Chaco
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A couple of days ago, I saw the new version of Ben Chisel's Five Sweet Speaking Grauns(or whatever the spelling is). I downloaded it and a few other holds into a folder, and then I started DROD. Or tried to.

As soon as I booted it up, it immediately quit after a few seconds without spawning the title screen. I immediately threw DROD into the trash, then downloaded it again and started it. Again, it quit on me.

I'm running a Mac OS X 10.4, and I think the hold I downloaded is irrelevant. I had a lot of holds imported... perhaps that was it?

In any case, I have been temporarily deprived of DROD

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[Last edited by Chaco at 12-01-2005 12:10 PM : added OS X]

Chaco
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*bump*

I'm sorry if this is quite impolite, but everyone seems to be going to threads other than this one... and I still have my problem. At least a "sorry, we have no idea how this could be happening" would be reassuring. Some acknowledgement of my problem could be a little nice.

*sits down in a corner and sulks*

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[Last edited by Chaco at 11-06-2005 06:09 PM : fixed emoticon]

agaricus5
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Do you have a drod.err file in your Data directory?

If so, what does it say?

Also, back up your .dats now before opening DROD anymore. If DROD is not working, it may be corrupting your dats even more every time you try to open the program.

Since you're using a Mac, I can't really help much beyond that (which is probably not helpful anyway).

Sorry about that.

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Chaco
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Hmm... no, I'm browsing around. I see several folders, the .dats you mentioned, and drod.ini, but no drod.err.

I'll backup the dats.

Thanks, at least it's one step towards solving the problem.

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Oneiromancer
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Sorry man, but the Mac guy, wmarkham, is the one we're waiting for to answer you. You might want to send him a PM or an e-mail through the forum, because he doesn't seem to come by very often.

Have you tried to download a new installation of DROD and copy your old .dat files into the new folder? If that doesn't work, then make another new installation and see if it works on its own with just the demo of JtRH. If so, then it would help if you could test if that one hold is the corrupting one. If it works this time, then that tells us something as well. In any case, you should be able to play other holds you haven't before, and if your original installation gets fixed, then you can export your saves and import them into your new installation and have all your old progress back.

Game on,

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Chaco
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I've tried downloading DROD again, but not copying the old .dats into it. If anything, I would think it'd be more likely to work, as if the .dats were messing it up...

Oh well. I'll do what you told me to do.

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Chaco
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Well, I just downloaded the new Mac beta, in the hopes that it would work. The icon is slightly different, but it won't work either. Exactly the same symptoms.

This makes me very sad

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Oneiromancer
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Well, what I would do next might be a bit drastic. I assume the Mac version comes with an installer? I would copy my DROD folder into a backup location, then do a full uninstall of any copies of DROD you have laying around. Then re-install DROD with the latest beta.

Basically I'm wondering if any new installation you do is still using the old, corrupted data. I know on Windows machines there is a Datapath.txt file that points to the .dat files. If you copy the DROD folder to a new location, you need to delete that file and let the game create a new one, otherwise it will still use the old .dats. Perhaps this is the same with the Mac version, so maybe if you have tried installing in a new directory, see what happens if you delete that file and let DROD create a new one.

Because you say that the game doesn't work at all even on a clean installation, right? That makes me wonder if the "clean" installation isn't getting something from any others you have laying around.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Chaco
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What's the filepath to the datapath.txt file in Windows? I've tried looking at every folder, to no avail. But you might be on to something.

EDIT:

The Mac version has no installer, you just download a .dmg file that contains DROD, then you just extract it to your desktop.

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[Last edited by Chaco at 11-07-2005 10:00 PM]

Oneiromancer
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Chaco wrote:
What's the filepath to the datapath.txt file in Windows? I've tried looking at every folder, to no avail. But you might be on to something.

It's just right there in the main DROD - Journey to Rooted Hold folder. Perhaps it is hidden or incorporated into another file on the Mac? Is there a filepath in drod.ini (in the Data folder)?

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

trick
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On Linux, DataPath.txt is located in ~/.caravel/drod-2_0. I think Mac OS X still uses the same location (ie a subdirectory named .caravel in your home directory). I hear this directory is difficult to get at in Mac OS X, but according to PUG1911 you can go there by opening Finder, pressing GO, Go to Folder, then type ".caravel".

Alternately, just open a terminal and type "rm -rf ~/.caravel/drod-2_0" (or "rm -rf ~/.caravel/drod-2_0-demo" for the demo version, tho I don't know if the Mac OS X version has enabled this distinction, so try both if it fails). This will also delete any dat files in there, which means you might lose your progress.

- Gerry

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[Last edited by trick at 11-07-2005 11:13 PM]

Chaco
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Yeah, in a Mac all the files are in one package, which you click on to run DROD.

Folders and files beginning with . are normally hidden under Mac, but your suggestion should help, trick. Thanks. I hope this works.

EDIT:

Yay, it worked! Thanks, everyone - I nearly broke my DROD addiction.

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[Last edited by Chaco at 11-08-2005 12:23 AM]

wmarkham
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Hi Chaco,

I'm sorry to say that I have very little spare time to spend on DROD at the moment.... Thanks so much to agaricus5, trick and Oneiromancer for handling this!

The beta versions do periodically stop working. This is actually intentional, because it ensures that people are motivated to test the latest version. Unfortunately, right now the beta does not report this to users in a reasonable fashion.

For the record, drod.err should appear in the ~/.caravel/drod-2_0 directory when something goes wrong. A quick test indicates that this is not happening in this case, though. I don't know why not.

Also, when something goes wrong, you can open the "Console" utility to hopefully see some output about what went wrong. In the case of the disabled beta, I do get an appropriate message there.

Of course, there ought to be a message box or something as well.

Weston

Chaco
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Agreed. I would never have thought of using the console to delete a file had the forum not responded.

EDIT:

I just got three rank points just in posting in this thread. o_O'

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[Last edited by Chaco at 11-08-2005 07:51 PM]

Chaco
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*bump*

For some odd reason, this bug has resurfaced upon me. DROD won't start up. I've deleted the necessary files again, but it still insists upon closing itself.

And I still can't find drod.err or DataWay.txt.

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trick
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I think that may be because the OS X beta has expired. You'll have to wait for a new release. (Also, it's DataPath.txt, not DataWay.txt).

- Gerry

Chaco
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Well, I know I'm using the 2.0.10 version. Also, it's exactly the same as before, without a dialog box or anything saying "This beta has expired". And I know wmarkham would have thought to put a dialog box in for that.

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wmarkham
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Chaco wrote:
Well, I know I'm using the 2.0.10 version. Also, it's exactly the same as before, without a dialog box or anything saying "This beta has expired". And I know wmarkham would have thought to put a dialog box in for that.

sorry. I was in a big rush when I wrote the last beta, and I did not put the dialog box in. I believe that a 2.0.11 Demo version will be available sometime soon, which will not expire. And I promise to fix the message box in any beta versions that I release from now on.

Weston

Chaco
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*sigh*

Darn you, now I can't play DROD And somebody pointed out a bug in my hold too.

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