Mission specific CTDing, SAVE based CTDing & Vista Issues

[giskarduk44 10]

Hello all.

Arma 2 Crashes, Saved game solutions and Vista issues and Solutions.

System

Vista 64, 4gig of ram, Nvidia 8600GS with 1 Gig of ram onboard, ARMA 2 : patch 1.04.59026. Arma 2 (Steam version)

Mission CTDing

This happens in the "Dogs of War" and "Mannhattan" missions plus a few other missions to a lesser degree.

In the above 2 named missions the game persistently crashes when approaching objectives, whilst the crashing is persistent, it is randomly persistent, meaning its not always in the same spot but it is always in the same area and its always a mission objective area.

Eg I can drive through the area after a mission is completed without issue.

I know the game spawns baddies as the player approaches an objective or if the player fails to take the HQ for that area and because I have seen it spawn all sorts of things right next to me.

Also the game appears to be mostly stable when not activily in a mission area.

So I came to the conclusion that what ever is being spawned is causing the crashes and since more spawning is going on in the large missions above, they are effected the most. It might even be the same problem effecting both missions, eg bad item is spawning randomly.

I am currently outside Chernogorsk with 2 tanks unable to enter that city because of this problem. I had a similar issue approaching Manhattan after it was attacked by baddies in the Manhattan mission.

Solution to save based CTDing.

This will not help with the auto save crashes which appears to happen randomly. But will help with the manual save game crashes.

When ever Arma 2 crashes on vista it locks all previously made saved games, preventing you from deleting them or overwriting them. Any attempt to do so results in a CTD when the save is attempted and usually there is no warning.

The solution is to unlock the saves before relaunching the game and to do that you must reboot your computer. This will allow you to continue saving the game until Arma 2 crashes again.

Deleting the saves in (not the auto saves which you need to load the game if you do this)

C:\Users\"your windows login name"\Documents\ArmA 2\Saved\ca\missions\campaign

Will allow you to save game until your save slots are full even if the game does crash and does lock the used saves. So you can buy your self some time to finish the mission this way.

Vistas Last (windows 7 release time) Auto update AND Arma 2

1 day before windows 7 was released Microsoft released an update for vista that made vista very unstable. When Arma 2 crashes, or when you close media player sometimes, it fails to stop the sound from playing but removes the program from the task bar.

If you suffer from this, press Alt control delete and find Arma 2 or any other program effected in the task list and "end task", this will stop the sound from playing because Vista would not have ended the program correctly.

This only happens if vista was updated around the day windows 7 was released.

Complaint.

I love the original flashpoint + expansions and arma 2 (was disappointed with Arma 1 and not Dragon rising(which is more of a ghost recon came than a flashpoint game)) but i find my self playing around bugs and developing strategies to beat the bugs rather than playing the game.

One reviewer said Arma 2 is great game but the bugs will get in the way of your enjoyment of it and he was right.

Its destroying the game for me.

Instead of sneaking towards an enemy camp as part of some grand strategy, I know the games going to crash so I am charging in using tanks hoping to get closer and save before it crashes again.

And when it does, I have to reboot if i wish to save without the game CTDing.

The bugged nature of the game means I can easily make a case to get my money back but I am secretly hoping Bohemia will fix these issues because I love these games and I want them to work properly.

PS I am very busy with other things but wanted to make this post in case anything in it helps find solutions. I have not read the entire forum nor do I wish to upload files and be available to test results, which is why this is not being sent to the tracker. Yes i read that far :)

Edited October 29, 2009 by giskarduk44

[Dwarden 1126]

please write CIT reports about these issues

read this http://dev-heaven.net/wiki/cis

especially the section what to do and what's needed for crash reports

[killakaze 10]

does the army get all these crashes happening during war excercises or just us mugs?

do they sign up to your forum to give you crash reports too lol?

[giskarduk44 10]

please write CIT reports about these issues

read this http://dev-heaven.net/wiki/cis

especially the section what to do and what's needed for crash reports

Thanks but I am currently following the advice given in point 4 of the tracker thread and not posting there because "I do not want the responsibility of follow up tests".

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=73478

4. You might be assigned a task to follow up with the issue you have reported. It doesn't mean that BIS will ship you C .Net source code to troubleshoot it but you may have to do some testing or provide more info/research. If you don't want this responsibility, then I advice not to post there.

I did actually say that in my post above, see this quote.

PS I am very busy with other things but wanted to make this post in case anything in it helps find solutions. I have not read the entire forum nor do I wish to upload files and be available to test results, which is why this is not being sent to the tracker. Yes i read that far

If Bohemia want those files mentioned in the tracker. I'll provide them happily but I am not able to run follow up tests because my busy time table means i have other things to deal with.

Should that change in the future, I will let you know.

For the record, I am an experienced beta tester and I know what I would be agreeing too, hense the reason I am not.

At this time I am simply a customer making a report, nothing more.

[Dwarden 1126]

you agreening to nothing

if you decide to spend some time to write description and attach the files someone may look at it

if not ... don't await much at all as w/o crash dumps nothing can be analyzed

[giskarduk44 10]

I think I'll just walk away and avoid Bohemias products in the future.

If Bohemia has a suggestion box, might I suggest they include the words "beta testing is required to play this product" on all future releases so CUSTOMERS like my self can avoid them.

Thanks for your support.