Spider-man

quote: A couple of questions spring to mind... 1.. Your doing it from a saved game, so I am assuming that when you reinstalled, you were still using the same saved game right? 2.. Did you try it from a fresh new game? It probably won't happen from a fresh new game (I've done this maneuver before, although not on the second moon of zelana). It happens everytime I tinker with my drones after loading the two saved games i have saved while sitting on that planet. My commander's AI is in the 80's and my crew's is very high as well. For that reason, I'd rather figure out what's wrong with this saved game if possible. quote: If your answers to Roberto's questions are NO and YES, then send me the saved game. Be SURE to read the procedure for sending in saved games, or face the consequences. Even if you forget to describe the problem in the email, I will discard the email and saved game. Damn. Okay so it's not a bug you're interested in then. WHERE did I say that? Did you READ what I wrote or are you trying to annoy me? How does this happen? How does a game progress fine and then reach a point where a certain course of action always produces a CTD. I'll brace myself for the answer. And I won't send the saved game. I will, however, send you a nice floral arrangement for Valentine's day, SC. I'll settle for the saved game, just to satisfy my curiosity. So, send it. God help you if its not from 1.0.05 (someone will need to send you a wreath for Valentine's. One last bit of followup. I destroyed the drones with a fighter, then when I tried to go spacebound --- CTD. It seems that If I wish to continue this career, I will have to abandon the drones and never mine again. The last thing I will try is to fly to the drones with my asset, use the shuttles to offload the minerals and leave the drones where they are. BOLLOCKS, that didn't work either. [ 02-12-2002, 20:32: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

God, I hate to post here again, but here goes. If your answers to Roberto's questions are NO and YES, then send me the saved game. Be SURE to read the procedure for sending in saved games, or face the consequences. Even if you forget to describe the problem in the email, I will discard the email and saved game. I have a saved game where My asset is sitting on the second moon of Zelana. there are four full mining drones elsewhere on the moon. If I take off from the moon and leave the drones alone, nothing happens. Everything is okay, the game progresses normally AS LONG AS I DONT TRY TO GET THOSE DRONES. I have CTD'd over and over again just trying to get the contents of those drones. I have a CTD that is reproducible. 1. load saved game 2. Go to logistix and turn on power to the systems that had been turned off while sitting on planet (basically all the systems except lifesupport, tactical, comms, etc). 3. go to VTOL and lift off the ground. 4. switch to FTOL and fly into space. 5. GO to tac-ops and observe the planet 6. set waypoints for four shuttles and have each "extract" the drone of the appropriate number. 7. go to tactical and put a pilot in each shuttle. 8. launch the shuttles. 9. Wait 10. CTD will occur just after two or three of the drones are extracted by the shuttles. again, if I leave the drones alone, no CTD. I even tried leaving my Asset on the planet, getting into a shuttle myself and extracting the drones one by one back to the asset (took a long time, had to change shuttles each time). Once I finally got the cargo all loaded up, all the shuttles and drones were aboard, I turned all the Asset's systems on and headed for outer space. Whammo! -- CTD. Please help. I tried reinstalling BCM and reapplying the patch. I did it according to the instructions in the troubleshooting guide. NO DICE. I tried different screen resolutions, default system settings, and even no sound/no music. NO DICE. should I just forget about my four mining drones? (what are they, like 500K apiece? and they're full of minerals -- about 4million if sold to the right station). If so, do i just fly in there with a fighter, destroy them and go buy new ones? [ 02-12-2002, 15:55: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

I think that the upgraded-intensity station PTA's and the inability to dock while cloaked will be quite sufficient to answer this issue. The ability to cloak may still make this a bit too easy, but I can't wait to try it to find out. It certainly will reduce the chances of a fighter or uncloaked ship taking out a station. Capturing the stations isn't hard, but they only SOS when they're right at zero just before they explode. It would seem that some bases, knowing that they're outnumbered or about to die, would SOS sooner to prevent their destruction (or at least scramble all their ships/fighters). Unless they're all run by maniacs like Governor Tarkin. "Evacuate? in our moment of triumph? -- I think you overestimate their chances..." Anyway, one thing at a time. Cant wait to try it out, thanks for listening, SC! [ 02-11-2002, 15:29: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

