[Bug] Killing Dutyers in Zaton CTD's Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

It seems every time I kill the leader of any Duty squad in Zaton, the game will crash. The only error it gives me upon crash is "stack trace:". That's it, just stack trace. If I save, reload and kill that same person again, it will crash without fail.

Misery 2.11 with The Armed Zone.

Edited by: Morbo512

What are your system specs and what alife.ltx switch_distance are you running at?

Intel E8550 dual-core, Nvidia GTX 550 ti, 4gb DDR RAM (3.25gb usable), Win 7 32, NTFS HDD

Switch distance is 300 I believe.

Your available DDR is going to make running this mod difficult. When you start to attack any cluster of NPC's they all spring into action and generate a lot of AI workload. I would try reducing your alife.ltx switch_distance to 200. You may need to go down to the original games 150. Core cpu turbo speed is critical to performance since this xray engine only uses one core. 4GB minimum available DDR is also recommended. You have an OS limitation there. Reducing switch_distance will lessen the load on your CPU/GPU and hopefully give you a satisfactory level of game play. Considering your hardware limitations, attacking Freedom, Duty, or Stalker factions will be a greater burden than Mercs or Bandits because when they alert their allies it will be a much greater number of NPC's entering combat mode. I have played this on a 2.4GHZ CPU, but only with 6GB DDR3 and a x64 version of windows. I had to go down to 150 switch_distance to get high 20's Frames per second for manageable play. alife.ltx is located in your gamedata/configs directory. Change the switch_distance to 200 the line will look something like this: switch_distance = 300; 450; 750; 900 ; 950 make it switch_distance = 200; 450; 750; 900 ; 950 .

I would also use the low preset in Graphics with grass turned down all the way or nearly.

Alright, I'll give that a go but as much as I hope it will, I don't think that'll solve it. In Jupiter I never had such a crash, and it seems to only be certain Duty squad-leaders and only in Zaton where there generally aren't many to begin with. If I kill any other members of the squad, the game doesn't crash. I've also killed other Duty squads in Zaton with no trouble (other than the GPs they sent my way).

For the record my framerates are pretty decent (High 30s at a guess, haven't measured it) though I do get some relatively infrequent second-long hangups.

I'm setting the switch distance to 150 just for the sake of testing it, I'll let you know.

Yeah, it still crashes. As a further note, it was the Dutyers who engaged me first, so if it was due to the strain of their squads being alerted it would've happened at that moment and not specifically once I've killed the leader.

Edited by: Morbo512

Be sure you are not using quick or autosaves it will corrupt your save games and give you all kinds of weird stuff. I assume you sided with freedom. Duty would never attack you first under any other condition.

I have this too. It's almost always the duty dude with the gas tanks on his back. I have a good system with 8GB RAM, with very little running in the background. I've got the game running as admin and have desktop composition turned off on the CoP exe. Happens every time I kill a duty squad leader in Zaton - I too only get the stack trace and nothing more in the log file.

If you are using Steam version steam doesn't like anything run as admin. You only need to install the mod as admin so files can be overwritten. After that you just run game. I never side against Duty, so I would never notice that. Is the Duty leader the first or last you kill in the squad? When the first bullet hits, a call goes out for aid and every Duty guy in range suddenly becomes openly hostile and starts to try and flank/kill you. It's probably that increased AI load that pushes the game over the top on resources. What's you turbo speed on your CPU? The game only uses one core, so that's critical.

Edited by: jasper34

I find it odd that only Duty leaders would cause crashes though. Then again, Stalker engine was always a bit quirky. I'm using 600 switch distance and have almost no crashes at all, that is on 8GB DDR3 and 64bit Win7. Only slowdown I have is during dusk or down but that is most likely related to shadows.

Unless there are significantly more Duty than Freedom within the switch_distance on a map, it really should not matter. The CPU just really has to be able to shovel commands out of the stack trace faster than they are going in. Due to engine limitations a dual core at 4.5GHZ is still way better than an 8 core at 3.2GHZ. Without increasing core speed, reducing switch_distance is the only way to lower CPU load.

" Is the Duty leader the first or last you kill in the squad? When the first bullet hits, a call goes out for aid and every Duty guy in range suddenly becomes openly hostile and starts to try and flank/kill you."
That's probably irrelevant. In my case, I'd killed other members of the squad before the leader, that and in one case they started shooting first. As far as I can tell, Zaton has nowhere near as many Duty as Jupiter does, so if it's due to all their AI activating within the switch distance, why would this only happen in Zaton? I'd had no crashes fighting Duty in Jupiter and I killed a lot of them. As I said, it was also only certain Duty SLs in Zaton. I'd killed others and had no crash.

