(***) Preventing and fixing the infamous save game bug Options

[Aztek985]

Originally posted by SMIFFGIG:

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Here is how to prevent the incredibly annoying and frustrating save game bug from ever occuring or how to fix it in a mod that already has the bug

Firstly the save game bug appears in many TS and FS mods (deezire u reading) it allows you to save your game, but if you try to load up that save again you get the dreaded "Internal Error" message and shuts down TS.

I never used to know what caused this bug and had no chance of curing it, however many thanks to Banshee for telling me what the cause was.

This allowed me to work from there. The cause is the [Animations] section in the Rules.ini if you add any animations to this section the save game bug appears

however in any decent mod you got to add animations and you got to keep the save game feature.. well heres how to do it


You will see the last animation in the list is

CODE

707=INVISO

This is the max, and anything past this =Save game bug
so how do u add animations, quite simple
you dont even have to replace any that are already in the list

You will notice the numbers of the animation down the side of the list, these generally go up in order. However there are many! unused slots and you get jumps like this

CODE

54=FIREPOWR
63=MGUN-N

Well we know we cannot go over the 707 mark, but we can however use up all these slots in between, so from the above u will get the following free slots for your own animations

CODE

54=FIREPOWR
55=
56=
57=
58=
59=
60=
61=
62=
63=MGUN-N

now thats quite a few free slots, check the list and enable all these free slots and u will find u got more than enough room for more slots

I was going to make a template opening all free slots, but im sure u can manage it

My testing was done with both TS and FS and save game worked in both
however in TS: Retro (my mod i tested this with) all animations from the firstrm.ini have been put into the rules.ini

this means that there is possibly many many more slots that can be used for firestorm alone. But i dont know what the max is in firestorm and you would of course only see these anims if u had the addon

anyway thats all

-SMIFFGIG

[ORCACommander]

if this isn't stickied it should be

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

You will see the last animation in the list is

CODE

707=INVISO

This is the max, and anything past this =Save game bug

sorry for the bump
but i use numbers from 720 to 757 to add all firestorm animations to the list
and then numbers from 794 to 932 to add my animations
i saved a game with a mechfact (anims from 926-932) and a daishi firing its rocket with a new fireanim (918-925 in the animlist) and the game didn't crashed after loading the savegame.
I even restarted TS to make sure nothing was left in the memory, and i could load the game as well.

Do you really know that this is the savegame problem you described.

I have one rules.ini for both, TS and FS, and removed all entrys from the firestrm.ini and copied them to rules.ini.
Maybe it's just because you and all other having the savegame problem forgot, that there are firestorm anims that need to come after 707=INVISO and you made your own anims there, where the firestorm anims had should be.

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Feb 11 2007, 12:39 PM

[Bittah Commander]

Firestorm has animations that need to come after 707=Inviso? I never heard of that one before... For as far as I know you can put the Firestorm anims on the locations of the empty numbers before 707 without getting any problems and having enough place left to put your own anims before 707 and prevent the savegame bug from happening.

Anyway, it's interesting you didn't get the bug when you put your anims after 707. Maybe the savegame bug could somehow be caused by the TS patch...
I think that when you install the latest TS patch, it reserves the 38 numbers that come right after 707=Inviso (708-745) for the firestorm anims and and when you play firestorm, the firestorm anims are read from 707 to 745 instead of from 1 to 38. This makes sense, or the firestorm anims would replace all TS anims from 1 to 38 when you play firestorm.
So... When you put any new anim on a spot of an anim that's reserved for Firestorm, you get the savegame bug.

Makes perfect sence

[Chriz]

Adding animations in empty space in AnimationList is basicly a stupid idea, because map trigger (like "play animation at waypoint") dont refer to the name of the animation, but to its number in the AnimationList. As soon as you add a new animation in AnimationList, the numbers of all following animations will be changed, so you will screw up the campain and a lot of coustom multiplayer maps....

I think that when you install the latest TS patch, it reserves the 38 numbers that come right after 707=Inviso (708-745) for the firestorm anims and and when you play firestorm, the firestorm anims are read from 707 to 745 instead of from 1 to 38

Do you really think WW would make it that complicated and reserve such an amount of number? If theres a limit like this, it would be something like 50 or 100, but not 38 (or WW would have to recompile the game everytime they added a new animation to FS )

The numbers are also not relevant, as the game counts the different (look at animations in map scripts, the have totally different numbers than in AnimationList) and theres are also a group of animations, which are not listed there (for example, there are only about 5 BuildUp Animations listed there).

