NEWSA+SIMBION_tweaked Support and Gameplay

[Grump642]

Lua is the scripting language the game uses. It is funky. Unfortunatly, this mod overloads the game engine badly. Sometimes if you wait say 5 mins, just fart around some, it will go away. What hardware are you using?

[Nightwatch]

The mod does not crash when changing levels.
The Fatal CTD report points to the changes made in script files. This might have occurred by merging "any" part of other mods or changing/altering "even a single line of script (even those can be done in all other mods). This mod does not at all support any other (even ordinary) changes or mods.

Please fully delete your gamedata folder, and reinstall the mode choosing the mode you want to play. Saves possibly have been carrying this altered residue and corrupted, you should start a new game without any alterations. No helicopter, dialog, task, gulag files or any other files should be altered. Nothing in the mod is controlled from one single file only, although things may look like it.


EDIT/add: Also you said that on your 09 Sep 2009 post that your game was cracked . I'm not interested in gaming companies' money purses as I don't have any shares from any of them, but it is the undoubted fact that cracks do "crack" things, in effect changing/altering/(controlled) damaging of software. Even if you remove them, they may well leave their residue behind causing the problems to continue one extent or another, even though they were not prepared to deliver various types of malware ranging from trojans to (undetectable) rootkits in the first place as their main (ulterior) purpose -as, it's the fact, that very few people really provide such facilities just because they love the gamers.

[audioave10]

Hey, I remember the only thing that crashed my NEWSA was using "random" stashes - if you used "normal" or "custom" it changed levels fine. That's not
what your talking about but it is still worth noting if it crashes during level change. Just a reminder for everyone.
Now that I think about it, it may have only done that when looting. Anyway...Nightwatch's advice is always the way to go. (He sleeps with this mod...ha)

[DARK TEMPLAR]

Back in one of the earlier versions i got a ctd about 20% of the times when going through corrdon-carbage level changer but thats all. Can't really say about current version cause I've put gaming on a lower priority list, I don't get to the ZONE as often as I would like

[Balious]

Only crashes I got was that Bar situation thing of crossing that line, searching bodies (I think it was this mod but not sure) and my graphics card going crazy.

Now that I look back at the Bar part. I find it strange that there was a shortcut in there to bypass the line. Its like the devs knew people would encounter this problem on a mod someone created and just made it

[frekerellik]

I've reinstalled the mod multiple times, same thing happens.

And do you know what a crack actually does? The only thing that is tampered when installing a crack is the program that checks for the users CD in the tray, that's it. It should have nothing to do with the gamedata folder. Especially since I've been playing vanilla and many other mods with far less CTD's. Now unless your mod tampers with the executable, there should be no conflicting problems. A crack does not alter any other game files but the executable itself. And it only changes the "check cd" to false. It's more of a patch then a "crack".


I don't normally support cracking and illegal downloading of games, and I fully intend to purchase the game, I just need a job first.

I'll try the different stashes, but I think I was using the Unique option. I'll check again.

And again, I have not altered the game files in any way shape or form. I can even take a video of me installing the gamedata, running the game, and crashing if you'd like. I have NOT messed with anything.

Computer hardware I'm using:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 FX-57 Processor, ~2.8GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Hard Drive: 495 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Monitor: 24" LCD Acer
Sound Card: Logitech G35 Headset
Speakers/Headphones: Logitech G35 Headset
Keyboard: G15 Keyboard
Mouse: G5 Gaming Mouse
Operating System: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (5.2, Build 3790) Service Pack 2

EDIT: I'll do a new game with a fresh install and see if that works. I've got my fingers crossed.

[MeanderingBeing]

Indeed, cracks only alter the "cd check" portion of coding, but most of the time (and is the case for stalker) that code is in the .exe and a major .dll file... so changing it WOULD require modification of the executable. Most people don't realize the level of modification required when cracking a program... First you have to unpack some files, sort through endless pages of crap, modify a few things, change a couple of memory access steps, deactivate a wonderful little worm that I find in a surprising number of microsoft products, repack, and overwrite... It is nowhere near as simple changing "check cd" to false... trust me on this.

Now, as for getting a job... make sure you buy a legal copy of stalker afterwards!

[audioave10]

Wow...you have a single-core CPU and that might be a problem with this mod or even Stalker by itself. Even though the game is single cored, having another core allows background processes to run without screwing up the game as much. You should visit BlackViper.com and look under services for XP. You can disable many
unused services. How many processes does your task manager show running in the background? I only run about 20. I never let Messenger, IM's, Windows Update,
AntiVirus programs or anything else be on auto (those things call home way too much). I have found Service Pack 3 to be most stable. I have found this game with
a major mod (like NEWSA) to be the greatest challenge on a good PC...and the most rewarding.
I assume you defrag your hard drive & run disk cleanup after installation? Just some things to think about.
Good Luck and Welcome!

[Grump642]

Dealing with "cracks and hacks" is like dealing with a whore. You might get what you paid for, but you might get a little "extra" too.

[ket]

Phew.. ok few technical points that may help out here.

1. Data processing to the 2nd stream (core #2) only happened in patch 1.0004 onwards, and for the most part was completely useless and did nothing to help speed the game up, so a single core CPU will be fine, but who has one of those old dinosaur single core chips these days anyway?.

