[fsphiladelphia]

OK I've run into a (strange?) problem.  After I skip out of the movie upon initially loading up the game, I'm brought to the pilot selection screen.  I select my pilot, and the game hangs.  I had previously created two other pilots, so just to experiment, I selected one of them instead, and I was able to get into the game and play.

Problem is, the pilot which I cannot use is the pilot that has all my stats, which I beat the FS2 retail campaign with.  I could get over losing the stats, (though I am up to Lieutenant/Triple Ace) but what really bugs me is, I am about 90% through Derelict, and it was not easy to get here!  Am I screwed, are my pilot files totally messed up?  HELP!


ps -- in the interest of including as much info as I can, I'll add that I did nothing out of the ordinary, and I did not edit or change the files in any way.  I defeated a mission, accepted the results, and exited the game after that.  Everything was working normally.  Now When I choose the same pilot I've always chosen, the game hangs.  I am guessing this is the result of some random (or known?) error or bug.  If that's the case, I guess I'm just S.O.L. huh?

[jr2]

He, he... and that is exactly the reason I haven't finished Derelict.    But I actually did change the campaign, which is not such a good idea, as it can corrupt your pilot file if the campaigns aren't similar.  (Anyone know why?!?)  I do know that Turey (I think... or taylor, one of the two tees) is working on new pilot code that will be much better.

[Mongoose]

That does sound an awful lot like a corrupted pilot file.  If you remember exactly which mission of Derelict you were at, someone here can whip you up a modified campaign file for it that starts you off at that level again.

[fsphiladelphia]

There are three files for my pilot:  Kevdog.pl2, Kevdog.Derelict.Cs2, Kevdog.FreeSpace2.Cs2 -- I am assuming the file 'Kevdog.Derelict.Cs2' is the campaign file?

Anyhow I had just completed the mission where the huge meson bomb cannon ship blows up a shivan destroyer, but is destroyed in the process.  I think that's near the end of the campaign (please, no spoilers).

I'm pretty sure however, that it isn't just the campaign that is corrupted -- I believe it is the PL2 pilot file that is corrupted -- because I selected 'No Mod' and selected that pilot, and the game hangs, but again, I can select any of the other 3 pilots I had created for various reasons, and I can also select my multiplayer pilot, and the game runs just fine.

How does this sort of thing happen?

[Snail]

Incorrect, derelict.fc2 is the campaign file. Try tweaking that in FRED or notepad and set the first mission to the mission you were at. Make sure you backup the original derelict.fc2 file first.

I don't think that it'll be easy to make it work again, since the player file is definitely not ASCII.

[fsphiladelphia]

Incorrect, derelict.fc2 is the campaign file. Try tweaking that in FRED or notepad and set the first mission to the mission you were at. Make sure you backup the original derelict.fc2 file first.

I don't think that it'll be easy to make it work again, since the player file is definitely not ASCII.

?

There is no derelict.fc2 file -- there's kevdog.derelict.fc2, and there's kevdog.pl2, and there's kevdog.freespace2.fc2.  Either way, regardless of what mod I have in launcher, what campaign I have selected, etc, I believe the entire player file is corrupted, because when I select that pilot, the game immediately hangs -- how does it know if I am going to play derelict or not?

And, how does this sort of thing happen?

UPDATE:
I moved the kevdog.derelict.fc2 file out of that directory temporarily, and the game now allows me to select my pilot.  It puts me at the correct mission in the main FS2 campaign, but it now lists all my stats as zero.  Great.

I am guessing I have no real solution to this issue.

[Snail]

Uhh... Do what I said with the campaign file...

Just get Kara to do it for you, he loves helping people in need.

[fsphiladelphia]

I have to apologize, because I'm completely confused by your answer.   

Here's what I understand -- the kevdog.derelict.fc2 file is clearly corrupted -- this makes sense because removing it allows my pilot to be selected again.  Placing it back in the freespace2/data/players directory and selecting the pilot causes the game to hang immediately.

Now that I can select the pilot again, there are no stats saved.

I have zero familiarity with FRED, but I attempted to do what you said, and it did not work -- it comes up to some sort of default screen with a Ulysses fighter and seems to not even recognize that I've opened the .fc2 file.

At this point, I'm pretty much wondering if this (more or less same) situation happens regularly, what causes it, and finally -- am I screwed here as to getting back the stats I accumulated with that pilot?

[RazorsKiss]

I don't think FRED edits .fc2 files.

But I might be wrong

[fsphiladelphia]

I don't think FRED edits .fc2 files.

But I might be wrong

I don't, either.

[Snail]

It does, shift-C?

[jr2]

Ya, FRED does edit campaign files... But that might not be the problem.  To test this out, put your campaign file back.  Use the Derelict mod; instead of selecting your Derelict pilot, create a new temporary one.  Use this pilot, select the Derelict from the campaign menu.  Try to play the first mission.  If it lets you, I believe it's your pilot file (usually is)... It's just that when you have Derelict not available, it can't load the (corrupted) Derelict part of the pilot file; so it jumps to the next available campaign.  Does that sound about right?