Dredd, my friend, you have said some interesting things... quote: Capturing stations is EASY if you know how to do it, and i'm pretty sure you get more EXP for capturing than for destroying (and you get FC&C for captured). That's right, capturing stations and destroying stations is too easy. That's the point of the thread. You get 7500 xpoints for destroying an enemy station. You get 5000 xpoints for capturing it (you get more for each successive capture). You do not get Fleet C&C for capturing a station. You get it at 50,000 experience points. quote: Increasing the hull integrity or armor integrity for capturing would make capturing them INSANELY easy. It would if the stations remained as ineffective as they are now. I was suggesting that the limits for a station surrendering be changed if, and ONLY IF, the toughness of the stations were increased (by various means discussed elsewhere in the thread). quote: The game is never "balanced" by things that may be edited with the game through the SC. So you're saying that the SC has no control over game balance. What are you smoking? He's made many changes in the various patches that make things more balanced. quote: We can easily make the game harder ourselves by not using the exploits. I mean, think about it. If a suggestion for improvement is making stations detect cloaked ships, just DONT CLOAK. It's the same exact result.Dude, cloaking isn't an "exploit." It's something that is available to anyone in the game with the money to buy it. It's too easy to purchase and it's too powerful, making the game unbalanced (although it could be argued that it's not the presence of cloaking, but the lack of strength of the stations). The random weapon is freaking powerful, but it is expensive, hard to acquire, hard to use, AND carries a penalty. And guess what -- it isn't an exploit, it's just a well balanced part of the game. I've never seen the RANDOM weapon fired. Does that make the bad players mad or the good ones happy? NO. It makes me go after the RANDOM weapon with added exuberance. quote: The BC World is a world, and your to do what you want in it. If you want it to be difficult to take over a station, make it difficult yourself. Leave MP balance issues to the MP testers. If stations die too quickly, lower your IOD to 10-20%. The VCF says that stations are going to have more powerful turrets anyway, so for all of you that want to try to take em without cloaking, you can do it now with a danger of dying. In the end, the SC made the game and made the world, and now it's our choice how to play in it. and one of the most wonderful things about this game and SC's world is that he accepts criticism and listens to suggestions regarding play balance and makes changes. Not always, but many times he does. Others agree that the stations are too weak. You don't think they are. That's fine. [ 02-10-2002, 19:41: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

Um, dredd, I have an Idea: I'll make the whole game more difficult by just attacking the station as a marine. Look, the point of this is to make the game balanced, not give ourselves a challenge. I submit that the cloaking technology should be much more expensive (and therefore harder to acquire) or it should be useless against stations, or that the stations should be more powerful (thereby making C&C in single player, or cooperative strikes in multiplayer more useful), or that the starship guns should be less effective against stations. I kinda like the idea of stations surrendering at say, 20% of their total hull value. This could be modified by the presence of support craft/enemy craft involved in the fray. One other thing, there is a point to attacking stations besides capturing them. 1.DESTROYING THEM eliminates their ability to be used by others. 2. You get experience for destroying them. --another related idea: Notice that fully operational stations are NEVER destroyed or captured by the NPC crafts. This may be a limitation of the AI, but it would be awesome to come home to Galcom HQ and find that the Credians have captured the station! (or at least destroyed it) [ 02-10-2002, 18:09: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

Hmmm.. the "no shield while cloaked" idea is interesting...

I know much more thought has been put into this than what I have dedicated to it, but it seems that the cloaking device/PAD combination makes the player too powerful. Either that or the Starstations are too weak. For instance, One would assume that destroying/capturing a starstation should be one of the most challenging endeavors in the game. Currently, however, it is the easiest thing to do. Cloak, approach, shoot until dead. If the enemy was able to see thru the cloak when you fire, or could still establish a missile lock or something -- there would be a sense of risk or danger. But as it is now, there is not much risk involved in attacking Stations. Fighters, ODS, and other ships seem to be appropriately difficult to fight. They are still able to make themselves a difficult target. But they are at quite a disadvantage when I am cloaked and have the PAD. Am I missing something here guys? or does this disadvantage serve a purpose (ie: no hiding on stations during multiplayer -- you WILL DIE)? [ 02-09-2002, 03:45: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

His review was an interesting read. It made me think a lot about the gameplay in BCM. I think that his review is accurate in the sense that this game would be THE GAME to play if you have tremendous amounts of free time (or were stranded on a desert island -- that is, unless they finally make Leisure Suit Larry part eight). Anyway, this "Live the Game" aspect to BCM is the very quality that will make this series flourish in the multiplayer environment. In fact, I submit that the ideal format for this game IS as a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (which, of course, the SC has planned all along). People play MMOG's to spend large quantities of time in a fantasy world interacting with others and with realistic NPC's. BCM already has superior adapting/interacting AI to anything I ever saw in everquest. When the interaction with others and the "persistant" online elements are added, Mr. Smart will have a winner -- and reviewers will be able to relax, cause they won't have to tax their imaginations so much any longer. When I play BCM, I enjoy the time that it takes, the structure of the game, and the interplay of the AI -- but what I also see is the vast POTENTIAL of the game, and that is what keeps me playing it. I think reviewers often miss (or are just simply not allowed to acknowledge) the potential of a game. I bought medal of honor. I played it. it was fun. But unless the online community mods the hell out of it, all I have to look forward to is a sequel or another game with very similiar gameplay (essentially a sequel). BCM delivers and promises much more.

