I can't start new games

GeneralTacticus · April 9, 2002, 23:54

A while ago, when had been playing a very succesful game as the Spartans, I tried to start a new game but the game wouldn't let me. I went through all the world setup screens and then when the Faction Select screen should have come up I just got the Spartans faction quote without the ability to go back or forward. I had to Ctrl+Alt+Del to get rid of it. Does anyone know what's wrong? (I tried re-installing it but it didn't work).

Mongoose · April 10, 2002, 00:16

Which game are you trying to start and how are you trying to do it? Through axstart? My first thought is that you might have done something you shouldn't have done when you made the changes for AW.

GeneralTacticus · April 10, 2002, 00:38

Quote:

Which game are you trying to start and how are you trying to do it? Through axstart? My first thought is that you might have done something you shouldn't have done when you made the changes for AW.

I'm trying to start Alien Crossfire games, using the 'run Sid Meir's Alpha Centauri Planetary PAck' thing in the SMACX folder. I don't see what I might have done wrong with AW, since all I did was load all the custom factions and add them to the list.

Mongoose · April 10, 2002, 00:47

Can you successfullly start a game of SMAC Classic through the PP?

GeneralTacticus · April 10, 2002, 00:55

Yep, no problem there. So it's clearly a problem with Alien Crossfire. It doesn't affect loading games at all. The Wuick Start function also works, but I don't want to have to play every single game using the same settings.

Mongoose · April 10, 2002, 00:59

Sounds like a problem in AlphaCentauri.ini. What OS have you? Maybe mail me your .ini file? I'll compare it with mine.

GeneralTacticus · April 10, 2002, 01:04

Quote:

Sounds like a problem in AlphaCentauri.ini. What OS have you? Maybe mail me your .ini file? I'll compare it with mine.

Er what are OS and the .ini?

Mongoose · April 10, 2002, 01:09

OS = Operating System eg. Windows 98

AlphaCentauri.ini is a text file which contains configuration settings for the game. Under Win95, in Windows explorer, the .ini extension is plainly visible. Under Win Millenium, the extension is not visible, and it can be difficult to locate the file if you aren't used to using it.

GeneralTacticus · April 10, 2002, 01:43

Ah! My operating system is Windows 98. Here is the .ini file.

Mongoose · April 10, 2002, 02:11

Well, it's pretty much the same as mine, except for the sequence of the lines in the file. Don't think that should matter. Might be a difference in Version or OS. Yours has two lines that I lack:

Vehicle Groups=1527
Base Sort=0

No idea what these do.

I have an idea which ought to at least determine if the problem resides in this file or not. After saving as a backup somewhere other than in the main SMAC folder, delete the .ini file and see if you can start then. If you cannot, it is probably due to something in the factions part of alphax.txt.

Wonder if we can Googlie to give this some thought?

Archaic · April 10, 2002, 10:57

This sounds exactly like a problem I once had. How many Custom Factions do you have loaded in your alphax.txt? Over 7 and the program vomits. Reduce the total number back to 7 or less.

GeneralTacticus · April 11, 2002, 03:12

I tried reducing the number of custom factions to seven, but the only change was that it's now the Hive quote that pops up, not the Spartan one.

Archaic · April 11, 2002, 03:17

Hmmm...well, try removing all those custom factions. If it doesn't work then, it's something completly different.

Lefty Scaevola · April 11, 2002, 10:47

I had something like that happen once when I load the "Generic Faction" graphics for the Network Node. Have you done that?

RedFred · April 11, 2002, 17:04

If all else fails, unistall/reinstall.

GeneralTacticus · April 11, 2002, 22:11

Well, that seems to have been the problem. The real difficulty seems to be that I'm playing in the Alien Waterworld PBEM, which needs those custom factions. I guess I shall just have two versions of alphax.txt and switch between them.

Archaic · April 12, 2002, 00:14

*Digs out manuals*

Apparently you should be able to have up to 8 Custom Factions TOTAL. If you can't have that many for some reason, then I have absolutly no idea what's happened to cause that except perhaps a corrupted alphax.exe (An unforseen side effect of the No-CD crack perhaps?).

GeneralTacticus · April 12, 2002, 01:21

I don't have a no-CD crack, so it can't be anything to do with that.

Googlie · April 16, 2002, 22:52

GT:

I get it all the time when I'm experimenting with cloned and aquatic factions, and with custom units - they are all to do with irregularities in the alphax.txt file

It can happen for a number of reasons:

When your .ini file holds seven last-played factions but for whatever reason one of these factions is no longer part of the 7 original / 7 new / 8 custom factions that are in your alphax.txt file

When you have a misspelling of the factions you have added to the custom list in the alphax.txt file

When your #UNITS doesn't equal your actual # of units

when you have created a custom unit with false parameters (e.g. the trawler, which needs DocFlex and IndAuto - but you can have only one prereq for a custom unit)

If you have re-installed smac/x, then adding the waterworld faction clones shouldn't affect the ability to open a new game, but the infallible solution, if you have enough disk space, is to run two versions of smac/x side by side

G.