Drakan dumps to dekstop

karnage · Post by **karnage** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 10:57 pm

Hello,

I am running Drakan on my Win XP system and it has run pretty good (just the occasional
dump to the desktop) so far, but now it is getting a bit more serious! [:(!]

I have retrieved the Bellhammer from the ruins of Alwarren, but whenever I try to to
exit back to the islands it dumps me to the desktop. I have tried many things to get
by this without much luck.

It seems to be creating a bad LevelTransitions file. If I remove the last few files in
there I am able to get back to the islands with the hammer, but then the problem is that
by removing those files it resets the island area, so it thinks that I have yet to even
see Rimril. So, that is no good...

So... I tried removing all LevelTransitions files and saved games until before I even
reach the islands and tried to start it all over, same thing, it dumps to the desktop
right when I leave Alwarren.

Anyone have any suggestions?? If anything, does anyone have a saved game right after
they returned the crystal and bell hammer to Rimril? I really wanted to complete the
game again!! [:(!]

If all else fails (and it has so far) I may try to wipe the islands slate clean again
and try to play it on my daughter Win98 machine. BTW, I did try to load the game onto
that machine and copy over the saved games and LevelTransitions files and it dumps to the
desktop too. So, it looks like it is creating a bad cache file when run in XP...

FYI, I have a PIV-2.8 GHZ with 512 MG and an Radon 9700 pro and a SB Audigy 2 with
all the latest drivers. I have tried to set all the gfx and sound properties, both in
the game and in the system to the minimum with the same results...

Any and all help is appreciated!

Thanks
Kevin

karnage · Post by **karnage** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:05 pm

Okay, I finally looked in the downloads area of this site and found the saved game.
Obviously this is a known issue! [:D]

Anyways, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

Kevin

Arokhs Twin · Post by **Arokhs Twin** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:23 pm

Certainly is. We had a load of trouble convincing Surreal - this bug only seems to appear when Drakan is patched to version 445 but they never acknowleged nor fixed it. Few people never encounter the bug and I don't really know what causes it but I guess it has something to do with a bad level transition file like you say.

Its not XP that is causing the problem; I encountered the bug using Win98. I got around the bug by repeated trying; it worked once without crashing after about 15 attempts.

Welcome to the forums BTW!

karnage · Post by **karnage** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:24 pm

Only one beef...

I had 3 invisibility and 1 invulnerability potion, and now I don't! [:p]

Hi ho, at least I can go on now so I can't complain (but somtimes I still do

Thanks again
Kevin

Arokhs Twin · Post by **Arokhs Twin** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 6:49 pm

You can use the cheat codes to gain those items. Use the command 'gimme <itemname>' at the console, brought up by the # key on UK keyboards. You may heve to enable developer mode, can't remember. To do this, hold shift whilst starting Drakan and it will bring up the engine options screen which will have a third tab called developer. Tick 'enable developer mode' within this pane.

karnage · Post by **karnage** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 5:30 am

Thats okay, I can just go on from where I am at. I already found another invisibility
potion already. I will just make do, the game is getting harder though! I remember
the whole Rift crystal/Succubus area being pretty hard (with no dragon!) the last time
I played this game many, many moons ago...

Man, You tried 15ish times to get by the alwarren crash?!? That is MUCH more patience
than I would ever have! Too bad Surreal never fixed that one, it is a nasty bug and
and late in the game too...

So, (assuming that you played the PS2 sequel...) what did you think of the sequel
on the PS2? I thought it wasn't to bad, and had a pretty good time playing it through.
I played it twice, thinking that I would go magic the second time, but I always end
up playing as a warrior. I just kind of love the hack 'n slash kind of game I guess...

Maybe I will eventually try it as a magic user, but maybe not...

I have been seeing a bunch of commercials about the new PS2 game Drakangaurd. It looks
kind of good, and was what got me to load up the original Drakan again. Have you heard
anything about that game. I might just have to check it out...

Kevin

Arokhs Twin · Post by **Arokhs Twin** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 6:50 pm

I quite liked the sequel, The Ancient's Gates. The RPG elements such as trading were a nice addition and it was great to go somewhere and find other humans that were not on the brink of death. The game world seemed much more realistic and much less linear than the original.

I disliked the new texturing system though (the screenshots of the canned PC version of TAG looked much better) and the dragon textures and colour. I would have preffered it if Arokh looked the same as in Order of the Flame but with a higher polygon count but I guess that would have looked out of place with the new texturing system they used.
Overall though, I thought it was an enjoyable game and I liked it just as much as the original.

BTW I don't have much patience either

I only tried 15 times because someone else said they tried about 10 times and they got through the bug. Back to TAG, what about the game stopping bug where if you go into a cave alone and you should go with Arokh, you loose him forever?
I think that only affected the US versions but I have heard that a UK player ecountered that one...

As for Drakengard, yeah, I have my eye on that one. It should be out next month once they do the Japanese to English conversion. Its out already in Japan under the name Drag-on-dragoon or something like that.

sonu · Post by **sonu** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 9:31 am

that alwerne bug,when i played drakan first time i was able to get out of Alwerne in first go no bug ,but when i played it again then it crashed.One thing that i noticed is that i dropped mithril sword and entered the last place where u put 6 runes and retrieve the bell hammer and on return i picked up the mithril sword and tried to exit Alw.... it crashed i tried 3-4 times ,then i tried dropping Mithril Sword and it let me out

.May be its related to dropping weapons or something liek dat

AXE · Post by **AXE** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:32 pm

yep is the weapon stash u hold, but then sometimes u can get out with all intact.

ASSASSIN · Post by **ASSASSIN** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 11:31 pm

Well... in my theory the Alwarren bug is plainly a mapping error. It can be reproduced, as a fact...

While making War of Dark Age and Doomsday, I met this. When you are making a level transition which works in and out as well, Drakan has a nasty tendency. In certain situations, the level transition from one map to other will put Rynn OUTSIDE the new map, which resuls in an immediate crash. An explanation of this issue is the complexness of the travelling between maps - your new place on the new map is determined by the preset values on the new map, the transition object's place (o_O) your speed, heading, etc... don't ask me why is it so complicated though, it could have been done a lot more simpler.

This crashy bug can be fixed through cautious level editing and throughout testing, though. I was once thinking of editing the Alwarren and Islands maps to prevent this bug happening, but somehow it slid behind the table, lol...