let's get it on.

waitaminit... did someone already accomplish this? did someone already win?

playmod? No thanks. I got this game running like a dream and I'm not gonna risk farking it up. Besides, I want to get the RANDOM legitimately and get some screens of it hitting jupiter and earth and, hell, anywhere and everywhere. Then I'll get the Prize! There can be ONLY ONE --- yeeeehaaaa! sorry, that always happens when I mention the PRIZE. I know everything!!! I am everything!!! um, no one has done this yet, have they? without cheating, that is.. [ 02-07-2002, 20:33: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

soon. very soon. (hopefully no new patches for a while).

I finally solved my slow-down problems (see page 8 of the other thread). Although I was not having Audio problems per se, I decided to turn off ingame music and sound. Viola' NO CRASHES, NO SLOW DOWN. So I turned the slider all the way down to "no hardware acceleration" or "software only" (or whatever, all the way to the left). I experienced absolutely no detectible degradation of sound quality, but most importantly, I have had no further problems with running the game. Period. Save, quit, save again -- no problem, no slowdown. My video hardware acceleration remains fully to the right. The only other change was, of course, the 1.005 patch. I've been running the game solid around the clock and really enjoying it now. Hope this helps someone, it is mentioned all over the place to try this if you are having audio problems or are using a SBlive, but I urge you to try it even if you aren't and the game is behaving funny. Catches thieves just like flies...

by "vertical inertia" i think he means that: while he is ascending using the jetpack, if he stops thrusting his ascent will gradually slow down (ie: he will tend to stay in motion). If, however, he thrusts until his fuel runs out he will stop abruptly instead of "tending to stay in motion" as in the former case. I often see the base disappear and be replaced by the damaged model. It's not really a big deal though. Takes a couple of seconds for the damaged model to come up. Ground attacks are currently out of my league, so I can't comment on ground defenses. Use OTS, man.

It is clear that some of us are experiencing certain unreproducible phenomena while playing BCM. Most of these phenomena do not fit in the "bug" category nor do they satisfy the first of Mr. Smart's two criteria listed above. However, due to system configuration problems, general inexperience with operating systems, crappy hardware, driver incompatibility or some combination thereof -- some of us are experiencing occasional unreproducible problems that hinder our enjoyment of BCM. If this forum is the forum for specific, reproducible bug reports (of which, few have been found) -- shouldn't there be a forum for these other problems? The exchange of ideas about drivers, system configuration, etc. is helpful to some of us and not all of these issues are contained in the FAQ or VCF (since they are not really "bugs" by your definition). Should we post these questions/observations in the "general" or "bcm tips/techniques forums"?

As a bit of follow up I will add that the random lockups that I was experiencing before my OS reinstall are now happening again. Puzzling, given that I still have no new programs installed on my system and my settings (BCM and system) have not changed. The next time you post the same repetitive and inconclusive crap on this thread, your posting rights will be revoked. First warning Last warning [ 01-25-2002: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

don't upgrade your hardware unless you have a seriously antiquated system. Won't help. spend your time finding drivers that work for you.

As chaotic as my posts have been, I'd like to confirm that I was having the problems Duncan describes. The lock ups, corrupted saves, CTD's and need for reboot were fixed when I reformatted my hard drive, changed my drivers to 21.83, and reinstalled my OS. Now I am contending with an unrelated 'performance issue.' Good luck, Duncan.

