An unusual problme with SS2 (may involve Mod Manager and SS2Tool)

[664a0228ee0feLasiurus]

Hi everyone, well, I have to say, I'm in need of help.  You see, I decided to play SS2 after some time but I upgraded my system and now I have a "not so typical" problem.

My specs:
Intel Core 2 Quadcore 2.8
nVidia 8800 GTX
RAM 3 GB DDR2
(EVERYTHING is up-to-date)

But, here's the funny thing: The game works perfectly fine, yeah, I'm not kidding, it actually works like a charm. The real problme is...well...after some time I decided to give my game a makeover. So...I downloaded the SS2 Mod Manager and the "SS2Tool_v.2.4.exe"; as well as some mods. Namely: Reirth, SHTUP (Versions 5 and 6), deepfriedbeer and Straylight.

THE PROBLEM:

well, the problem, to put it plainly is that, as far as I get a mod installed the game wont run at all. I've follow all the steps. Patched to last version, made the game "mod ready" (I've tried doing it manualy: didn't work. Itried doing it thorugh the SS2Tool: same result as before). Whenever I activate a mod throught the Mod Manager, the game just wont run. No matter what mod. Activating any option in the SS2Tool prevents the game from starting aswell EXCEPT...the option that says "Correct Bugs". 

If anyone has a clue as to what can be causing the problem let me know.

Thanks!




EDIT (Update): OK...so this is weird. I just installed the game (vanilla). I launch it. No problem. I exited it. No problem. Then I thought "mmm, maybe I installed the patch wrong..." , so I launched it again to see the version number. BUT, the game CTD before the main menu, in fact it CTD before the very first video could play!!...Now...the only thing I've noticed that may be considered strange is in the install.cfg file. When the game crashed I opened the install.cfg file just out of curiosity, and found that right under the last line, the one that reads: "movie_path D:\Sshock2\cutscenes+H:\shock\cutscenes", there's a little square symbol. I erased it and relaunched the game but it still crashed...the symbol is there when I install the game, so it doesn't appear after the first launch. But I do'nt know wether it's supposed to be there in the first place. Any clues?

[664a0228ee30dfox]

Hm, maybe you should check the SS2 Videos / Cutscenes Guide too.

[664a0228ee460Lasiurus]

thanks fox, but sadly (and ironically) videos, though they dont even get to be played whenever I launch the game a second time, don't seem to be the problem as they are correcly launched when I start the game for the first time after install. Plus, I just tried everything on the video/cutscenes section. No luck there. Still I hope that someonw will be able to tell me what maybe the cause of the CTD.

thanks though.

[664a0228ee57aNot You]

I had the same problem after I tried Ponterbee Station.  Mine cut out at the loading screen.  I re-installed, but the videos wouldn't play (I ended up going through the normal service selection fine).  Unfortunately, I kicked me out after the last year. 

[664a0228ee6ebKolya]

Counting the seconds until Lasiurus notices the sticky at the top of this forum that mentions his graphics card...

[664a0228eea50Lasiurus]

Counting the seconds until Lasiurus notices the sticky at the top of this forum that mentions his graphics card...

Kolyaaaaaaaaa thats just mean. hehe, that was the first thing I checked whne I got to the forum. But no luck still. Although have another update...It seems I was mistaken about the origin of the problem. Thought the sticky does not have the answer to this problem, it certainly helds some interesting info, which I am to recheck now. (just in case). But apparently, nor the mods nor the tool nor the manager seem to have anything to do with this problem. I just realise that everytime I install the game, I'm able to play it once with no problem. But after exiting the game, something, unkown to me, changes somewhere, in sime file maybe, and after this change, starting the game will launch a black screen with the background sound of the main menu, and after 6 seconds it will CTD. So the problem my pc. But...where?.........But where!?.......BUT WHERE!!!???.........this fellow shocker is loosing his voltage...But I'm not to give up just yet. I'll find the answer.

[664a0228eebc3miracle.flame]

Anyway, congrats on being able to run it without any patching, that's really rare. Which OS is it?

[664a0228eed02Kolya]

I would install the game, then backup the install folder, play, compare files with the backup (eg via Total Commander's directory syncing and WinMerge for single text files).

[664a0228eef51Lasiurus]

Offline, I'm using windows Xp SP2.

Kolya, I´ll try that now.

BTW, soem extra info I collected. Don't know if it will be of any help. But I noticed the following:

This is how the install.cfg looked once I finished installing the Mod Manager: (note the RES path)
cd_path .
install_path .
language english
resname_base D:\sshock2\RESresname_base RES
load_path .
script_module_path .
movie_path cutscenes

In this case the game did not eve launch itself. Double clicking on the exe would have no effect at all. It just wouldn't respond to the command.
---------------------------------------------------------

This is how the install.cfg lokked once installed the mods Rebirth, SHTUP, DeepFriedBeer and Straylight via ModManager:

cd_path .
install_path .
language english
resname_base C:\vshare\SS2 Tynch\System Shock 2\SS2 Mods\RESresname_base D:\sshock2\RESresname_base RES
load_path .
script_module_path .
movie_path cutscenes

In thois case the game did not launch itself either.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Finnaly, I use the SS2Tool and picked the option "Getting Mod Ready" > "Replace install.cfg". The install.cfg ended up looking like this:

cd_path .
install_path .
language english
resname_base RES
load_path .
script_module_path .
movie_path cutscenes

The game wa launched correctly, I was able to play with no problem what so ever. I them closed the game and launched it again. The game went black screen before the first video could play, and CTD 6 seconds later.

So I dont know if any of that helps, but there you go, some extra info.

[664a0228ef075Kolya]

Are you starting the game from the Modmanager every time? You should, as it re-registers LGVID.AX on every start up, which is prone to mysteriously un-register itself on winXP. LGVID.AX is necessary to play the movies.
Also try renaming that file to LGVID.AX.BAK

[664a0228ef1c0Lasiurus]

ok, Kolya, I did what you said (did not use total commander because I really really really suck at computing). But, anyway I did notice this: after launching the game for the first time aftert the install (vanilla no mods or anything else) and closing it, two new files appeared: "user.bnd" and "user2.bnd". Eliminating those two files allows me t oplay the game with no problme. But my screen resolution was set to its default when I re-lauched the game. Anyhow, hope that gives you a clue as to what maybe wrong.

Thanks btw.

[664a0228ef4caLasiurus]

Are you starting the game from the Modmanager every time? You should, as it re-registers LGVID.AX on every start up, which is prone to mysteriously un-register itself on winXP. LGVID.AX is necessary to play the movies.
Also try renaming that file to LGVID.AX.BAK

Whenever I used the ModManager I always launched the game from it. I also tried the LGVID thing. Didn't work. But my las post will give a clue maybe as to what is wrong. As you can see iut has to with those .bnd files.

[664a0228ef6d6Kolya]

Those are just key bind files. They should of course be writable but since SS2 creates them they certainly are. How odd.
Just some more checking: Make sure you have a folder named "current" in your install dir.

[664a0228ef80eLasiurus]

yep, "current" folder is there. I remember you mention someone of the importance of having that folder. But yeah is there. So is there something that can be done with those key bind files? I mean there must be a reason why them appearing cause the game not to work.

[664a0228ef905Kolya]

I'm sorry but this makes no sense to me at all. Maybe someone else has an idea.
...
Only thing I could imagine is some antivirus software preventing SS2 from accessing the files for no good reason.

[664a0228ef9eaLasiurus]

mmm i see. well, dont worry. Thaks anyway. I'll post the answer if I get it.

Thanks anyway, cheers!