NEWSA+SIMBION_tweaked Support and Gameplay

[Nightwatch]

Thanks for updating, Balious. It seems you've just fallen in the middle of a "settling of accounts" in the Bar Area. Monoliths, Zombified Stalkers.. you entered Bar in a very hazardous time. But, you've hit a good luck with that RPG, though.
You must've been very fast really in your Garbage re-entry after Agroghom in order to be able to pass through the area without being caught by the chopper. On your return to Garbage, the chopper comes within 10 seconds. On return to Garbage, you don't need to speak to anyone for the chopper to come after you.

[Wombat_70]

I wish had a camera
http://i42.tinypic.com/2lxt4pd.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/29xydy9.jpg

oops..damn I knew I shouldn't have searched that monolyth remains
FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : assertion failed
[error]Function : CUILine::GetLength_inclusiveWord_1
[error]File : E:\stalker\patch_1_0004\xr_3da\xrGame\ui\UILine.cpp
[error]Line : 410
[error]Description : pos.word_1.exist()


stack trace:

[audioave10]

This was a new one...
FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : fatal error
[error]Function : CScriptEngine::lua_error
[error]File : E:\stalker\patch_1_0004\xr_3da\xrGame\script_engine.cpp
[error]Line : 73
[error]Description : <no expression>
[error]Arguments : LUA error: ...shadow of chernobyl\gamedata\scripts\xr_logic.script:935: bad argument #1 to 'gfind' (string expected, got nil)


stack trace:

also got one from hitting "H" to check contacts...
also got one without log reason...
Great Mod...lots of wars going on everywhere...but it sure taxes
the x-ray engine alot. Made it to Bar...finally.

[Balious]

Thanks for the information Nightwatch. Well I went to Apro from Cordon and same way as I thought the Apro to Garbage section be a little dodgy full of Bandits and an APC or two.

Update on Bar issue. I reloaded my quicksave and instant crash with the same error so I thought my quicksave just saved before i crashed. So I reload to an earlier save next to the guards that stop the dogs and anything unfriendly entering from the south and before I could go back into the room with the get out of here stalker it crashed with the same error.

Perhaps theres too much going on in Bar for my computer to handle?

One reason why there are lots of wars in Bar I think is because its in the middle maybe? With Army Warehouses, Wild Territory and Garbage to go to that gives alot of factions to walk between them. How Monolith are getting here im not too sure though.

[Wombat_70]

Pripyat an other body search an other crash
FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : assertion failed
[error]Function : CUILine::GetLength_inclusiveWord_1
[error]File : E:\stalker\patch_1_0004\xr_3da\xrGame\ui\UILine.cpp
[error]Line : 410
[error]Description : pos.word_1.exist()


stack trace:

Family reunion, they must be all related
http://i42.tinypic.com/2e4cldi.jpg

[Kaidonni]

Oooh...I hope I didn't start an epidemic of dead body CTDs...

For the moment I have shelved NS 3.0, no hard feelings or anything. I think it's a great mod, just that, unfortunately, it hasn't worked out for me as far as the technical aspects are concerned. I'm probably going to try Clear Sky and, when SmP 2.4 is out, that also (plus some prohibitive economics ). That's one thing I feel NS has done very well - lots of money doesn't equal all that much, because you have to stock up on various supplies and that eats away at the wallet faster than a swarm of moths, regardless of how much you have to sell. I do feel I was getting far too many medkits, though, off of NPCs, especially on Extreme. My health also always regenerated too fast, and bleeding didn't cause all that much of a fuss for me.

I do have to ask, also, how do you make NPCs harder to kill, and the actor easier to kill? If I play SmP, I don't want one-shot kills against NPCs, and likewise, I would like even pistols to hurt me if they hit. I've noticed NPCs are all the more tougher in NS 3.0. I'm assuming it isn't a whole load of scripting and messing around, just a few basic values?

Like I said, NS 3.0 is a great mod, and I would like nothing more than to play it. I'm upset that my favourite game, Stalker, is messing up at the moment, especially on such a great mod, and that other mods require me to do some modding first to get them more in-line with my personal preferences.

[Nightwatch]

Audioave10 and Balious
Well, while I was trying to answer your question, funny though, my daughter's PC crashed while she was using MS Word. OK. You of course see the underlying trouble of running PC games/mods on hugely diverse platforms.
Well, coming to the specifics of the problems that you reported, "bad argument #1 to 'gfind' (string expected, got nil)" is on this matter, a vanilla engine problem, possibly due to a "bed reading" of a sector under stress situation. This could have started even before the fault occurred and carried through the game and when it was checked by the game, the initial faulty reading was accessed. Also it can be a thing that developed at that very time. In this case a reload a few moments back will cure the situation, but if it (mis-reading) is coming from an earlier load and that's been carried to that point, then of course a relevant previous save would be needed. However, in these situations, it'd also help to leave the level and came back, or, in fact, sleeping a for a few hours, as these measures can help resetting the things.

