If you are having problems with freezing

[Cheryl]

I finally managed to get my game frozen at Nov 9, 1703 playing as McGowan. I've have a theory as to what might be causing my freeze, but I'm interested in seeing if it is also applicable to those of you who have also found yourselves frozen at a certain date and unable to proceed. I am interested in what items you are carrying with you, how much gold you have (both in the bank and with you), do you own/use a warehouse and do you have any tasks open. Oh, and I guess it would probably be helpful to know which character you are playing as. TIA for your help :)

[Cheryl]

Could you also mention the number of items you are carrying?

[Unregistered]

Hi Cheryl, happy to help.

I'm on my second game which has just crashed on me for the first time. I'm playing a custom character, currently sitting in the port of Grand Cayman on April 25th, 1704. I have one running task which is to fill a 10 pirate quota. I have ~59 million in the bank and 3,788,806 in my very bulky money pouch.

My ship is the Galleon, "Formidable"

Hull Strength: 321/375 (+125)
Cargo Capacity: 720/720 (420)
Cannons: 19 (20 max)
Attack Speed: 18 (+11)
Special Ability: Storage Hull
Ammunition Qty
Fire Pot 72
Chain Ammo 84
Tiki Bomb 12

My current cargo hold contains 622 crates of wine @ 5,000 and 3 gems. I also have cargo stored in the vault in Grand Cayman. 1000/1000 of wine.

The items I have are:

Storage Hull
Mysterious Necklace
Rag Doll
Compass
Ring of Friendship
Banker's Doll
Ring of Good Will
Charm of Strength
Rag Doll
Rag Doll
Mr. Bubbles
Rag Doll
Storm Watcher Doll
Shrink Wand
Charm of Space
Rag Doll
Rag Doll
Stinky Mambo
Magic Shield Doll
Rag Doll
Rag Doll
Charm of Aim
Rag Doll

Hope that information helps.

BornPirate

[Unregistered]

Just a quick update.

I went back to a saved game just before the one that crashes. I did the exact same things I did up until the point that it crashed the first time and it crashed again.

I don't have the time right now but when I do I will go back to that other save and try doing things differently and see if I still crash at the same date.

BornPirate

[Unregistered]

Game is crashing on me all the time. Playing LaRoche, tons of items, tasks open and closed. It only happens while travelling, either just after bad weather or just before entering a port. I have played this character longer than any of the others, and I wonder if this is related to the problem.
I purchased less than 30 days ago and I want my money back.,

[Unregistered]

I've had lots of game crashing too. After playing a LOT, I have freezes on several characters, including McGowan, LaRoche, Verdugo, Adia and another character. What I was carrying would vary as these were shared between Free Trade mode and Story Mode. So I'm not really sure what is causing it, but would be interested to know why it's doing it.

Over the next day I'm going to try a reinstall and copying over my save-game files. Maybe there's just a bug somewhere?

Has anyone else tried a reinstall then copying the save-games back on?

Bubble Girl

[Cheryl]

Thanks for sharing the info. Now I have one more request: play one of the games you saved before the date your game is freezing. Before you reach the freeze date, make sure you have no more than 19 items with you. Visit the trader and sell whatever you need to in order to get the count down.

I've been playing around with item counts and, for me anyway, a game will freeze at the same date if I am carrying more than 19 items. I have played from saved games and ridded myself of items until my count was 19 or less and successfully bypassed the freeze every time. Please just humor me and let me know how this works out for you :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks for pinning down a really awkward bug, and, even better, for providing a way around it. It is very much appreciated :)

Congratulations! Roland has awarded Outstanding Bugbuster for this post!
http://forums.astraware.com/images/awards/beta/medals_red_bugbuster_2stripe.gif
Awarded Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:47:12 +0100

[BornPirate]

Well what do you know! I tried your tip Cheryl and I'm happy to report that it worked.

Fortunately for me, I happened to be in Great Cayman and had several useless ragdolls taking up space. I got down to 16 items.

I just tried this out and haven't progressed any further so I don't know if the crashing will return. I'll keep my eye on my item count. I could have sworn though that on my first game that didn't crash I had more than 19 items (at least enough to have to scroll down the item screen a little bit), but I may not have made it as far as 4/25/1704 (or whatever the magic crashing date may be). I don't think I had as many useless ragdolls though. Do you think it is just a straight item count or could specific items matter as well.

Either way, your theory seems correct and hopefully the bug can be tracked down and squashed soon.

Thanks Cheryl!

BornPirate

[Cheryl]

Hi BP :)
I'm happy to hear my discovery works for someone else. Woohoo! So far I've found that it doesn't matter what items you have with you; only the quantity seems to make a difference. Let me know if you discover anything else :)

[Cheryl]

Thanks for the medal, Roland. I hope my findings help sort things out.

[threephi]

Really nice job finding that bug, Cheryl, that was a tough one!

[traceelr]

Thaks Cheryl,

I'd been complaining about this problem throughout the beta test, but it seemed to me that I was the only one on the Palm version that was reporting this consistently. I admit that I've always been a hoarder of items, since it didn't seem to matter, and buying the rag dolls got me to the other stuff faster.

I'd quit playing after my third character froze - so now I'll go back and start up three different saved games.

Hurrah!

Tracee

[Cheryl]

I know how you feel, Tracee. I felt like I was the only one until other players started having problems.