[tsl] Combat Simulation Arena v4

[stoffe]

I can't recall stoffe but does this mod have any texture files included in it?

 

Well, there was one texture included in the latest version, but not in previous versions which has the same problem reported by a handful of people. And textures with the wrong dimensions would cause crash when the object using that texture was spawned (e.g. when entering the area, not leaving it).

 

 

Make sure there is a "string" (value) in your globalcat.2da named ST_LAST_MODULE. I'm pretty sure that is what gets "set" once you use the armband to enter the arena. If you've warped to the arena, you may be in trouble

 

Also, and I'm not sure, are you loading the arena from a savegame? If so, does anyone know if string values actually "keep" the value stored if you exit a game.

 

 

Global variables are stored in the savegame for the duration of that game. Local variables stored an on object are stored in the savegame as long as its "host" object is in the save game. I.e. if you set it on the player character is sticks for the rest of the game. If you set it on an NPC it vanishes when that NPC is destroyed or the Area it exists in is cleaned out from the save game (determined by the modulesave.2da settings).

 

If the ST_LAST_MODULE Global didn't exist in the game (overwritten globalcat.2da from another mod) the armband shouldn't let you warp out at all since no destination module would be set. So I doubt the problem is caused by this.

 

* * *

 

It's a difficult problem to track. Since I get the impression that these crashes does not happen to everyone but me, but rather just some people, it shouldn't be caused by me forgetting to ship a file I have in my override either. If that was the case it should crash for everyone else.

 

So the only thing I can think of really is a conflict with another mod I don't use myself, and I can't figure that out on my own. (Unless other people's games are more sensitive to mistakes for some odd reason.)

[General Kenobi]

Stoffe do you use the German version or English? Also I don't think it's the tga for the unique drexel either since this problem has been present for me since your first version so don't think that's it.

 

The MOD conflict thing could very well be possible due to my HIGH level of installed mods. It doesn't give me any warnings or anything when installing either. Well one for a "you already have this tga in your override folder but thats normal (for me since I had it prior to release anywho).

 

It couldn't be a graphic card thing or anything could it? I use Nvidia here on both of my IBM's and it crashes on both.

 

I don't have time now but tonight I'm gonna try to do what ChAiNz up there said as that's a good suspect too.

 

Ooh and yeah loading from a saved game. Fairly fresh one 2 days old or so. It WAS started with one version of the arena then I upgraded. I wouldn't think that would be it would it Stoffe?

 

General Kenobi

[stoffe]

Stoffe do you use the German version or English?

 

I use the UK-English version of the game. I don't know if there is any real difference between that and the US-English version.

 

 

The MOD conflict thing could very well be possible due to my HIGH level of installed mods. It doesn't give me any warnings or anything when installing either.

 

Just a wild guess, but it could be some other mod that doesn't expect you to warp out to some unknown module and then return. But I doubt it since it doesn't just happen when using the armband in one specific area (at least AFAIK).

 

How early during the transition out of the Arena area does the crash occur? Right away, or after the loading progress bar has advanced a bit?

 

It couldn't be a graphic card thing or anything could it? I use Nvidia here on both of my IBM's and it crashes on both.

 

I use an ATI Radeon card (9800Pro), so I suppose that's a (weird) possibility. While I don't see how the graphics card could have anything to do with it, stranger things have happened (such as Java suddenly no longer working when I upgraded my ATI drivers some time ago )

 

Ooh and yeah loading from a saved game. Fairly fresh one 2 days old or so. It WAS started with one version of the arena then I upgraded. I wouldn't think that would be it would it Stoffe?

 

That depends... If, in your active game, you haven't been to the Arena area before upgrading to 3.0 I don't think it should make a difference. If, however, you have already been in the Arena area in your current game while an older version was installed, the Arena module is already stored in your savegame, meaning dynamic content will be from the old version rather than the new one, while static resources will be from the new version.

 

This can be fairly easily fixed though by taking a savegame (when you are not inside the Arena area) and opening the savegame.sav file with an ERF editor. Then delete the st_arena.sav file inside the savegame.sav and re-save it. Now a new instance of the Arena area will be created from the latest template the next time you warp there.

[General Kenobi]

Hi Stoffe,

 

It happens after I click the armband itself and it goes into the loading screen. Once I go there it crashes. It's like it starts to load you back to where you were but can't remember?

 

Would that be it? Somehow it's not saving the "original" spot you came from and when you hit it again to go back it crashes?