Please reconsider this idea of creating a series of benchmarks. I am having tremendous slow downs that have been dubbed "performance problems" in the general tech support forum. I argue that the magnitude of slowdown that I am experiencing with my system specs makes it a tech support issue rather than merely a performance issue because we're not talking about 30-40fps here. I'm dropping from the 130's to a sustained 10FPS even when all is clear. I'm unfortunately gonna need some standardized benchmarks to evaluate this...

quote: The fact is, the 2183 drivers are very, very old. Even if you THINK they solved your stability issues, the one thing you forgot is that after you did the full OS re-install, you SHOULD have used either the 2280 or 2311 drivers since those are specifically optimized (the 2183 is NOT) for your OS and video card. You HAVE to pay attention. I don't think you are. Apart from that, you're not very consistent... Nice. Look, let's admit that it is hard to follow these threads and remember everyone's advice/input. I mentioned the slow down problem a couple of posts ago. I've also repeatedly mentioned my use of the 21.83 drivers and that they work for me. The 23.11's and the 22.80's did not. I have been paying attention, and here is what the board says about drivers (speaking of consistency).... quote: SC: So they went ahead and made the 2311 drivers official huh? Typical. They're as buggy as hell. But don't let me stop you from using them. ... Has: After changing my driver (from v21.83 to v23.11) I got CTD and locks up after restoring a game. Same thing happened with v21.85. After changing back to v21.83, I┬┤ve had no problems. Lesson to learn here, don't install a beta driver (or a buggy one like 23.11). 22.80 is a beta driver. Unsupported. 21.83, though old, works for me. I'm not sure what you mean by it not being optimized for my video card and OS. Okay enough of that. Against my better judgment, I DID carefully uninstall the 21.83 drivers with add/remove programs and the detonator destroyer utility. I then carefully installed the 23.11's to try them on my still-virginal freshly installed system. Result: two crashes requiring reboot. once shortly after creating a new profile (with full graphics and music options on)in roam mode, and the other after restoring a saved game from last night (with full graphics and music/sound options on). I learned my lesson and carefully uninstalled the detonator 23.11's and used the detonator destroyer. I then reinstalled the 21.83's. I am no longer getting immediate crashes. I am very reluctant to try the 22.80's, but I'll give em a shot if I run out of options. quote: btw, to run a test like that unattended, you should increase the shield level, arm the PTA system, put the craft in PATROL profile and engage the A/P. In fact, you should upgrade to the most powerful shield first. Doing this, your ship may survive longer and you can leave the game running overnight. I'm not sure, but I think the /i (invincible flag) also works in the current version. You could try adding this and your CC will never be subject to destructive damage - allowing you to run the game for extended periods during stability tests such as this. You might want to disable music playback as well You should also run with /d2 /w2 so that if/when it terminates, there is a log file and/or error window. e.g. BCM.EXE /n /i /d2 /w2 GREAT ADVICE! I'll try this with the 21.83's first and see if I can get the error window or log file. I'll then try the 22.80's, same procedure. And I apologize for not supplying my game config settings. [ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

SC I am happy to report that my stability issues have resolved after converting to the 21.83 drivers and a complete reformatting of my hard drive/reinstallation of the OS!. (I said earlier that I used the 21.83's after trying the 23.11 and the 22.80. They appeared to be more stable [fewer crashes to desktop/lockups -- indeed none of late], were the last version to be WHQL certified, were recommended by the folks at the AMD motherboard and via chipset sites and produced no graphic anomalies in other games/3dmark). I began having this extreme slowdown(noted in a prior message) after I began using the 21.83 drivers, but before I had completely wiped my hard drives and OS. That's why I am devastated that the slowdown continues. I don't think this is a performance problem, SC. When an application brings my system to it's knees -- the framerate drops and then returns to normal when conditions normalize (80 ships suddenly pop in, framerate drops, 80 ships are vaporized, framerate returns to normal). What is now happening with me is that: with all graphical options (except particle trails) on, there is a steady progressive decline in framerate that begins after playing 1.5-2hrs. EVERYTHING slows down tremendously. This did not happen with my old (inferior) 800mhz system. Everything crawls to a framerate of 10-20 with slowed game music and sounds and it never returns to normal no matter what I do (I can jump to a system or a planet with NOTHING else in it and the framerates still crawl and the sound lags). Again this is not a brief intermittant phenomena, it happens and it progressively worsens. When I quit out, everything is cool. When I restart without rebooting, the game will start out with normal framerate/sounds, but then slow down fairly rapidily again. If I quit out and REBOOT, it takes another 1.5 to 2h for this to happen. to recap: 1. my stability issues with saving/random crashes were ELIMINATED with an OS reinstall, wiping of the hard drive, and clean installation of the drivers listed in my system profile. 2. The slowdown I began experiencing and described in a prior post is a lingering problem and I don't know what is causing it. If everyone else is having slowdowns like this, I'll call it normal and live with it, but I DIDN"T have this problem with my old system (processor, ram, and harddrive all far beneath what i now am using). [ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