Continuing on technical matters, and replying to:
Wombat_70, on this pos.word_1.exist() error prompt: after some rare occurrences of this error, extensive checks have been carried on ui files and no errors have been fault, which was the first thing to do in order to eliminate a mod file fault. Therefore, this error points to items being misplaced (and chosen) by the game engine on dead bodies during a reload and/or re-entry a level. This is a rare occurrence that is so far seen in once about every several hundred hours (combined players time) gameplay.
Possible recovery option is to leave the level and reenter and force the engine re-assign items.
This version 3.0 is an improved version on this matter, too, as it carries an wrong/empty item creation fix from Natvac (thanks), too. So such troubles have been even further dealt with and significantly minimized.

We come to the same initial point of the post in which I was referring to a diverse PC systems against a single entity system of Console gaming, and I have say that, cannot blame game companies now seem to be going towards Console Gaming by the flock, as they have only one hardware to worry about on which they prepare they games. If fact, as head, even GSC may go (fully or in greater part) Console.


Kaidonni
This mod uses a more complex system to make the game harder than just "increasing the actor's damage while also increasing the opponent NPC's resistance", this mod uses very diverse factor which range "bullet in-flight dynamic" and "bullet in-flight gravity, air resistance, etc) values and a wide range of other bunch.
But, you are right, there is a simple approach to make the game more damaging for the actor. Resisting suit values (please do not apply any to this mod, some suits run by scripts, unlike vanilla) or increasing the power of guns.

Please check the "Modding Techniques" section, if you can't find any relevant info about what you're specific question, then please open a thread ask there so we all can give ideas on how such things can be achieved on vanilla based approach, then you can take things from there onwards on your own modding work.

[audioave10]

the following error occurs when firebytes are spawned in the Bar
itself near Barkeep...have tested alot and this crashes my game
when I'm in the bar or a long way from it.

! error in stalker with visual actors\barman\barman
stack trace:

001B:0288F20C xrGame.dll

you might want to stop these spawns near Barkeep
Leaving the area and coming back seems to have stopped it for now. It was bad for awhile...a bad place for spawns maybe?

[Balious]

Well I like to update I loaded up the autosave and exited bar and slept for a bit (after a little game called escape the chopter). Everything seems to stay the same apart from the error i had. But this time i get the corpse error:
FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : assertion failed
[error]Function : CUILine::GetLength_inclusiveWord_1
[error]File : E:\stalker\patch_1_0004\xr_3da\xrGame\ui\UILine.cpp
[error]Line : 410
[error]Description : pos.word_1.exist()


stack trace:

But on a more serious note with the helicopter. I am sure on my game it spawns after talking to Seriy. Was having a nice chat with Seriy and it was peace and quiet after the Bandits attacking died. Soon as I got my award the helicopter sound plays and next thing I see are rockets and bullets heading straight for me. Amazing I managed to avoid it and it couldn't even find me. Unless there are more then one helicopter in Garbage.

Also the zombiefied stalkers seem to of gone mad in Bar. Im sure a random number of Duty or Loner guys turned into them as I saw a few in position of what the others would be in (like the guard just before heading to bar and before the stalker thats trapped and can die easily). Well one of the zombies managed to get trapped inside the bar itself with a load of loners trying to take him on. After a lot of suicides he finally has gone down.

Edit:
I reloaded to my latest save which was a bit before the corpse bug and guess what happens. The problem I had before this one pops up:
FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : fatal error
[error]Function : CScriptEngine::lua_error
[error]File : E:\stalker\patch_1_0004\xr_3da\xrGame\script_engine.cpp
[error]Line : 73
[error]Description : <no expression>
[error]Arguments : LUA error: ...shadow of chernobyl\gamedata\scripts\xr_logic.script:935: bad argument #1 to 'gfind' (string expected, got nil)


stack trace:

I think I should get an award for having the most crashes and quickiest time to have a crash as this happened 1 mini second after the loading screen. Why am I hated

[Nightwatch]

Balious
Please read previous posts in which I have answered the same crash report that you've repeating now. I have just above your post answered the same question. Please. I am also a human being and I should not be expected the answer the same report twice on the SAME page.
My answer is very clear over there. If it is not helping with your game, then your machine plays only that much. But whatever the reason is, please read before posting.

[Balious]

Ah sorry Nightwatch I didn't make my post clear enough my mistake and I am sorry yet again.
I meant to say is thats all that happened didn't mean to ask on how to fix etc. I will try again after this post to see if that crash still happens otherwise I try a more different route to this. Hopefully I will learn to make my posts more clear.

Now to see if I can solve this issue for the second time (the gfind error one that is)

[audioave10]

I think when you get too many crashes of ANY kind, its best to
leave that area for awhile (not very long). Bar is the worst so far
but it could be any area. Newsa gives you LOTS of action but the
xray engine is working very hard. As I've left Bar and then returned things have smoothed out and Cordon was busy but no
crashes. Save often and go through a level-change every so
often as it helps the engine reload an area clean.

Nightwatch...this is the BEST Mod!

[Grump642]

This was a strange crash:


FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : false
[error]Function : CGameGraph::distance
[error]File : e:\stalker\sources\trunk\xr_3da\xrgame\game_graph_inline.h
[error]Line : 96
[error]Description : There is no proper graph point neighbour!