 

General Kenobi

[General Kenobi]

As soon as it reaches the load screen and starts to load every time at the same point. I'll finish up my ito wrap and then go ahead and replace the file and see what I come up with. I'll post my findings for you in a bit. Thanks Stoffe for helping out with this.

 

General Kenobi

[stoffe]

It happens after I click the armband itself and it goes into the loading screen. Once I go there it crashes. It's like it starts to load you back to where you were but can't remember?

 

Would that be it? Somehow it's not saving the "original" spot you came from and when you hit it again to go back it crashes?

 

It crashes directly when you reach the load screen, or does the progress bar move a bit before it happens?

 

As for losing track of the module you came from... I don't think that would be the reason, however there is a fairly easy way to find out: Move the st_arenaband.ncs file in your override folder somewhere else, download the attached zip-file and unpack the st_arenaband.ncs file inside it into your override folder.

 

This is an altered version of the armband warp script that, when activated within the arena, won't warp you out, but rather display the name of the module it would have warped you to on screen. Run it and see if it prints out the name of the module you came from. The box that appears on screen should say:

Armband warp destination: followed by the name of the module.

 

 

As soon as it reaches the load screen and starts to load every time at the same point. I'll finish up my ito wrap and then go ahead and replace the file and see what I come up with. I'll post my findings for you in a bit.

You are too fast for your own good. I accidentally attached the wrong version of the script. The post was only up for like 30 seconds before I discovered my mistake, but you had already seen it by then. Get the one below instead, that should work.

 

 

EDIT: Uploaded the wrong script.

debugscript.zip

[General Kenobi]

It located the "dan" module that I warped from so nope not the problem it remembered it perfectly.

 

This is REALLY annoying me as it's prob. the funnest mod we've had on these boards and I can't play the stupid thing...lol Well I can BUT it doesn't matter due to the crash out on exit.

 

It might really be another mod problem. I tell you what I'll see if it's on this pc I"m on right now and if it's not i'll install TSL then the mod ONLY and see if it happens again.

 

General Kenobi

 

EDIT: I replaced the file you gave me with the original then loaded the game again. It let me go into the arena then out again back to dantoonie. I was amazed. Then I tried it again and it errored out 1/2 way through loading the arena to go back into it.

[stoffe]

It located the "dan" module that I warped from so nope not the problem it remembered it perfectly.

 

This is REALLY annoying me as it's prob. the funnest mod we've had on these boards and I can't play the stupid thing...lol Well I can BUT it doesn't matter due to the crash out on exit.

 

If you use the warp console command to exit the arena rather than the armband, does it work then or does it still crash the same way?

 

Also, if you enter the arena, save the game, quit TSL, restart TSL and load the savegame from the arena and then try to leave the Arena, will it still crash?

 

The reason I was curious how far on the load screen it got was to determine if it crashes while unloading the Arena or while loading the destination module.

 

 

It might really be another mod problem. I tell you what I'll see if it's on this pc I"m on right now and if it's not i'll install TSL then the mod ONLY and see if it happens again.

It would be very helpful if you could test it without any other mods installed. That way the possibility of a mod conflict could be eliminated.

 

I have checked through the Arena area files again just in case, but I can't spot anything that looks out of the ordinary. That doesn't necessarily mean there is no problems there since arena/module editing isn't my strong point, though. But it's very odd that it only crashes for some people while others seem to have no problems.

[General Kenobi]

OK Stoffe this post might wander or ramble as I'm typing it over a good while.

 

 

ENTER ARENA/SAVE GAME/ EXIT "Then load game and exit over and over and over from the arena"

 

This method produced NO crash results as I have exited back and forth from arena to starting point once the above senario loads with NO crashes. (Stoffe wonder if there's some type of "tmp" files involved?)

 

Also just tested the same above and got ready to fight (enemy coming at me) and I hit the wrist console. It warped me. I ran down (did something) and fought a duel with bao dur really quick and warped back out. Warped in and out 2 more times in a row after that.

 

Whatever it is, it is solved in the "saved game" where your in the module and then you save it. Mine works as long as I load that save game (quick save).

 

Correction. The last time I went out on the last time I tried to "exit" the console. Stoffe it stopped if you divide the status bar into 8th's at 7/8th's loaded. So if your saying first half of load bar is exit, next half is entry back to starting point then thats where it crashed.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

General Kenobi

[stoffe]

ENTER ARENA/SAVE GAME/ EXIT "Then load game and exit over and over and over from the arena"

This method produced NO crash results as I have exited back and forth from arena to starting point once the above senario loads with NO crashes. (Stoffe wonder if there's some type of "tmp" files involved?)

