Help with a personal modpack issue

[rogueranger]

i'm running a pack of persoanally selected mods on the latest game version (I think this is 1.2), and I'm having a slight issue with the game, so I wanted to ask for some assistance in identifying the problem. Whenever I start the first mission (I'm playing a custom campaign and skipped the tutorial), my game will load in the mission and let me take my turn, but at some point very quickly after it will freeze up when the enemy is supposed to take their turn. Sound and stuff is still going, but the game won't take any action and clicking on things does nothing.

Here's the mods I'm currently running, using the mod order from ModTek - I am also running Turbine, Battletech Performance Fix, and Shut Up Darius;

"A Little Love BugMech Fix",
"Advanced Difficulty Settings",
"AIM: Attack Improvement Mod",
"AldathZeroWeightMods",
"AugmentedEvents",
"BasicPanicSystem",
"BattletechPerformanceFix",
"GT_WeaponDiversityPlus",
"HotD-PhoenixHawk",
"HotD-Warhammer",
"ImprovedTacticalDepthNoSkillChanges",
"JK_MinorAdjustmentsForPlus",
"Lore-Friendly Campaign",
"MechResizer",
"MeleeMover",
"Mission Control",
"Open Map at a Point of Your Choosing",
"PermanentEvasion",
"Planet Difficulty Variety and Contract Tweaks",
"ScorchedEarth",
"StopOverpayingPilots",
"UnseenMechs_UsingExistingModels",
"Z9_CTWTE_GT_WeaponsAddon",
"CommanderPortraitLoader"

 

[ronhatch]

First thing I would suggest is to narrow down the problem.

If someone is willing to attempt to run the exact same set of mods and see if they have the same issue, great... but whether or not that happens, it won't get fixed unless someone takes the time to figure out what's wrong. Which will be a lot easier if we can tell the mod author(s) where to look.

I'd use a variation on what is known as a binary search... the goal is to try as few combinations as possible while figuring out which mod(s) are the issue. Try disabling all mods and verify that the problem does NOT occur (just to establish a baseline and prove disabling them is working correctly). Then enable half of the mods and see if the bug happens... then try the other half. What you do next depends on the results:

• If the problem occurs ONLY with one half and not the other, then you can eliminate half of the mods from consideration and you can repeat the process of halving the set of mods where the problem is and see what happens with the smaller set.
• If the problem doesn't occur with EITHER half, then it is likely that the problem is an interaction between two mods in different halves. Try halving the mods in a different way (probably best to swap half of each half to maximize the combinations tested) and re-test.
• If the problem occurs with BOTH halves... well... hopefully that won't happen. That wouldn't be very helpful and could point to some deeper issue.

Ideally, by repeating the process you can narrow it down to just two mods that when loaded together cause a problem... if so, that would make it MUCH easier to figure out where the incompatibility is.

 

[rogueranger]

Thanks for the advice, ronhatch. I was hoping someone might have known about an incompatibility from personal experience, but I was planning on testing things out myself just in case no one else knew. Thanks for the help with testing methods, I'll definitely use it to see if I can find the issue.

 

[ronhatch]

You're welcome. (Though I do wish I had time to help investigate.)

Also, it occurs to me now that you might want to try to keep mods that do similar things together as long as possible while you're testing the various sets of mods... anything changing the same files is more likely to have a conflict, and the most useful test result happens when one of the sets DOES have a problem.

 

[rogueranger]

Yeah, I kinda suspect (just based on a hunch) that AIM and Tactical Depth may be conflicting somehow, since IIRC they edit some of the same values. I have no proof that such is the case, but it's one of the first things I intend to try. As an update, removing Mission Control allowed me to play the opening mission up until the betrayal started, and then it did the same thing - so progress, I guess?

 

[ronhatch]

Yeah, I kinda suspect (just based on a hunch) that AIM and Tactical Depth may be conflicting somehow, since IIRC they edit some of the same values. I have no proof that such is the case, but it's one of the first things I intend to try. As an update, removing Mission Control allowed me to play the opening mission up until the betrayal started, and then it did the same thing - so progress, I guess?

Well, yes and no.

Ideally, when figuring out what is wrong with something... honestly, you want it to break fast and completely. Makes further testing quicker and you can be more confident when it doesn't break that you've found the root cause.

 

[Pode]

I encountered something similar and traced it to Basic Panic System being incompatible with ModTek. I need to use Basic Panic System with ModTek instead. Both have been forked and the current versions by new authors work with each other, but the old identically named versions only work with each other. You have to use new BPS with new MT, old BPS only works with old MT.

 

[rogueranger]

Hey, thanks, I'll give it a shot and see if that helps!