Duncan Idaho

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: And that issue about rebooting after running BCM is definitely a system (most likely video) problem. I ran into that awhile back and it was due to video drivers. You may want to look into that and even re-installing DirectX 8.1 and your video drivers again. btw, have you tried deleting the bcmconfig.ini file and using the default (you can turn off the music if you like) setting for awhile to see what happens? Also, what level of acceleration is your video card set to? Have you tried reducing it by one notch (from the default setting of full acceleration) to see if that makes a difference? [ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ] SC Okay, I can say now I've seen two machines with the 'reboot' problem now, and both have Nvidia cards, and I'm running the 22.80 drivers. Both are also on Win98SE. I have reduced the acceleration tab, no effect on the reboot issue at all. That fix is on just about every game forum around, it was one of the first things I tried, heheh. I'll try the deleting that file tonight, though. (Comment added at 5pm) I just tried that, ran BCM twice, no problems, third time, got this error: "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down." Under the Details tab, this info is found: BCM caused an invalid page fault in module at 0000:b00dc170. Registers: EAX=dacfa000 CS=017f EIP=b00dc170 EFLGS=00010286 EBX=00000004 SS=0187 ESP=00dce8f8 EBP=00dc8912 ECX=0000078e DS=0187 ESI=dacf8900 FS=0177 EDX=00dce8f0 ES=0187 EDI=dacf42ff GS=0000 Bytes at CS:EIP: This is the same error I've always had, (same error for the guy upstairs), and deleting that file didn't alter it. Can't wait to get it set back up the way I like it. Particle effects rule! (End added comment) I HAVE noticed one (unrelated) thing: I run my desktop at 1024x768x32bit. If I run BCM with my desktop at that resolution, 1280x1024 does not show up in BCM as a usable resolution, but I get a horde of strange (1280x768, 1280x920 etc) resolutions. However, if I bump my desktop up to 1280x1024, that resolution shows up in BCM. I'm only adding this info because on scanning through the forums here, I've seen at least one other say that 1280x1024 doesn't show up on theirs, and you might suggest to anyone with that issue that they set their desktop to 1280x1024 prior to running the game. Worked for me anyway. See you. Idaho GCV-Futeki [ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Duncan Idaho ]

1: Pioneer VSX-D409 Home Theater System (Heheh) 2: SBLive with Digital I/O Daughtercard 3: What do you think? (Heheh, yes!) Idaho GCV-Futeki

Shuttle in a shuttle? Can't say I've seen that happen yet. However... I can't swear that intruders did it, but I didn't. Someone loaded my spare fighter asset into a shuttle! (My #4 had no drone or OC onboard). That gave me a great idea. I offloaded the drones and the OC's, and stuffed 1 fighter asset into each of my shuttles. Nice to have 4 full spares onboard. Heheh. Had enough room left over for more spare parts. Of course, I'm more cautious with launch control now. Losing one of those shuttles would put me out more money than I'd care to lose. That got me thinking perhaps those big carriers with such small cargo holds aren't such a bad deal after all. Idaho GCV-Futeki

Heheh, My aperature has been set to default (64mb) all along. I don't have the 'slowdown' Spiderman mentions. And CTD's in general are rather rare for me. Only real problem I've had is the occasional save I cannot load, (heheh, note I avoided saying 'corrupted save'), and the 'must reboot after the 2nd time I play BCM' problem. Only the former is a problem that gives me any headaches, and for the last day, I've not had the problem. (Though it's not the first such period of time where the problem hasn't shown up for me). It seems niether of these problems are particularly common, it would be interesting to figure out what exactly causes this issue. A third friend of mine has purchased the game, he's running XP, but has a very similar machine to mine. I'm curious to hear how he makes out with the game. Idaho GCV-Futeki

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Well, if you upgrade and then you no longer have the problem, that just defeats the purpose doesn't it? BEFORE you do upgrade, try to reproduce the problem and get a suspect saved game profile in my hands. Then remain on a holding pattern until you get feedback from me. If it is something suspect on your system, you upgrading to winXP will just mask it. I'd like to isolate it (assuming it exists) and find out what the problem is (either in BCM or in your system) before going further. Thanks for your co-operation. [ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ] SC, Sure thing. I just played about 6 hours straight, and had no bad saves, so so far nothing to send you. I guess if it's a problem with my machine and you can pin it down, it could help anyone else who has the problem. One way or the other though, XP comes to me next week, and it'll be hard to put off installing it when it comes. I'll see what I can do though, heheh. Unrelated, but I just had one heck of a good fight, and managed to tow two Gammulan stormcarriers to the sci lab around Pluto, and got really nice exp for it. I live for things like that! Idaho

Heheh no shoes, and that's pretty crazy here where I live in midwinter. They had glued hair of some sort to their feet as well. They looked like members of the first Hobbit Basketball team or something of the sort. 'Kareem Abdul Baggins' Idaho

Looking forward to hearing that new XP1 soundtrack. On the LOTR movie: I also saw Lord of the Rings just before Christmas, what a movie. I didn't dress up for it though. Others who came to see it were dressed as Wizards, and hobbits. I got a particular laugh out of 2 of those dressed as hobbits: They were both over 6 feet tall...kinda took the 'charm' right out of the image, heheh. Idaho