 

Very strange, I think that would suggest it's some kind of memory/resource allocation error, but I can't see why that would just happen with this one module.

 

The Arena module uses no other temporary files than any other module in the game does (i.e. the savegame is unpacked into a gameinprogress folder).

 

Hmm, have you tried the turret mini-games in the Hutt's room? Does it crash when those load (since they are in separate modules) or do they load properly?

 

I have no idea what could cause this, my only guesses are some weird conflict with another mod, or that there is something about the area that nVidia graphics cards don't like. Is anyone else with an nVidia card using this mod but aren't experiencing any crashes on exit?

[General Kenobi]

Hey Stoffe

 

Well I do know that Nvidia graphics cards have some issues with some things we do for sure. One really good example is the standard hilts in the Holowan Plugin for TSL that Darkkender did. The hilts he used from a modder display fine on a ATI card but on an Nvidia don't show up at all other than being "silvery".

 

That one was due to the graphics cards from Nvidia not liking the lopsided tga files. Meaning they were (say) 512x234. The odd shape wouldn't allow them to display correctly. If you turned them into 512x512 they'd show up fine.

 

That never made any sense to me either but it was a problem nevertheless.

 

ALSO, I'll do what I said up there earlier. Today (since I love this mod so good) I'm gonna wipe off TSL off of this tower machine I'm on now and go ahead and reinstall TSL with only the Combat Arena installed. Then I'm gonna test the crap out of it and see if it happens again.

 

I don't know why though but I "feel" you hit on something with the memory resources though. I read through the "error reports" that your pc wants to send Microsoft and that's what it said. The errors were "memory kernal" or whatever type errors.

 

It will take me several hours to reinstall TSL and test it for you but I'll do it today. I'll post my info for you this evening.

 

ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE!!!

Guys/Gals anyone else out there with varying graphics cards that have this problem should let Stoffe know. That way she can rule out an Nvidia card problem if you have a HooJoo graphics card or whatever and it happens to you as well.

 

 

EDIT: Stoffe, OK I tried it out over and over with a bunch of senarios. Taking items not taking items back and forth. Fighting or not fighting. Talking or no talking. No touching doors or touching doors. Several things

 

It went in and out of the arena normally every single time over and over. This would make me think its a mod conflict of sorts.

 

What about this though??? Is there a file somewhere that has say a master listing of all possible inventory items and maybe something in the game "checks" this and every once in a while when it runs on a funky high powered custom made item (mod) that it crashes cause it's not "standard" for the game?

 

Anywho, that's what I found, It never crashed no matter what I did.

 

General Kenobi

[stoffe]

I tried it out over and over with a bunch of senarios. Taking items not taking items back and forth. Fighting or not fighting. Talking or no talking. No touching doors or touching doors. Several things

 

It went in and out of the arena normally every single time over and over. This would make me think its a mod conflict of sorts.

 

If the problem has gone away completely when you removed your other mods it sounds a lot like it could have been caused by a mod conflict. Finding out which one and why would unfortunately be a lot harder. The only way I can think of would be to re-install the other mods one at a time and see if the crashes return between each. That is an obscene amount of work however if you have many mods installed, so it's not exactly something that's a real option.

 

Unless you intend to reinstall all the mods anyway. Then it could probably be useful to install a few at a time and check things out in-between.

 

What about this though??? Is there a file somewhere that has say a master listing of all possible inventory items and maybe something in the game "checks" this and every once in a while when it runs on a funky high powered custom made item (mod) that it crashes cause it's not "standard" for the game?

 

Not that I know of, beyond the UTIs listed in templates.bif, the modules and the override folder. If the crashing is caused by items it'd probably be textures or models, since those take up more memory. If you don't have a lot of RAM in your computer it's possible the game runs out of memory and crashes. But that's not very likely since it only happened with this one area.

 

Unfortunately the cause of this kind of errors is very hard to predict.

[RevanSpawn]

How do I go about installing the Arena v.03 mod?

 

I ran the installer and got no probs ...then what next?

 

I started the game and could make the armband but the loading screen will get jammed halfway and kotor2 needs to be closed...

 

I think the mod is cool n i cant w8 to play it so pls help me those who know how..

[Darth333]

Is your game in English? This mod was made for the Enlgish version of TSL.

 

Also make sure that the .mod files are located in the modules folder and not the override folder.

[General Kenobi]

How do I go about installing the Arena v.03 mod?

 

I ran the installer and got no probs ...then what next?

 

I started the game and could make the armband but the loading screen will get jammed halfway and kotor2 needs to be closed...

