New Win10 System Disk, HUCE Patched, Can't Choose Battleset

[Jcrow9]

Hi, all.

Longtime Harpoon player (last receipt I have is '06).

Fresh install yesterday (2/20/24) from Matrix Games after installing a new system disk Win 10. Manually patched to v2022027 when 'check for updates' completed without actually doing anything after downloading the patch.

Scenario Editor opens but crashes.

After clicking 'Play Harpoon Ultimate Commander's Edition' banner, I choose a side and it spits me into a randomly-selected scenario--no chance to select battleset or scenario.

It did this the last time I went 'round with a fresh install about 4 years ago (last time I set up a new sys disk, you'd think I'd learn), but durned if I can recall how it got fixed...

The new install doesn't see or recognize saved games or user-created battlesets from the previous install (same versions of everything). With the previous install, I found that I had to open a new scenario or saved game in the battleset I wanted before I could run a user scenario in that battleset, i.e. the previous install also never offered me the chance to choose a battleset).


Any suggestions?

TIA,

Jeff

[TonyE]

The first piece is letting the game go into that random scenario. Once in there, go to File\New, answer Yes to quit the current game. The Select Battleset dialog should come up next, there uncheck the "Enable Instant Action" checkbox then proceed to start any scenario. Once the scenario loads, exit the game. Then fire up the game again and you should be prompted to select the BattleSet and tell us what version shows up in the title bar of your game (ex. 2022.027)

[Jcrow9]

The first piece is letting the game go into that random scenario. Once in there, go to File\New, answer Yes to quit the current game. The Select Battleset dialog should come up next, there uncheck the "Enable Instant Action" checkbox then proceed to start any scenario. Once the scenario loads, exit the game. Then fire up the game again and you should be prompted to select the BattleSet and tell us what version shows up in the title bar of your game (ex. 2022.027)

That worked, thanks! Version shown is 2022.027

However...
If I do the above, then try to open either a saved game or load a user scenario (whether from the "choose battleset" dialog, or after I let a new canned scenario open up), the app crashes, back to the "Play HUCE" splash page. And Scenario Editor works, and opens a correct instance of the chosen battleset, but crashes if I try to edit a previous users scenario.


Thanks,

Jeff

[TonyE]

Hmm, very strange. After a crash, please zip and post the ge.log file, se.log file, and the scenario in question and I'll take a look. The .log files will indicate the database in play, the scenario file will indicate file format version (in case there is some issue in the conversion process) and desired database.

Thank you

[Jcrow9]

I should'a warned you, I'm a (retired) engineer! That means I overthink things as a hobby...

Scenario.zip

(8.9 KiB) Downloaded 33 times

Crash open saved.zip

crash open from new game.zip

Crash on select.zip

'crash on select is' when I hit "load user scenario" from 'select scenario' page.
'crash open saved' is when I hit "load saved game" from 'select scenario' page.
'crash open from new game' is when I loaded a new canned scenario (successfully), then tried to load my user scenario.

Note that two of these crashed without ever getting to the next page from "select scenario".

The user scenario was created using the scenario editor from the previous instance I had of the game. Which, as best I can tell, I installed exactly the same way.

There's a weird drift in the formation manager, ships drop way aft, change sectors, etc. I've run out of OODs to fire when the ships go hell west and sideways.


Thanks,
Jeff

[Jcrow9]

Scenario didn't attach last time...

Scenario.zip

(8.9 KiB) Downloaded 38 times

JC

[TonyE]

Jeff, thank you for posting and I'm really glad you are engaging in this process. Troubleshooting and then debugging is hard. I've only taken the quickest run through so far, looked at the logs and opened the provided scenario on a computer here (successfully fortunately/unfortunately). I should be able to follow your steps more closely tonight and probably ask more questions as a result. Do you happen to use Discord if we get serious and you are up for some screen sharing?

[Jcrow9]

Hey, I'm super grateful that you are so engaged here. My younger son is a bit biter for a major electronics firm, as they say, and a lot of his job is debugging, so I have an idea what you're up against.

I discovered today that I can double-click a saved game and it'll launch to "select battleset". Once I choose that, it moves to 'select scenario'; from there, "load user scenario" works (but still does not if I start up the program in the conventional way). So, I have a workaround, at least.

I don't use Discord at the moment, but could if it helped figure this out. Since my user scenario works for your installed version, it must be some quirk of my setup here. Since I have a workaround now, there's less urgency.

Doesn't help with the scenario editor, though... that still biffs every time I try to edit an existing user scenario. It lets me start a new scenario, but hangs up after the first time I add a unit to a new base (it adds the first aircraft type, but then goes stupid and won't close that window or let me add further units).

Jeff

[TonyE]

More to come another day but in traditional fashion I'm not able to replicate your crashes yet. Here is your provided scenario with a new submarine group added (the active one, French SSBN) and scenario saved as v6. I did get the GE to crash once when I saved the game and then tried to load the save without first closing out of the game. It hung for over a minute trying to load the scenario then closed without any message at all.

HCSE2022.027Bungle.png (41.4 KiB) Viewed 840 times

[TonyE]

Sorry for the delay, still youth hockey season here!

There is nothing in particular since 2022.027 that I would point a finger at and say it will remedy your crashes but it will bring you up to current which will make further debugging easier.

https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/topic/2 ... ent-files/

If that doesn't magically fix the crashes, look into Discord ('free' chat/social media platform that allows screen sharing).
The link to our server there is https://discord.gg/ZmrFAZXbyw If you get into the paper Harpoon rules there is an active Discord server for them, https://discord.gg/uGwxVv7W (same install, just a different link to get to their area of the virtual world).

