Yet Another Campaign Start Problem (YACSP)

As with many others, I haven't been able to start a new campaign. When i start the game, after the first screen the screen goes black, then the loading bar appears in the blackness and I get the menu

When I try to start a campaign the screen goes black, a loading bar appears and then the game crashes.

When i run the Install Validation Tool I get this:

http://www.box.net/shared/gfhncsp1tn (warning: huge)

Does this mean I just need to reinstall? Incidentally, I looked at Sassems thread on QuickPac, and though he said that the installer should be 652.441 kb (I'm assuming he meant mb), mine is 637 mb (yet 668,099,207 bytes?) but QuickPac says there's no problem

:help:

Oh. Crap. I forgot to make the path comparison case insensitive. Hang on.

Please download the validator again and try once more.

Here's the new file: http://www.box.net/shared/gfhncsp1tn

You seem to be missing a lot of unit models, but they are not relevant for EB.

I'm more concerned about

Missing file: .\data\packs\patch_1.pak
Missing file: .\version.inf
Changed file: .\data\descr_items.db

Are you sure you've installed in a clean 1.5 RTW? Could you upload your descr_items.db file so I can compare?

http://www.box.net/shared/kuv71q9p2p

By the way, thanks for your help and patience through all this.

Hmm... A number of sets of binary information has been changed, almost as if you opened the file with Notepad or something...

This could get too technical, but do you have a hex editor? If so, make a backup of the descr_items.db, then replace all occurences of
B8 E6 18 with 88 D7 17
F0 73 with E8 84
C8 C6 with 28 D7
88 8A with C8 9A
C0 8A with 00 9B
98 BA with A8 CA

If it makes no difference to make these replacements, make a new 1.5 RTW installation and copy the patch_1.pak file from there to the installation containing EB.

=========

If you have no clue what I'm talking about above, please try to install 1.5 RTW again somewhere and copy the descr_items.db and patch_1.pak files from that installation into the one you have now.

Reinstalled everything, wiped all traces of RTW from my system - and the same thing happened...

The files are still missing

Could someone upload the patch_1.pak and descr_items.db files so I could just replace them?

Thanks a lot, in advance

*bump*

Please, I'd love to get EB working...

Are you using Vista? Several others have reported that it stores some crap in another folder that appears to override the files you've installed. Could this be the case for you too? Not likely though, as there are missing files...

Have you tried the other solutions people have come up with, BTW? Downloading a map.rwm file seems to work for many.

Here's an archive with the files you lack.
http://rapidshare.com/files/63688471/rishubhav.rar.html

Nope, using XP...

I've tried map.rwm but it doesn't change anything. Will dl and try when i get home...

Argh!!!! Even putting in the new files didn't work...

I ran the validator again and got:

Changed file: .\data\credits.txt (expected checksum 632aad51f3a61c5da34140e4fa28800b, got b0a7954002857cc32e253a5e08b5c194)
Changed file: .\data\export_descr_advice.txt (expected checksum f29c56a6d711e3ebb70b855365500de8, got 97794093b86abe2d5ebab1920b9c3363)
Changed file: .\data\fmv\atvi_spinning_logo_640x480.wmv (expected checksum 7e15895ba7a723535f55e4deb91c085b, got e9ac1729af2fdeffe8365a567cd76b23)
Changed file: .\data\menu\splash.tga (expected checksum a57cc84af0e6c1300577336f17e0bfd6, got d1329cf835f69e6dff4b4cc0cb08d144)
Added file: .\gamespy arcade.url
Added file: .\icon.ico

I don't think those files affect anything EB... It doesn't run now either? Does vanilla run fine?

The ways people with problems have got it to work, I think amounts to these below. Could you verify that this is correct for your situation?

X download map.rwm (didn't work)
X install from scratch (didn't work)
X delete some interfering files that Vista hides in its bowels (not Vista)
? Install using 7-zip rather than installer

You can also download Filemon and run that while you start the game. It won't directly make it work of course, but it will log file access, which may or may not help finding out why it crashes. Remember to limit Filemon's scope to the RTW folder with EB, or there will be tons and tons of garbage data to sift through. I think Tellos Athenaios made a guide somewhere in this subforum on how to set it up.

Ok, I ran ProcMon, and then filtered out all of the actions that resulted in Success, so here are the failures: http://www.box.net/shared/qy06yelude

If you want everything here is the full logfile: http://www.box.net/shared/guvtf0o8j0 (warning: 72 megs when extracted)

Thanks again for all your help

I'd prefer Filemon, actually, since you're using XP. ProcMon generates such a lot of additional information it's really hard to get anything out of it.

I couldn't find the guide you talked about, so I just tried to figure it out on my own. Here's the full report: http://www.box.net/shared/ox8uda4pgc

Sorry for the bumbing, but I REALLY want EB...

I'm not sure if this will make any difference, but in the Filemon log it complains about a lot of missing gloss maps for diplomats. Perhaps if you turned off gloss maps in preferences it would work better?

Find all preferences.txt files (yes, there are more than one) and replace
GLOSS_MAPPING:TRUE
with
GLOSS_MAPPING:FALSE