Duncan Idaho

lol I'm looking forward to this. Just got my chores done and am about to fire BCM up and give it a shot. It'd be nice to gain a rank or two tonight. Idaho

I will, thanks SC. Idaho

Gordon, Nice, I'll have to give that a try tonight. Idaho

Spidey, Understood, and you're right, (SC's right I mean), it probably isn't the save that's corrupt, but something the save wants to do when loaded isn't working properly on systems similar to mine (at the least). I should remember not to use that term ("corrupted save") as we don't know that's what the problem is. I just have some hope that eventually the cause of this will get ferreted out, whether it's in the game or our drivers/system. Idaho

Can't beat that with a stick. Idaho

I'm curious to know everyone's strategies for making money. Me, I usually start out at Genesis, sell all my stuff from my CC, and take one load (usually fighter shields) to Galcom. Sell off there, and buy a bridgeviewer or something similar, and whatever else I can afford, and then it's off to Pluto. (HT items go good at Pluto, and when inflation hits, sell big missiles like Bugnors and Drogues!). Often Pluto starts near Galcom on prices, but usually shortly after the game starts, inflation hits big, and you can make BIG money at Pluto. I'm not sure how well you all do, but typically, at around 4.5 to 6 hours into the game, I have around 1,400,000,000 in finances just from trading from Earth (GCHQ) to Pluto. (Probably far FAR more money than I'll ever spend). I do so well with such trading, I've rarely bothered with Drones and such. And on another track: How about some hints for experience? Sadly, that's where I'm lacking. I do okay expwise, but still haven't raised even one rank! (Okay, so my longest running character never made it past day 2, so that's probably not real surprising). Have fun. Idaho

Thanks, I should have posted my bit here I think. Good move Spidey. Hmm, just one thing, that was your save that was sent with the reproducable CTD we all tried, right? That was one form of corrupted save I've seen... Idaho

Removed. Wrong forum [ 02-21-2002, 11:26: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

quote:Originally posted by antaren4279: Here are some possible solutions to your problem: 1: Download system commander and set up a dual boot. Now you have win98SE. 2: Buy a new joystick. If you paid for winXP, you can pay the extra $30 for a joystick with programable axis. 2: Grin and bere it. While your whining about a stipid joystick, there are dozens of people playing on minimum spec computers that crash every 15 minutes and they won't stop playing for anything.Dual boot could be a way: But I upgraded to XP specifically to (hopefully) fix a set of problems with this game. I'd consider a new stick, but my new MS Sidewinder Force Feedback isn't just a 30$ stick, and replacing it with an equal would cost just as much. Grinned and bore it as much as I could. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the hang of the reversed controls. (I suspect 15+ years of hard flight simming, and my age, have something to do with that). As for whining, guess I am, a little. My real whine is with Microsoft, who say they don't intend to make a profiler for XP for the hardware they still sell as new today. Nice way to support their new spiffy OS. Bye for now. Idaho

My game's not going so good: After upgrading to Windows XP, I've lost the ability to use a 'profiler' for my joystick. Hence, I can no longer 'swap axis's' to be able to make my stick work the way I'm used to in flight sims. Try as I might, (3 days trying), I cannot get used to the 'reversed yaw/roll' combination this game uses. Much to my dismay, my upgrade to XP, done for this game in particular, has made this game unplayable. BCM is the best game I currently own, but it'll be gathering dust on my shelf, until I either find a solve for this problem, or just plain give up over the frustration. For the record, after showing off the game to a pair of gaming friends, they decided not to buy the game after seeing how the stick functions. Their quoted opinion: "Very strange way to set up the stick. Too bad there are no options to set the stick up as like." I'd consider dropping back to Win98SE, if it didn't cost me so much to buy XP. Bye folks, it's been fun while it lasted. Idaho

Hi, I'm pretty sure you only see the contents of cargo containers in the SMD. You won't see anything when looking at ships, only cargo pods. Hope that helps. Idaho

