[ShivanEmperor]

I recently had a problem with FreeSpace not working properly after installing a campaign. Whenever I go to the Tech Room or the Briefing Room the game crashes. I solved that problem in the end. All I had to do was delete a file which seemed to cause the game to crash. The file came with the campaign I downloaded. Now I have a new problem. After getting back to the game, there are now NO weapons in the missions at all. No secondary or primary weapons. No, its not just one mission, its all missions of all campaigns. Pease help me restore weaponry to the game however you can!

[Jeff Vader]

Please provide a list of files or a screenshot of your \freespace2\ folder. Also, check all the subfolders under \freespace2\data. There should not be anything in them.

In addition, what mod did you install? And what file did you remove? And where did you install it?

[Stormkeeper]

You deleted a file which came with the mod ? Looks like he deleted the weapons.tbl, seeing as how he lost all his weapons.

[ShivanEmperor]

I think the file I deleted was the Ships.tbl. Before I deleted the file, when the game was crashing, it said that the game crashed because of a file called fighter04.pof I think. I think that file came in the Ships.tbl file. The file comes from the Cardinal Spear campaign.

[Stormkeeper]

Cardinal Spear ? I can play it fine.

[ShivanEmperor]

The Ships.tbl files that comes with Cardinal Spear contains an Apollo I believe. When I enter the tech room in crashes giving me info on the problem. When I click Ok to use the debug mode it crashes asking if I should send an error report. Before cancelling it I can hear Microsoft Sam talking about the Apollo. I am sure it has something to do with that. Anyway, now weapons don't show up in game any more. I have to use cheat codes to destroy enemy units. Somehow, the ships.tbl file from the Cardinal Spear mod took away ship weaponry after I removed the ships.tbl file. perhaps, if I were to remove everything else to do with Cardinal Spear I might get all those weapons back?

Sorry, I make big posts.

[Jeff Vader]

Please provide a list of files or a screenshot of your \freespace2\ folder. Also, check all the subfolders under \freespace2\data. There should not be anything in them.

If this issue affects everything, you most likely have an extra vp file somewhere. I'd bet on \freespace2\ or \mediavps\.

And again: where the hell did you "install" Cardinal Spear? You do know that every mod must have a subfolder, right? For example, Cardinal Spear does not go to \freespace2\ but to \freespace2\cardinalspear\. And so on.

[ShivanEmperor]

I am aware of that. Cardinal Spear has several files which must be put into individual folders. The Ships.tbl file was put into the Tables folder. I know how to install mods, but in the end I sometimes end up breaking the game in total. lol

Anyway, the ENTIRE game seems to have no weapons at all. I am going to try searching for the FS2 Open weapons again. That should hopefully solve my problem.

[Jeff Vader]

I am aware of that. Cardinal Spear has several files which must be put into individual folders. The Ships.tbl file was put into the Tables folder.

, I say 

Cardinal Spear has 4, maybe 5 files. The actual campaign .vp, the mod.ini, the readme, the purdy picture for the Launcher and possibly the voice acting .vp. All the files are placed to \freespace2\cardinalspear\. I had such a version and FreeSpaceMods has such a version. There are no separate ships.tbls or anything. I am really puzzled. What the hell have you been doing? I once again ask you to provide information on what exactly does your \freespace2\ folder contain.

And I'd like to know what you mean by "searching for the FS2 Open weapons". There is a weapons.tbl in Root_fs2.vp. Maybe some .tbms in the MediaVPs. But that's it. There are no separate weapon releases anywhere.

[Stormkeeper]

Post a screenshot of your folder's contents, or it'll be pretty difficult for us to help you.

And Lobo's right. Mods are released as .vps, not as separate files. So you should not be having the .tbl files. You're not supposed to use vpview to extract individual .tbls. Thats for working with WIP mods. You just place the contents of the entire mod into a separate folder.

[ShivanEmperor]

I would post a screenshot if I knew how to. Each of the mods I have came with the FS2 Open Downloader thingy. After downloading them I see a folder for each of the mods in my main FS2 folder. Each of the mods come with several files (NOT FOLDERS) which I extract into the corresponding folders. For example: The ships and weapons tbl's for the Tables folder etc... It usually says exactly what the folder is which it must belong to. Tbl = tables I believe. Don't anybody start flaming now. If just asked for help. Its not my fault its hard to explain the problem.

[Jeff Vader]

Each of the mods I have came with the FS2 Open Downloader thingy. After downloading them I see a folder for each of the mods in my main FS2 folder. Each of the mods come with several files (NOT FOLDERS) which I extract into the corresponding folders.

See, this is what confuses me. IF you've downloaded every single mod using Turey's Installer, the point is that it does everything. It downloads the necessary files and places them to a subfolder. For example, if you download Cardinal Spear with it, it downloads all the Cardinal Spear files and places them to \freespace2\cardinalspear. Then, you select the \freespace2\cardinalspear\ folder as your mod with the Launcher and play. THAT'S IT. You do not need to, nor should you, start extracting anything. Just play.

As for the screenshot, open your \freespace2\ folder and try to get it so that all the files can be seen. Then, press the Prt Sc button on your keyboard. Next, open an image editor (even Paint will do), press Ctrl-V, then save the image somewhere. Next, post on this thread again, but this time, click Additonal Options and attach the screenshot you just took. Click Browse, find the picture and Post.

[ShivanEmperor]

The campaigns I have in my main FS2 folder are: Awakenings, Derelict, Transcend, CardinalSpear, DestinyofPeace, Just Another Day, Deus Ex Machina and Homesick. Thats all. To INSTALL them I need to put the files that come with the mods into their right folders in the data folder. No launchers come with any of the Campaigns. All I do is put the files into the right folders and start up the FS2 Open launcher and create a new pilot for each campaign and play it andit works. I never said there was ANYTHING wrong with the campaigns, Lobo.

