Help! Commander won't load.

[Smivs]

I need some help guys!



My Commander won't load When I start the game and 'Select Previous Commander', and hit 'yes', I'm getting a message that the OXP (Boa Clipper) is not installed. It is, and I also tried un-installing and re-installing it to no avail.
A look at the log shows this:-

Code: Select all

[loading.complete]: ========== Loading complete. ==========
[load.failed]: ***** Failed to load saved game "Smivs.oolite-save": Could not find ship type “boaclipper-player” - please reinstall the appropriate OXP.

I'm at a loss as to what to do.

Edit:- I don't know if this is relevant, but I completed the Galactic Navy special ops mission recently. This was successfully concluded, but the Mission Screen continued to show the final instruction. I don't think this will be a spoiler...here's the part of the save file:-

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<key>hofd</key>
	<string>Find Admiral Kurtz and return him to a SecCom Station</string>
	<key>mission_cloak</key>
	<string>COMPLETE</string>
	<key>mission_cloakcounter</key>
	<string>10</string>
	<key>mission_conhunt</key>
	<string>MISSION_COMPLETE</string>
	<key>mission_hofd</key>
	<string>HOFD_COMPLETE</string>

at the top is the mission screen text (the mission is called hofd - I have no idea why) and below is confirmation that the mission has been completed.
As I said I completed this some time ago, so I doubt it's connected, but worth a mention.

[CheeseRedux]

My immediate suspicion is that it's related to the release of a new OXP version on Sunday. Have you tried installing the previous version?

[Eric Walch]

A quick scan of the save file didn't show anything amiss. I'm at a loss as to what to do.

Its from an oxp you are working on when I am right. So it might be an syntax error in one of the plists, making that the plist is not correctly interpreted.

[Smivs]

Thanks for the quick response.
Yes this is one I modified slightly recently. I've been using it for many days now with no trouble.
I have got a copy of the previous version as well, but this does exactly the same thing when loaded.

[JazHaz]

Code: Select all

[load.failed]: ***** Failed to load saved game "Smivs.oolite-save": Could not find ship type “boaclipper-player” - please reinstall the appropriate OXP.

Did you not rename the ship, in the new version, from Boa II Clipper to Boa Clipper? Maybe you have also renamed the ship type as in the error above?

[CheeseRedux]

I've been using it for many days now with no trouble.

So much for the easy solution.

That puts the whole thing way beyond my virtually non-existent knowledge of the inner workings of things.

Though it doesn't address the problem itself, one possible workaround would be to edit (a copy of!) your save file to give you another ship. (Preferably an OXP ship, just to test if things have become so corrupted that it won't load any OXP ships.) A bit of a PITA, but at least it'd preserve your progress.

[maik]

Just guessing here: Maybe you didn't hold shift down after you made one of those changes, so Oolite didn't pick up that change earlier but picked it up now, giving you the impression that suddenly something stops working without good reason?

[Smivs]

Thanks, but I don't think it's any of those things.
I've been playing on and off all afternoon and evening, doing numerous quick-saves and even closing Oolite and re-starting it at least three times.
Out of the blue, it does this to me.
As I said earlier the OXP hasn't been touched for many days and has been fine.
re JazHaz, I have renamed the ship, but the 'boacliper-player' has not been touched, only the name displayed on the various screens and the target ID.
And of course the old OXP isn't working either.
I did have this problem once before, when I was developing Contractor. One of my test commanders refused to recognise the Contractor OXP as well, but another one did!
I think this may be a save-file glitch...I think I have got a few old 'Smivs' saves archived, so I'll try one of those and report back.

[Thargoid]

Just guessing here: Maybe you didn't hold shift down after you made one of those changes, so Oolite didn't pick up that change earlier but picked it up now, giving you the impression that suddenly something stops working without good reason?

Was just going to suggest the same.

As a check, look for the line <key>ship_desc</key> in the save game. The line below that is the shipdata entry of the ship the save game is flying (the unique one at the top of each entry in shipdata.plist, not the one inside the entry that says name = or <key>name</key>).

Next look in the shipdata.plist entry of the OXP and confirm what the OXP thinks that entry actually is. My guess would be that the two now no-longer match up. If you change the one in the save game to match the one in the OXP and then restart, all should be well.

Can you post the save game ship_desc lines and the shipdata.plist entry please?

[another_commander]

Smivs, you are on Linux, right? If yes, what distro and version? If it is Ubuntu 10.04, are you using Micha's patch for fixing the gnustep-base parsing bug?

[Smivs]

Hi Thargoid,
They are the same, I didn't change this.
From the save file:-

Code: Select all

  <key>ship_desc</key>
    <string>boaclipper-player</string>

and from the shipdata.plist:-

Code: Select all

		
	};
	"boaclipper-player" =
	{
		aft_eject_position = "0.0 -15.75 -50.75";
		energy_recharge_rate = 3.2;

I have just tries an archived save file from a week ago and that is OK. It's definitely a problem with this save file. Is it worth posting the whole thing?
I could go back a week but I'll lose a lot of kills and credits, and it would be nice to get to the bottom of this...I don't want it to happen again!

[Smivs]

Smivs, you are on Linux, right? If yes, what distro and version? If it is Ubuntu 10.04, are you using Micha's patch for fixing the gnustep-base parsing bug?

Hi, yes it is Ubuntu 10.04 and, er, what is Micha's patch?

[Thargoid]

Agreed.

The only other thought then (unless it's something underlying like A_C suggests) would be confirming that the OXP entry for the ship itself is still valid. That should be listed in the log if it weren't the case though. I presume there's no other errors listed in the log aside from the one posted above?

Can you spawn other ships from the same OXP? Also you could check it by changing the ship in the save file to another one (a cobbie3 or something) by editting the ship_desc entry and then see if the save works with the new ship or not. That'll say if the issue is the save game or the OXP.

[another_commander]

Smivs, you are on Linux, right? If yes, what distro and version? If it is Ubuntu 10.04, are you using Micha's patch for fixing the gnustep-base parsing bug?

Hi, yes it is Ubuntu 10.04 and, er, what is Micha's patch?

Ubuntu 10.04 comes packaged with the buggy gnustep 1.19.3 version. All the gory details - and a link to the patch that fixes the bug - can be found in the sticky thread here:
https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... a79ec7b131

Note that you are not supposed to be affected from this bug if you have installed Oolite from the autopackage installer.

[Smivs]

Also you could check it by changing the ship in the save file to another one (a cobbie3 or something) by editting the ship_desc entry and then see if the save works with the new ship or not. That'll say if the issue is the save game or the OXP.

OK, I've just tried that and it still thinks it's looking for a Boa Clipper! I'm sure it's the save, not the OXP causing the problem.

Note that you are not supposed to be affected from this bug if you have installed Oolite from the autopackage installer.

I installed v1.74.1 a long time ago (on release) via synaptic when I was still running Karmic...I just carried the installation over when I upgraded to Lucid.