On a side note, it'd be nice if you'd stop insisting that it absolutely must be a problem on my end.

harrymarshalluk wrote: I have this too. It's almost always the duty dude with the gas tanks on his back. I have a good system with 8GB RAM, with very little running in the background. I've got the game running as admin and have desktop composition turned off on the CoP exe. Happens every time I kill a duty squad leader in Zaton - I too only get the stack trace and nothing more in the log file.

Out of curiosity, are you using The Armed Zone and what class were you playing as? I was Recon

Edited by: Morbo512

My apologies, I totally missed that you mentioned TAZ. I would have immediately suggested you consult MP5ing and he would long since have helped you. Anyone using any additional mods should always seek help first on that mods page as it is considerably more likely to be caused by conflicts with another mod. Because your system is on the lower end of the spectrum to run this Mod there are always chances something unusual is also due to limitations with your rig. 3.25MB of DDR is going to cause additional problems as considerably less than 3MB is available for the game engine. There is probably a small problem with a particular weapons animations or mesh which only those Duty leaders carry.

I'm using bog standard MISERY, with the minimap enabled. I'm an assaulter.

On a slightly unrelated note, do faction relations change once you get to pripyat and reveal you're under cover? I went back to zaton after getting the item 62 and purchasing an exo, and the first duty squad I encountered were neutral yellow. Weird..

jasper34 wrote: There is probably a small problem with a particular weapons animations or mesh which only those Duty leaders carry.

Perhaps, however I'm more inclined to think it's an item in their inventory. Because they're hostile you can't talk to them, but if you could, I'd bet that hitting the trade button would cause the same crash. Could be wrong though, just guessing really.

If it has been a while in-game since you last had conflict it happens sometimes. Bandits/mercs who are naturally hostile won't change, but freedom and duty can. It has nothing to do with story line AFAIK. They just become slightly less hostile as their "memories" fade. It would take very little to turn them again, probably no more than pointing a weapon or equipping one too close. Enabling the minimap shouldn't affect the CTD problem. What are your system specs? Are you able to get a screen grab of one of the offending Duty Leaders? I only sided with someone other than Duty once(as bandit) and never had the problem you and Morbo are having. I don't think the 2.1.1 mod as downloaded from ModDB would be the issue with no changes made. I also briefly used TAZ, but I can't remember who I sided with. I had no crashes related to it though.

i2500k @4.3Ghz (Stable and cool)
8GB RAM
GTX670
AsRock z68 Extreme 4 Gen 3 Motherboard

Pretty confident that my system is capable enough. I'll try, if I see the git again

Another thought about the duty relation... before that, in Jupiter I encountered a Duty squad at AA Complex. I killed all but the last one who was wounded and surrendered. I told him to give me his stuff and he cycled through all of his weapons but that was it. He immediately went from red, actively hostile, to yellow neutral, to the point that I could chat to him. Do NPCs travel through maps? Perhaps it's the same guy, or it has somehow changed relations?

harrymarshalluk wrote:
Perhaps, however I'm more inclined to think it's an item in their inventory. Because they're hostile you can't talk to them, but if you could, I'd bet that hitting the trade button would cause the same crash. Could be wrong though, just guessing really.

I can try that. My current char is friendly with Duty. I could go to Zaton and try to talk to them to see if it causes any CTD's.
It could be an item problem, as suggested, but I'm also using TAZ and had 2 different playthroughs didn't get any repeated crashes. Although my current char is friendly with Duty, my previous one (Recon) was hostile and I didn't notice such problem. OTOH, I may have not attacked much Duty in Zaton area with him either so I could have missed it.
I have some more ideas on what could cause these CTD's, though. Maybe it is a save game corruption as in my previous playthroughs, while I was using quicksave, I would get similar behavior like certain enemies I would kill would ALWAYS give me CTD's, so only way to deal with them was to kill them from very far or avoid altogether and wait until game sort's it out. I would also get CTS's in certain areas, like waste processing plant where, as soon as it would load the area and enemies in them, it would CTD (also repated crash). In that case leaving Zaton and later returning would not help, whole area was permanently bugged.
While Jasper is definitely too eager to blame problems on user's end, he also seems to be right more often then not. In my case, when he suggested to stop using quick saves, he was right. Up until then I would get more and more CTD's as I would progress through the game until it would become nearly unplayable near the end of storyline. That made any afterplay when you finish the story quite a bit problematic because of all the CTD's. Since I stopped using quicksaves i stopped getting constant crashes, broken quests, etc. No more enemies that always cause CTD's. Right now, I'm in afterplay with Assaulter and did some time in both Zaton and Jupiter and have very, very stable game. Actually, I had sessions with 6 or more hour game sessions with no CTD's at all.
The description where CTD's are caused by a specific enemy in one area (Zaton in this case) definitely reminds me of my problems with corrupt saves. It could be an item, but what item is used by Duty leaders ONLY and only in Zaton? I mean, shoudn't they have it in Jupiter as well? I'm really more inclined to believe this is corrupt save problem then TAZ or Misery's fault. I will check out what Duty leaders offer me in Zaton and see if it crashes. It's easy for my current char to test that.

