Love the game, but frustrated

gskong · 06-12-2006, 10:20 PM

Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, 1Gbyte RAM, Windows XP

The last few times I played (post patch) yield the following results:

1) A game universe of 25 countries and 45 leagues starting in 1900 would not sim past 2/2/1901. Game froze for good once ~one year has been simmed.

2) Trimmed universe down to 20 countries and 35 leagues (took another 4 hours to start over as there is no way to use previously created league). The game again froze after about 1 1/2 game years of simming. No matter how many times I restart the saved game the game would slow down quickly and freeze within a matter of a few game days.

3) Finally trimmed universe down to 15 countries and 20 leagues (took another 3 hours or so). This time the sim went smoothly for approximately 30 years, which I accomplished by letting my PC run for 36 hours (I'm trying to get 90 years of history before playing). I set the game save to once a month in fear of losing my data. To my horror, the game froze DURING SAVING and after waiting patiently for 3 hours as the pace meter indicates 14% player saved, I finally shut down my computer. When I loaded my saved game, it crashes everytime I try to access any team's tab other than the home tab. Specifically, I would get the dreaded window's "ootp2006.exe has encountered problem blah blah", which forces the program to shut down.

I'm now extremely frustrated. Since receiving the game I've spent at least 20 hours just creating leagues that I've created over and over again. I've not had much success taking advantage of the one feature that most attracted me to this game (the creation of a whole world of possibilties). I understand that the game would probably run just fine if I stick with 1 country and just 7 or 8 leagues, but then why would did I upgrade from 6.5 if that's what I wanted?

I'm now shelving the game until the crashing and freezing problems are fixed. I may even wait til we finally have a way to save created leagues for future universes. That is too bad because I really looked forward to this game and really loved what it had to offer.

Not sure whether this post belongs in the tech forum or the general forum. I'm not sure what I described above is new (I didn't seeanyone else have the game freeze during saving, nor did I see anyone else have the game freeze while simming). Maybe my computer is crap?

marc420 · 06-13-2006, 12:33 AM

Sounds like a nice computer to me! I'm at 1.7 and 750MB ram. Of course, I'm playing a much smaller game .. just US leagues.

Just a stupid question, but how are you fixed for free hard drive space. With a league that big, I wouldn't be surprised if it creates a pretty good size temp file. And along the same lines, are you saving every box score and pbp? I tend to put both of those settings on human only.

Just a couple of stupid ideas. I don't work here. And I didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

gskong · 06-13-2006, 08:43 AM

Good questions. I actually save NO boxscores/pbps, not even for human leagues. I set the sim display to dialogue view, i.e., no details, no scrolling headlines, etc. All that I care about is to sim and accumlate history.

Actually I went back and created a US only historical league last night (so much for my resolve to shelve the game

...it's a love/hate relationahip) and simmed through 6 months in a mere minutes! Unfortunately it crashed at that point during player import.

Raidergoo · 06-13-2006, 09:23 AM

At what point did it crash during player import?

gskong · 06-13-2006, 09:55 AM

Can't remember the exact percentage. I just remember the progress crawlbar filling up then, boom, "ootp2006.exe has encountered problem and needs to be shut down.....". I did the usual and sent an error report to Microsoft. Not sure if that does me any good but, oh well.

Here's an interesting note to add--I had played OOTP2006 for a whole week prior to the patch and, while I got the usual "illegal # of players" errors and sluggish sim speed, my game never froze or crashed even though I had a fairly good sized universe going. I'm beginning to wonder if the patch contributed to the instability.

Raidergoo · 06-13-2006, 10:19 AM

I have built some mind numbing large sims, which take forever to run day to day, but never managed to get a CTD. I tried to get much of the US male population involved in baseball once, and ran it overnight for 7 hrs. Didn't get far, but did not crash.

silvam14 · 06-14-2006, 01:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gskong

Can't remember the exact percentage. I just remember the progress crawlbar filling up then, boom, "ootp2006.exe has encountered problem and needs to be shut down.....". I did the usual and sent an error report to Microsoft. Not sure if that does me any good but, oh well.

Here's an interesting note to add--I had played OOTP2006 for a whole week prior to the patch and, while I got the usual "illegal # of players" errors and sluggish sim speed, my game never froze or crashed even though I had a fairly good sized universe going. I'm beginning to wonder if the patch contributed to the instability.

Question: When your game "froze" did your PC lock up too? I just had my PC lock up twice when simming a universe with a ton of league in it. I've had to had re-boot both times. I'm curious to see if anyone else is having this problem

gskong · 06-14-2006, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silvam14

Question: When your game "froze" did your PC lock up too? I just had my PC lock up twice when simming a universe with a ton of league in it. I've had to had re-boot both times. I'm curious to see if anyone else is having this problem

Nope, just the game. Though the game did take up so much CPU usage (seemed to be capped off at 50%) that the rest of the system did run slow.

battists · 07-06-2006, 09:54 AM

gskong,

Sorry to hear about these issues.

I do know that a number of memory-related issues, as well as the way the database handles larger amounts of data, have been tweaked in upcoming patch 2.

At this point, I believe that the best suggestion may be to wait and try again after patch 2 comes out.

