I'm desperate

[Brimount]

I'm starting to get desperate. I've played the game for several months but in the middle of every season the games crashes and I have to start all over again.
The latest season I'm att june 16 and the game crashes whatever I do. Ever since the beginning, the game has crashed when you left click on a player at the "Trading block" menu but now I can't get it going again. It crashes whatever I do!!!
It's a great game but I'm really, really disappointed about all the crashes. I bought a game that I thought worked.....
I also have trouble finding what patches do download. For me it's like a circus. Can anyone help me? Please????

[Brimount]

I hav version 8.0.0.13 now and the game crashed (again) when saving after a game june 16. Now I cant get it going again. It stops loading at 87%. This has happened before.
I've played probably a couple of hours every day for the last months and started 3 or 4 seasons... It crashes all the time.
What should i do?

[Nutlaw]

Did a league have an amateur draft at the end of June 15th? Is there anything noteworthy about that league? Did you delete any leagues from your universe at any point?

Are you using a fictional league, a historical league, or a league created from a roster set?

[RchW]

I'm sorry you are having this problem. Some questions;

Do you play out all games?
Do you run an AV autoscan?
What computer and OS do you use?
Is your HDD nearly full?
Is your HDD defragmented?

Please read this thread. I know it is long but you may pick out some helpful info. There are other threads on crashes as well. The crash issue IMO must be computer specific or specific to those who play out all their games. I've never had a crash, along with many others, so logically it does not seem to be the game but must be some combination of game/computer/play method.

I'd also recommend setting up a league and simming for a couple of years at least. I'd also sim past June 16 without clicking on a player to see if you can get by that date.

I hope this is helpful. Don't give up.

[Brimount]

I've a HP computer about 4 months old with vista.
The game crashed when I tried to continue. When I started the game again I could play a game but it crashed again when saving. Now I can't load it, it stops at 87%.
I'm playing a regular game and have hold an amateur draft. I've played every game manually (about 70 games....). My HD is 105 gb and about 35 gb is used.
I now have 3 saved games that I can't load.... (with at least 60 manual games played...= several hours of playing)
Is there any chance of fixing any of those??
My game has always crashed when left clicking on a players name in the "trading block" menu. Sometimes I forget that so it has crashed a lot of times. Is that a problem?

[Nutlaw]

Crashing while in the process of saving is a bad problem. Have you ever made any backups of your league?

In the .lg folder of any of your affected saved games, are any of your .dat files at a size of 0 kb? You can find your .lg folders at: C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\My Documents\Out of the Park Developments\OOTP Baseball 8\data\saved_games

I don't know what you mean when you say that you are playing a regular game. Are you using real players or fake players? Are you playing in a modern year, or are you playing sometime in the past?

Did the game crash while holding your amateur draft or right after one?

[Brimount]

I'm playing a regular league in real time 2007.
I manage St Louis Cardinals.
No other managers human, I use real players.
The game crashed on june 16th, after the draft.
The messages.dat is 0kb
I have made a backup but its almost a month old...

[Brimount]

I copied the messages.dat file from my old backup. Then I could open the savefile but I still can't get by june 16th. Even if I try to autoplay the game crashes.

[Nutlaw]

Good. That's some progress. Now did you create this game using the New Major League Game option in the opening screen of OOTP, or did you download a roster set outside of the game?

As this is the first year of your league, I'm fairly certain that the issue revolves around the amateur draft. Did you delete any minor leagues or foreign leagues from your saved game? I'm guessing that the problem stems from either a deleted league trying to draft or from the AI in your league having trouble moving its drafted players around.

[endgame]

Is it possible this is a schedule issue, some all-star game scheduled for a league or team that's been deleted? That was my issue the last time I ran into this rather similar sounding problem. Odd though, that the message.dat deletion allowed you to get the game to load. That points to something else. I'm really sorry you're going through this. I hope we find the answer.

[Brimount]

I've been able to restore another savefile by copying an old messages.dat (10 kb) file over the one with 0 kb.
This game is at july29th and the problem is that it also crashes when i click on "finish today" just like the save file from june 16th.

[Brimount]

I created the games(s) using the New Major League Game option on the opening screen. I havent deleted any leagues or teams.

[endgame]

Originally Posted by Brimount

I created the games(s) using the New Major League Game option on the opening screen. I havent deleted any leagues or teams.

What about all-star games? Can you run through your leagues on the events page and see if any are scheduled for the 29th? That's the new 'sticky' day, right?

[Brimount]

The trading deadline is july 31st. When looking through the menus the game crashed when clicking on "review your roster". It crashes almost whatever I do....

[Brimount]

I sure want to continue playing but it's impossible. The game crashes whether I play manually or try auto-play.
What can I do?

[RchW]

Try this, even though it may have no apparent connection to your current problem. Clutching at straws here but... ...




1. Close OOTP

2. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Out of the Park Developments\OOTP Baseball 8\data\skins\ootp8 blue, or whichever folder holds the skin you are using.

3. Delete skin.bin.
If you don't find this file, search for the file "skin.bin". You should have two of these files in two different OOTP folders. They can both be deleted and will be rebuild automatically by the game.

4. Restart OOTPB
Be aware the game restart after deleting the skin.bat delete takes quite a but longer than usual. Be patient, it ain't broke. 'Quite a bit longer' can mean a wait of eight to ten minutes, FYI.

[Nutlaw]

Also, could you try running a fictional league and simming that for a season to see if you have any problems? I want to pin down whether it's the MLB Quickstart that's giving you trouble or your installation. That means selecting New Custom Game from the opening screen and creating a league there.

[endgame]

Originally Posted by Nutlaw

Also, could you try running a fictional league and simming that for a season to see if you have any problems? I want to pin down whether it's the MLB Quickstart that's giving you trouble or your installation. That means selecting New Custom Game from the opening screen and creating a league there.

I think he indicates he is using the New Major League option to create his games, not a quickstart. So we've already eliminated that, but I've seen more problems reported using this particular setup than any other. That might be worth noting.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by endgame

I think he indicates he is using the New Major League option to create his games, not a quickstart. So we've already eliminated that, but I've seen more problems reported using this particular setup than any other. That might be worth noting.

Which means that the powers that be need to fix this even before OOTP 9 is tested. All of the included and/or default leagues must be fool proof and work perfectly out of the box.

These problems inhibit me from publicizing the game to others with little experience as I don't want them turned off by a bad first experience.

Larry Anderson made a similar comment regarding historical leagues and has yet to get a response.

Link here

Side note:

I copied my Lahman database over from my older computer, and it worked fine. I think it is last years database, not the current one.

Also, the missing scoreboard font bug was alive and well. Plus, maybe related, the subject line in the messages was not visible until I clicked on it.

I just imagine the new OOTP user that is trying the game for the 1st time and comes across this the VERY FIRST time he tries the game. I wonder how many sales are lost because these two bugs?

As far as the scoreboard one, we went though the ropes on this one during the last beta and it was assured that is was fixed. It was just recently added to the FAQ, but IMHO, it needs to be added to the download as a read me, or a message posted near the download that tells you how to fix the problem. Or, how about FIXED?

Oh my... I just read the FAQ on how to solve the problem... the problem STILL exists in version 8.

[Brimount]

To delete the skin.bin files didn't help.
I've now simulated a new game for a whole season without problems....
Does that help us?
I just started a new game and simulated through a whole year.
I didn't use Fictional League Creation Wizard.
I didn't do that with my other games either.
The difference is i didn't manually play a single game, the other games I manually played every game.