At least it was friendly! Even called me neighbor!!

[fiznerpin1962]

Ah sorry Nightwatch I didn't make my post clear enough my mistake and I am sorry yet again.
I meant to say is thats all that happened didn't mean to ask on how to fix etc. I will try again after this post to see if that crash still happens otherwise I try a more different route to this. Hopefully I will learn to make my posts more clear.

Now to see if I can solve this issue for the second time (the gfind error one that is)

Yeah, Nightwatch - lighten up...

[fiznerpin1962]

I have CTDs as well ( or a couple times in the past, anyway). To post them is quite natural - it gets you help to resolve them, it also gives the author of the mod info. to resolve the problem... also, when a workaround is found by a player - it helps the whole community. On the other side of the coin: using the search bar helps to avoid unwanted redundancy (not referring to you, Balious ) in posts, also keeps the "man with the plan" from overheating.
The key here, is to recognize things for what they are - and everybody have a good time.

There. I have spoken. Go back to your homes.

[NatVac]

Guys, remember to note the log file info when you have a crash. "Empty log", or "just a stack trace line" is okay. Using the Contacts list can have a CTheoraSurface error if an NPC switches offline while you are viewing the list.

the following error occurs when firebytes are spawned in the Bar
itself near Barkeep...have tested alot and this crashes my game
when I'm in the bar or a long way from it.

! error in stalker with visual actors\barman\barman
stack trace:

001B:0288F20C xrGame.dll

Weird. I've seen this problem a few times in Priboi Story, although usually with a Duty exosuit reference. I was usually able to reload the last save, though.

This was a strange crash:

FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : false
[error]Function : CGameGraph::distance
[error]File : e:\stalker\sources\trunk\xr_3da\xrgame\game_graph_inline.h
[error]Line : 96
[error]Description : There is no proper graph point neighbour!

At least it was friendly! Even called me neighbor!!

Thanks for the laugh! That is usually a one-off or relatively-rare "bad spawn" error that I saw even in vanilla. It's on my list of Crashes Still In The Game. (Input welcome.)

FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : assertion failed
[error]Function : CUILine::GetLength_inclusiveWord_1
[error]File : E:\stalker\patch_1_0004\xr_3da\xrGame\ui\UILine.cpp
[error]Line : 410
[error]Description : pos.word_1.exist()

stack trace:

The "pos.word_1.exist()" could result from dynamically-created UI content. Or there could be other reasons.

I have had problems running any mod with graphics enhancements, but if I get some time I'll supply another set of eyes to these problems. There are a lot of vanilla and engine issues and quirks, but it may be possible to work around or address a few of these.

__________
P.S. Hey, yourself, fiznerpin1962. I hope your wife is doing okay.

[Balious]

Okay I seemed to of fixed the error I kept having in Bar. The error seems to happen for me between after the guards in the south and to the building with the get out of here stalker guy. IT sometimes gets delayed and happens after I walked passed it. I solved this by going through the other way. Where you climb the fence and then enter the hole that can only be seen from one way. After climbing the fence and doing everything I wanted in Bar which I spent hours doing I had not crashed once.

So with my new 'helicopter hunting' equipment I went for garbage and tried killing that damn annoying thing. Well after many attempts I am back to stage 1 with trying to survive its first firing rate. But after it killed me on attempt 7 maybe I got a crash:
FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : fatal error
[error]Function : CScriptEngine::lua_error
[error]File : E:\stalker\patch_1_0004\xr_3da\xrGame\script_engine.cpp
[error]Line : 73
[error]Description : <no expression>
[error]Arguments : LUA error: ...w of chernobyl\gamedata\scripts\amk_heli_func.script:861: attempt to index local 'tmp' (a nil value)

stack trace:

I looked a few pages back to see if anyone else had this crash but couldn't see it. I am guessing here but I seem to make out that something went wrong with the helicopter but no idea what the rest means.

[fiznerpin1962]

Hey, Natvac! Wife is doing fine, mostly. She has 4 more radiation treatments & then she can go off the steroids that keep her brain from swelling. I can't wait! She is hyper as hell, doesn't sleep (which means I don't), can't drive for shit, & she is re-arranging, re-organizing the whole house!! (which is OK - in moderation.) I am ready to put her in a headlock.....


Now I've gone & hijacked the thread again.

[fiznerpin1962]

Back on topic:

I have got to figure something out here! My last trip from Yantar got me maxed out before I even hit the RF/P level changer! (it's quite obvious that I am unable to leave the military & monolith alone on my way to Prypryat... )

-here is my knuckleheaded carpark trader, hiding out @ the level changer to P....
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr49 ... _pripy.jpg

Forcing me to drag all this crap back to Sakarov:
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr49 ... _yanta.jpg
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr49 ... _yanta.jpg
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr49 ... _yanta.jpg

-Now I am going to probably run all the way back to the room above Skinflint, grab my rucksack, and leave it at a halfway point in RF. I can't even make it to the controllers without having to turn around & go back!!
Oh well - like I always say... ( also, Busetibi is an overachiever.... )

* do all my sceenshots look as shitty as they look to me?? What gives?? *