[Ecthelion]

I just installed FS2 Open a few weeks back, and I played through the Freespace and Silent Threat campaigns (via FSPort) before moving onto Freespace 2.  I switched the mod to "mediavps" in the launcher, which made the Freespace 2 campaign the only one available in the game.  I started playing and was moving along, when I ran into something weird.  I just finished the "A Game of Tag" mission, and started to play the next mission "Proving Grounds" (SM2-03) but I had trouble passing it (I was trying for the medal, which is harder to get than simply passing the mission).  I tried it several times before quitting the game (I believe I used the "Quit Immediately" keys, if that makes any difference), and when I went back into the game, it skips that mission.  It starts playing the "mono2" video, which I know is supposed to play before the "The King's Gambit" mission (SM2-04).  Strangely enough, the previous mission doesn't show up in the Tech Room under Campaign Missions, so the game doesn't think I completed it.  Yet it skips it anyway.  I tried exiting and relaunching the game, and the same thing happens.  Although SM2-03 was making pull out my hair, I don't want to skip it.

I was thinking I would try opening the FreeSpace2.cs2 file for my pilot, but I don't know what to open it with.  The FS2 Open wiki says the "cs2" format is plain text (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/*.CS2), but it doesn't seem like it.  If I open it with Notepad++ (or the Campaign files for Freespace or Silent Threat for that pilot), it shows a lot of gibberish with the actual text.  I'm guessing that the FreeSpace2.cs2 file is corrupt somehow, but I don't know how to confirm it without opening it somehow.  I tried one of the old Descent Manager tools, but it didn't recognize the Freespace 2 Open install (the tool is 9 years old, after all).  For that matter, I believe the cs2 format is different from the retail campaign format, so that probably wouldn't work anyway.

Any suggestions?

[karajorma]

IIRC this is a known bug in 3.6.9 builds. Have you tried a 3.6.10 build from the recent builds forum? (I'd suggest backing up your Players/Single folder first BTW).

[Ecthelion]

Have you tried a 3.6.10 build from the recent builds forum?

That's a good suggestion, and something I hadn't considered - I just assumed the files were corrupt.  In any case, I'm not really concerned about it anymore.  I ended up restarting the campaign and using cheats to get back up to the mission I was on.  I used the "kill target" cheat so that my kill stats wouldn't be affected (those kills don't end up being credited to the player), but I ended up with 2 or 3 mandatory medals (i.e. the ones you get simply for passing the mission), so I now have multiple copies of a few medals.  I'd still be interested in a program that would let me edit the pilot file so I could remove those extra medals, but that's probably more trouble than it's worth.

Since the problem, I have started making frequent backups of my pilot and campaign files, so that I'll only have to repeat a mission or two if something like this happens again.  I'll also try a 3.6.10 build if I run into any more bugs.

Thanks for your help.