot 1, then close and next time start from slot 1 again - another cycle?

Or is this only a problem if we re-load from the same slot several times - like if you save before a pirate attack incase you die, then reload a couple of times? If it's the first thing, then that means that we have a limit to how many times we can play the game before we get the crashes, if it's the second, at least we could work-around it by only re-loading once, or saving the game 3 or 4 times in different slots and then load up the first, if you need to load again do the second.. etc.

Thanks!

[CBJ]

It has nothing to do with save slots, nor with how many times you reload from the same savegame.

If you think of your actual game as a timeline, it is about how many times that timeline includes points at which the game has been saved to disk. If you save and re-load, that's once. If you save, re-load and play for a bit, then re-load again without having saved, that's still once because the first re-load was wiped out by the second. Does that make it clearer?

*Please* consider fixing this bug and immediatly releasing a patch for it

As I've said before, this is a very high priority to be fixed, but it still has to be coded and tested which takes a finite amount of time. People are working as fast as possible on it.

[Deleted User]

I see (I think!) - that means that once it starts happening, you're pretty much at your limit for that game, so the best thing would be to start again and save less! Hopefully the fix will be out before you get it again - or you can have another go! Well, we're going to be pretty good at getting cash fast by the time we're done here!

Thanks for the info... this game is far too good to have something like this put me off!

[giskard]

Just so those reading this know, my old game was 9 game days old and did not have any problems. I tended to play for many hours at a stretch and save to 2 or more slots. I recently restarted on Xtreme as a pure 1.2 game eg not a 1.0 game converted to 1.2 by the patch.

CTDs have been extremely rare since 1.2 was released for me.

Heres how i played and what i did, just in case it helps somebody whilst you guys wait for the 1.3 patch.

I tended to let the old game auto save when trading but used manual saves when not trading. I had explored all but a couple of sectors but I had only done mission 1 in the campaign in that game.

I spent most of my time in a freighter after i explored the universe and had built up a nice factory base to earn money from in argon and split space. My rep was friendly with all races too.

I stuck more or less with argon and split ships as well.

So dispite being farely far in to this, I didnt reload a save very often. I played until i did not want to play any more that day. Next day, id reload my save and away id go.

Auto saves and manual saves being made and reloaded at difficult points when i thought i may die as you would expect.

Giskard