[Nyalatothep]

So, I am currently stuck at Universal Truth for reasons of bugs and my own stupidity.

Spoiler:

The irony is, I successfully completed it on my first try, but there was something off about it. There were no messages after the very first sentence Laporte said, and sure enough, on my second try, where this bug did not happen, I realized that I had missed about all the exposition. (I just remembered, the same thing happened twice in a row in the second dreamscape mission for me, where I wasn't able to talk to anyone past the very first sentence.) Most annoying was the interrogation of Ken at the end. When I was hitting 1-4 there was no feedback at all (same with the 'leave or stay' deciscion later), which let me to think that maybe this was a design choice because I had lost too much sanity? After all, it was playing with my sanity... Interestingly enough, the thing still progressed seemingly, I got told I had successfully interrogated him, and I managed to find my way out. Also: In the scene relatively at the beginning where your view is fixed on Ken as a fighter, there was no dialogue at all. Imagine me staring, thinking "Setting the mood is one thing, but can I have control back? Why am I just staring at this thing for THAT long? Is something supposed to happen?" And was the exposition between the Vishnan and Shivan ships without subtitles? Because I did not understand a thing they said, only some select few words...

Stupid me then chose to redo the mission immediately. In hindsight, I could have advanced and played it again in the simulator, no matter.

Since then I have retried it twice, and both times, I got stuck at the part

Spoiler:

with the Shivan Nodes. I couldn't contact them, nor Ken. The interface element wouldn't show up, and nothing was happening.

(Oh, and just now, restarting the mission again, the whole game crashed).

Besides reporting this as a bug, does anyone maybe already have a solution worked out? Should I run the debug executable and leave a report? Thing is, I am totally unsure if this is even truly reproduceable... Or do I have to just try and bruteforce my way though it by reattemting until it works out? At least I know what to do already in theory, so it wouldn't be too bad.

EDIT2: OK, forget the stuff below, I made the mistake of breaking it into the debugger, which crashes. Unfortunately, I find it impossible to run the mission in debug mode, because it will halt everything every few seconds, giving me the following error, which makes it impossible to keep my IRL sanity and even get beyond the part with flying into the Dante:

Code: [Select]

explosion-effect type is out of range; quitting the explosion...

ntdll.dll! ZwWaitForSingleObject + 21 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObjectEx + 67 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObject + 18 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! SCP_DumpStack + 354 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! Warning + 495 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! sexp_explosion_effect + 803 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_sexp + 6232 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! do_action_for_each_special_argument + 74 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_when_do_one_exp + 401 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_when + 797 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_sexp + 3790 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_when_do_one_exp + 371 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_when + 797 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_sexp + 3790 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_when_do_one_exp + 371 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_when + 797 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! eval_sexp + 3790 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! mission_process_event + 428 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! mission_eval_goals + 601 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! game_simulation_frame + 1129 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! game_frame + 475 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! game_do_frame + 231 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! game_do_state + 403 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! gameseq_process_events + 237 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! game_main + 782 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! WinMain + 328 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! __tmainCRTStartup + 283 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! WinMainCRTStartup + 13 bytes
kernel32.dll! BaseThreadInitThunk + 18 bytes
ntdll.dll! RtlInitializeExceptionChain + 99 bytes
ntdll.dll! RtlInitializeExceptionChain + 54 bytes

EDIT: Trying to run it again with debug resulted in this strange error, which I suspect to be completely independent from above problems, and a crash to Desktop immediately afterwards:

Code: [Select]

For ship 'SJ Sathanas', detail level
mismatch. Table has 4,
POF has 3.
ntdll.dll! ZwWaitForSingleObject + 21 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObjectEx + 67 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObject + 18 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! SCP_DumpStack + 354 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! Warning + 495 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! ship_create + 729 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! parse_create_object_sub + 77 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! parse_create_object + 193 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! mission_parse_maybe_create_parse_object + 419 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! post_process_ships_wings + 93 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! post_process_mission + 69 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! parse_mission + 1595 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! parse_main + 449 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! mission_load + 215 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! game_start_mission + 184 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! game_enter_state + 559 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! gameseq_set_state + 310 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! game_process_event + 242 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! gameseq_process_events + 152 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! game_main + 782 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! WinMain + 328 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! __tmainCRTStartup + 283 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_DEBUG_SSE2_BP.exe! WinMainCRTStartup + 13 bytes
kernel32.dll! BaseThreadInitThunk + 18 bytes
ntdll.dll! RtlInitializeExceptionChain + 99 bytes
ntdll.dll! RtlInitializeExceptionChain + 54 bytes


[Crybertrance]

Your debug log, why am I not seeing it!