 

I think the mod is cool n i cant w8 to play it so pls help me those who know how..

 

I bet this is the same problem Stoffe and I were talking about a page or so ago in the thread. I tried trouble shooting for Stoffe to no avail. It seems to work fine as long as you are light on the installed mods side. I'm full so it does just what your experiencing for me too.

 

General Kenobi

[RevanSpawn]

I'm willing to reinstall the game if i can get this mod installed...

I just want to know that if running the installer is the only thing i must do.

[General Kenobi]

Ooh then yep Just run the installer and it works like a charm as long as your mod free. Or you might try installing this first then other mods over it.

 

Hope that helps a bit,

 

General Kenobi

[DarthMaul v.1/2]

I'm willing to reinstall the game if i can get this mod installed...

I just want to know that if running the installer is the only thing i must do.

HEY RevanSpawn! I just happened to be in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by to offer my experience as an example (and FIX - kinda -) with stoffe's Combat Simulation Arena (1 of my top 10 favorites!). I personally have several MODs - around 40 or so active on my current savegame of TSL. That probably isn't that uncommon, except all mine are installed with out the benefit of KotOR Tool, I only recently got it to work properly because of a problem with my comp.

 

I also had something similar to what you're saying happen in my game, here are a few tricks to try:

 

- I would first of all run the CSA MOD auto-installer LAST, after all other MODs have been installed --- this will ensure another MOD isn't overwriting all or part of CSA MOD.

 

- Next, are you 'cheating' the CSA armband in using tk102's KSE savegame editor? If you are, then IF you did overwrite part of CSA MOD with another MOD you may have installed AFTER CSA was already there, and you re-installed the CSA MOD (like I suggested above), the NEW version of CSA MOD would mean you would have to remove the 'old' CSA armband from your inventory screen in KSE. Once the 'old' armband is removed from KSE inventory (will cause the item to appear in red text on KSE inventory screen), and you have the CSA MOD re-installed and not overwritten by another MOD, return to KSE and re- 'cheat' the NEW CSA armband in to your inventory (now CSA armband will appear in blue text on KSE inventory) --- and if you don't already have tk102's KSE, stop what you're doing and get it!

 

- Now here is a sure-fire way to get CSA accessible: 1) Make sure you have stoffe-mkb- Combat Simulation Arena MOD installed in TSL (the auto-installer- aKa 'TSLPatcher' - should just have you point it to your SWKotOR2 game directory, located in your 'program' files under the LucasArts sub-folder, and it will do the rest (say 'Thank you stoffe!' )--- 2) Once CSA is installed, go to any of ChAiNz.2da's posts and follow his link to TSL Hak Pad and the 2 TSL Hak Pad booster MODs. If you already have TSL Hak Pad MODs, notice in the README's that in order to access other similar MODs (like CSA and defender's wristconsole 1.9), that those MODs should be installed FIRST, and then install TSL Hak Pad. When you access TSL Hak Pad during gameplay (TSL Hak Pad shows up in the action menu at the bottom, where shields, med-pacs, stims,etc... show up). TSL Hak Pad appears as a shield in this menu--- simply scroll up or down on the shield slot of the action menu until you find 'Hak Pad' (if you are equipping a shield or something similar in-game). Click on the Hak Pad to activate it and you should find the option screen to launch CSA or wristconsole 1.9 --- or similar MODs--- choose to launch 'Combat Simulation Arena' from the selection(s) on this screen in Hak Pad and --- BAM! --- Instant Hutt-slug gladiator colosseum death matches! I personally return here frequently to further eviscerate Darth Sion --- ever since the cutscene on Korriban where I had to 'run away' from the fight in the hidden tomb with Sion, I frequently like to punish him for that outrage!

 

Anyways, I am SURE that if you don't mind running CSA through the TSL Hak Pad, you will be able to go merrily on your way, slaughtering foes and weaklings in the pits of the Arena! Just follow what I said about the Hak Pad and you'll be good to go, with whatever other MODs you have that may be interferring!

 

TSL Hak Pad, and booster's 1 and 2 for it are also available(for now!) at http://www.pcgamemods.com

 

I hope this 'fixes' it for you, CSA is a very cool MOD! Also, if you want to know specifics on CSA, try addressing stoffe-mkb- , she's the one that brought us CSA (among other great things!), and is usually not to hard to find around here.