Spiderman's problems are the same as mine. I have random 'occasional' CTD's, but not too often, I can't gripe about that. But the corrupted saves, that's the annoying one. I am using the recommended 22.80 Nvidia drivers, and thorough reading of the board shows that I have the recommended drivers for all my hardware. No bios options, (AGP4X, Fast Writes, etc.) have any affect on this problem. As Spiderman stated, this problem occurs on Win98SE for me. For the record, my neighbor upstairs bought the game same day as I did after seeing my copy, and he has the same exact problems. Random save file corruption. Inability to 'run' BCM, exit it, and run it again. (Weird difference here, I can actually run BCM 2 times, but if I try to run it a third time without a reboot, it will hang my system, where upstairs, he can only run it once, and MUST reboot to restart BCM). His specs: Asus P34X mb, latest VIA 4in1 drivers, Geforce 2 (64meg) with NV 21.83 drivers, SB Live!, 256mgs ram, latest drivers for the hardware. As for the 'using saves across multiple versions', I understand, but these saves are started with my current version of BCM. In fact, this problem will happen with any freshly made commander just as often. I know what you're saying, SC, hard to fix what you can't reproduce. But, it's hard to 'reproduce' a seemingly truly random event. (If there IS a pattern to this corrupted save problem, I haven't seen it yet). But the fact it's not only happening to me might be at least a pointer to a valid problem. Again, willing to try anything if anyone has suggestions, though I have tried what others have said here. Kind of tough considering it's usually blamed on drivers, but I'm running exactly the drivers recommended for my hardware. A tough little problem, this. Anyway, thanks for the time. I'm still having a blast with this game, it IS simply the BEST 50$ I've ever spent, and this 'annoying' little problem isn't enough to stop me from playing. But would be nice to track down this problem! Heheh. I'm likely upgrading to XP next week, MAYBE that will clear this problem up? Idaho

I have one truly annoying problem with BCM: I've seen others mention it. I have a problem with perhaps 1 in 5 (or so) saved games being somehow 'corrupt' so that it is unloadable, (i.e. hard crash after loading, and the save will do the exact same thing every time you try to load it...and mind you, I mean 'hard crash', not CTD, you must power down to get out). It's become annoying of late, because it often costs me hours of work to lose a save like that. Having read through the forums, I've seen others mention corrupted saves, any idea what's causing it, and any ways to stop it, or at least make it less likely? I'm dying out here, and losing 5k exp or so per time I lose a save. Thanks in advance for any ideas, or input. Idaho GCV-Futeki

SC, Thanks for sharing the skinning information. Using the info you gave me, I went looking around, and found the ship texture files. *drool* I bet I'm flying the only hot metallic purple Megaron around! Idaho

Throwing my 2 cents into the ring. If I were to design a new 'ship', it would visually look similar to the BCmk2, (which to me is the most beautiful of the ships), but would have more than just 3 PTA turrets. It would also carry 4 super fighters. I usually play now with the Megaron, because for my style of play, it's the only ship with a 'good balance' of features. It's fast enough, has some tough fighters, can keep fighters off it with it's many PTA turrets, and those 4 main guns really do dish out the damage. But, no offence to whoever designed it, it's UGLY like a Volvo. Like some sort of 'cubist Klingon ship'. Mind you, Megaron's a great ship. I do wish one of the BC's was equipped near as well, though, since those are very sleek and beautiful ships. Only other thing I'd like to see would be a Heavy Cruiser like the Sunflash, WITH a Research Engineer, so I could toss T/A shield and Karanian reactor into it. I love the cruisers, but I find it pretty hard to stay alive in them without those two upgrades. These would be my 'wish list' ships if I were to try to 'design' one. btw, I like the 'stealth fighter' idea someone tossed up above. Be nice for an Assasin. Idaho

SC, Okay, I've shipped a save game/default profile as you asked, and I've also sent the batch file I used to run Playmod. Hope this helps track down the problem, though I'm doing well without Playmod. Hope I followed the instructions, heheh. Idaho

That works for me, I can put guests on my ship that way. Playmod works fine for me...except anytime I run it my new 'modded' game will CTD within a relatively short period of time of being loaded. Not sure why. Idaho

Hello, I'll put in my 2 cents on Gamplay Vs. Graphics, though with you others putting it so well it doesn't seem needed. Me, I'm all for the gameplay. But, I do want nice graphics. So, to and for me, it's all an issue of 'balance'. BCM seems to hit this balance very well, great gameplay, and very good graphics. I'm very happy. This game would be great with lesser graphics, mind you! But with it's current graphics, (which are quite impressive), the game exceeds 'great'. Idaho

Why thank you.

Derek, (and all involved), Had to throw in my thanks for several things: As a buyer of the original BC3K (1.0) version, I'm very impressed that you stuck with it! I recently found the BC3K 2.09 (free) release on the net, and downloaded it to see how the game had shaped up in the end, and I was extremely impressed. Seems a good thing that you made it free, by doing so I got a look at it, and decided buying BCM was a MUST. Several of my friends have also downloaded BC3K 2.09 on my recommendations, and one of these rushed out and bought BCM on the same day I bought mine after playing the older title. I bought BCM on the first of the year, and after some mean hours of playing, I predict I'll still be playing this one this time next year, (and perhaps beyond!). Summing it all up, thanks for delivering the first game since Elite (or Starflight) to give such an all encompassing experience. I'm hooked, and greatly in your debt! (Heheh!). Idaho System Profile Information [ 01-05-2002: Message edited by: Duncan Idaho ] [ 01-05-2002: Message edited by: Duncan Idaho ]