[Jcrow9]

Installed the 2023 patch, and first time out of the chute, everything worked. Was able to select battleset, 'load user scenario' worked as advertised.

However, next time I started the game from the desktop icon, same crash behavior as before. Workaround still works (double-click on a saved game, which still loads to 'select battleset, then select either 'load user battleset' or 'load saved game', they both work).

Tried re-patching today, still crashes if approached through the desktop icon. Tried rebooting computer between tries, no difference.

Jeff

[TonyE]

Jeff, sorry for dropping off the radar there. Are you still around? Any progress? Someone joined us on Discord last week and this week who may have a similar issue and was wondering if it is you, and if not, please come join us.

[Jcrow9]

Still here, still running the "debug build" version you sent. Still getting weird behavior, but there seem to be workarounds for what I want to do.

If I launch the game from the desktop icon and select battleset, then choose either "user scenario" or "saved game", it immediately bombs back to the splash page without warning. If, in a Windows Explorer window, I click on one of my saved games, the game boots up to the "select battleset" page. Click that, and, from the 'select scenario' page, I can choose either a saved game or a user scenario, which work and are playable. I can then either continue the saved game, or select "load user scenario" from the File menu, from inside the saved game, and that works, too. That seems to be the only way I can run a user scenario. I get the same "debug version" banner whether starting from the desktop or by double-clicking the saved game, which is a puzzler. What's different?

The last 4 times I have played a user scenario, all my air patrols from the CVBG (generated from the Formation menu, then Set Air Patrol) work for a while, then 100% of the screen aircraft run out of fuel and crash without any alerts. That's new.


What's happening for the other guy?


Jeff

[TonyE]

Thank you for the extra detail, I never use the launcher Matrix distributes so I'll have to get that back in a test environment <g>.

1. Is your user an administrator or a regular user on the machine?

2. Can you zip up a ge.log file and a saved game file and attach it here? The saved game being one where the formation patrols are established but haven't fallen out of the sky yet.

3. I don't have much clarity on the other person who is having crashes, one may have been a GetAnnex error (generally scenario to database mismatch) but I suspect that was not representative of what is happening. That user has the ESET security software so I've put that on a test VM and so far am not seeing any crashes after a few hours of the game running. The other though niggling at me is what if it is a newer hardware thing (thinking the combination of performance and efficiency cores) that those of us trying to troubleshoot don't have yet. In short, I don't have anything solid to work from yet but the specific steps you listed with the launcher give me a chance at narrowing yours down a little.

[Jcrow9]

Hi, Tony.
Here are the ge.log file and the saved game form that version of the ge.log. I looked in Formation Editor just before things went south and noted that the ASW patrols are all listed as "S-3 Viking" instead of "ASW Patrol". Never noticed that before. When I continue from this save point, first I lose an F-14 AAW patrol, then some time later, I progressively lose every S-3 ASW patrol.

This may simply be a saved game file that went sour, and I might have just loaded the (same) user scenario from the corrupted game file. After your last post, I fired up a fresh start (launch game after a reboot, choose new game) and it seemed to run fine.

I am running this as administrator, but I have noticed that some older games don't necessarily recognize my administrator privileges.

This debug game version has fixed a number of longtime oddball behaviors, e.g. when running a large user scenario (this same one as attached) I would cue up a bunch of aircraft loadout changes in a single "ready air" instance, I would usually have to go back in right away and review if the ordered config changes had stuck--generally, two or three of the available aircraft would still show their previous configuration (i.e. the ordered loadout change had not begun). Also, the dreaded "course change delay", when an aircraft would continue on its previous heading for a few ticks, often long enough to not dodge incoming missiles--so, a welcome fix!

The "incompetent OOD bug" is still present--over time, the ships drop back out of their assigned sectors. It can be any ship in any sector of the formation, and eventually they are all 'way out of position. That didn't used to happen "back in the day" (2006, e.g.), I first noticed it with this most recent purchase of the game. It's mainly an annoyance--I keep running out of OODs to fire!


Thanks again,
Jeff

Game Files.rar

(22.52 KiB) Downloaded 5 times

[TonyE]

Thank you Jeff, I'll have a look in the next 24 hours.

[TonyE]

With the formation air patrols falling out of the sky, perhaps you had started that game in 2022.027? If that is the case, later code changes could have fixed it for a new start of the scenario. I haven't taken a look at the ships failing to hold their formation sectors. I thought that was fixed as well but will have another look.

HCE - 2023.002 - 2023-04-03
===========================
- Chg:00000 GE HandleLanding wasn't assigning a uuid to HarpoonEvents
- Chg:00000 GE ProcessLaunchAirEvent wasn't assigning a uuid to HarpoonEvents
Remedied that both for the initial alt/speed and the
destination alt/spd for AEW and such patrols where there is
a second event.
- Chg:00000 GE For the above two items, saved game version incremented to
0x3480321B so that the user will be warned that they are
best banished.

[TonyE]

With the formation air patrols falling out of the sky, perhaps you had started that game in 2022.027?

btw, confirmed that the planes fall out of the sky with empty tanks in your save (starting with 6 x F-14 unit AA029

[TonyE]

Well, I must say I'm having fun playing "Bungle v5". I'm almost six game time hours into the scenario and despite taking a huge risk with group AAC that hasn't come back to bite me yet, it is great fun and I seem to have been gifted more than the average allotment of F-22s and B-2s.