Hello, I've had occasional save game problems. Some will load, and get you into the game, only to CTD within a very short period of time. Others fail to finish loading, typically stopping while loading one of the 'planets' or 'sectors' during the black screen while waiting for the game to finish loading. I've found no reproducable method to cause this. Now, my situation does seem to have improved, I've only had one corrupt save in the last week, far better than my previous record. I'm not sure which suggestion of SC's may have affected this, (if indeed it isn't just coincedence), but I will list the last things I did as per my discussion of this with SC in the other thread. 1: Using Nvidia 22.80 drivers (but was having this "bad save" problem with these drivers at one point). 2: I did try lowering Hardware Acceleration, it did not change anything, currently, I have my slider set back to 'max'. 3: Reinstalled DirectX 8.1 2 times, both right after de-installing then re-installing video card drivers. Now, other things were attempted, but these were the last things done in the attempt to solve my problem, and these seemed to have helped, though only time will tell. As a sidenote: With every new patch that has been released, I have uninstalled BCM, deleted the directory, (save files included), reinstalled BCM, patched from inside BCM's folder, and started a new character. A tidbit for SC about the 'Must reboot after playing BCM' issue some few of us are having: I noticed something that might be very telling recently. I'm beginning to think the flaw is in Windows Media Player. Reason is: Like the game, I cannot use WMP for anything after playing BCM until I reboot. In fact, some web pages will simply crash IE, until I reboot. I could be barking up the wrong tree, I'm not a programmer, but I felt SC might find this information useful, or at least interesting. Lastly, the game is being supremely stable since I grabbed full 1.005. I've had only 1 non-save related CTD and one bad save in over 5 days of play, that's a good thing! Well, I upgrade to Windows XP on Friday, in anticipation of BCM XP1's release. Guess that's about enough info for now. Thanks for the time, and for adding this forum, SC. Idaho

Thanks for restoring my rights. I'll hold my tongue in the future about any percieved rudeness. Idaho

Okay, I'll just settle for 2nd or 3rd worst then. Idaho GCV-Futeki

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: I deleted it because it wasn't compatible with my format and I was too busy to try it on the 1.0.04 machine. [ 01-23-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ] Uh...okay. Thanks... ... Idaho GCV-Futeki

quote:Originally posted by Paddy Gregory: No that would be ME, actually. Heheh, What an argument. 'I'm a bigger loser than you are!' 'No you aren't! I'm the biggest loser!' 'I'll outlose you 4 to 1!' etc, et al Idaho GCV-Futeki

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Know what's funny, the game is selling itself. In fact, while EB did spent quite a bundle of money on marketing (ads, banners, instore display etc), the game mostly sells itself. Of course, getting all your relatives and friends to buy a copy also helps. Lets put it this way, if it wasn't selling as expected, there'd be no XP add-ons and I'd be more focused on BCO, where the real money is. I'd go buy more copies as gifts, but then I'd be forced to start raiding my CC for nutripaks, since groceries cost money I would no longer have, heheh. As for BCO, I'm looking forward to that, though my experiences with online gaming are few, and I tend to be the guy who always loses. I guess someone has to lose, I might as well be that someone. Idaho GCV-Futeki

SC, Yeah, kinda what I said before when I said I intended to upgrade to XP. btw, I just got done trying your last suggestion. I : 1: Removed Detonator drivers with Detonator Destroyer. (And now must reset all my refresh rates...grr). Rebooted, installed the 23.11 drivers. (I agree with you, 22.80 are better) Rebooted, re-installed DX 8.1 Rebooted, cranked hardware accel down a notch. Rebooted, but as you probably guessed by now, it didn't change a thing. At any rate, thanks for the help, even if we didn't track anything down. At least we got to a point where we can recognize it does SEEM to be an issue between certain hardware and Win98SE (Win9X, Nvidia card, SBLive!). Okay then, until I get XP, I'll have my nose buried in this game, heheh. Oh, I know this doesn't belong here, but I'm just curious if you got anywhere with that save I sent you last week? (Regarding Playmod?). I figure you've been pretty busy, don't want to pester you. Just curious. Take care, don't work too hard. (But don't slack off too much, at least not until XP1 comes out heheh). Idaho GCV-Futeki

Thanks for chiming in Stormshadow. Spidey, good luck with your problem. Sounds like a killer of fun to me. I'm glad I don't have your problem, to be sure! Idaho GCV-Futeki

I can account for 2 sales of the game other than my own purchase. 2 of my friends bought the game, (one the same day I bought mine), after I told them about it. And I'll be trying to get more friends to buy it! You'd think the game would sell itself though. Idaho GCV-Futeki

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Can you list all those five (5) please? Thanks And while you're at it, use the Detonator Destroyer to remove the 2280 drivers (you can find it over at 3dchipset.com I think). Then try the 2311 drivers. Remember to re-install DX8.1 before or after installing video drivers. And you MUST drop the card's acceleration down a notch. I don't you mention that at all. [ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ] SC, Sure thing: Elenkis, (A few posts above), Masterfeff761, (page one of this thread for me), Church, (Page 4 of this thread for me), my neighbor upstairs who isn't that net savvy, but I could help him register if it's really neccesary, and myself. Might be a few more I missed, but that's what I saw. Seems Spidey had the problem at one point, too, but I'm unsure whether he's having the problem still, it doesn't sound like it, but I can't say. As for your new suggestion, I'll give it all a go tomorrow. It's late, and I had some fun playing tonight! I'll drop a line when I've tried your recommendation. Thanks. Take care! Idaho GCV-Futeki

