Topic: Am coming back after being away a year or more and need some help !

[scat35]

Hi after being away for over a year now i am returning to Chaos Empire which has given myself and my family much satisfaction for a number of years now, the reason i dropped last time was due to my stash corrupting and i lost over 2 years worth of item colllecting !(I was devastated)  Ive been trying some other D2 mods out over the last week but have found none other that ive truly enjoyed so here i am
 
Anyway have just downloaded the lastest versions and would like to know if these work with the 1.12 patch due to the fact that the nocd is a dream for me in my house playing with my wife & son and not having to stuff around getting 3 games running with only one original disc !
Also can you please point me in the right direction to see what has been updated since 7.65
 
Thanks in advance for your help
 
Craig
 
 

[ChaosEmpire]

HI Craig

welcome back
1st if you play offline, please do a backup of both stashfiles (character and common stash file) before you play
PlugY is known to be not the most stablest thing, so it can always happen that it gets corrupt, but, maybe only the personal was corrupt and the common stash still works...

2nd Chaos Empire is based on 1.10, but the mod delivers all files to switch between CE 1.10 and Vanilla 1.12

[Griez]

Doesn't the latest CE version run without a CD?

And I HOPE you have 3 unique licenses for Diablo II and LOD...

[scat35]

Hi Hans and thanks for the welcome back
 
I only play offline/lan myself so will need to backup all save files regulary ?
 
One more problem i need help with please
 
Ive installed the latest version of Chaos Empire back on my computer no problems ( Im running XP Pro) but cannot get the mod to install without errors on my wifes computer and hers is running on Vista and these are the errors that are coming up 
 
Cannot create entry"UninstallString" in key "Software\Microsoft\Windows\current version\Uninstall\Chaos Empire"
Cannot create entry"DisplayName" in key "Software\Microsoft\Windows\current version\Uninstall\Chaos Empire"
 
I had a look at the other thread going about Vista but it didnt really make sense to me as im not that computer literate sorry, also ive made sure the exe's are running under windows xp compatabilty mode and also tried installing the chaos empire program files into the diablo 2 folder which didnt help either.
 
Will this happen with Windows 7 also as my new laptop has this system on it.
 
Thanks for your help again 
Craig

[ChaosEmpire]

yes, win7 will be same as vista...i would expect it

did you disabled UAC in vista?
do you run the program with admin permissions?

[bdpf]

 

Now that is out of the way, I use two things that help with single play.

Try installing D2 and CE in a none boot partition. I'm lucky to have a second hard drive but have also have run it in a partition on the boot drive. This might solve the install problems with Vista and Windows 7. The program files folder is protected.

As for having expansion CDs;

I use a virtural cdrom to run both D2LOD & CE from the disk image. I did this after the expansion disk shatttewred and ruin the cdrom drive.

As for having seprate keys. . . .  If you only use it off-line not on the Bnet or CEnet, a few frineds might let you make images.  Of coarse being off-line, it might not matter.

Since I don't have Vista or Windows 7 you'll have to decide if you want to try installing in a separate partition, this might be a work around for UAC.

Good luck

bdpf

[scat35]

Hi,
 

did you disabled UAC in vista?
do you run the program with admin permissions?

I have now disabled both of these,
 
Ive since removed the entire games, folders ect and done another fresh install and this time it installed right through without any errors but when i try to start the game i now get this error,
 
Warning Corrupted File  ChaosEmpire.mpq
 
Warning one or more files have been modified please correct changes or reinstall Chaos Empire MOD
 
Also bdpf im running and installing D2 on a seperate (partitioned) drive
 
Thanks for your help
 
Craig

[ChaosEmpire]

sounds like you have not the correct mixture of plugy.dll, chaosempire.dll and chaosempire.mpq, be sure to use all form 771b package
if you have a plugy folder in d2 folder..try renaming it

[scat35]

Thanks Hans
 
Reinstalled the entire game, and then re downloaded 7.71 patch and it now works   
 
Cheers
Craig

[ChaosEmpire]

so happy slaying

[scat35]

Thanks !
 
