Alien Crossfire problem

[Kaboth]

Yes my SMAC used to be the only one to work; SMACX wouldn't but as soon as I made the ini change I posted above all was good. I didn't even need the XP compatability patch.

[Googlie]

You can get the no-cd fix here

[Laplace]

I have tried the no-CD fix on the ICD but to no avail (it did say it was successful but did not fix the problem).

What REALLY puzzles me is that originally SMACX WORKED on my XP box (after playing around with SMAC and the patches [including the Voxel algorithm]). But then one day arbitrarily (didn't do anything special) terranx.exe produced an error and haven't been able to get it working ever since, including doing a complete uninstall and reinstall on SMAC/X.

I wish they WOULD produce an XP fix for SMACX.

[Petek]

Laplace,

From your description, it seems that something on your system changed. Did you apply any operating system patches? Update any drivers? Have you run scandisk or some other utility to check your hard drive for errors? Have you tried running SMAX in some lower compatibility mode?

Did you perhaps change video modes? If so, try changing back to fewer colors or a lower resolution.

Not real familiar with XP. Can you perform a "clean boot"? End task or disable running processes? (and then see if SMAX runs)

Can you think of anything else that changed?

Might also experiment with adding any or all of the following lines to your Alpha Centauri.inin file:

DirectDraw=0
ds3d=1
eax=1

[Googlie]

I'm running the no-cd crack with no problem with XP (in fact I have 2 installations, one for regular games and PBEMs and one for mny scenario and faction tinkerings)

here's the .ini from my regular smac folder:

[Alpha Centauri]
ds3d=1
eax=1
FastUnitAnim=0
SmoothUnitAnim=0
MainFontSize=16
InterludeFontSize=16
DisableOpeningMovie=1
Prefs Format=12
Difficulty=5
Map Type=3
Top Menu=3
Faction=5
Direct Draw=0
Video Mode=1024
WindowsFileBox=1
Preferences=11001011111100101001001110001111
More Preferences=101011001011010111101100
Semaphore=00000000
Announce=111111110011111111
Rules=101100000011111
Customize=2
Time Controls=1
Custom Map X=96
Custom Map Y=96
Faction 1=GAIANS
Faction 2=HIVE
Faction 3=UNIV
Faction 4=MORGAN
Faction 5=SPARTANS
Faction 6=PEACE
Faction 7=ANGELS
Latest Scenario=
Main Volume=126
Voice Volume=127
Music Volume=63
SFX Volume=95
Base Sort=0
Gamma Correction=150
Custom World=4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,

Copy this and see if it helps at all on getting - and staying - started

G.

[#endgame]

also, you could try
d3d=0
eax=0
instead of
d3d=1
eax=1

[Commy]

Besides that Voxel Algorithm thing, I have never had any problems with my game or machine. ONly had one crash, ant that was when my base reached population -127. Now isn't that interesting? If any of you are looking for a way to crash your game, I believe I have found one...

[knighterrant]

Just took the time to verify the voxel engine fix and even the ahem, no cd fix. Neither made a difference.

[MrWhereItsAt]

More puzzlement... it is clear this is related to something other than just XP, as SMAX works on my version of XP Pro.

[fender]

I get this same error once every 4 months or so. If I load the autosave it will do it again, but always at the very same point in the turn if I re-played every move the same as the move that caused the crash. I found that if I did something different than I actually did in the turn that caused the crash everything was fine. If I was attacking someone at the time of the crash, I simply wouldn’t attack at that point on that turn on the retry. I don’t know if this is the same thing you are getting, but it’s always fixes my problem.

I have not found a pattern to why it happens, but it's seems to me it has happened more while attacking or being attacked.

[Commy]

Perhaps the pathfinding code is messed up when you attack or get attacked...

[knighterrant]

I managed to fix smacx to run on my xp pro. I believe it was related to safedisc and my cdrom brand.

[Skanky Burns]

Works fine on machine. XP. I have the no-cd patch installed.

[ambersand]

We have got the same problem with Alien Crossfire. It was going fine until recently when we also got the dreaded terran.exe crash.

After reading your posts here, I managed to get it to work after installing the patches, the cracked version, changing the .ini file and setting the display to medium 16 bit colours. (Not quite sure if all those were necessary - but what the heck!)

However as soon as we try to start a new game of Alien Crossfire (particularly customising the rules) it crashes again and the whole thing needs to be reinstalled.

Loading up a game started from before the crash, works OK and it can be saved and replayed.

If we start a new game using quick start we only get the alpha centauri set of factions. Bringing in an old game started previously with the alien crossfire factions is OK however.

Given that all these posts with the same problem re-surfaced recently, is it possible that the problem could be caused by a recent WindowsXP automatic upgrade from Microsoft or a virus?

Recently, my husband did download some recent Microsoft updates. I avoid them like the plague - but he thought he was doing the right thing!!!!!

He has a conspiracy theory that Microsoft got told by the US Government to bug any programs that contain the word "alien" because of their current state of paranoia!

[Laplace]

Yes, I DO distinctly remember installing some MS-XP upgrades (Critical updates) after installing the then working patch of SMACX, and then sometime afterwards, the terranx.exe error.

It could be mere coincidence that the crash occured after the upgrades, but now I am less inclined to think so.

What's interesting to note is that when I uninstall SMAC/SMACX, the registry for SMACX is NOT deleted; I have to do that manually. That's what I've been doing with my uninstalls/reinstalls.

If I ever get it working, I'll let you guys know that I changed which did the trick.

Thank you for all your help on this though!