CW2 - "Bug" prevents reading of storyline scripts

Erile · July 26, 2014, 01:27:57 PM

There is a significant problem in CW2. If you go to build something at the exact moment a script pops up on the page, the dialogue box closes on you and you can't read it any longer. I am very interested in the storylines, but have not been allowed to read many of them because of this bug. I don't know whether the box closure is a result of unfortunate timing of using game hotkeys or if it is something embedded within the game. In the later missions, this is a real problem because I am always doing 20 things at once in game and have been missing most of the story.

So currently, the only obvious way I can read most of the story is to repeat the missions over and over and hope that the timing doesn't make the boxes go away. For example, I have repeated mission 16 at least 20 times and still have not been allowed to read all of the storyline. As the missions get longer, this is getting less and less desirable. :(

As the dialogues are the primary reward in the game, this has been very upsetting. :( is there any way to review them after mission completion? I couldn't find them on the wiki, and I don't see an option in the game menu to review dialogues for completed missions.

knucracker · July 26, 2014, 02:59:43 PM

I'm not experiencing this issue... could you give some more details on exactly what you do that causes the story dialogs to disappear? On mission 16 I fly underground and pick up the cube and get a story box. FOcus on that example and give me a step by step of when the popup story box disappears and what action causes it.

Erile · July 27, 2014, 03:14:55 PM

I'm not sure what causes the story box to disappear. For me, the dialogue pops up on the screen and then disappears just as quickly without me doing anything. So in mission 16, the dialogue pops up and then it simply vanishes without me doing anything. The only thing that seems to be in common is that I am either in the 'make a new structure/weapon' selection or I have selected a weapon and am attempting to move it. That is why I suggested that perhaps it is either a result of unfortunate timing of hotkeys (like I hit a button before it popped up that made it disappear) or that starting an ongoing process before the dialogue pops up closes the dialogue because of some confusion on the part of the game.

Now, if this is the case, its possible that if I stop doing anything for 5 minutes around the time I think a dialogue will pop-up that maybe it won't go away. This seems to work somewhat when I repeat missions where the dialogue is clearly prompted by an object, but does nothing to help other, more random, dialogues. It also does not help when ceasing activity for 5 minutes gets me killed nor does it help when it will take me at least an hour to try and get that dialogue again every time it is missed.

Note that it happens in many different missions. I know that when I play the game, I am constantly building and moving things and I use the keyboard hotkeys all the time in that process (because I do not have a standard mouse). Its more of a problem in later missions probably because how much stuff is going on in the background. Its also worse because of the time it takes to repeat the mission - I've currently given up playing the game at 17 because I didn't get all the dialogues in that mission either and don't want to spend hours doing the mission over and over attempting to get all the dialogues.

Karsten75 · July 27, 2014, 05:57:40 PM

I recall that somewhere, someone had made a readable file of all the in-game CW2 dialogues? But where is the question, maybe someone else might have an idea...

knucracker · July 28, 2014, 08:57:38 AM

On Day 16 you can paint 5 cells to excavate, then move the ship underground. Try only doing that and then clicking the holocube to collect it. Do nothing else, no key presses or anything other than the bar minimum to get the dialog and see if it pops up and goes away immediately.

The key bindings are "Space" will advance through each page of the dialog and the "ESC" key will dismiss the message. So if you are pressing ESC a whole lot, that will do it.

Other than that, I can only think to make sure you have the latest Adobe AIR installed ( http://get.adobe.com/air/ ) and naturally do a full system reboot (not just a hibernate or other restored state) to eliminate any machine state issues.

Erile · July 28, 2014, 09:24:13 PM

Quote from: Karsten75 on July 27, 2014, 05:57:40 PM
I recall that somewhere, someone had made a readable file of all the in-game CW2 dialogues? But where is the question, maybe someone else might have an idea...

That would be a fantastic and helpful enjoy of the game despite the problem. :) I have done internet searches and checked the wiki but unfortunately didn't find anything.

Quote from: virgilw on July 28, 2014, 08:57:38 AM
On Day 16 you can paint 5 cells to excavate, then move the ship underground. Try only doing that and then clicking the holocube to collect it. Do nothing else, no key presses or anything other than the bar minimum to get the dialog and see if it pops up and goes away immediately.

I have tested that already. If I get the first holocube on Mission 16 before anything else, it always works - probably because the problem is linked to having buildings and activity going on. Initial dialogues in missions always work and dialogues obtained before structures and weapons always work. Thus, this scenario is unfortunately not relevant because the stated problem is in relation to dialogues that come up while the mission is ongoing.

Quote from: virgilw on July 28, 2014, 08:57:38 AMThe key bindings are "Space" will advance through each page of the dialog and the "ESC" key will dismiss the message. So if you are pressing ESC a whole lot, that will do it.

This may be the case as I suggested above, but that means there is a big problem with the game. Based on my testing this would mean that pressing ESC can cancel a dialogue for up to 3 full minutes after pressing it. This would mean that the game is not reacting instantly to keystroke commands and showing significant delays in dealing with them. If this is the problem (which it may be), then the game is broken and unplayable with relation to the storyline.

Quote from: virgilw on July 28, 2014, 08:57:38 AMOther than that, I can only think to make sure you have the latest Adobe AIR installed ( http://get.adobe.com/air/ ) and naturally do a full system reboot (not just a hibernate or other restored state) to eliminate any machine state issues.

It is always updated, and full reboots are done every day or multiple times a day (I never use hibernate or any equivalent feature - I don't even have them set up).

knucracker · July 29, 2014, 08:58:33 AM

I've tried a bunch but am completely unable to reproduce this problem. Since CW2 has about 3 years of life and I've not had this bug report before, I thought it might be related to the latest Adobe AIR. But everything seems fine on my test machines and no one else has reported this same problem. The best I can do is give you all of the text for the dialogs for all of the days. That will at least let you see what you missed.

The attached zip has all of the story text for CW2.

Erile · July 29, 2014, 01:23:43 PM

Thank you every much! :)

(I should add that I did try this game years ago as well, but the dialogues had zero functionality back then on a completely different computer/OS. I did report it back then but had no success - I actually "returned" the game because of the problem. I also knew other people that had many problems with the dialogues back then. So it isn't a new problem and has been experienced by numerous people.)