Man it's been a long night. Here's what I did. 0. Returned my bios to "DEFAULT SETTINGS" 1. Reformatted my hard drive 2. Reinstalled win98se 3. Added the via 4in1 drivers (v4.37a) and then my ethernet drivers. 4. installed my video and sound drivers as noted in my profile. (i noticed that the sound drivers are beta -- listed as 632beta on the cmedia website. But they are the latest ones, so I installed them anyway). I checked to make sure the direct X settings for the detonator drivers corresponded to the troubleshooting FAQ (ie: best image quality and don't quack with anything else) 5. Installed direct x 8.1 and WMP 7.1 6. installed the mouse and joystick drivers listed in my profile. 7. installed direct x 8.1 again for good measure. 8. Installed BCM 9. REbooted (i rebooted between each numbered step, by the way, not just this one). 10. installed the 1.004 January 5th patch in the appropriate directory and then rebooted again. 11. I started the game and it ran beautifully. Frame rate unfettered by other programs cluttering the hard drive. For a second I was in heaven. I saved, quicksaved, quit, restarted, started, quit, restarted all without a single CTD or hard lock up. I decided to do the time trial to see if the game would "slow down" as I had reported earlier. I started a new roam campaign with the BCmk1 and set a course for gammula 1. 23 jumps or so. I walked away to make a sandwich. about 2 hours into this I was jarred from a catnap by red alert sirens! I grabbed the stick, disengaged the autopilot and noticed, to my horror, the frame rate dropping like a stone. not momentarily, but steadily and progressively. The sound of explosions were distorted and crackly and the reports from my officers were painfully drawn out. The game did not crash. I saved it and quit out. I ran dxdiag and found no problems. system resources were fine. only systray and explorer were running. I rebooted and did the following: 1. Went back to dxdiag and slid the sound accleration down to standard 2. resumed my campaign. 3. cried in anguish when, in two hours, it slowed down again. I'm going to run some other direct X applications tonight to see if there is a problem in other games (gonna install mechwarrior 4 and AVP 2 and 3d mark 2001 again). I posted a query on the AMD motherboard forum to see if anyone has experienced anything similar.. What do you guys think? -get a new OS, spidey. -get an actual sound card, spidey. -try (insert hardware/bios/software/os adjustment here), spidey. or -give up [ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]

damn SC, you mean you don't want ME on your beta testing team??!? Especially after all those carefully worded posts about my stepwise troubleshooting efforts? I'm crushed. /me snaps a new web cartridge into his webshooter... I am now gonna embark on the OS/driver reinstallation as you recommended, SC. I think I will do a clean install of the OS if I can find a spare hard drive laying around here (I think I have an extra 3.2 gB Seagate -- I'll just boot from it when I wanna play BCM). That way the only thing on the drive will be the OS, the drivers, and BCM. If it STILL gives me problems, I'll mail you the damn hard drive and let you play with it.... As for my current configuration on my WD hard drives, I'm gonna leave it alone. It's running everything else pretty well.

Hot damn, Elenkis, nice post. I'll try the OS reinstall after trying fresh bios and driver installs (if they don't work). Currently running the 3Dmark2001 torture-thon, no problems yet. I would really hate to go to windows XP at this point, but if it works it's worth it. Improved system stability would really be nice, even if games don't run as fast...

quote:In your case, I would suggest that you QUIT pissing about with your machine, reset the BIOS to its defaults (for now), re-install its latest BIOS, DirectX and ALL your drivers. Then download a system intensive program such as 3DMark2001 and SiS Sandra and stress test your machine - BEFORE - you even consider re-installing and patching BCM. Ah, good idea. I tried 3dMark 2001 overnight (looping benchmark with everything on for 5 hours) and it was still sitting pretty this morning. I will reset the bios, reinstall all the drivers and directx and retest with 3dmark again later. If i get another few hours of sustained stability, I will try the hardware acceleration tab again as you suggested. I did try it earlier, but not with default settings, unfortunately. Um, I know what you are saying about the Quack heads. Believe me, I am content if the game runs without problems. I do check 3dmark and the q3 demo to compare video card drivers, but I leave the drivers at default settings. I've never tinkered with my bios before, and was doing so because it was recommended earlier in this thread. I've also reviewed/posted on the forums at AMDboards, a via chipset site, and at sysopt.com to check for similar problems/fixes/workarounds. They've been far less helpful than this forum. Anyway, if the hardware acceleration tab fix does not work I'll try that debug mode. God help me... Oh yeah, thank you for the nice explanation of corrupted save-games. I understand what you mean and you're right, #4 is probably the answer in my case. [ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Spider-man ]