We started last night and have a big weekend of slaying planned 
 
Craig

[ChaosEmpire]

watch your kill counter... mmmmm the you got killed counter on the teddy

[scat35]

Yes i see what you mean as we affectionately call dieing "throwing the teddy up in the air" and there was quite alot of that tonight !!
 
Cheers
Craig
 

[scat35]

Hi Hans
 
We are still playing 7.71 and are now finding that when we use the immolation arrow on our Amazon characters our characters randonly dissapear all together off the screen on a regular basis ?  When we change to say frozen arrow this issue dissapears so this only happens with the immolation arrow. We are now in the 1st act of lets rock lvl.
 
Thanks for your help once again
 
Regards
Craig

[ChaosEmpire]

hi craig
is it in online or offline gaming
if online, when are you online, so i can watch this

[Fenris]

immolation arrow creates a lot of lag iirc (d2 engine lag, not related to computer specs)
therefore this might be the reason that u find yourself/others disappearing

this is a hardcoded bug, related to the skill itself, therefore i can't think of a way to fix this without changing the skillanimation


edit: i just tested this in sp
i shot one immolation arrow at a crowd of cows and experienced lag and my char and the cows disappeared from my view, only my merc remained

[ChaosEmpire]

i tried in sp too, without any issue in cow level for immolation arrow
freezing arrow gives me little sound issues..stuckering
but no issues with immolation
did a quick search for an alternative skill animation, first google search did not showed an alternative
if you know somewhere a less heavy animation..let me know

[bdpf]

My two dollars worth;

Did you check with taskmaster for other running apps, memory usage.

I've had this problem for years, in single play. I need to block the internet with the firewall to stop apps from calling home.

My machine is, 1.2 MHZ, 1 GEG ram & Rage Pro 128 video card. My computer is old enough to go to school. <GRIN> Yes it is an old model "T" still chugging along.
(Ah Joe, model "T" is a Tin Lizzy, made by Ford.)

My merc rouges, do blink out most of the time also.

Slow downs and video problems on my computer seems to lead back to memory usage.

Bye, 

snuffy, bdpf

[ChaosEmpire]

blinking mercs are known, cause using skills where they miss animations for

[scat35]

Hi, Hans we dont play online, only on lan, We have played this mod on and off extensively for a number of years now and have never had this happen before ? Our computers are still fairly hefty having constantly upgraded, 4 gig ram each plus Nvidia GTA 275 video cards etc. We have played through the game on a previous save right through to Act 5 hell and never had this problem before ?
 
Thanks for the help
Craig

[Fenris]

just wondering, are you running your d2 under directdraw, direct3d or glide?

i myself have a kinda crappy pc, but if u say urs are up to date that can't be the problem

[scat35]

Direct 3d i think ? Glide is long gone isnt it ?

[ChaosEmpire]

ce contains an opengl2glide wrapper, that speeds up ce a lot in most cases
if you did a full install there should be an exe file to configer the wrapper...with vidtest from blizzard you need to set d2 to glide too

[Fenris]

too bad glide doesn't work for me
having a graphic card without 3d support sucks xd

[scat35]

Thanks Hans,
 
Will have to check that out.
 
Cheers
Craig

[scat35]

Hi Hans
 
We now are both running under the glide setting which has made a great improvement in overall performance, Have also updates our cards drivers, Still having the vanishing problem when using the immolation arrow.
 
Thanks again
Craig
Post Merge: July 03, 2010, 06:20:36 pmHi,
 
Here is a screen shot of what happens in middle of gameplay when using immolation, my map was on at this time also. Hope this helps
 

 
Cheers
Craig
Post Merge: July 04, 2010, 10:09:01 amOne more thing, Its seems to happen much more when using a crossbow.
 
Cheers
Craig