I broke my Windows copy of Oolite! Help!

NosmoKing · Post by **NosmoKing** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:24 pm

Don't know if this should be in Bugs or here, but I'll try here first.

First of all, thank you for such a wonderful trip down memory lane. I had Elite when it first came out in the 80's and played the heck out of it on my Apple IIE. This enhanced version will all the added features and updated graphics and gameplay is wonderful.

I played through the Constrictor mission and set out to blow up a few hundred more pirates and trading vessels so I could scoop up the sweet, sweet, spoils of war (and keep upgrading my ship or perhaps buy a Python). I was at a Dangerous rating with a fully decked out ship and about 70,000 credits in the bank. I'm not looking to start over from 100 credits at Lave if at all possible.

I looked at the different ships in the expansion packs, many of which are player usable and thought "I should install those packs and buy some of those new ships!".

So, I went to the site with the OXP zip files and downloaded them into "My Dowloaded Files" and unzipped them. I then opened Oolite and dragged the OXP files from the unzipped folders and dropped them in the "AddOns" folder. I fired up Oolite and nothing happened. The small black windowed startup screen that preceeds the Oolite startup screen flickered briefly on my desktop, then nothing. I waited. I restarted the PC. Same thing. I opened the AddOns folder and deleted all the files I had transferred in. Opened Oolite and it did the same thing. Same after a reboot again.

So, now I have removed the folders that had the OXP's from the addons folder and it still won't start.

Questions:

Can anyone identify where I screwed up?
Can I save my "saved games" folder somewhere and simply reinstall Oolite and start over with my old rating and $$?
How do I do the damn OXP files the RIGHT way?

Thanks for helping me out.

Flinx · Post by **Flinx** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:33 pm

I noticed the same problem, only the black window shows up. With Alt-Tab I could select SDL_app (oolite) and start playing.

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:47 pm

If you have a lot of OXPs in then Oolite will hang on the black screen for up to a minute (longer if you are running with low memory), but it should start up again after a while. I've got them all installed and not hit this problem (PC with Windows XP).

If you make a backup of your Save Files (there in the Oolite Saves folder in Oolite), you will be able to use them if you copy them back to the Saves folder once you've done a re-install.

Sounds like you are installing the OXPs OK. Put the whole folder that ends .oxp in AddOns. However, you should do it one OXP at a time. Install, fire up Oolite, check it works and then install another one.

As Oosat2 crashed and it being rebuild, some of the OXPs on Oosat1 are old versions, which might contain bugs.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:59 pm

Which version are you running, I had to install 1.65 twice on my new pc before it would work, similarly I would get a quick glimpse of the black DOS screen which would then also disappear, and that was without any OXP's installed.

As LB says some of the old versions of OXP's on the original Oosat could be a problem, so it would be best to add them in one at a time.

NosmoKing · Post by **NosmoKing** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 3:31 pm

TGHC wrote:
Which version are you running, I had to install 1.65 twice on my new pc before it would work, similarly I would get a quick glimpse of the black DOS screen which would then also disappear, and that was without any OXP's installed.

As LB says some of the old versions of OXP's on the original Oosat could be a problem, so it would be best to add them in one at a time.

Here's what I did. I uninstalled oolite, then I reinstalled the game. I popped the copied saved game file back into the saved game folder. I checked and my guy was still there. I then put the OXP's in the AddOn folder and this time they worked!

I'll chalk it up to "just one of those things" in the wonderful world of computers.

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 10:10 pm

Should really save as Jameson1, Jameson2 etc rather than overwriting the same commander. It is a rare Oolite bug, but it happens occasionally, where Oolite currupts your save file and whenever you try to save the game crashs to strick gameplay. If it happens to Jameson33, no biggy you can load up Jameson32. If you are overwriting then your Commander has had it!

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:48 am

So you must be at about Jameson7532 by now then, your hard drive needs to be bigger than your Oolite savefile