Problem with any modification - EW

[Gawhana]

Hi ! First of all, sorry for my english, it's not my natural language.

 

So, I have trouble to make any mod working. For now, I just tryed to use a little retexture mod with texmod, and to use modifications in the DefaultGameCore.ini file.

 

Let me explain this clearly :

 

- I made a clean installation of the vanilla version, with every DLC. The game work without problems.

 

- I changed my DefaultGameCore.ini to what I like, and save it, the try again : the game worked

 

- I changed the "host" file, with that I think is the correct IP, It worked.

 

- I try to launch the game offline, and again, no problem, It worked

 

So, to applied the modifications, I tried to use PatcherGUI to disable the "phoning home" , to enable the ".ini loading", and then launch the game : BOOM, it crash. Sometimes, it crash after the windows with "Ew" or "EU" choice, sometimes just when I luanch it with steam.

 

I tried many things : apply the modifications myself in the .exe with ressource hacker, but it crashed, offline or on line, it crashed, etc ...

 

Anytime I do anything on the .exe files, the game crash.

 

I already read the wiki, try really everything I can, but even when I do the less, just installing the game and apply the modifications with PatcherGUI, It crashed ...

 

I'm stuck for now, I'm doing this for hours now - actually one day, since yesterday evening - and I don't know what I'm doing wrong ... Can anyone help me, please ?

[tracktwo]

Per the instructions on the wiki (http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Basic_Guide_to_installing_mods#Enemy_Within), if you've uncompressed any of the .upk files you need to remove the corresponding .uncompressed_size file in the same folder. E.g. if you've uncompressed XEW\XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XcomGame.upk you need to delete XComGame.uncompressed_size in the same place. I just tried with a fresh vanilla installation, decompressed xcomgame.upk and the game would crash. After deleting the .uncompressed_size (and also making the .ini file hex edit in the same section) it loaded successfully for me.

[dubiousintent]

What platform is this: Windows, OS/X, Linux, Android, etc.?

 

Do you happen to have any other mods successfully installed, in particular "TexMod"?

 

Do you understand that once the game thinks any file is "corrupted", it becomes necessary to "verify files" through Steam, and then re-install any mods again. If the game CTDs, then you have "corrupted" files. Technically all mods are "corrupting" files. As long as they install and work correctly, things are good. Once they go bad however, you have to start over.

 

If you used PatcherGUI to "enable INI loading", then it should have deleted the ".uncompressed_size" files, so I suspect that isn't it. Can't hurt to check though.

 

You should just let PatcherGUI deal with disabling the "hosts" file "phone home" entries The rest of that section in the "Basic Guide" is talking about what is involved in case PatcherGUI can't be used for some reason.

 

Both of these steps ("enable INI loading" and "disable phone home"): should be performed before any attempt at implementing a mod.

 

What I DO hear is a subtle confusion about the modding process that could be the issue.

 

In the very early days we didn't know how to get the game to use the INI files, so ResourceHacker was created to make changes to the embedded copies of the INI file that are baked into the game EXE file, known as the "resource cache". However, now that we CAN "enable INI loading", the resource file cache is ignored when the INI files load. Direct edits to the EXE are very prone to creating fatal errors unless you know exactly what you are doing to ensure your changes don't change the actual locations of any of the file code.

 

So you want to make your mods to the INI files and the UPK files directly instead of in the EXE. PatcherGUI (part of the UPK Utils mod) is the tool that makes this relatively simple to implement, and it provides the mechanism to allow you to make changes to the size of the code segment if necesssary as well.

 

I suggest you try implementing one or two of the "DIY mods" first to get familiar with the process.

 

-Dubous-

Edited January 1, 2016 by dubiousintent