Crashes, Bugs and Troubleshooting

[TheGeoff]

Common Problems:

• The game does not start - it immediately says "Illegal Memory Address"
  There are several possible solutions to this:
  • Extract the game from the zip file before running it.
  • Run the game as an administrator.
  • Add the game to the Windows DEP exclusion list: http://www.windowsanswers.net/articles/dep-config
  
  
• The game loads, then crashes with the message "Player nation is not in nations.list file"
  The player_nation in gameoptions.ini is invalid. Ensure the country name is spelled correctly and capitalised correctly. The nation you are trying to play may not be in the game yet - check the 'Playable nations" list.
  
  
• The game loads, then crashes with the message "No suitable starting port found"
  The selected player_nation in gameoptions.ini is landlocked or does not have any ports in the game yet, so it is not playable. Please select a different nation.
  
  
• The game crashes on startup with no error message or the graphics do not display properly
  Disable OpenGL by changing "OpenGL_graphics = 1" to "OpenGL_graphics = 0" (without quotation marks) in gameoptions.ini
  
  
• I use a non-QWERTY keyboard and the controls don't work
  There are instructions for changing key bindings in the guide.txt file. If anyone makes a good keybindings.ini for AZERTY, QWERTZ or any other common keyboard types feel free to post it!
  
  
• The game runs very slowly
  There are several ways to increase performance. The following settings are all found in gameoptions.ini:
  • Lower the number of ships and aircraft in the world.
  • Change the fire rendering style to 2.
  • Change the radar model to 1.
  • Set realistic_UI to 0 (this makes the game a lot uglier and is not recommended)
  • Enable OpenGL in gameoptions.ini, if it has been disabled.
  
  
• I have been given a mission which is impossible to complete!
  1. Download this: http://goo.gl/QsUsqE
  2. Put MissionCompleter.exe in your game folder (the same folder as the Sub Commander exe file)
  3. Save your game.
  4. Run the Mission Completer (it should say "Mission complete!")
  5. Load your game. The old mission will have been completely forgotten and you will be quickly given a new one.

Known bugs in current version:

• If an unconscious crewman dies while another crewman is attempting to revive him, the crewman who was trying to help will keep trying to revive the body forever. You can stop him by ordering him to abandon his post then ordering him to return to duty.
• Sometimes your country will accidentally nuke itself, then declare war on itself. This will turn every friendly ship and port hostile to you, so you're basically screwed... such is life in a nuclear war (I'll fix this soon)

If you have a problem which is not listed here please post it in this thread!

[kakster22]

Hello! First of all,I'm a big fan of the game,and have been spending a lot of time playing it. Some of my favorite moments in games like FTL and Silent Hunter III were damage control,bringing my Ship (Or U-boat) back from the brink of death! Sorry if this is out of place (I couldn't decide if this belonged here or the main thread or FAQ thread ) Now on to my question: In the FAQ thread you made a list of playable nations,one of them was North Korea,so I decided to give them a try however the game closed and said "No suitable port found" So I did a little investigating and checked out North Korea and found that the (presumably spawn) city/port isn't landlocked,and I should be able to spawn there. It's not that big of a deal,I can always just play as China and start out a few miles away,but I thought I'd point that out,sorry if this has already been reported or is something you knew of! Also,on a kind of unrelated note,I was wondering if there was a place to post/share custom submarines,as I'd be interested in seeing what people have come up with. Thank you for reading!

[TheGeoff]

Thanks for pointing that out, it's definitely a bug! Pyongyang and Seoul were both marked in the game files as not having nearby seaports, making it impossible to play as North or South Korea. I've now fixed this for the next update.

There isn't anywhere specific to post user made subs yet, I don't think many people have made them unfortunately. If you make any, feel free to post about them in the main thread (or post a new thread).

[kust]

Hi when I start the game the mouse is up in the right corner and don't respond
Im on windows 8

[TheGeoff]

First, make sure "show_cursor" is set to 1 in gameoptions.ini. If you are playing in full screen, try setting the game to windowed to see if the problem persists. If this doesn't work, let me know!

I do a lot of the game programming on a windows 8 laptop so it is definitely not a compatibility issue.

[kust]

Thanks it worked to put it in windowed mode thanks

[Thymo]

Found 2 bugs.

Bug 1:
If trying to load a save game when there is none present, the game will crash.

Bug 2:
On the turbine control panel, the knob for the electric motor tends to not turn. Sometimes it gets solved by going to the menu and going back. Bug was present in 0.24 too.

[kust]

Found 1 bug

1. is that fullscreen ain't fullscreen it's just a small window.

[TheGeoff]

Hmm, thanks for the reports guys. Fullscreen works on all of the computers I've tested it on, but if setting "windowed = 0" in gameoptions.ini is not working for you then maybe try disabling OpenGL (by setting "OpenGL_graphics = 0").

I've noted the save bug and will fix it soon. I'll look into the electric motor bug this week too.

[kvn8907]

A few bugs to report in Sub Commander 0.25. I have pictures of them, but it's a pain to upload them to a file sharing web site since this doesn't have image hosting, so I'll hold off unless you request them.

First, I was given an impossible mission. I was tasked to sink a ship in the lake to the northeast of Leningrad (not sure what it's called) which in Sub Commander has no outlet to the sea, and in real life only has a river connecting it to the ocean, which flows right through downtown Leningrad (not a good chance of slinking through undetected).

