Ahoy all! I am yet another lost one who drifted away but returning now after more than ten years! And as it was ten years ago, this site is the vital blood required to keep the ole boat afloat!
Sorry up front for the lengthy post, But I gotta make up for ten years of not posting!
I am posting now in hopes of helping some sailors out with their Steam installations. A month or so ago, I bought SH5 from Steam and ignorantly installed it into Program Files (x86). Then I started looking into mods and realized I might be screwed. I combed over this site and others to try and see what the symptoms would be when it screwed up. I couldn't get a clear answer other than some access issues to system related calls would fail. So I figured what the heck, I got nothing to lose by trying, so I loaded the TWOS mod.
Well, guess what happened ----- it worked! I ran SH5 all the way through with no issues, not even one single CTD or lock-up. And by the way, TWOS is GREAT!!!
So now to SH4. I tried the same trick. I installed the Berbsters wonderful package that includes GFO and Max Optics. But a few missions in, BAM - crash! CTD. Then my save file wouldn't load, or the one before that. I knew that it was a gamble anyway with modding inside the Steam directory structure.
I completely wiped SH4 and re-installed from scratch. I decided to play the stock version just to see how bad it was. About four missions in, guess what - CRASH - CTD. But unlike before, I could load the save files and get back in. Once back in, I realized the bug was location based. The closer I got to point A, the more laggy I got until it locked up, then crashed. So I was able to reverse course and travel to a different part of the map, and all was good again.
Sorry, I know this is getting long - I'm almost to the point! So another two or three missions in, I get the same bug, and again, I am able to steer around it. But then I recalled that each time this happened, it was when I was getting close to a convoy that I had detected. A larger one. What? A phantom convoy cruising around the ocean destroying my game!? Insane!!!
So then I was looking at the latest posts on Subsim and, ironically, someone else was having a very similar issue. So yes, I believe in the phantom convoy! This is the post that discusses it:
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=254644
But note that I also did follow the cleanup guidance from KaleunMarco.
But this got me thinking. You see, I'm not just ignorant, I'm also stubborn. If the stock version is getting the same bug, then it isn't the modding within Steam that caused it. Which meant, in theory, I could put the mods back in!
And now, finally, the point of story...yep, I loaded the mods back in, all of them, and have been running just fine.
So I am asking of the seasoned experts here: what is supposed to happen when installing mods in the Program Files (x86)? Is it possible that Steam somehow fixed the issue recently? Or am I just one lucky captain?
But I am also shouting out to those Steam captains out there: don't dismay, try modding it in place to see if it works for you.
I will offer one piece of advice: when steam asks if you want a shortcut, say yes and always use that shortcut to run the game. It is not a shortcut directly to the executable but has some steam magic on it. Might not mean a thing, but that's what I did.
Phew. Anyone still with me? If so, thanks for reading and thanks for any comments or further advise. My plan is to finish SH4-GFO, then I am going to wipe it, reinstall from scratch and mod in the FOTRSU mod - I can't wait to play that.
And thank you to this site. I spend almost as much time reading through posts as I do playing the game.
EDIT: What? There's more? Just wanted to say that I believe the issue with the save files was reusing the same save files. Also note, I do not use LAA or 4MB patch. Runs flawlessly (well, except when tracking the pirate virus convoy).