Known Game.dat errors

Tutorial for Battle for Middle-earth II BFME 2

Solinx

Category:	Other
Level:	Beginner
Created:	Sunday March 25, 2007 - 11:38
Updated:	Sunday November 7, 2010 - 9:40
Views:	8432
Summary:	A list of submitted causes for game.dat errors. The nasty ones that trigger in game.

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This list was started a long time ago at the forums. It is a compilation of the sort of game.dat errors that happen in game and won't bother to give you a debug report. The ones we all love :P

NOTE: This article is not here for you to ask how to fix a gamedat error: it's here so we can post solutions and discuss them.

Currently known causes for game.dat crashes:

- Using the same animation state twice in an object's code. Celeglin
- Referencing a specialpower template that doesn't exist Celeglin
- Giving a unit a non-existing armor (crash when your unit is being attacked). Morgoth946
- Missing asset.dat. Morgoth946
- Referring to inexisting weapons in any unit's weaponset ched
- Referring to inexisting locomotors in any unit's locomotorset ched
- Altered Skirmish profile (from playing a mod with new factions) (crash when opening the Skirmish menu) Solution: Simply delete it in the Application Data folder. ched
- Setting MaxLevelMP in playertemplate.ini to 0 (crash when you first get magic points). Lord of Gifts
- Using an inexisting AnimationState. Mullers_11
- Putting a non-existing object in the BannerCarrierPosition line of a horde module. Stealthsnake and zimoo
- Putting a SpellBook button in a SpellStoreCommandset (crash upon opening the Spellstore). Stealthsnake and Makaveli
- Missing shellmap (data\maps\shellmap1\shellmap1.map) (crash in the loading screen, at the moment the little spinning ring shows up). ched and 2playgames
- Missing a PhysicsBehavior in a unit. NebulousQ
- Referencing unknown particles in a FXList. Error occors on startup. Sulherokhh

Update Jan 2008:

- Setting GeometryMajorRadius = 0

Occurs with: All versions
Description:
The height and minor radius can be 0, just not that one, makes sense i guess, in a weird way...
Submitted by: Halbarad

- Conflicts with the HardCoded AI

Occurs with: BFME 2 (and RotWK)
Examples which cause this error:
1. Adding 'AIUpdateInterface' to an object with the new 'AIGateUpdate'
2. Adding 'AIUpdateInterface' to an object that is defined as a WallHubTemplate in 'skirmishAIdata.ini'.
Further information:
I introduced the behavior to have the object be able to both use lua functions and to be able to execute sequential scripts. But the game crashes when a script-function is being run on both kinds of objects (runtime crash).
Submitted by: Sulherokhh

Update November 2010:

- Missing Behavior in Object
Example:
"I misnamed the DualWeaponBehavior into WeaponBehavior in one of my units"
Occurrence of Error:
At game start
Submitted by:
Tir I Herkaluin
Note:
As can be seen above, there have been reports of issues with various types of missing behaviors.
I think it is reasonable to say that any type of behavior will result in a game.dat error when wrongly named

- Missing Attribute Modifier
Cause
Trying to reference an Attribute Modifier that does not exist.
Occurrence of error:
"The game will crash at 97% when loading the faction in skirmish.
A weird thing if the attribute is for a specific faction ie Rohan it will crash Good factions but Evil factions are ok."
Submitted by:
Radspakr

- System.ini
Cause
Typo's, reference errors, etc
Occurrence of error:
At the Shellmap
Submitted by:
Radspakr

- HordeContain module
Cause:
Horde without a HordeContain module
Occurs with:
BFME 1, but likely also BFME 2
Occurrence of error:
The error came up just before entering a skirmish. The loading bar went all the way up and then the display faded out as it does. It went to the red screen, but just before fading into the map it crashed
Submitted by:
Gfire

- Update limit
Cause:
The game can only manage a limited number of upgrades in ExperienceLevels.ini.
- According to GothmogTheOrc this limit is 190
- According to Lauri this limit is 205
Occurrence of error:
The game crashes when building the object that in the code lists an upgrade after the limit of ExperienceLevels.ini has been reached.

If you have one to add to the list, please place a comment below. Thank you :)

Comments

Display order: Newest first | Page: 1, 2

Bart (Administrator) - Sunday September 30, 2007 - 6:44

AFAIK game.dat crashes only occur when the INI checks are done and the game is already running (even if just for a second)

Sulherokhh (Team Chamber Member) - Saturday September 29, 2007 - 15:46

I would like to know if, on any and all of the occasions above, the game crashed when starting or in the middle of the game. Some are not really definite on that account. If the ones who found out about it could make that clear, i would really appreciate it! :)

Btw, the last one (non-existing FXParticles) makes the game crash at start-up, just so you know.

halbarad - Saturday August 11, 2007 - 8:37

ok heres a lovely one for you, setting GeometryMajorRadius = 0, took me about 2 hours to find that one

the height and minor radius can be 0, just not that one, makes sense i guess, in a weird way...

Bart (Administrator) - Monday April 2, 2007 - 3:46

he entered the name of a special power, instead of an upgrade. that's simply a reference to a non-existing upgrade, which always causes a crash

Solinx (Team Chamber Member) - Sunday April 1, 2007 - 8:37

I'm not really sure what you mean...

jimiojoe - Friday March 30, 2007 - 12:55

i found i accidentally, twice, for a spell behaviour, entered the specialpower into the triggeredby upgrade line

this caused a nasty game.dat

but thats more of a stupidness of me rather than of the game

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