[Darth Manus]

I have the same crash problem when I try to warp out of the arena with the armband. I tried cutting the Override folder, pasting it on another location, and then reinstalling the mods one by one. It seemed to work fine, until I reinstalled the Prestige Item Pack co-created by RedHawke & maverick187. Incidentally, the mod manager I'm using always says that some mods (Revan's Robes and said Prestige Item Pack) are KOTOR I mods, even though they obviously aren't. It's rather annoying. Besides, I've noticed that some of those mods have incompatible itemcreate.d2a files, and I'm not sure how to merge the data in them to avoid conflicts.

 

I hope the problems in this thing will get solved soon. This made me want to go back to KOTOR II. I was getting sick of downloading character models and skins for Jedi Academy, only to find that some of them were faulty and messing up the game. I'm really not in the mood for reinstalling the game and deleting files every time that happens. Once the KOTOR II Restoration Project is complete, I get the feeling I'll be playing even more. The High-Level powers mod also makes it more interesting.

 

Kudos on the great work so far.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Just for some clarification... you want Mr.Defender's Wrist Console to access the Combat Simulation Arena

 

The Hak Pad won't acces it (mainly because I'm too lazy to update it, and Mr. Defender already did a fantastic job with his mod)..

 

Get The Wrist Console Here:

http://jediarchives.ca/

 

Check out the Defender's Mods link to the left for the download

[Darth Manus]

I haven't tried the wrist console yet, because I knew I'd probably feel tempted to abuse it a bit... Oh well, I guess it can't be helped. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see if that works.

 

EDIT: Well, this looks interesting and nicely done, but how do I add the Arena to the mod slots?

[DarthMaul v.1/2]

I haven't tried the wrist console yet, because I knew I'd probably feel tempted to abuse it a bit... Oh well, I guess it can't be helped. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see if that works.

 

EDIT: Well, this looks interesting and nicely done, but how do I add the Arena to the mod slots?

Hey there, Darth Manus!

 

Duh! Thanks ChAiNz! I completely forgot how I had my CSA/mrdefenders/Hak-Pad set-up in my game - you've succesfully jogged my memory! However, I could not get CSA to launch thru only mrdefenders wristconsole 1.9, I found that I needed both the wristconsole 1.9 and TSL Hak-Pad to get the CSA to launch properly: you need to first have wristconsole 1.9 installed, then you need to have CSA installed, and finally install TSL Hak-Pad - you should now be able to do like I first posted and select the TSL Hak-Pad in game , now in the 'launch other MODs' screen CSA should appear and be fully accessible - REMEMBER to remove the 'old' armbands from your inventory and cheat the new one's in via KSE (like I described in my first post) - now you should be good to go!

 

If this is not clear enough, or it just doesn't work, drop me a PM and I will verify thru my savegame that I gave you the proper instruction, as CSA is working properly on my game.

 

Hope this helps!

 

- DM.005

[Darth Manus]

I'll try that as soon as possible. With all that combined material, maybe now I can create a character that will toast the end bosses in one or two rounds. XD Now I just wish I could understand why I get an error on explorer.exe sometimes when I open the game while I have a folder open. Must be another of WinXP's random quirks.

[stoffe]

However, I could not get CSA to launch thru only mrdefenders wristconsole 1.9, I found that I needed both the wristconsole 1.9 and TSL Hak-Pad to get the CSA to launch properly

 

Huh? I have no idea why it would work to launch it if you have those installed, but get crashes if you have not. As far as I know the wristconsole just runs the impact script of the Arena Simulator armband that comes with the CSArena mod to begin with. (I have neither the wristconsole or hackpad installed, since I have my own "debugging power" that does essentially the same, and the armband works just as intended to enter/leave the Arena.)

 

I strongly suspect this crashing is due to some weird conflict with some mod I don't have installed. I've never experienced any crashes or freezes when entering or leaving the Arena area, so I can't do much about it. I can't fix a problem that doesn't exist on my end.

 

I can't imagine what type of conflict that'd be though. The only thing I can think of would be if you use another mod that overwrites the appearance.2da or globalcat.2da files after the Arena mod is installed. Or if you have some mod that places a file with the same name in the override folder as one that exists inside the st_arena.mod file.

 

If you really want to use the Arena mod the only thing I can suggest is to wipe out all mods and then reinstall them one at a time to figure out which one is causing problems with the Arena. That's a big lot of dreary work though if you have many mods installed, and probably not worth the effort.

[Darth Manus]

Well, just installed the hakpad and the upgrade. I'll see if it works now.

 

EDIT: That seems to have done the trick. I used KSE to give my character the hakpad, then built the Combat Simulation armband and opened the mod by using the Integrated Mod commands in Defender's Wrist Console. Using this method, I've finally been able to enter and leave the Arena without the game crashing.