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Yep. Thats the #1 symptom of a driver trashing the DirectX buffers. The culprit? video and/or system drivers. In fact, try this. Boot to Safe Mode and remove ALL the video drivers and monitors in there. Then reboot. Once prompted, install the latest video drivers, monitors etc. then DirectX 8. If you are lucky, it will be cleared. You can also use the system tools and have it check all your system drivers, replacing any version that has been trashed, deleted etc. You will need the CDROM for your OS in order to do this. I think under win9x, that tool is in the accessories section somewhere. [ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ] SC, Okay, rebooted in safe mode, removed display adapter and monitor from Device Manager as suggested. Rebooted, reinstalled the Nvidia 22.80 drivers, rebooted, and then DirectX8.1. Another reboot! (Mind you though I hadn't said so, I had already tried this). Fired up BCM. No change. Runs 2 times fine, third time makes it impossible to run any Direct3D using program, same as before. So, I then fired up the System File Checker, (SFC.exe, burried in the System directory), and let it scope out all my files. It replaced no less than 6 files, (with older versions, and all 6 files were part of MS Outlook). I let it, since it backed up the replaced files anyway. Rebooted. Fired up BCM the requisite 2 times, tried for a third, and still no change. (I did put my 6 files back after, as I suspect they are part of my MS Outlook's update). No luck there. I've spent more time here at the forums the past 2 days than I have playing the game. On perusing this forum, I ran into 2 others (not counting Elekis), who have this problem, and there are three things in common in all cases: Win98/ME, Nvidia cards, and SBLive!. That makes by my count a total of 5 people with this same issue, all with that same combination of hardware/OS. Maybe nothing. I don't know. At any rate, thanks for the suggestions, they were worth a try. I'd never have tried System File Checker, since I've never had it turn out to be useful to me in the past. Never know, it might have helped. Now! I'm gonna go play. I don't mind the reboot much, and I still think upgrading to XP will fix me up. (Though I'd still like to find out what's causing this, just to know). Idaho GCV-Futeki

Guns, banning and gun control. Issues I don't really understand. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. (Cliche I know, but true nevertheless). Take away guns, and they'll just find other ways. For instance, a mother in Texas drowns all her children. You don't hear anyone touting 'Tub Control', or 'Bathtub Banning'. I'm a firm believer when you take away the rights of people to bear arms, you take away another form of defense against agression. For when you ban guns, you only take them out of the hands of citizens, not criminals. Sure, some nutcases will use them in a wrong way. Same way some nutcases will use a car (or a plane) as a weapon. Stuff happens. Stop blaming guns, and put the blame on the shoulders of those who misuse them. Idaho GCV-Futeki

Elenkis, I'm being lax: I should have stated that pretty much any other Direct3D using game or app will not work either after BCM has been run the second time on my machine, (or the first time for the machine belonging to my friend upstairs). This includes DXDiag. I get the very same error that BCM gives from any program that attempts to use Direct3D. Idaho GCV-Futeki

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Thats a standard system crash and doesn't tell me anything. I'm still of the opinion that it is system driver related. Thats how the screen res enumeration works. If you have your desktop at a lower setting, the game doesn't offer anything higher. This is a safeguard against choosing an invalid screen res. Anyway, try this. I am going to assume that you wish to run in 1024x768x32 bit mode. set your desktop to 1024x768x32 bit mode run BCM with the /w2 param [ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ] SC, Okay. It is the only error message I had to give. It is never "in" the game when I get it, it is just after the 'splash screen' goes away, but prior to where the program screen should open. BCM never got past the close of the splash screen. I'm in agreement with the guy who wrote the other post that this is a Win98/Nvidia thing. I'd try a fresh install myself, but this install is only a few weeks old as it is, and hasn't had anything mucking it up yet. On the screen enumeration thing, I sort of figured that, but the person who asked in these forums previously why their machine didn't offer 1280x1024 in BCM never figured it out that I saw, that's the only reason I mentioned it. Oddly, the game DOES offer me higher res than my desktop setting, just not 1280x1024. 1280x960 is available, as is 1280x768. Setting desktop to 1280x1024 fixes it though, and at least if anyone else asks, there's the answer. On the /w2 parameter, I'll keep it in mind, but lockups in general haven't been a problem for me, save for that specific save game error. I will, though, try using that next time I get another unloadable save, never know, maybe I'll get some helpful info that way. Don't work too hard. Idaho GCV-Futeki