Problem with EA'42 Volcano Mod

[Radetzky]

gents

i just installed El Alamein 1.03 for the third time and the game
still keeps crashing to desktop after a few minutes of play.
to make things worse, this happens only after i added
Volcano's excellent art pack. it seems the .exe file causes
the game to crash but i can't imagine why that is - every
other HPS title i own runs fine with any mod i've installed.
i'll try to gather more information on this annoying bug but maybe
i'm not the only one having experienced this kind of trouble?

any help welcome,

good gaming
jan

[Volcano Man]

That is odd. You say you installed the E42 ALT art pack? What about my Compass '40 addon? Which scenario are you playing?

[Radetzky]

the game version 1.03 runs fine 'straight from the box',
i.e. without any mods or add-ons. but adding the
'unit portraits' or 'compass addon' from glenn's webside
leads to game crashes, regardless of scenario or settings.

i'm totally clueless and although i could play EA without
the new portraits and scenarios, i got used to the great
work of yours and want the game to run with them. i got
nine other HPS campaign games on my computer and all
of them run fine with any mods i added.

thanks for the quick reply!

[Volcano Man]

Hmm. It I can't think of what the problem could be, but I know it cannot be related to the art pack because it does nothing but replace images within the game. It in no way modifies scenarios or the .exe file.

Now, it is possible that Compass '40 addon could cause a crash if perhaps I updated the OOB with a newer version of the OOB editor that the .exe is not capable of running (perhaps because a patch is not out yet bringing it up to the same level). However, I don't think it could be that either because you say that it happens with any scenario and I haven't updated either pack in a long while and this is the first report I have heard of a problem.

What does the error report say? Also, how long do you have to play the scenario before it occurs? A certain number or turns, or seconds or minutes? Also, can you start a scenario and play up until about when it crashes and save it just before and email me the scenario so I can check it out?

[Volcano Man]

Sorry to bombard you with questions but the more info I have the better I can figure out what is causing it.

[RedMike]

I suggest you take a screen shot showing the error message box when the game crashes and post it here. Might offer a clue.

RedMike...out

[Radetzky]

after today's session, the problem still isn't clear
to me but nontheless solved -

the game crashes after two or three rounds of play
whenever i start a new game BUT after loading a
saved battle, it runs completely stable. so i have
to live with starting a battle twice but that's it.

i'd like to try a PBEM though and if any of you fancy
a small test game, that'd be great.

since my copy of windows xp is in german, so are the
error messages. the message which springs up is the
standard 'Alamein42.exe has encountered an error and
has to be shut down' type.

oh, wonderful world of bits and bytes

[Volcano Man]

Glad you have found a way around the problem. No idea what it could be as I have never heard of such a thing. Let me know if you find out anything new.

[Radetzky]

alright, i'll keep you informed - but since it seems
i'm the only one having this kind of trouble,
i'd say your files are most certainly not the cause.

something completely different: i noticed a few
misspellings regarding german terms, e.g. 'Deutches
Africakorps' instead of 'Deutsches Afrikakorps' and
although it doesn't make the game and your work
less enjoyable, i'd be happy to help you out on these
if there's a revised OOB coming out sometime. just
let me know.

best
jan

[Volcano Man]

Thanks, I will check it out. However, the typo sounds like an issue with the stock OOB. If I make an ALT version of E42 I will be sure to address that.