Access Violation Crash

[dichebach]

I'm up to about early March 1941 in a Japan Normal difficulty campaign play and I'm starting to see some of these now. This is with WWJD Community 1.8.4.

The crash generally seems to result from clicking an input related to either commanders or crew on a newly formed formation and I think these are all ship types that were added by the mod.

I had two last night at which point I shut down. I'll try to work around by just avoiding adding commanders, or doing so only very selectively, and hope that incidence drops. I don't think I've ever made it past spring 1942 in a campaign play line of the game, and I sure would like to finish the whole war at least once before giving up on the game for once and for all and mothballing it to the uninstalled archives.

[WWJD]

do you have a crash log you could post? I would be interested if it's a bug in the patch or not.

WWJD

[dichebach]

Sure, I'll see if I can find the directory. Or if you see this before I respond again post the address.

ADDIT: the save files are in a \save directory inside the game directory, but not seeing any log files nor an obvious location where they would live.

Happily, the glitch seems to be limited to some very specific inputs and the behavior doesn't seem to have changed over time. I've only had it happen about 4 times now and using copious save and reload it hasn't impacted my game play too much.

Last time it happened, I was setting up a Supply Div in Tokyo. Clicked on one of the transports (gotta look up the craft name, not Nagara Maru or Mamiya) to try to get it to generate a Supply Div with only two battalions of cargo ships in it. Either when I clicked the ship name row or when I clicked the "Form from Selected" it crashed.

ADDIT2: Okay the name of the ship is Transport Hokoku, however, caveat to my observations so far: I just now repeated a couple of UI sequences which (I think) are replications of what I did the last time it crashed:
1. Go to Tokyo, Formations tab, select Supply Div -> Create -> select Hokoku -> Create from Selected. No crash.
2. Select Transport battalion -> Create -> select Hokoku -> Create from Selected. No crash.

I cannot say for certain which one of those two sequences I did last time. My goal was to put together a single ship formation and send it to a peripheral base with an AA gun in cargo in order to fufill a govt order to build an Air Defense emplacement. Most likely I selected Transport Battalion now that I think about it, as I try to use Supply Divs only for multi battalion formations that live at resource production bases and have transport routes back to Tokyo.

The fact that, one of the two above UI sequences caused a crash (either at the point of select Hokoku or the point of Create from Selected) when the app had been running for a couple of hours (and perhaps 1.5 months game time had transpired, so probably 1000+ instances of formations changing configuration, arriving, departing, loading, unloading, etc.) but DID NOT cause the crash when the app was freshly booted suggests it has something to do with memory management, eh?

Let me know where those log files live and I'll be glad to put them on pastebin or something and post the link!

Oh, and WWJD: a couple of suggestions for you (while I got your attention in this thread, totally side issues relative to the topic of this thread).
1. I understand you are planning/endeavoring to build your own engine. No idea what your level of mastery in the source code language of choice for you is (I would assume C++?), but for me, at the level of "C++ Perennial Apprentice Never Quite making the Jump to Journeyman" the prospect of making my own engine sounds wretched. I mean, it ALSO sounds very exciting as you can build exactly what you want! Anyway . . . I personally have decided to work with Unreal Engine. Just a thought; it might be worth you checking out!

2. There is a game you may already know about, but if not, you should check it out: War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition. From a "gameplay" and "detailed strategic dynamics" standpoint, probably the best Pac War game ever made. The computer opponent algorithms are even half decent. However, the game has Hideous graphics, and horrendous user interface (well, a LOT better than its predecessor and a lot better than when the game first released, but still bad).

3. I suggest you pay EXTRAORDINARY attention to UI/UX in strategic mode. PSA isn't too bad, but there are a lot of subtle (and I think "cheap" from a source code and art assets standpoint) ways the UI could be adjusted to be far more user friendly and produce a much less tedious user experience. It is a shortcoming of many such grand or strategic scale war games, and having a UI/UX that is better than the average would be a distinguishing feature for your game!

Godspeed bro!

[Moyao]

Hi dichebach!
I'm dodonpa, nice to meet you!

I think that you know, he is promoting a project to evolve this game and make a great game.
I have a small amount of support for his wonderful challenge.
If you can afford some, will you not support him with us?
Support is possible from 1 dollar.
I hope that you will be interested in this project.

v/r

[WWJD]

Sorry for the lack of response the last few days guys, I got distracted with a few things. The directory for the crash log is in the game files/bin folder. Depending on where you have the game installed you might find the game files in the C:/Program Files(x86)/steam/steam apps/common.

thanks for your suggestions with Pacific Fury! I wanted people to know it is being worked on early so they can leave their feedback and I can base my actions accordingly!

I've already created a decent base for the engine, and before I started it I did think of using unreal or unity, however I didn't feel like with those engines I would have the same kind of control I wanted/needed for this project. UI is one of my main concerns. I plan to go towards a minimilist graphic style, but making sure to include all the functionality required. Right now of course the UI is very basic texture wise, but the layout is shaping up! If you haven't seen yet you can check some of the latest screenshots here:

https://imgur.com/a/RGws9hc

It's certainly a project that will take some time to complete, but I am hopeful about it :D.

@dodonpa255 thanks for your support man, it always means alot that people are simply that excited about something I'm making, and though donations are never required it certainly helps me out! So thank you!

WWJD

[dichebach]

That is great to hear man. I look forward to checking it out and I am confident that you will make it happen. I always think of that famous Miyamoto quote, "A delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is forever bad." Your young! Take your time! Make it REALLY exceptional.

That is my philosophy, and as long as I don't die of old age before I bring it to fruition its good . . . Oh and BTW, I'm not "the competition." Squad level turn-based isometric is where I'm going . . .

If funding is in fact a bottleneck for you, my suggestion is: focus your development scheme so that your first objective is to create a free demo that showcases some of the content, but in particular the game mechanics and dynamics of game play. Use that and a home-grown Youtube (or other social media too ) campaign to drum up hype for a crowd funding drive. Include lots of screen shots, or quotes, details that show how the game is "inevitable" and how you are presenting it is "already in the bag" but what more you can do with the funding (better sounds, better art, more content, more Q&A, or whatever). Seems like well-done crowd-funding drives for "unusual" games generally do quite well. Its the "one more half-baked, asset-flip, Zombie-shooter" type which don't.

[WWJD]

Thank you for your post. It's funny, basically everything you've said is the process I'm taking! We are in the very early stages, which is why videos and screens aren't coming as rapidly as some might expect, but every point you've made is on point with what we are thinking! especially that a game done well, no matter how long it took to make, is still a good game. Funding actually isn't the bottleneck, time is, and the funding allows me to not be working as many hours at another job, so I'll ultimately have more time to dedicate to this, at least that's the idea I'm going for.

BTW - even if you were the competition I would still take all of your statements as good criticisim/confirmation as to what to do LOL.

WWJD

[gamer92923]

@WWJD man this game crash even with 1.8.5 version , why man? i bought this game and im getting just crashes... you should take unity or unreal choice before made your own engine that just crash and give alot of bugs now im very dissapointed with your game coz i cant enjoy it since it crash often and that sucks man ...

[WWJD]

I'm sorry? I don't think I understand. Pacific Storm isn't my game. It's a game I used to mod before I stared building my own game. 1.8 never had any core engine changes as the old game never had it's source code released. I do understand the frustrations with PS, but again, I never had access to the engine to begin with to be able to fix it.

WWJD