[Nyalatothep]

Because it's been ages since I last played, I never really posted here, just lurked, and I thought I'd remember the process of debugging and reporting bugs, yet forgot about the most important part. (and possibly some other stuff, too)



[attachment deleted by a basterd]

[Nyalatothep]

Just wanted to add that I've finally been able to finish it. Interestingly, all I did was try it yet again, and all went nicely and without major problems. I didn't even apply the solution mentioned in this topic http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83388.0 yet. I just restarted the mission, and this time it worked. Whatever bug or collection of bugs this is, it doesn't seem to follow any rules that I can make out.

Spoiler:

And now I remain frustrated because this amazing campaign leaves me wanting more

[General Battuta]

Yeah, I honestly have no idea what's going on with this bug. I had it happen to me a couple times under 3.6.11 development builds, it vanished for a while, and now it's happened a couple times under these builds.

[Nyalatothep]

I feel a bit bad posting in my own thread again, but I think it could be helpful for catching the bug if I mention that "without major problems" meant that I still couldn't interact with the nodes, yet strangely enough, I could suddenly interact with Ken.

Also, I've had another playthrough of the mission, and those nodes seemingly just don't want to work for me, which is strange, because they worked fine in my first playthrough where the dialogue did not (thus, I still have no idea what information is relayed through them beyond the pure visual effects)

[General Battuta]

That is absolutely baffling. I wonder if it has to do with the mission's enormous filesize? It probably doesn't.

[niffiwan]

I had the same issue with the comm nodes not "speaking" after my 1st playthrough.   I might be speaking out my posterior here, but is the status of the comm nodes stored as a campaign persistent variable?  And is that value getting cleared appropriately if you fail the mission after you've spoken with the comm nodes?  (Not sure how this all works with playing the mission from the tech room).

I only ask because while looking at pilot files (for the malloc bug) I thought I saw some comm node related variables in the campaign vars section.

[General Battuta]

Actually it...might...well be...

If that's the issue I'm gonna lol

[perihelion]

Same issue happened to me with the Comm Nodes during my second or third play-through.  Couldn't talk to them, but I could talk to Ken.  I don't recall anything else I'd consider a "bug."

[a_b_c]

Same issue happened to me with the Comm Nodes during my second or third play-through.  Couldn't talk to them, but I could talk to Ken.  I don't recall anything else I'd consider a "bug."

Seconded.  Couldn't talk to the comm nodes on my second playthrough, even on a new pilot file.  Also, the dreaming Gef accused me of snuffing out the dinosaurs even though I had taken painstaking care to leave those hollowed-out comet dwellers alone this time

[An4ximandros]

...this time.

She knows. *Creepy SFX*

 I've had no problems with Magical Nagari Girl, I haven't replayed Universal Truth though.

[knossosfs2]

I had the same issue with the comm nodes not "speaking" after my 1st playthrough.

Yeah, I'm having the same problem and this is my second playthrough. I noticed that something was strange because when I first came into contact with Ken, my "ship" started rotating and there was nothing I could do about it until the comms nodes warped in. Then, I was unable to communicate with them. I tried restarting the mission and it still didn't work. Other than that, everything else was fine.

[Crybertrance]

I had the same issue with the comm nodes not "speaking" after my 1st playthrough.

Yeah, I'm having the same problem and this is my second playthrough. I noticed that something was strange because when I first came into contact with Ken, my "ship" started rotating and there was nothing I could do about it until the comms nodes warped in. Then, I was unable to communicate with them. I tried restarting the mission and it still didn't work. Other than that, everything else was fine.

Now that, that, is some creepy stuff...Is UT becoming sentient? 

[Nyalatothep]

Now that, that, is some creepy stuff...Is UT becoming sentient? 

Considering that consciousnes seems to arise from a complex enough interconnected system of information, like our brain for example, and UT is probably one of the most complex missions coded to date, we should all start cowering in fear and welcome our new Shivan overlords.

[BritishShivans]

actually, how about we treat them to some tea and be nice for once?