Lower Michigan crashes when clicking on commercial building

[Wolverine@MSU]

I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but I recently had to reinstall the game from scratch (something hiccupped on the hard drive and after going through the "Chkdsk" recovery, RT3 wouldn't start). So I reinstalled from the original disk, but got an error when I tried to start the game, someting about a value out of range (on a "DOS" style screen). I installed the CtoC expansion and things worked fine, then the No-CD version and then patched to 1.06. Everything seems to work OK....scenarios load and I can play,but in the Lower Michigan scenario (I haven't checked others), when I clicked on the "Info" button to find out what a Commercial Building" produces/consumes, I got a crash to desktop.

Another issue: I had backed up stuff from the UserExtraContent folder from the older installation, and when I copy it into the newly installed folder the game won't even start. The hourglass appears for a few seconds and then disapperas. About a minute later I get a message sayng somthing about incorrect pack version or some such thing.

Is there something else I need to install with the patch, or could there be PK4 files lurking in the old UserExtraContent folder that aren't loading right? I'm at a loss to explain it.

Also, although it's a minor point, I don't seem to have the "Flying Pig" logo that I am so fond of. Why might that be?

[Hawk]

You didn't mention whether you installed the 1.05 patch prior to installing the 1.06 patch. It is necessary.
If you got the no-cd from my site it goes with the 1.05 patch.

[Gwizz]

The pig was a politician who flew too high for small wings.

[Wolverine@MSU]

You didn't mention whether you installed the 1.05 patch prior to installing the 1.06 patch. It is necessary.
If you got the no-cd from my site it goes with the 1.05 patch.

By 1.05 patch, do you mean one from here (milo's patch)? After installing CtoC, I replaced the RT3.EXE file with the No-CD version, which I think showed the version number as 1.05 down in the lower left corner. I'm not sure, but I'll check it out tonight.

[Hawk]

Yes! That's the 'Official' 1.05 patch.
I was under the impression that you had to have the 1.05 patch installed for the no-cd to work right, since it's designed for the 1.05 patch.
The C to C Expansion updates the game to version 1.04

[Wolverine@MSU]

So I went back and reinstalled the 1.05 patch and then upgraded to 1.06. Everything seems to be fine, except when I try to view the info section for the Construction Firm. I can click on the Construction Firm building and get the display of profits etc. for the pat few years. But if I then click on the upper-right button to see what's consumed/made, the game crashes and I get an error message (in a little windo) that says something to the effect of "Unable to locate pack element at............. (where ......... is a bunch of gibberish symbols).

Could someone else load the Lower Michigan map and look around Detroit for a Construction Firm and see if they get the error too? I took a quick look at the CF.bty and CF.bca files, and they look OK, but if the pointers to the DDR files aren't in the right place or not the correct cargo numbers it might cause the error.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I'm at a loss. Everything else seems to work OK except for this.

[Hawk]

There wasn't a construction firm near Detroit but I found one in Chicago and I didn't have a problem clicking on the button to see what it supplied.

Demand - 2 lumber
No supply

Edit 1: I fired up the map again and this time got a construction firm in Detroit. Again, no problem. Same recipe as the one in Chicago.

Edit 2: Weird! I looked in the editor and construction firm isn't even checked in the overall industry.



In the Port/Warehouse recipe screen there is only 2 warehouse recipes set up and neither one has lumber set up.

[bombardiere]

Construction Firm is a city building, so it is available automatically. In all scenarios, new or old.

Milo's first version of the final patch contained small bug which made Construction Firms to crash. (in some cases if I remember it) If you were among the firsts to download the patch, may be you should try to download it again.

[Wolverine@MSU]

There wasn't a construction firm near Detroit but I found one in Chicago and I didn't have a problem clicking on the button to see what it supplied.

Demand - 2 lumber
No supply

That's really wierd because according to the ConstructionFirm.bca file it should also demand Concrete and Steel.

I'll download the latest 1.06 patch and see if that fixes things.

[Wolverine@MSU]

The newer version of the 1.06 patch fixed the CTD, but, as Hawk observed, the info panel only shows a demand of 2 Lumber. Why isn't it showing the Demand Only Concrete and Demand Only Steel that's called for in the ConstructionFirm.bca (or whatever file it is)?

[bombardiere]

Well, the demand depends on what cargoes are available on the map. (in other word which industries are selected.) For example the Concrete is not available on most scenarios, so the Construction Firm do not demand Concrete. (icon do not show up in the game) Go to the editor and select all industries if you want to see all.

For steel I don’t know. I didn’t do the building, so I don’t know if it demands Steel, or is Steel available on the map.

[Wolverine@MSU]

That's probably it bomber. I think the scenario starts before steel is available. I'm well into it now, so I'll have a look at one tonight.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Many years after Steel is available on the map it still doesn't show up as a demanded cargo for the Construction Firm. It doesn't show on the info panel for the building, nor does it show up as a demand for Steel on the cargo overlay.

[proudcanadian]

I've noticed this about the construction firm too. No matter how late in the game you are, it never demands steel. :?

[KevinL]

Mine demand steel and lumber, but only in scenerios where there arent any concrete or (what's the other one? Ingots?).

I'm playing Crystal Cotton now and it demands the 3 but not steel.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I've started Crystal Cotton too, but mine demand only Lumber and Ceramics (Bricks?). Steel isn't available yet on the map, so we'll see what happens when it is. I wonder if it's something in one of the definition files. Does anyone know the placement of bits and bytes in the .bty and .bca files? I thought I had seen that somewhere, PJay or milo perhaps.

[canis39]

For the record, all the construction firms I've seen demand both lumber and steel. Both icons show up in the info panel, and the buildings do act as demand points for both cargoes in the global cargo view.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Several years into Crystal Cotton, and the Construction Firms are also demanding Concrete in the info window. Still no steel there. Something funny is going on here if everyone sees different demands. What gives?

[bombardiere]

Well I don't know for sure what is going here , but after reading Milo's release notes, I may have some idea He wrote that Construction Firm began demanding steel in 1890. So after the steel is on the map.

I haven't tested the building throughly nor shecked what is in the building file, but if the year is before 1890 this may be causing it.