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Manick2005
Manick2005
Join Date 09/2008
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Game keeps crashing when I load any mod

March 13, 2010 3:42:25 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I sent an E-mail to Support with all my relevant info, but I was looking for a little quicker feedback (been 2 days now), so I'll post my question here as well in hopes that someone knows that the problem is.  Every time I try to enable a mod, my game freezes, forces me to ctrl-alt-del, and then gives me a minidump (which I've sent to the support team).  I was wondering if anyone else had a similar problem and had this solved already.  This happens with any mod, including my own small mods in which I simply edit a few parameters in just a handful of entity files.  Does anyone know what the problem might be?  I played this game awhile back, during an earlier version of the game about a year ago, and did not have this issue at all before.

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Manick2005
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #1 March 13, 2010 4:09:24 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

How did you get the files you are using to mod?

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Manick2005
Manick2005
Join Date 09/2008
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Reply #2 March 13, 2010 4:24:59 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I downloaded ForgeTools 3, and opened up and edited the .entity files using wordpad in the "\ForgeTools 3\ReferenceData\GameInfo" path.  I then saved them into a folder named "MyMod" with the GameInfo folder included in it, and then placed the folder in the following directory "C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-v1.19".  I saw MyMod listed in the Options to be enabled, but just like any other mod, it locked up the game and then gave me a mini-dump.  I've done this before without problems, but this time it won't cooperate as easily.

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Manick2005
GoaFan77
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Reply #3 March 13, 2010 4:30:04 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

That is your problem, the reference data from the forge tools is out of date. You'll need to download the 1.19 reference files from elsewhere or covert a copy of your game files using a converter program.

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Manick2005
Manick2005
Join Date 09/2008
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Reply #4 March 13, 2010 4:52:49 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Thanks for the info.  Do you happen to know where I can download the new reference files?  I just downloaded the Forge Tools off the front page of this site, which I assumed were up-to-date with the current version.


Oh, and come to think of it, I was able to use those entity files I made by directly replacing them into the game folder and backing up the originals, but why wouldn't they work as a mod?

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Manick2005
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #5 March 13, 2010 6:08:11 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

A couple of people have reported the same thing, but as far as I can tell they just got lucky. Replacing the game files is like playing Russian Roulette though, you can easily lose features or get major errors when the game actually needs something from the newer files. The reason it probably didn't crash right away is because the game won't check its own files for errors, it assumes they are already the correct ones. If you mod the game correctly mods can do whatever the original files can.

 

Here's a third party site that has the up to date game files.

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Manick2005
Manick2005
Join Date 09/2008
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Reply #6 March 13, 2010 9:24:32 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Just tried using the reference data from the DL link referring to "ReferenceData2-2010.7z"

Same result and same crash.  So it appears the version isn't what is causing the minidump.

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Manick2005
GoaFan77
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Reply #7 March 14, 2010 12:15:09 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

First of all, I think it has the reference data for all three sins versions in their, so make sure you are using the one for whatever game you are using (I think you said it was Vanilla sins). Second, what did you mod? One of the easiest ways to check if the files are correct is just to change the damage value of some ships weapon and do no further changes. Third, I'd restore the regular game files you said you backed up. Fourth, are you putting all the reference files in the mod or just the ones you are changing?

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Manick2005
Manick2005
Join Date 09/2008
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Reply #8 March 14, 2010 11:47:21 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I'm playing Vinilla sins meaning no expansion, but I updated my game to the latest version that Impulse could find for me, which was 1.19.  That said, i'm using everything from the Sins1.19 folder from the Forge Tools DL.  I already restored all the original files a couple of days back when I completely uninstalled/reinstalled the game to see if that would fix anything, but unfortunately it didn't.  And yes, I am putting only the (one) reference files that I change from the Sins1.19 folder into my Mod folder.  I chose to change just a single .entity file, in which I simply edited one Tier 0 research ability to see if the changes would carry over.

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