2. I cracked SoC with the intention of buying it _when_ the devs made it stable.. never really happened but hey. My point is for SoC the CD check is in the .exe, and .exe only. Note to all: Don't buy CS its crap, buy CoP though, its not terrible.

3. Paging file, make sure its set to at least 4GB for SoC.

4. Your problem might be XP 64 itself, its not a very well supported OS in any shape or form. Install a 32bit OS on a different partition or something and try the mod again.

[MeanderingBeing]

Yeah, I've seen a couple crackers who write alot of viruses and worms into them. BUT, if you know where to look, there are certain names that you can always trust. And those folks actually take pride in their work.

But, more to the point, Even with a Dual Core CPU running at 3ghz, I have problems with stalker at times. I'm actually thinking of OCing the beast now. My current cooling rig is running at 60% of its capacity and keeps the thing below 30 degrees centigrade at all times, so I figure I should get more out of thing. But you should really look into upgrading your PC, and listen to Ket and Audioave, they know what they are talking about.

[frekerellik]

I trust Razor above anyone else.

I didn't even know this game existed until I found the installers on my PC from when my dad installed this machine.

I'm updating from a single core to a dual core when I can get a new motherboard to support single core. Regardless, I've never encountered problems with a single core in vanilla or anything else really. Just fps lag. And even in stalker I don't even run into that. My CPU only maxes out in load times, and when I'm actually playing the game it doesn't get too extremely high.

Having xp64 probably is my problem, at least with the mod. I've never really had any in-game issues with the OS. Only real problems I've had with it is the lack of supported features on 64 bit.

Haven't bought CS or SoC yet. Planning on buying SoC and once I get the installers from a buddy for CoP, I'll deem if it's a worthy buy or not. I should have a job before the end of the school year, but I'm not crossin' my fingers.

And I never said it was that simple in cracking a game, just that if I'm having absolutely zero problems with any other mod and/or vanilla, why should it be any different for this mod?

[ket]

Yeah, I've seen a couple crackers who write alot of viruses and worms into them. BUT, if you know where to look, there are certain names that you can always trust. And those folks actually take pride in their work.

But, more to the point, Even with a Dual Core CPU running at 3ghz, I have problems with stalker at times. I'm actually thinking of OCing the beast now. My current cooling rig is running at 60% of its capacity and keeps the thing below 30 degrees centigrade at all times, so I figure I should get more out of thing. But you should really look into upgrading your PC, and listen to Ket and Audioave, they know what they are talking about.

Really? Something is wrong there. I ran SoC on a single core A64 and a C2D E4400 for a long time absolutely fine. Going to a quad made no difference of course, but the Quad is for the future

[audioave10]

A single core is fine but I found that reducing background processes and having a clean PC was most important then.
Especially when Far Cry, FEAR and Stalker came along. Add a big mod to Stalker and its even more important. (I think)

[MeanderingBeing]

Really? Something is wrong there. I ran SoC on a single core A64 and a C2D E4400 for a long time absolutely fine. Going to a quad made no difference of course, but the Quad is for the future

Hrm, maybe I can send you some current specs and you can tell me whats up? You need stuff like GPU, CPU, RAM, Mobo, hardrives, pagefile, and average services, right?

[Balious]

Alright im going to reinstall Shadow of Chernobyl and with that this mod. Before I do that now one last check on my specs to what is needed for Newsa.

Processor: Intel Core Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Memory: 2GB Ram
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5750
OS: Windows XP SP3

My mind has gone blank on certain things such as what specs did cause the bar crash and hoping now I know no longer need to take that shortcut.

[Nightwatch]

Your system looks quite powerful Balious , though there's no refernce to the PSU which is very important as well. I wouldn't recommend a PSU below 500Watt at this day of age, and one with 30+ W on its 12V rail.
That crash that was seen towards the entrance of the Bar area from the south had been seen on systems with ATI X1950 card, and it was discovered by Wombat_70. He removed the card , changing to a different one and the crashes had stopped. Put the card and crashes had started. He again refers to this event 2 pages pages back on page 103. You are using a much better card now, I haven't heard of any problems arising from that card.
I hope your new system continues to make you enjoy the game and the mod (and other mods as well.)

[Balious]

Ah yes I forgot to mention the Power supply. Its a 700W.

The crash I also like to help bring up happened on my old card which was a Geforce 8400 GS.

So far my new system is great. But I sometimes get the freezing issue I had before maybe from either too much memory usage or overheat not sure which one or both yet. Tested it on Dragon age and I can run it near full with having a few things turned off before I get the freeze bug but only once every hour or so. I believe it is overheat which is a complete strange thing to have right now with the snow we have in Britain.

Going to download the mod now and teach all those helicopters a lesson

[Balious]

Okay played the game for quite a while now and still in Cordon. Right now everything is stable. It just pauses for a second or two to spawn things but it doesn't bother me (I believe you guys had been talking about this a few pages back and found the fix).

Only had one crash so far and I believe it was the contacts one where theres too many people around. Nothing in log so I just assume its this.

I will be trying to make a video of my playthrough but lately my recorder doesnt record unless I have my mic in. When I do have my mic in it just lags/slows down my game (Left 4 Dead 2 does anyway when I tried it) and the ingame sounds themselves are really quiet while my voice is about above average.

I do have lots of screenshots for you guys though which I try and get on here soon.

P.S: I love playing the game on full settings