Second, with this newest version of the game (didn't happen in older ones) every time I quit the game, I get a Windows 7 message saying that the application has crashed. It doesn't prevent the game from running, but is annoying.

Third, starting with version 0.24 or 0.23 I think when I'm at level 1 zoom in the world map, the mission marker disappears even if I'm very close to it. I'm sure that in 0.22 that marker still showed up in level 1 zoom.

Lastly, I'm not sure if this is a glitch or a feature. There was a fire in the torpedo room and one of the torpedoes exploded, and with this newest version of the game, even internal damage causes flooding, so the evacuated torpedo room quickly filled with water. The fire was put out by the fire suppression system even before the flooding, so the room had 0% oxygen. As the room was flooding, I turned off the fire suppression system and opened the vent, and after a few moments, found the oxygen level of every other compartment dropping sharply, and people struggling to breathe, while the oxygen level of the torpedo room, now completely full of water, was stuck at 0%. I closed the vent to the torpedo room, surfaced, and opened the main induction valve, and oxygen level returned to normal elsewhere in the ship, and after the damage was repaired (two sailors with welding torches and SCBA) and the water drained, I opened the vent to the torpedo room again and it successfully replenished the oxygen. Was it a glitch that the inundated torpedo room caused oxygen to be sucked from the rest of the submarine when the vent was opened?

[Aktungbby]

Thymo; kvn8907 & kakster22! First and second posts respectively!

[Jimbuna]

Welcome folks

[TheGeoff]

Originally Posted by kvn8907

A few bugs to report in Sub Commander 0.25. I have pictures of them, but it's a pain to upload them to a file sharing web site since this doesn't have image hosting, so I'll hold off unless you request them.

First, I was given an impossible mission. I was tasked to sink a ship in the lake to the northeast of Leningrad (not sure what it's called) which in Sub Commander has no outlet to the sea, and in real life only has a river connecting it to the ocean, which flows right through downtown Leningrad (not a good chance of slinking through undetected).

Second, with this newest version of the game (didn't happen in older ones) every time I quit the game, I get a Windows 7 message saying that the application has crashed. It doesn't prevent the game from running, but is annoying.

Third, starting with version 0.24 or 0.23 I think when I'm at level 1 zoom in the world map, the mission marker disappears even if I'm very close to it. I'm sure that in 0.22 that marker still showed up in level 1 zoom.

Lastly, I'm not sure if this is a glitch or a feature. There was a fire in the torpedo room and one of the torpedoes exploded, and with this newest version of the game, even internal damage causes flooding, so the evacuated torpedo room quickly filled with water. The fire was put out by the fire suppression system even before the flooding, so the room had 0% oxygen. As the room was flooding, I turned off the fire suppression system and opened the vent, and after a few moments, found the oxygen level of every other compartment dropping sharply, and people struggling to breathe, while the oxygen level of the torpedo room, now completely full of water, was stuck at 0%. I closed the vent to the torpedo room, surfaced, and opened the main induction valve, and oxygen level returned to normal elsewhere in the ship, and after the damage was repaired (two sailors with welding torches and SCBA) and the water drained, I opened the vent to the torpedo room again and it successfully replenished the oxygen. Was it a glitch that the inundated torpedo room caused oxygen to be sucked from the rest of the submarine when the vent was opened?

Thanks for reporting these.

1. Impossible missions are rare but unfortunately still happen sometimes. I'll get to work on a fix for this, hopefully for the next version. If I can't prevent them, I'll at least add an option to refuse a mission so it's not instant game over.

2. I haven't heard about this bug before, I'll check it out. Turning off OpenGL in gameoptions.ini might help, that's the biggest change in V0.25 compatibility-wise.

3. Thanks for pointing this out, I've now fixed it for the next version.

4. Hmm, sounds like there may be a glitch when trying to replenish the oxygen in a completely flooded room. I suspect the vent doesn't add any more oxygen because it sees the room is full of water, but the oxygen which would've flowed into that room is still deducted from the other rooms - I'll check it out.

[kvn8907]

Aye aye.

Tried turning off OpenGL. No more crash message when the game quits. Any idea what was causing that message? Also, will I notice any change in the game with OpenGL off?


Also, two more minor bugs to report.

First, with the default submarine submerged below periscope depth, if a torpedo is fired, a message is displayed saying 'Too deep to launch missiles!' despite the fact that the default sub has no missiles.

Second, when playing the game and pressing Esc, it comes up with Enter to start new game, L to load game, and escape to exit. Despite displaying incorrectly, S still saves and Enter still resumes the game.

[silverware]

First: Sometimes the sub torpedoes don't appear in the correct tubes. They still show as being loaded to the correct tube in the tactical menu, but it's an annoying visual bug.

Second: When you Refit at a port, the tubes are filled up, but not marked as loaded. You then have to reload them manually, where there seems to be two options. Either the crew just touch the torps in the tubes(next reload is normal), or more often, they load a second torp over the first. So there are two shown in the tube.(Next reload they touch them in the tubes).

Third: Fast travel can be used after launching a torpedo. I am calling this a bug, because you can use it to dodge enemy attacks occasionally, as all fast travel does is increment the timer faster and make you move much faster. But I presume that proper fast-travel will come in the future.

Fourth: On subs with multiple routes to a room, the crew will not path there through the fastest, nor safest method. It usually seems random which door they take. Implementing A* or equivalent with a high tendency toward safety would be nice.