[Boris The Spider]

Following fabinfreds Trains tutorial ( viewtopic.php?t=8432&highlight=trains ) I tried adding a new Japanese column. I wanted one that had an AAA car (ZIS5-AA) along with a radio truck (ZIS5-Radio). So I opened the chiefs.ini file in

C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\MODS\STD\com\maddox\il2\objects

and under

[Vehicles]
moveType VEHICLE

I added right after

JapanCarsColumnC ai.ground.ChiefGround 2 icons/car.mat
the line:
JapanCarsColumnD ai.ground.ChiefGround 2 icons/car.mat

Then, going down to where the column consists were identified and right below

[Vehicles.JapanCarsColumnC]
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Kurogane
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$HoHa
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$HoHa
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94

I added these lines:

[Vehicles.JapanCarsColumnD]
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Kurogane
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$ZIS5_radio
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$HoHa
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$Truck_Type94
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.cars.Car$ZIS6_fuel
com.maddox.il2.objects.vehicles.tanks.Tank$ZIS5_AA

After saving (not Save As) the game crashes to desktop at 70% loading.

Anyone have an idea why or what I did wrong?

Thanks in advance.

[Guest]

Boris, i successfully added some columns a LONG time back, just after fabianfred released his mod. For the life of me, I can't remember what I did. :oops:. ..the old memory cells are slipping.. :wink:
If you don't get any help here, fred's still around, he posted yesterday... maybe send him a PM, I'm sure he'll be glad to help... 8)

[Boris The Spider]

So I removed the above lines and saved but I still get a CTD @ 70%.

If I remove the chiefs.ini file from the STD folder the game loads fine. So that file is the problem.

I tried a link I found during a search of the site in a fabinfred post to his "chiefs.rar" but that file wasn't there. I guess he removed it.

So now what? A complete re-install of the Mods? I got a ton of mod objects and mod maps.

My install is prior to the UI installer...ah well.

[fabianfred]

what you put into your chief.ini is correctly done..... BUT I noticed that there are certain vehicle types which cannot be added to a column....

trial and error

[fabianfred]

want to try my chief.ini .... I'll post it to my site for download now and let you have a link here when it is done

[fabianfred]

http://www.4shared.com/file/106349525/e ... chief.html

there are extra tank columns in my chief.ini.... so it requires the install of the tank pack which gave us the Grant/Lee tank and others.... :wink:

[Boris The Spider]

Thanks for the quick reply and the link. I tried adding your chief.ini file but I still get a CTD @ 70%

what you put into your chief.ini is correctly done..... BUT I noticed that there are certain vehicle types which cannot be added to a column....

I have noticed that. However the cars I added were copy/pastes from other columns that work so I don't see the problem there. Wait...could it be that you can't mix Red and Blue vihicles? Is it possible to add a Blue ZIS truck?
In the chief.ini file the ZIS5_AA is coded:

ZIS5_AA ai.ground.ChiefGround 1 icons/car.mat

Could I add:
ZIS5_AA ai.ground.ChiefGround 2 icons/car.mat

to this file? Or would that be a conflict?

[Boris The Spider]

Well I found a backup to the chief.ini file from before I started mucking about with it and installed it but no joy.

I also downloaded and installed to a desktop folder the UI1.1 and patched it to 1.1.1
Oddly there is no "chief.ini" file in that STD folder.

Maybe it is time for a fresh install of the UI.

EDIT: I again took out the chief.ini file and loaded the game. I was looking at the columns in the View tab of the FMB and noticed that although in the chief file a column may be described as "JapaneseCarColumnB" in the FMB it's called "Japanese Transport Column 1". Is there a place to add/edit names that appear in the FMB lists? Could that be part of the problem?

[Boris The Spider]

I began a big search of the site and read every post I could find on CTD's, car/train/ship columns, tutorials on making them etc., etc. I found lots of useful information that I copied into a Notepad file for future reference. Although nothing seemed to help it got me thinking that since I have tons of backups and backups of backups and backups....you get the idea, I must have a working .ini file somewhere. So I started searching by huge library of stuff I have d/l'ed for IL-2 over the past 7 years, (some 126GB worth), and finally found a chief.ini that worked.

What helped most was Winmerge. I can't thank enough the person or persons that kept recommending this wonderful tool. By comparing the .ini's I found I came to the realization that what was happening was I was continuing to find and use chief.ini files that contained references to ShipPak2. I had downloaded and installed that some time back but later disabled then deleted the folder as it was too troublesome. (Too bad because it had some great ships in it.) What I had failed to do was edit my chiefs file.
Be that as it may, I found an .ini file that also contained not only new car columns (that worked) but also some train combos that fabianfred had worked out. ff was kind enough to PM me his latest chiefs file but it had some tanks I had not included in my install. So, upon finding an .ini file I liked, I removed all references to SP2 objects and viola!

So the upshot is, I have a working game again, I have some new custom car columns and some new custom train columns, including a three car consist of passenger coaches that acts like an interurban train. I think I have ff to thank for those.

To everyone who helped, tried to help or just felt the pain of having the game CTD at ___%, THANK YOU, for your suggestions, ideas and support.

(BTW, I read in the lateset Oleg interview that some of the modders here are working on SoW as a direct result of their work here? How cool and kudos to them, though yet unnamed.)

Now, back the FMB.
Cheers.