Need Help Build14 Tabs not working

[nich666]

What did he say?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I meant that I didn't remember if that was the fix for this problem or it was something else that was tickling me memory. I didn't know if it would work or not.

 

[nich666]

I am now in the realm of Hylie's surname.
Playing in the Free roaming game for quite a while working up to a Heavy Brig and several officers it has again frozen up on me.
Talking to any store owner and/or buying anything doesn't help either this time; the Tabs are frozen again.
I can open a dialog with a crew member (or open chest), but trying to give or take or swop items brings up a window describing the goods and that's it.
Looting a body shows what he has but there is no way to collect anything even though you can see it.
This stops game play as there is no point winning a battle without the means of ship repair or filling the hold.
The pic is what comes up.
Clicking on Hilma's items [Wilma's sister?], just brings up this window but although I can scroll along my items, (but not hers), and I can't exchange anything.
I'm beat.
I guess the answer is to put a seriously slow Processor and Graphic card in the PC and try that or buy a Windows 95 machine off eBay. Hee hee.

Other Pirate games don't cut it so I might have to go back to being a land lubber and fighting the WW11.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I wonder.... do you happen to have a LOT of items? I seem to remember @Grey Roger mentioning an "overflow" of sorts in the past.

 

[Grey Roger]

That doesn't cause stuck tabs. It just means you can't pick up anything else. You know when you've hit this limit because you can't take something from a chest or a corpse. The tabs are fine, but the arrow icons to pick up an item are greyed out. If you then move on to another item in the chest/corpse inventory which you already have, you can pick that up; you're not getting a new item, you're getting one more of an item you already have.

 

[nich666]

@Grey R. That's right. When it is stuck you can't get as far as choosing anything.
The pic shows the arrow lighting up, for example, the 'Passengers' tab or will go along to any of the others except when clicked, indents in, lights up but nothing happens.
None of the tabs along the top do anything, effectively stalling the game.
Is there nobody else apart from Mr. Pistof and I who have ever come across this problem?
I wonder if not, it may be that we have PC spec. in common it just doesn't like.
If it all loads I include the CPU-Z Specs. of my system which runs at a very mild push of 4.0MHz.

The Graphics card is the 'white Hall of Fame' NVidia breathed on version, while the GTX 970 isn't the cutting edge top end but still has quite high spec.
Maybe it's this but the rendering is fine in the game which runs smoothly up until something triggers this tabs thing off?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

It's not a hardware problem as I have VERY different hardware than you do as I have an all AMD system. Check out my puter specs in my signature.

Are you familiar with the Bioshock series? I have those 3 games installed using Steam. I ran into serious problems when attempting to play the earlier 2 games, as in they would not even load or would constantly crash. I eventually traced the problem to apps running in the background conflicting with each other and with Steam. They were MSI Afterburner and Fraps. After I resolved that issue they ran pretty well considering that they are not that stable to begin with.

Then those 2 older games were remastered and suddenly a lot of people were complaining about them crashing. Meanwhile they ran perfectly on my system that has already had background app conflicts resolved. Go figure.

Therefore my best guess is that you have some conflicts going on in the background that are not a problem with other more stable games, but do cause problems with less than perfectly stable POTC.

 

[nich666]

Good points Hylie. I see although our systems are about as far apart as they can be you are overclocking past 5 GHz whereas mine is running at just 4GHz so it can't be the overclock I have, given that I have

Interesting thoughts on Afterburner as I have an MSI Motherboard.
My Graphic card is doing what I want stock and was wondering whether to install Afterburner to push it, but your comment sealed it's fate.

I have played all Assassin's Creed games via Steam at full whack on this system (fantastic detail, I kept walking up to buildings to look at the planks and bricks).
I never had a glitch so maybe the POTC is a tad frail in that regard but why not straight away, it takes days and sometimes a lot longer to sneak up on me.
My PC runs cool. The CPU is 41C. right now, it doesn't soar through the roof even with intense gaming.
This far South we get warmer weather generally and it's not the heat of summer pushing the ambient temperature up,
it is 15.8* on my Patio in the shade at the moment so I think I can rule out overheating this time of year.

I probably do have conflicts (and on the PC), but as they only seem to affect POTC. I just have to stop moaning.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@nich666: Did we already suggest you remove the file named "options" from your main game folder?
I can't remember now...

 

[nich666]

Hi Pieter, Yes, I haven't tried that but to start over AGAIN only to be blocked out is galling. I am trying to find GoF Eras to try without that barmy MEGA interference cutting in.
Although it's likely on the same game engine it might not notice me...

 

[Grey Roger]

You don't need to start over. In the top level installation folder, just remove the file "options". When you start the game, you'll need to go into the "options" menu to set up anything you've customised there, e.g. controls and game preferences, but then you should be able to load your savegame.

If tabs are stuck in a late savegame and not stuck in an earlier savegame then there's a problem with the later savegame, and deleting "options" won't help.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If tabs are stuck in a late savegame and not stuck in an earlier savegame then there's a problem with the later savegame, and deleting "options" won't help.

Probably not; but it's worth a try if @nich666 hasn't done it yet. It's easy, after all.

 

[pedrwyth]

Perhaps @nich666 would care to zip up a savegame with stuck tabs and we could see if is freed up on a different setup or if stuck how to reset it.

 

[nich666]

If tabs are stuck in a late savegame and not stuck in an earlier savegame then there's a problem with the later savegame, and deleting "options" won't help

OK, I tried deleting Options. No change, tabs still stuck.

I tried going back just two saved games before; tabs opened and working.
It's not worth carrying on as they always block within a few saves effectively stopping the game.