LKO said he added own animations after the FS animations, so its clear that theres no limit or reserved space...

This post has been edited by Chriz: Feb 11 2007, 07:12 PM

[Bittah Commander]

I never said the FS animations replaced the TS animations; I said they would if they it wouldn't work the way I said. From your reply it seems you misread my entire post... I suggest you carefully read it again

[Machine]

Interesting I'll have to check it (what LKO said), since I've added a lot of new animations, and that screwed the campaings.

BTW, the test version of the ETS causes the save game bug even in the original unmodded TS/FS.

[SMIFFGIG]

This is one tutorial i have never really had any feed back on and have been in limbo wether are not to take it off the Modding Tutorials list (along with the Chrono tank one, as i think it is way to buggy to be considered useful)

I might remove them both (unless anyone has anything further to add and improve to them)

They are old and dont seem to be particularly useful (contrary to what I thought when posting them)

what do you guys think

[ORCACommander]

well keep the save game bug tut but the crono tank I don't care about.

[Bittah Commander]

I think this Tutorial is useful enough to keep. I'm not totally sure weather what I said is right, but if it is (someone who has time should test it), that could be added.

[Chriz]

i would remove it, because its not really usefull - i did the same as LKO and added all FS animation at the End of the rules.ini after INVISIO and added about 10 new animtions, and theres still no SaveGameBug, so this Tutorial is kinda wrong

[vOi!king ship]

So Bittah was right all along.

[Chriz]

:blink:

He sayed the game would reserve 38 after INVISIO... but thats kinda wrong, because it seems to have unlimited numbers... and I doubt it has something to do with FS/ 1.02 Patch

So... When you put any new anim on a spot of an anim that's reserved for Firestorm, you get the savegame bug.

Thats also wrong, it looks like you can change the order and numbers as you like without getting SaveGamebug, but you will ruin some Map scripts

This post has been edited by Chriz: Feb 13 2007, 06:00 PM

[Bittah Commander]

That's probably because the anims from Firestrm.ini are already added to Rules.ini (and possibly removed from Firestrm.ini) and thus those those 38 numbers after 707 are no longer reserved for the numbers from Firestrm.ini (seeming they're already present in Rules.ini).

He sayed the game would reserve 38 after INVISIO... but thats kinda wrong, because it seems to have unlimited numbers... and I doubt it has something to do with FS/ 1.02 Patch

...*sigh*

Anyway, if someone has time, try this...
First simply remove all anims from Firestrm.ini and add a couple new (non-firestorm) anims after 707=Inviso. If the savegame bug doesn't occur now, we know enough.
If the savegame bug still does occur, try adding the anims from Firestrm.ini to Rules.ini before 707=Inviso and add some new animations after 707=Inviso (or simply leave those anims from the previous method if you didn't remove them). Try this with both with and without removing the Firestorm anims from Firestrm.ini.

IF it savegame bug still keeps occuring, try adding all of the anims from Firestrm.ini after right 707=Inviso in Rules.ini (try it with and without removing those anims from Firestrm.ini again) and adding a couple new anims after those.

If what some others posted above is right, the last method should definitely work.

[Chriz]

First simply remove all anims from Firestrm.ini and add a couple new (non-firestorm) anims after 707=Inviso. If the savegame bug doesn't occur now, we know enough.

I removed all Anims from Firestorm.ini and added 5 new one to Rules.ini:
- i could play, save and load the first FS Nod mission without problems...
But i am not sure what happens when the mission needs some FS animations for the map, may try that later..

IF it savegame bug still keeps occuring, try adding all of the anims from Firestrm.ini after right 707=Inviso in Rules.ini and adding a couple new anims after those.

I allready told you twice that me and LKO tried that and it works fine... And it doensnt matter if you add it right behind 707 or if you leave some space and add them behind 800 - the game allways recounts them again, no matter what numbers you use...

[Roani52]

So Bittah was right all along.

OF COURSE!! He has always right!

And I also added once anims... No error