Given the advanced complexity of what you are trying to accomplish, I'd recommend a few things:

1. Before spending a long time building a league, create a "trash league" with a ton of leagues, and just set it to sim a long time, just to see if it's behaving a little more stabley (?) with the new patch.

2. Be sure to backup your league before any simming.

I'm sorry I can't offer anything better than that at this point. I'm going to move this over to Claimed Fixed, not because we have addressed your specific issue, but because at this point, we really need to try it in the Patch 2 version with the enhanced memory handling.

Thanks very much,
Steve

06-12-2006, 10:20 PM	#1
gskong Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 28	Love the game, but frustrated Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, 1Gbyte RAM, Windows XP The last few times I played (post patch) yield the following results: 1) A game universe of 25 countries and 45 leagues starting in 1900 would not sim past 2/2/1901. Game froze for good once ~one year has been simmed. 2) Trimmed universe down to 20 countries and 35 leagues (took another 4 hours to start over as there is no way to use previously created league). The game again froze after about 1 1/2 game years of simming. No matter how many times I restart the saved game the game would slow down quickly and freeze within a matter of a few game days. 3) Finally trimmed universe down to 15 countries and 20 leagues (took another 3 hours or so). This time the sim went smoothly for approximately 30 years, which I accomplished by letting my PC run for 36 hours (I'm trying to get 90 years of history before playing). I set the game save to once a month in fear of losing my data. To my horror, the game froze DURING SAVING and after waiting patiently for 3 hours as the pace meter indicates 14% player saved, I finally shut down my computer. When I loaded my saved game, it crashes everytime I try to access any team's tab other than the home tab. Specifically, I would get the dreaded window's "ootp2006.exe has encountered problem blah blah", which forces the program to shut down. I'm now extremely frustrated. Since receiving the game I've spent at least 20 hours just creating leagues that I've created over and over again. I've not had much success taking advantage of the one feature that most attracted me to this game (the creation of a whole world of possibilties). I understand that the game would probably run just fine if I stick with 1 country and just 7 or 8 leagues, but then why would did I upgrade from 6.5 if that's what I wanted? I'm now shelving the game until the crashing and freezing problems are fixed. I may even wait til we finally have a way to save created leagues for future universes. That is too bad because I really looked forward to this game and really loved what it had to offer. Not sure whether this post belongs in the tech forum or the general forum. I'm not sure what I described above is new (I didn't seeanyone else have the game freeze during saving, nor did I see anyone else have the game freeze while simming). Maybe my computer is crap?

06-13-2006, 12:33 AM	#2
marc420 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Terrapin Station Posts: 112	Sounds like a nice computer to me! I'm at 1.7 and 750MB ram. Of course, I'm playing a much smaller game .. just US leagues. Just a stupid question, but how are you fixed for free hard drive space. With a league that big, I wouldn't be surprised if it creates a pretty good size temp file. And along the same lines, are you saving every box score and pbp? I tend to put both of those settings on human only. Just a couple of stupid ideas. I don't work here. And I didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

06-13-2006, 08:43 AM	#3
gskong Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 28	Good questions. I actually save NO boxscores/pbps, not even for human leagues. I set the sim display to dialogue view, i.e., no details, no scrolling headlines, etc. All that I care about is to sim and accumlate history. Actually I went back and created a US only historical league last night (so much for my resolve to shelve the game ...it's a love/hate relationahip) and simmed through 6 months in a mere minutes! Unfortunately it crashed at that point during player import.

06-13-2006, 09:23 AM	#4
Raidergoo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 9,005	At what point did it crash during player import?

06-13-2006, 09:55 AM	#5
gskong Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 28	Can't remember the exact percentage. I just remember the progress crawlbar filling up then, boom, "ootp2006.exe has encountered problem and needs to be shut down.....". I did the usual and sent an error report to Microsoft. Not sure if that does me any good but, oh well. Here's an interesting note to add--I had played OOTP2006 for a whole week prior to the patch and, while I got the usual "illegal # of players" errors and sluggish sim speed, my game never froze or crashed even though I had a fairly good sized universe going. I'm beginning to wonder if the patch contributed to the instability.

06-13-2006, 10:19 AM	#6
Raidergoo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 9,005	I have built some mind numbing large sims, which take forever to run day to day, but never managed to get a CTD. I tried to get much of the US male population involved in baseball once, and ran it overnight for 7 hrs. Didn't get far, but did not crash.

07-06-2006, 09:54 AM	#9
battists Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,506	gskong, Sorry to hear about these issues. I do know that a number of memory-related issues, as well as the way the database handles larger amounts of data, have been tweaked in upcoming patch 2. At this point, I believe that the best suggestion may be to wait and try again after patch 2 comes out. Given the advanced complexity of what you are trying to accomplish, I'd recommend a few things: 1. Before spending a long time building a league, create a "trash league" with a ton of leagues, and just set it to sim a long time, just to see if it's behaving a little more stabley (?) with the new patch. 2. Be sure to backup your league before any simming. I'm sorry I can't offer anything better than that at this point. I'm going to move this over to Claimed Fixed, not because we have addressed your specific issue, but because at this point, we really need to try it in the Patch 2 version with the enhanced memory handling. Thanks very much, Steve