Can't Load a Mission

[Plodder]

I've sent an email off to milo telling him the situation, hopefully we'll get a reply soon.

[goblinarcher]

thank you the plodder. hopefully we will.

[wdboyd]

Salutations,
 
I will be taking a slow freighter to the other side of the galaxy while waiting for a response from Milo. [>:]

[Illrain]

I'm getting exactly the same problem. 4.5.0 patch. loading a saved game the day counter is set at 0 and the missions flicker but are unselectable. I was really enjoying playing the campaign!
 
Look forward to the fix.
 
Illrain

[Plodder]

Dont hold your breath though.Haven't even got a response to my email yet..not even an acknowledgment.Maybe if you all sent him one...make it polite of course[:D] then we give him a few weeks and then not so polite....[:@]

[Illrain]

Ok,

Well having a quick look makes me think there's a small possibility of getting a better understanding.

It seems that the clock resets to Day 1 0000hrs -large number. This "large number" then goes in reverse order. It counts down rather than counting up. time is going in reverse!

I see that the mission time (which one can make out if you accelerate time by the insert key) will eventually be reached. I haven't done it yet as it would take about 10-15 minutes. I'll try it later.

I see in the save game file that there is a time setting which changes significantly if you resave in the flickering mission mode.

So, it seems that it's the game clock setting that is at fault. The mission can't execute until a certain time is reached. The time seems to be offset and I'm wondering if it would be possible to manually alter the time value in the save game file to overcome this?

I'll have a tinker and report back. Hopefully this might inspire some other bright minds to have a go too.

[Plodder]

Hmmm...my mission clock is fine,it shows the time normally even during a saved game.However when I load a saved game the time jumps ahead quite a lot.heres a couple of examples from the Highland campaign:

saved time   : day  2 00:38:19      
loaded time  : day 19 22:26:18

saved time   : day  1 07:37:01     
loaded time  : day 18 05:25:18

and heres a quick test I did,I started a new campaign, saved it, exited starshatter and loaded it up again:

saved time   : day  1 00:00:14     
loaded time  : day  1 00:01:29

I did notice the bug only happened if you shut SS down,  If you save a campaign, exit it and then load it again the proper time is shown.

[goblinarcher]

i may have figured out a solution. i just discoverd this a few minutes ago and have not had time to really test it out.  i was thinking about how people just suddenly started to have this problom so i set my computers clock back 2 years(the windows one, not the bios one). i noticed that if  i start a new campaign and save my game i dont have this problom any more. i cant load saves made before i set my clock back. i have not acually played any misisons this way yet. i just messed with saveing and loading on the first day.  can anyone confirm that this works on thier computer?

[goblinarcher]

ive played a few missions and my solution does seem to be working. its kind of annoying haveing to switch my year back and forth but its better than not being able to play at all

[goblinarcher]

can anyone confirm that my solution does or does not work for them?

[zmohner]

It didn't work for me.

[goblinarcher]

ive done some more experimenting and ive found that om my computer all saves made after may 12 2006 do not work. this is obviosly not the case for everyone. i dont know what the significance of that date is.  maybe there is a different date on every computer. zmohner, i would try setting your clock back even further and see if you can load the saves you make. as i stated before you cant try and load a save you already have. make a new save and try to load it.  i suppose it might just be some freak occorence on my computer, good for me but bad for you if this is the case.

[Spook043]

ORIGINAL: goblinarcher

can anyone confirm that my solution does or does not work for them?

I've just experienced the same problem regarding mission list "flicker" in the "Highland" (second) stage of the campaign.

I'm intrigued to try your suggestion, but I may not be interpreting it properly. Basically, do you set your computer clock each time before starting Starshatter? And if a campaign save is made before setting back the clock, does that invalidate the suggested fix?

Thanks,

Ed

[goblinarcher]

i set the clock a year or two back before playing and when im done i return it to the real time.  and yes any save made when the clock is set to acual time will not work.  let me know what you find

[DRavisher]

Your fix is working for me (haven't done any extensive playing, but it seems to be working). Thanks a bundle for the fix, I can finally play the campaign

I must say, this is a pretty strange bug...

[Spook043]

ORIGINAL: goblinarcher

i set the clock a year or two back before playing and when im done i return it to the real time.  and yes any save made when the clock is set to acual time will not work.  let me know what you find

This seems to work for me too.

Like you said, this can be a hassle, but under the circumstances, this seems the only way to forge ahead in a campaign. Thanks for the info.

[:)]

[goblinarcher]

that means its not just some queer fluke on my computer.  its nice to know that its working for more people than just me.

[Plodder]

Just had a quick test and it works for me too.Good find [:)].   I'm still a bit PO'd that Milo hasn't responded at all, and here I'd heard that the support for this game was excellent.... oh well, at least we can play the damn thing again[:D]

[John DiCamillo]

Yes, it does appear to be date-based.
Here is a segment of a savegame file I just created using Starshatter 4.0.3 - it should be the same in 4.5, but I haven't tested that specifically.

SAVEGAME

campaign: "Operation Highland"

grp_iff: 1
grp_type: 2
grp_id: 18
status: 1
basetime: 0x80469bf9
time: 0x00009e60 // Day 01 11:15:44

The basetime entry contains the start date of the campaign and is used to drive the star system simulation. The problem is that the timestamp is now larger than two billion, and when saved in this hex format it "wraps around" to a negative number.

The manual workaround is quite simple. Just open the save game file in notepad and change the basetime value to start with a number less than 8 (e.g. basetime: 0x7F469BF9). In other words, just change the first two hex digits from 80 to 7F. That way you don't have to monkey with the clock on your computer.

[Plodder]

Speak and He shall come...[:D]. Thanks Milo,do we do this for every save or just the first one of a campaign?