...My problem now is with weapons. Let me rephrase the point of this thread: When I start a mission, any mission, I have no weapons at all. All my primary and secondary banks are empty. I try to use the weapon loadout thing but there are no weapons there either. Its as if the weapons have been totally erased from the game.

[Jeff Vader]

To INSTALL them I need to put the files that come with the mods into their right folders in the data folder.

No. All of the mods you mentioned are delivered as .vp files. They already have the necessary folder structure inside, so you do not need to create a \data\ folder. Just put, for example, Derelict to \freespace2\derelict.

No launchers come with any of the Campaigns.

I was talking about the FSO Launcher that you use to start the game.

...My problem now is with weapons. Let me rephrase the point of this thread: When I start a mission, any mission, I have no weapons at all. All my primary and secondary banks are empty. I try to use the weapon loadout thing but there are no weapons there either. Its as if the weapons have been totally erased from the game.

Yes. I know. We have all understood it. And let me say this one more time: No weapons means that you have an inappropriate .vp file somewhere. That .vp file, and the potential weapons.tbl it contains, is read first and it conflicts with any campaign or mod you're trying to play. If the weapons.tbl in this rogue .vp file contains weapons different from the campaign you are trying to play, the result is *drum roll*... no weapons.

And this is why I specifically want to know just what you have in your \freespace2\ folder. And I am starting to believe you might have something extra in \freespace2\data\tables.

Please, for the last time: tell us the contents of your \freespace2\ folder. If you don't, we cannot help you.

[Stormkeeper]

Print screen, paste on paint, upload to imageshack or photobucket and link it back here using img tags.

And when you use Turey's installer, you don't need to extract anything. .vps aren't zip files. They are compressed data containers, and FS2 itself will open it and read the relevant information. Unzipping everything into folders and stuff is not necessary. You only do that when you want to modify the relevant tables! As it stands now, you are just trying to play the mods, so you don't need to extract anything at all, just play!

[Agent_Koopa]

Uncompressed data containers, wasn't it?

[Stormkeeper]

Uncompressed data containers, wasn't it?

No, .vps are compressed data containers. The FS code has the ability to go directly into .vps directly and extract what they need. Think of .vps are filing cabinets. The program opens it, takes what it needs, then closes it when its done. All games have some from of data compression. That's why you always have files with weird extensions, .big, .vp to name a few. It helps to hide the game data from the player, and makes the installation somewhat easier, needing only to copy the data containers. The data inside these containers are sometimes obfuscated(encrypted) to prevent hackers from stealing code.

[Mongoose]

I think you're misunderstanding the question.  At least at the moment, VP files don't actually compress the file sizes of the data they contain, just as a file cabinet doesn't shrink the papers it holds.  (I remember there being talk about a compressed VP format being in the works, but I have no idea if that's still planned.)  They do act as a convenient packaging tool that prevents the end-user from having to muck around with several different data folders.

[Jeff Vader]

Indeed. That's what I had heard and I just tested it by extracting PImain.vp. They are container files, like .zips. But there indeed is no compression. PImain is exactly the same size as the extracted data folder.

Dear ShivanEmperor. It indeed seems like you've misunderstood the point. VPs exist for the sake of convenience. Instead of messing around with \data\ folders, you're only supposed to place the vp itself to a mod folder. No need for extraction whatsoever. Extraction is useful only if you want to modify the files for some reason. If you just want to play, do not extract any vps.

And for the last time: your weapon issue is caused by an extra weapons.tbl. We, or at least I, need to see or know the contents of your \freespace2\ folder and \freespace2\data. If you are not going to provide us this information, you are preventing us from helping you, which means that this thread is pointless and therefore will be locked. Understood?

[ShivanEmperor]

Prepare for a big message.

Don't start flaming, Lobo. I put all the campaigns into my main FS2 folder (C./Games/Freespace2). I start up the FS2 Launcher, go to the campaign selecting menu and there are NO new campaigns there. So what I do is...

I open each campaign folder (For Example: C./Games/Freespace2/CardinalSpear). In the CardinalSpear folder I see two files/folders I must open, fsport-cardinalspear and fsport-cardinalspear-voice. These are both VP files. I open each one. Inside the first one are: Effects, Tables, 8b20k, Models, Missions, Maps and Cache. Each of them is named after a folder in the main Data folder for FS2. I said nothing about having to create an entirely new data folder. I need to put/extract/zip or whatever to the corresponding folders in the main data folder.

Now, the Tables file in fsport-cardinalspear contains a file named Weapons.tbl. I have no doupt that this is what took away all the weapons from the game. The cardinal spear campaign is saposed to take place during the Terran vasudan war I believe, which would explain the loss of all FS2 weapons. I have now taken away the weapons.tbl file but there are still no weapons.

Pictures should be bellow...

This is my main FS2 folder. Messy, I know, but it still works. It allways has. I had those Campaign folders for ages and nothing has gone wrong since, until I installed the rest of them.



This is the CardinalSpear folder with the VP files open. Inside you should see I have the Tables selected. You should be able to see the Weapons.tbl. If that has somehow caused the problem, it is gone now. I took them out of their right place in the data folder.



This is my main Data Folder. The individual VP's in the VP files are now in their corresponding folder. I have been doing this ever since I started using these campaigns which means I am doing everything right. The Weapons.tbl must have something to do with the problem with weapons. As you can see, I have the Tables folder highlighted. The Tables folder contained the Weapons.tbl before I took it out, meaning that the weapons.tbl folder has had a lasting effect on the game.



If you say that everything is all wrong, then thats tough, because I have been installing campaigns this way ever since I started using them, and that was a long time ago. Its only recently that I have no weapons in any of the missions.