If you catch them when impaired and ready to surrender they go neutral. If you miss your window to talk to them they can turn hostile again. They don't change maps except for story line characters per story. Your rig is fine, if you get to a convenient spot to test, save. Shoot the leader and verify problem is present. Turn minimap feature off again and try same save and verify it's not the change. It's the only way to eliminate it for sure. If you have used any other mods in past, try to verify all remains of them are gone. It's not usually as easy as uninstalling the mod. I start totally fresh with every directory related to game deleted each time I try new beta out to isolate causes and effects more easily. It's tedious, but effective. The only other thing I can think to compare between those having the problem is video settings.

Well I haven't seen that squad again, so no problem. Bizarely, you know that neutral squad I mentioned? They're still neutral, but the rest of Duty are still hostile. I killed a Duty squad of 4, right next to the neutral duty squad, and they never even raised an eyebrow... Strange!

I always reinstall the entire game if it's been modded previously. Always like to make sure it's a fresh, clean install before I install a big mod.

Aaaand just after I say that, and kill a goo 8 Dutier's, I CTD on the last one. Instinctively hit F12 rather than PrtScr so didn't get a shot unfortunately :/

f12 is the default for misery, look in your _appdata_ screenshots directory.

Yup, it always seems to be when I kill the last squad member. I just killed another bunch, and this time it was a different style NPC, but as soon as he went down, bam CTD...

Can you post the part of your crashlog (same _appdata_ directory) that comes after FATAL ERROR at the bottom? Were you able to disable the minimap and see if it makes any difference?

jasper34 wrote: f12 is the default for misery, look in your _appdata_ screenshots directory.

Correct, but when the game has crashed, it won't be able capture it's own screen. I should have just hit prtscr, never mind. I've now learned that it is not NPC type/model specific. Seems to be a certain squad. I'm still leaning towards it being loadout or item in inventory related. This time, It wasn't instant on death that it CTD'd. This time, I killed him with a headshot, but had aboiut 0.5s to see his body slump. Another pattern is location. It's always at or near Shevchenko

Nothing in the log except "Stack trace:"

OK now I'm confused. This time I killed them all, but I can't be sure that I killed the troublesome NPC as there were 2 bodies in the ship (duty and freedom so they obviously killed each other)...

I apologize if it seems like I am inferring the problems are on your end, it is not my intention. I am playing beta versions of next release now and can't easily duplicate your scenarios sometimes. Xray is an enigma and narrowing down causes for some things is challenging. This particular problem is new to me, I have only heard of it occurring in this thread. I just finished a game and will be waiting for new things to test so I will be restoring my system to 2.1.1 and if any of you have a save just prior to one of these repeatable crashes I would love to see it first hand. Just post it on dropbox or something and shoot me a link.

The stalker ship, near the processing plant in Zaton and near the front of the Jupiter plant are about the 3 busiest places on the 3 maps and are the most common places where AI workload can overload a system. A new merc squad popping out of thin air and immediately going into combat mode used to give me CTD often by processing plant. Sometimes I would have to drop my switch_distance from 5 or 600 down a couple hundred to get through a busy spot.

Ok, did the test on Duty leaders in Zaton. Captain Klimenko of Duty was eager to help and his inventory did not cause any CTD's.

Like I said, I doubt it's the items from TAZ, most likely its the corrupt save. I had enemies that would always cause CTD's even before I started playing Misery. It's an old Stalker engine problem that dates way back from vanilla. Heck, I think it was present even in Stalker SoC but I really cant remember if I ran into it personally or just red about it in forums back then.

Edited by: ToothlessShark

Mp5ing posts fixes for anything real fast if there is a problem found, but sometimes people will get a hold of an old download or something. I had no such problems when I was using it.