Topic: Orion Pirates apparently has a MAJOR BUG

[CaptJosh]

That's very strange, Firesoul, because I could start in the advanced Era from the basic install before any updates. I wonder who goofed. Because that would seem to me to be caused by faulty programming. Perhaps I can compare the appropriate files, patched and unpatched, and find the information necessary to fix the problem. If I do find the info, and can fix the problem, I'll post a tutorial in the appropriate forum. Otherwise, I'll just report it to Taldren.

CaptJosh  

[jimmi7769]

My guess would be that since they were bringing OP up to EAW's levels of patching that they brought a lot of files that were already updated from EAW to OP then modified them to be for OP.  ANd this one just slipped through the cracks.  No biggie, easy fix as long as you know how to do it and aren't afraid to get your hands dirty.

[CaptJosh]

That makes a lot of sense. If that's the case, All I have to do is go into the files on my Orion Pirates CD, look for the one with the starting era info, copy the Advanced Era info, and paste it into the matching file in my game folder on my machine. I'll check it out shortly and, if I can, get back to everyone with instructions for a bugfix that can be used until Taldren does something about it.

CaptJosh  

[CaptJosh]

Following up on my current bug hunt, I have found a solution to the problem of not being able to start in the advanced era on a copy of OP that is fully patched and up to date.

My initial surmise that there must be a part of an older config file that would help me was actually incorrect, but I figured out a way to fix it anyhow. It involves the time.gf file.

Here is the way it looks normally:

Name       = "Time"
         
[Clock]         

TurnsPerYear   = 5
MilliSecondsPerTurn   = 60000   // (60000)
DelayBeforeFirstTurn   = 10000
TimeStopWhenInTactical   = 1   // (0) ALWAYS 0 for Server!
         
[Clock/StartingDate]   
BaseYear      = 2263
0      = 0
1      = 10
2      = 20

Now, I was looking through the files when I looked at time.gf and got to thinking. I see only three items for base year modifiers under the [Clock/StartingDate] section, but there are FOUR modifiers for it in the game: Early, Middle, Late, and Advanced. So I decided to try something. I added the following line to he bottom of the file:

3      = 30

I put that on the next line down from the last entry in the [Clock/StartingDate] section so that the section now reads as follows:

[Clock/StartingDate]   
BaseYear      = 2263
0      = 0
1      = 10
2      = 20
3      = 30

I then saved the file(Note: You must remove the Read-Only attribute of the file, or you can't save the new version) and went and played the game using the best way I could think of to test. I started a new Mirak campaign and checked to see if I had the most advanced missile engines available to me. I did. Furthermore there were X class ships available when ships started showing up available for purchase. So I have solved this bug.

If anyone is interested, I am uploading my modified time.gf file to my website and putting a link in this post so that all you have to do is download it, and put in in the <gamedirpath>\MetaAssets\ServerProfiles\SinglePlayer folder and not have have to edit the file yourself. The link is  http://phantos.subspacelink.com/Time.gf. Enjoy.

CaptJosh