User talk:Wombat140
Need help with bug problem[edit]
I know this is a question for the forums, but I'm asking here because I can't get into the forum; I've registered but the activation e-mail arrives blank wih no link in it. (I've tried requesting another activation e-mail, same result.) Am I right in thinking that the Bugzilla bug reporting thing no longer exists, by the way?
The problem is simple, I started playing the game but none of the in-game menus have text in them, they're all blank - just 5 blank items, or 4, or 6, as the case may be. Things happen when I select them, it's evidently just the text that's affected. I've been trying to work out what everything does by trial and error, but there are limits to how much you can do that way! (I got as far as orbiting Mercury and scanning it, but can't find a way to land.) Do you know how to fix this? If not, could you maybe post it on the forum for me, please? Would like to be able to find a way past this - loved the game as far as I got!
- Howdy Camper. this is beyond my range of experise. i'd solve it by deleting the game entirely and then downloading it again. Donutcity (talk) 22:23, 30 January 2017 (CET)
- Thanks Donutcity, I might just end up doing that. Everything else works fine, that's the funny thing, but you could be right, our Internet's a bit wobbly and I've had things download with slight blips in them before. By the way I'm running it on Windows XP if that's any help, I forgot to say (not this computer, a different computer which doesn't have Internet and therefore can run whatever I like). And I installed it by the no-Internet method, as per http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/The_Ur-Quan_Masters_Technical_FAQ#How_do_I_install_the_game_on_Windows_without_an_internet_connection.3F Wombat140 (talk) 23:37, 30 January 2017 (CET)
- No, didn't work I'm afraid. Just occurred to me, do you think it might be a missing DLL? (something that the game uses that ought to already be on my computer, rather than being in the installation package, and happens not to be?) I've had problems vaguely like this with other downloaded indie programs before that turned out to be due to missing DLLs. Good news is, I've worked out a few more of the menu items and succeeded in landing on Mercury! I remembered that thing about the UQM files really being ZIP files with a different extension, and opened up the UQM content file to scout around for clues, and found a file called "gamestrings.txt" which includes the text of the menu items in what seems to be roughly the order in which they appear. Rather fun, working it out like a puzzle. I'm now stuck at the bit where you fight the Ilwrath, but I don't think that's the menus' fault, I think that's due to me not having got the hang of fighting yet. :-D Wombat140 (talk) 20:11, 2 February 2017 (CET)
- G'day there. Is the forum registration issue one that you'd like to pursue? We could ask about that for you. A bug reporting thing still exists (here), but that's as much I can contribute about this. That would be the correct place to report the menu text issue, and I see there was some activity there last year, so it's still active. Feel free to ask about the menus though. Cheers --Zeracles (talk) 03:00, 4 February 2017 (CET)
- That would be good if you could ask whether anything can be done about the forum problem, please. And thanks for the link to the bug reporting thing. (The links for that in the wiki and on the forum seem to be outdated and give a different address which doesn't work.) I might post it in the future... but I haven't got a spare e-mail address and can't face sorting one out. Pity they arranged it like that, I don't see why. Wombat140 (talk) 15:25, 4 February 2017 (CET)
- G'day there. Is the forum registration issue one that you'd like to pursue? We could ask about that for you. A bug reporting thing still exists (here), but that's as much I can contribute about this. That would be the correct place to report the menu text issue, and I see there was some activity there last year, so it's still active. Feel free to ask about the menus though. Cheers --Zeracles (talk) 03:00, 4 February 2017 (CET)
- No, didn't work I'm afraid. Just occurred to me, do you think it might be a missing DLL? (something that the game uses that ought to already be on my computer, rather than being in the installation package, and happens not to be?) I've had problems vaguely like this with other downloaded indie programs before that turned out to be due to missing DLLs. Good news is, I've worked out a few more of the menu items and succeeded in landing on Mercury! I remembered that thing about the UQM files really being ZIP files with a different extension, and opened up the UQM content file to scout around for clues, and found a file called "gamestrings.txt" which includes the text of the menu items in what seems to be roughly the order in which they appear. Rather fun, working it out like a puzzle. I'm now stuck at the bit where you fight the Ilwrath, but I don't think that's the menus' fault, I think that's due to me not having got the hang of fighting yet. :-D Wombat140 (talk) 20:11, 2 February 2017 (CET)
- Thanks Donutcity, I might just end up doing that. Everything else works fine, that's the funny thing, but you could be right, our Internet's a bit wobbly and I've had things download with slight blips in them before. By the way I'm running it on Windows XP if that's any help, I forgot to say (not this computer, a different computer which doesn't have Internet and therefore can run whatever I like). And I installed it by the no-Internet method, as per http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/The_Ur-Quan_Masters_Technical_FAQ#How_do_I_install_the_game_on_Windows_without_an_internet_connection.3F Wombat140 (talk) 23:37, 30 January 2017 (CET)
Been away for a bit with work but am looking into this now - will get back to you soon --Zeracles (talk) 07:06, 11 February 2017 (CET)
Okay, I've asked the boss guy at the forum (meep-eep) about your problem and he may be able to help you. I fixed one link to the bug reporting site. If you see any more broken links on this wiki feel free to fix or let us know so we can. Another thing you can try is registering at the Star Control Discussion Board. If you are able to register there that would imply that the problem lies with the UQM forum and not with you. And you would be able to discuss star control there too. --Zeracles (talk) 07:41, 11 February 2017 (CET)
- I've found out what the problem is. You'll laugh. I'm playing on an old CRT monitor with the green broken. (We keep meaning to take it to see if it can be fixed - I've heard that it might be possible - but it never happens. LCD screens make me jittery.) The text was there all the time, but because those particular bits of text were in pure green, they were invisible! I only found out when I put a screenshot of Sol System into an image-editing filter to remind myself where Venus was. I must see about getting that monitor fixed. Until hen, is there any way of changing the text colour? I found a green font gradient file and changed it to white and that's got me a little of the text back, but apparently most of the green text - including the menus - doesn't use gradients. As regards the forums, I'm still getting the same problem - the UQM forum will send me an activation e-mail but it's blank. I tired joining the Star Control forum but that's causing a difffernt problem - that one has to be manually activated by a moderaor and it says it'll e-mail again when that happens; that was on Monday and so far there hasn't been any message.Wombat140 (talk) 23:24, 16 February 2017 (CET)
- Ah. I had a CRT with blue missing, many years ago. I'm not aware of any way to change the text colour. It's possible that the colours are different in UQM-HD, but I don't have that handy to check. If the meep at UQMF hasn't replied to you, he probably thinks the problem is at your end and is too busy to think about it any harder than that. I do see that a member has been able to register there successfully in the past two days. As for SCDB, it isn't surprising that they're slow to act, the mods there aren't exactly on the ball. When they do, though, let me know and we'll know how long it takes to register an account there, it sounds like it's not good enough - then maybe we can improve the response for future new members. Sorry about this. --Zeracles (talk) 08:13, 19 February 2017 (CET)