I have just tried opening the working saved game two saved games before, no blockage.
Then directly opening the present saved game; tabs blocked.
This must rule out anything to do with the PC configuration or it would remain blocked whatever saved game I loaded wouldn't it?

I read you have issues with the modder of Gof Eras but it might be a playable game if I can find it. I don't have to argue with him.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It's not worth carrying on as they always block within a few saves effectively stopping the game.

Is there any specific action that triggers it, though?
Could you try one more time, checking if it still works after EVERY action you take?
Then when it breaks, hopefully you can say exactly what happened between it still working and it no longer working.

I read you have issues with the modder of Gof Eras but it might be a playable game if I can find it. I don't have to argue with him.

The game is easy to find: Sea Dogs: City of Abandoned Ships

Perhaps @nich666 would care to zip up a savegame with stuck tabs and we could see if is freed up on a different setup or if stuck how to reset it.

That would be good for sure. Ideally one save before and one after.
Maybe a DumpAttributes on the player might indicate something.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

You are in Toulouse? I would retire to that general area if I could. I live at about the same latitude as Lisbon. A big windy storm just passed through and there are 3-6 meter tree limbs in the yard now that I will have to cut up when it dries out a bit. I have a redwood tree that is 3 meters in diameter in the back yard. It is currently 12.7C outside and 22.2C inside.

This AMD FX 8370 starts at 4 ghz and I got it to 5 ghz with air cooling, but most users who go that high or higher use water cooling. It is currently idling in the 22-26C range. The main thing is stress testing to ensure that the overclock is stable and then constant maintenance. I do a complete scan and then a defrag every other day. It takes maybe 5 minutes. I hold my OCed system to a higher standard of stability than intel does for their stock cpu's.

That brings up something. The engine POTC uses was never stable. The modders have done terrific work getting it to run much better than it ever did with the stock POTC, but it will never be fully stable and in fact tends to trash any hard drive it is installed to. This brings up a possible reason for your troubles. If you do not defrag often enough POTC could frag the hard drive to the point that it will start causing errors and just stop running. POTC is actually the reason I started defragging as often as I do. I can tell the difference between when I do and do not run POTC. I even started a thread about it.

 

[nich666]

Perhaps @nich666 would care to zip up a savegame with stuck tabs and we could see if is freed up on a different setup or if stuck how to reset it.

Excellent idea Pedrwyth {crikey, that's a name}, I enclose a couple of zips if they load.

The GOOD is the arrival at Nevis.
The NBG latest save speaks for itself.
I think these are the saves required although it's a little tricky to get accurately.

That would be good for sure. Ideally one save before and one after.
Maybe a DumpAttributes on the player might indicate something

Pieter, You can dump any amount of attributes on me if you want; I can think of Great/Wonderful/Intelligent/2CV owner oh, and many others!
Can you tell me how to find and save them (when they arrive)?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Pieter, You can dump any amount of attributes on me if you want; I can think of Great/Wonderful/Intelligent/2CV owner oh, and many others!
Can you tell me how to find and save them (when they arrive)?

My thought was to use console to call DumpAttributes (pchar); as described here:
Tutorial - Modding Tips & Tricks | PiratesAhoy!

That logs all the player details to compile.log .
By doing that for both saves, you can generate two files with the same stats at different points.
Then perhaps using WinMerge on those two will indicate something being notably different that could be reset.
No guarantees, but might as well check.

In addition to removing the "options" file, you could also press F11 to reinitialize.
That resets some stuff too.

 

[nich666]

You are in Toulouse? I would retire to that general area if I could. I live at about the same latitude as Lisbon. A big windy storm just passed through and there are 3-6 meter tree limbs in the yard now that I will have to cut up when it dries out a bit.

Hi Hylie, When you mention big storms/wind I get nervous. My boat is moored on the Garonne which comes from up in the Pyrenees so when storms hit we sometimes get tree trunks, even whole trees coming down on the swollen river.
Mine was damaged three years ago. Same latitude as Lisbon? That is quite a bit south and you could even be in Tokyo or San Francisco...
Windy? I hope you live in Tokyo.

but most users who go that high or higher use water cooling

I have water cooling but only on the CPU. It pumps via the pump mounted on the rear case outlet fan, through the CPU then to a reservoir on the shelf behind via a radiator in the top of the case.
The radiator vents through the lid via exit vents that the cats sometimes close jumping up on to the bookshelf above the monitor. I have to keep checking.
They have even managed to tread on the power button on the way down shutting off the PC ..._ _ _... I need to be alert.
A pic might be clearer.
I also have three workers looking after things inside; although if this gets any worse I might have to have words with them.

POTC is actually the reason I started defragging as often as I do. I can tell the difference between when I do and do not run POTC. I even started a thread about it.

Fragmentation isn't an issue here as I run O&O software which fragmentises on the fly every day. See page 2 of this thread half way down. Phew it's getting longer.

That logs all the player details to compile.log .
By doing that for both saves, you can generate two files with the same stats at different points.
Then perhaps using WinMerge on those two will indicate something being notably different that could be reset.
No guarantees, but might as well check.

Hi Pieter, Phew, will digest that and have a shot sending the results but food calls as it's 8.00 here.

Thanks again for persevering folks, you never know, we might crack it. Sigh.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks again for persevering folks, you never know, we might crack it. Sigh.

I would very much hope so!

Hi Pieter, Phew, will digest that and have a shot sending the results but food calls as it's 8.00 her

It's not too difficult, but I can imagine it is a whole lot to grasp in one go.
Good knowledge to have got anyone who would ever consider modding himself though.