[Snail]

I was saying that if he can't get his pilot file back, then he could just tweak the campaign so it began with the mission he was on.

[fsphiladelphia]

Ya, FRED does edit campaign files... But that might not be the problem.  To test this out, put your campaign file back.  Use the Derelict mod; instead of selecting your Derelict pilot, create a new temporary one.  Use this pilot, select the Derelict from the campaign menu.  Try to play the first mission.  If it lets you, I believe it's your pilot file (usually is)... It's just that when you have Derelict not available, it can't load the (corrupted) Derelict part of the pilot file; so it jumps to the next available campaign.  Does that sound about right?

I'm going to give this a try -- but it's not exactly what's happening.  What's going on is, I can use my main pilot (Kevdog) ONLY if the Kevdog.Derelict.Cs2 file is NOT in the Freespace2/Data/Players directory.  Further problem, when that file is not present, and I am therefore able to select Kevdog as my pilot, all my stats are now gone.

In response to the part of your post that I bolded -- it may be that it can't load the corrupted (derelict) part of the pilot file, but if the Kevdog.Derelict.Cs2 file is present in the directory, it doesn't jump to the next available campaign -- it hangs the entire program, and I have to kill it in Task Manager.

Thinking logically, I think the file Kevdog.Derelict.Cs2 is corrupted.  The pilot file needs to look at that file in order to compile it's stats.  When it tries to do so, the game hangs.  So, when that file is not present, the pilot file still cannot complete it's stats, but at least the game doesn't hang.

The only advantage to even keeping the Kevdog pilot at all is that, despite having no stats, the game recognizes that I have completed the FS2 Retail campaign, so I can jump in and fly any mission I want.  But with no stats, no rank (which is part of the fun for me), I might as well just delete Kevdog and start over entirely with a new pilot.

[jr2]

If someone has an updated pilot editor, you might be able to salvage some of it... IDK.  Ask a coder.

[Mongoose]

I think there's some confusion going on in here about the "campaign file" trick I mentioned.  fsphiladelphia, the kevdog.derelict.cs2 file isn't the Derelict campaign file; instead, it's of a file type used by the game's pilot code to track a certain pilot's progress in multiple campaigns.  (These files allow you to have multiple campaigns in-progress with a single pilot; before taylor created this functionality, to save your progress in multiple campaigns, you'd have to create a new pilot for each one.)  The "campaign file" that I was referring to is derelict.fc2, which is located in the main Derelict VP in the "missions" folder.  Files of this type store the actual data for a FS2 campaign, including what missions are in it, the order that they appear in the campaign, and the conditions needed to move onto the next mission; they're also used to created branches and loops in campaigns.  The Campaign Editor built into FRED2 is what's used to create and edit .fc2 files.  By editing this file, you'd be able to restart Derelict with a new pilot at the exact same point your corrupted pilot was at.

I'd love to go ahead and edit the thing for you myself, but for some reason, FRED is throwing me an error whenever I attempt to do so.  I'll keep fooling around with it and try to get it straightened out for you.

[fsphiladelphia]

I think there's some confusion going on in here about the "campaign file" trick I mentioned.  fsphiladelphia, the kevdog.derelict.cs2 file isn't the Derelict campaign file; instead, it's of a file type used by the game's pilot code to track a certain pilot's progress in multiple campaigns.  (These files allow you to have multiple campaigns in-progress with a single pilot; before taylor created this functionality, to save your progress in multiple campaigns, you'd have to create a new pilot for each one.)  The "campaign file" that I was referring to is derelict.fc2, which is located in the main Derelict VP in the "missions" folder.  Files of this type store the actual data for a FS2 campaign, including what missions are in it, the order that they appear in the campaign, and the conditions needed to move onto the next mission; they're also used to created branches and loops in campaigns.  The Campaign Editor built into FRED2 is what's used to create and edit .fc2 files.  By editing this file, you'd be able to restart Derelict with a new pilot at the exact same point your corrupted pilot was at.

I'd love to go ahead and edit the thing for you myself, but for some reason, FRED is throwing me an error whenever I attempt to do so.  I'll keep fooling around with it and try to get it straightened out for you.

Thanks for clearing that up.  I would try to edit the .fc2 file but I don't know how to extract things from the vp files and put them back in.  I'm pretty savvy but that's beyond what I've figured out since installing FS2Open so far.  After all this analysis, however, it's looking like, for whatever reason, the pilot that I used is going to lose all of his stats, correct?

[jr2]

Ah, hmm, use Turey's Installer again, get the Tools pack.    There should be VPView 32 in there, as well as ModelView, TableView, etc, etc... helps .  I do believe you have to configure them the first time you use them, providing the location of your FS / FS2 / Descent (if you have it) installs.

[fsphiladelphia]

So anyhow, does this sort of thing happen often, and what causes it?

[jr2]

One cause is switchin / starting a new campaign that is radically different than the current one.  eg Inferno and fsport, AFAIK