Help help help!

#1
I LIVE! I LIIIIIVVE!!! *cough* :oops: erm.... Hi... it's been awhile....

Anyways, for those of you who remember and/or care my joystick has been reinstalled to the game and it's working just fine. YAY! :mrgreen:

But now I have all new problems with the game itself. The levels won't load under certain conditions. Here's a list of my observations when I tried different things to get levels to load:

-- If I start a new game and pick a level, the level doesn't even load up-- the title screen (the pic with the sun and Descent 3 on it) just sits there and looks at me.

-- I created a new pilot. The computer ran through the lil intro thingy with MD and Kate Harper, but then 2 error boxes popped up: ERROR-- Failed to open MN3 file and ERROR-- Could not load mission. The game closed itself and I was looking at my desktop. Another error sometimes comes up afterwards: "The program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down." (But I didn't even DO anything!!!! :? )

-- I went to my saved games. Some will load (ONE out of FOUR!!! :x ). The ones that don't load do.... sort of.... it goes to the level loading screen (where the two red bars show stuff's loading), then the screen goes blank, the harddrive makes noises like it's thinking, then the computer just sits there. I press a key, and I'm back to my desktop.

-- The one game of mine that will load (although my brother's games have no problem... it seems only mine are cursed...) is level 10, and I can go through it just fine, complete the level, and the computer/game has no problem loading up the next level.

That's all of the observations I've made. Can someone PLEASE tell me what the heck is going on here?? I'm getting rather frustrated at this point.... cuz all I wanna do is play my game!!! :puppydogeyes: *sniff*

Hunter, if you remember, I believe it was you who told me how to create a new saved games list by moving files around.... could that have to do with the cause? Or maybe it's my CDs, which are getting kinda old and scratched? (although my brother says the game's info is saved on the harddrive...)

Any help, suggestions, whatever, would be greatly appreciated, but if you have to explain how to fix this/what to do, please use small words and LOTS of description so I can figure out what you're talking about. I'm not exactly a computer genius.... :oops:

I'd like this problem fixed as soon as possible, cuz in August I'll have a friend visiting me, and she's heard of this game and I'd like to show it to her WITHOUT the problems....

Thanks. :)

(btw Hunter, thanks for addinng the old smilies to the new bunch!!!! :greenjumpers: )
"When one is expecting booby traps.... always send a boob in first."
-- Megatron from Beast Wars: Transformers

"Don't make me take this fusion cannon off and beat you with it!"
-- G1 Megatron, probly drunk

"I think my Guidebot is lost..."
--[RIP]d3jake

#2
Reinstall Descent 3. Not over the current install. Pick a new directory, and install a fresh copy (both CDs, not half). Create a new pilot, check it works, then logout and install the 1.4 patch. If your using Mercenary that can also be installed after. Then move the Savegames to your new Descent 3 directory. It's faster than trying to find the solution to the problem really, D3 is really easy to install anyways.

And btw, old and scratched CDs don't mean it won't work. If they don't have any sheer tears or deep cuts in them, the damage is most likely light.

Get back to me.
The Expanse. Watch it!

#3
Thanks Hunter. I'm at work right now, so I won't be able to do anything until I get home later. I'll let you know what happens as soon as I can.

*writes note in Things To Remember List* Okay... scratched CDs don't effect the way a program runs unless it's major damage.... Gotcha. :mrgreen:

The 1.4 patch... I'm assuming that's something that can be found somewhere around the site...? ^^; Yeah... I think I remember seeing it... *goes off to look*

EDIT: Found the patch! @_@ Whoa... there's a lot of em.... I think the second one's the one I want....

EDIT (again lol): Erm... Hunter... when I try to download the patch that mean ol' "Bandwidth has been exceeded" pops up... should I just try to download it later?
"When one is expecting booby traps.... always send a boob in first."
-- Megatron from Beast Wars: Transformers

"Don't make me take this fusion cannon off and beat you with it!"
-- G1 Megatron, probly drunk

"I think my Guidebot is lost..."
--[RIP]d3jake

#5
no, install mercenary before you update the patch. merc automatically installs the 1.3 patch (i think its that one) and if you already have 1.4, it will downgrade it to 1.3. REALLY annoying, if easy to fix :)

#6
Um - No, it doesn't actually :) The patch is a seperate executable, and you cannot downgrade a patch (try doing it yourself.. you'll find it won't work). Ofcoruse this might be different with different versions of the game.
The Expanse. Watch it!

#7
oh? it does for me, and its bloody irritating, too! i install merc, and theres bunches of bugs again, and im like, 'whats going on?' and i look, and lo! behold, the patch jumped back down to the 1.3 version. dont even get me started on the problems for the FS1 patch.. they need a patch to fix the patch :razz:

#8
Keep in mind Im talking about a fresh copy of D3 here. Any mods of other thingies already installed with D3 really disagree with Merc.
The Expanse. Watch it!

#9
yes, i know. a completely un-modified and no new levels-added copy of D3. of cource, im talking about the USA version. the european (UK? england? i dont remember...) version may act different. :)

#12
Well, yesterday I downloaded the patch (US 1.4 version). That's as far as I've gotten.

I don't have D3 Mercenary; just D3 Retribution. So I'm not going to worry about whatever you guys were arguing about. :razz:

Today I'm at work again, then I work on Thursday. I'll let you know then if I've done any more/if the problem is fixed, ect.

Thanks again for helping me you guys!! :mrgreen:
"When one is expecting booby traps.... always send a boob in first."
-- Megatron from Beast Wars: Transformers

"Don't make me take this fusion cannon off and beat you with it!"
-- G1 Megatron, probly drunk

"I think my Guidebot is lost..."
--[RIP]d3jake

#14
Well, as of yesterday, Descent 3 has been running just as the way it's supposed to. As far as I know, anyway. I was only able to play on Tuesday night cuz on Wednesday my brother was playing D3 ALL DAY, and I couldn't play at night cuz of thunderstorms. I didn't want to risk blowing up the computer due to lightning.... o.O

There were two glitches that I ran across while playing Tuesday night though.... They seem to have fixed themselves, but they were quite strange.... I ran through level 1, and for some reason the Gyros were shooting seeker mines at me instead of the red stuff, and the Orbots were shooting sideways black shark missles at me too. The sound effects and damage points were the same as usual, though. Has anyone had this glitch before? Do you know if it comes back? Maybe it was the patch? I'm confused..... :-s

Just out of curiousity Hunter, have you ever heard of the problem I came here with in the first place? About the levels not loading up?

Thanks again for helping me! I is happy now! *can't wait to go home and play D3 again* :mrgreen: Yeeeeee!

8-[
"When one is expecting booby traps.... always send a boob in first."
-- Megatron from Beast Wars: Transformers

"Don't make me take this fusion cannon off and beat you with it!"
-- G1 Megatron, probly drunk

"I think my Guidebot is lost..."
--[RIP]d3jake
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 82 guests

cron