Well, the EASIEST way is to change all your encounters in patrol paths. So, instead of:

encounter = patrolp_assault, 8, 1.00000

change them to:

encounter = area_assault, 8, 1.00000

That will eliminate the crashes and is the easiest way to do it. However, that does have drawabacks - the npcs will not take down trade lanes, etc. If you really want to have proper patrol paths, prepare for a LOT more work. You will need to create paths that connect to a jump hole or a base, need to use the correct encounters for the correct type of path and faction, and some other little details.

But I would suggest that for now, you go with eliminating any of the patrolp_assault, tradep_trade, etc. Change those to area_assault and area_trade, etc and your crashes will go away. =)

In FLE, I beleive that is not under the patrol list, but instead under Zone Population. Using those makes the system almost empty.
Please can someone tell me how to get the patrols to work, preferrably with FLE, but if it can't be done in that, I'll try any other ways

"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

Sorry, I should have explained that you have to do this manually. Basically, FLE does NOT work well for patrols. If you do create patrols in FLE, then they HAVE to connect to a jump hole or jump gate. But even then they will be prone to crashes. So, create the patrols in FLE, then go back and manually change the encounters.

No, what I meant was, that when you change it to area assault, i beleive that it's just a zone population thing.
I'll give it a go though.
What program do I use to do it?

"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

to attack the encounter prob...the program is good ole note pad for ini editing

"To live is to die....but living is to die slowly..why waste time on trivial things just play as hard as you can"

I use INI editor. Should work just as well, right?
I've just created a new patrol in FLE (as usual starting and ending at an outcast base) and I'm just about to see if this works

"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

Okay: here's the deal: for once the game let me enter my system. I followed the only patrol that works (an Armed Forces one) for about 85 KM. We ended up at the AF base, Calamari Station. Half of the patrol went off towards my hypergate, the other went off towards the Outcast base, Order of Corruption. I followed the one headed towards the OoC. We went along for a few minutes, then suddenly the game crashed.
Prior to playing the game, I had gone onto the INI editor, and changed it from patrolp_assault bla bla bla to area_assault etc. etc.
So what's happening?

"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

There may still be an error in the ini files dictating the encounters. The reason the game didn't crash when you first entered the system is that you happened to get an encounter the game didn't mind. But then, the moment you found one that it did mind, crashola! Make sure all the EncounterParameters are set correctly

Are all of your patrols set to area_assault?

Because if you have any that are set to patrolp_whatever or tradep_whatever, you are going to have problems when you encounter a hostile faction (crash).

Basically, don't use patrolp, just use area_assault for all your patrol paths.

The first patrol I make in each system, in this case the AF one, is absolutely fine. But before I read the post about all being set to area_assault, I realised my mistake Now the Outcast patrol is fully operational.
Of course, there are downsides to it Now my bases in that system isn't working: you can start in it, but when you try to undock or dock on it, CRASH. Any ideas? Might it be to do with the patrols?

"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

hmm, well if it crashes when you DOCK, then I'm not sure, it could be anything. But if it is only crashing as soon as you UNDOCK, then it is definately a problem with your encounters (probably patrols, but could be other encounters as well).

But docking and undocking problems might be connected to each other. Because the encounters appear to work fine.

"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

This is very strange...I went into the system, and found an AF patrol. They went through a jumpgate, then I went to a tradelane. Just as I started to move in the lane, the game crashed. It's never done that before...
EDIT: tried again, same thing happened. Went on again, and ignored the first lane ring. Tried to dock with the second, and it worked. Arrived at Calamari Station, and went to Dock One. That worked. When I tested the undock, game crashed. So:
1) First trade lane ring causing crash.
2) Undocking from Station causing crash
The only patrol running near that first trade lane ring is an AF one, and the computer doesn't mind that patrol. The same patrol runs by Calamari Station, but there's also an outcast patrol that worked last night when I tried it. I will probably delete the trade lane and insert a new one

"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

Edited by - Zack Lyons on 6/2/2004 4:09:12 AM

I noticed a few things when I created some new systems...

I had a similar crashing problem when getting near a lane, all I did to fix it was start a new profile... some data is stored in your profile and if it gets edited on the system, they dont match and the game crashes.