Tutorial: How to Download & install BotF & Mods

[alan090179]

I have downloaded BotF from this site (Thank you very much... I couldnt get my original copy to play on widows 7) but now the game doesn't save any games when I try to save... it says "saving" then when I go back to the load page, its empty.... any ideas would be greatfully appreciated.

[thunderchero]

try right clicking on trek.exe in install folder and run as admin.

thunderchero

[alan090179]

Thankyou, that worked

[Tweez]

I am having problems starting Borg Incursion Mod. I downloaded 1.0.2 multi-installer and I successfully downloaded UDMIII and UNCivil Wars. Whenever I click on the Borg Incursion icon, I get a trek.exe Entry Point not found error with the message "The procedure entry point_AIL_init_sample@4 could not be located in the dynamic link library MSS32.DLL." I am new to modding so be patient with me if I am asking a question with a solution already posted. Thanks for your help and thanks for keeping BOTF alive with these mods.

[KrazeeXXL]

I'm not sure if you installed the multi version of this mod and if there is even one. I know, tc converted lots of mod to be fully multi-compatible but I'm not sure about this one.
So, the problem might be that this mod isn't multi-mod compatible. Take a look under multi-mods. if it's listed there, it should be.

The last time I've played it, is some years ago. It is a mod w/o much support iirc.

If you want to play a newer mod with some BORG, I'd suggest to play Tethys' Galaxies Mod.

note: it's a wip and under construction but technically way more advanced than BORG Incursions mod.



tc could help you more. But he seems to be busy at the moment. But expect an answer soon.


Welcome to afc,

greetz K

[thunderchero]

I'm not sure if you installed the multi version of this mod and if there is even one.

yes there is a multi installer version, I just tested and installed and ran with no problems.

so make sure you downloaded the multi installer version.

but with this message.

I get a trek.exe Entry Point not found error with the message "The procedure entry point_AIL_init_sample@4 could not be located in the dynamic link library MSS32.DLL."

this is common if installer does not properly find the backup files. (english.res in BOTF folder) Did you install main multi installer to default path (C:\BOTF)?

what was the lanuage you installed main multi installer as?

thunderchero

[Bolle]

Hey guys,
I don't know if I'm at the right place here, but yeah. I'm looking for some help with this great game. After 12 years not playing it I found this good old CD in my closet, and installed it.
It's hella fun playing this again, and I played a campaign with all 5 races so far. After that I googled this site here, and installed the Main Installer + the UDMIII mod. Well, the game keeps crashing like it always did 12 years ago. That hasn't changed. I usually work around this by saving every 2 rounds. It's not very enjoyable to play like this, but I just love this game too much.

Anyway, I just wanted to ask if there is anything I can do to stop the game from crashing. Using windows 7 btw.

Greetings

[Tethys]

Some people experience reduced crashing with the MPR++ that Flocke is working on. I believe its in the Modding Information section.

[Bolle]

Some people experience reduced crashing with the MPR++ that Flocke is working on. I believe its in the Modding Information section.

Thank you, I left a message for Flocke in his thread.
But there must be something else I can do here. I mean, how do you guys play this game? As I saw people here play it online, which can't be possible with all those crashes, so there must be something that can be done about this.
I had 3 friends back then who also played Botf, and everyone had those crashes.

[Flocke]

well, one of the usual causes is in stbof.ini 3D is set to Direct3D (Hades patch), it doesn't work well with newer systems so set it to 3D=SOFTWARE
beside that, how often does it crash, when does it crash and what mod if any?

[Bolle]

well, one of the usual causes is in stbof.ini 3D is set to Direct3D (Hades patch), it doesn't work well with newer systems so set it to 3D=SOFTWARE
beside that, how often does it crash, when does it crash and what mod if any?

I'm playing the Ultimate Dominion Mod 3 using windows7 64bit. Besides that there is nothing else installed. And I installed the software? version of the Main Installer, not the Hades thingy.
I really wish I could tell you more about it, but the crashes appear completely random. Sometimes when I save the game, sometimes when I push turn, another time when I'm clicking around in the production menu of planets. On rare occasions I can play one hour straight without crashing.
To me the crashes look like the usual stuff that all of my friends experienced too 13 years ago.

Well, thanks for replying anyway. It's great that there still is a community for this old game. Was always searching for something similar I could learn to like, but that never happened.

[Flocke]

that doesn't sound right, UDM3 is pretty stable and I can play many hours with no crash
is there anything in Crash.log?
Further you can check the windows event log (windows Ereignisanzeige in systemsteuerung -> verwaltung) and see if it's always same error and write it down here.
You could also try update your graphics drivers. What graphics card do you have?

[Bolle]

that doesn't sound right, UDM3 is pretty stable and I can play many hours with no crash
is there anything in Crash.log?
Further you can check the windows event log (windows Ereignisanzeige in systemsteuerung -> verwaltung) and see if it's always same error and write it down here.
You could also try update your graphics drivers. What graphics card do you have?

I reinstalled everything again to see how it works. Got no time to play today, so I'm going to post my experiences tomorrow or the day after.
Graphics card is a geforce gtx 560 ti. Drivers are uptodate.

[Bolle]

I've tested it a bit so far. After the complete reinstall it crashed 2 times for now. Everytime it happened during combat. But I was able to play for an hour at least.

Yeah, the only crashes happen during combat now.

[KrazeeXXL]

I really wish I could tell you more about it, but the crashes appear completely random. Sometimes when I save the game, sometimes when I push turn, another time when I'm clicking around in the production menu of planets. On rare occasions I can play one hour straight without crashing.

The GUI of this old game is bugged as hell, unfortunately.


I recommend to make use of the hotkeys as much as possible and use the mouse as less as possible.

When you save a game, don't click with the mouse on OK but press the ENTER key instead.

Don't click on the turn button either, use the hotkey "T" instead. I'm doing this for quite a while now and this reduced a couple of crashes for me. The GUI seems to have a lot of holes. you misclick something or doubleclick, whatever and it gets buggy or crashes altogether.

When the tactical combat is starting, hit backspace to make that spinning stop. Using mouse while it is spinning, tends to crash the game pretty often.


Dunno what's really up with the mouse and errors related to it in this game. Perhaps some kind of input/lag bug.
Since we now have higher desktop resolutions, way more FPS, this might be the overkill for this old buggy engine.