[FIXED] Crash at starting first Sir Melvin mission

To the brilliant and inspired creators of this masterpiece-in-progress,

I seem to be getting a crash when trying to launch the first Sir Melvin mission in the Prologue. Only that one, as far as I have observed. The mission loads to 81%, then I get the following error message from Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library:
____________________________________
Debug Assertion Failed!

Program: C:\Program Files (x86)\The Protectors\The Protectors.exe
File: D:\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.10.25017\include\
vector
Line: 1740

Expression: vector subscript out of range

For information on how your program can cause an assertion failure, see the Visual C++ documentation on asserts.

(Press Retry to debug the application)
_____________________________________

Needless to say, Retry does not work, and Ignore causes CTD. (Unfortunately I know zero about C++.) What do you think?

We've had this report before (and fixed it in 0.9). To quote from Kharn:

Kharn wrote:

And then there's a crash trying to load some of the Chapters. You'll get a Vector Subscript error during the 81% mark of the loading screen which is the faction cache blowing up because the Chapter's mission uses an invalid race/faction entry when trying to read data from the cache. This technically can be fixed on the user's end but it's a little more complicated than traditional fixes, as it requires the use of an XCR tool and editing specific .MAP files found in the Chapter's XCR file.

Hmm, that’s a pity, I was really hoping to play the chapters. I guess the only thing to do is to wait for 0.9, then? (Unless you happen to have detailed instructions for the fix on my end )

EDIT: You know, if you just tell me a good tool to use with which to edit the .MAP files and how exactly I should edit it, I believe I can do it myself. I'm looking at the chapter's XCR file here, and I see the following:

MAP_PIRATEamb1.map
MAP_ROPcity1.map
MAP_ROPcity2.map
MAP_ROPcity3.map
MAP_THEcity1.map
MAP_THEcity2.map
MAP_TrollAmbush.map

I assume the relevant file is MAP_ROPcity1.map and those after it? What program should I make use of to open these?

Notepad will do. They are all just text files.

Hmm. Are you sure Notepad will work? Because it looks like gibberish, unless I am doing something wrong here. MAP_ROPcity1.map looks like

.CæØŹA-uC¤,„µR,ÅVõ]Ç…ýå.tæ -˜Vb-u# „µe¤:CR“,:¤ì9eÅVõ] Ç…ýå.þæb-•VŹ
õu#æHAæ
AعVH#uWXVAA-HuW˜¹Ìu]b-•-bu&­-##uW Ç…ýå.ƒVA-VAuW
-#¹
Å-#ua-æ uW Ç…ýå.ƒVA-VAu]
æÅ-uWa
-#¹
Å-#ua-æ u]æVuWH¹X-
¹u]H¹
-VH-u] Ç…ýå.ƒVA-VAua
æÅ-u]&
-#¹
Å-#ua-æ u]æVuH¹X-
¹u]H¹
-VH-u] Ç…ýå.ƒVA-VAuz
æÅ-u]&
-#¹
Å-#ua-æ u]æVuWH¹X-
¹u]H¹
-VH-u] Ç…ý. CæØÇ…ý

Use unit editor MFC to extract the MAP files from the XCR while also decrypting. Then open the extracted decrypted MAP files with notepad.

Alternatively, you can use XCR.exe to directly edit the MAP file without extracting. It all depends on the tool you use.

Okay that's awesome, thank you! Now one last thing: what do I add/change? Here are the files:

Map code="MAP_ROPcity1"
Name file="sm_REALMOFPLAGUEcity1"/
Battle victory="standard" points="0" hidden="0" fog="1" level="5" quests="0"/
Side id="0" resources="2" team="0"/
Side id="1" race="02"  resources="2" team="1" ai="0" nohero="1" noretinue="1"/
Side id="2" race="15"  resources="2" team="1" ai="8" nohero="1" noretinue="1"/
Side id="3" race="15"  resources="2" team="1" ai="0" nohero="1" noretinue="1"/
/Map


Map code="MAP_ROPcity2"
Name file="sm_REALMOFPLAGUEcity2"/
Battle victory="standard" points="0" hidden="1" fog="1" level="0" quests="0"/
Side id="0" resources="2" team="0"/
Side id="1" race="02"  resources="2" team="1" ai="0" nohero="1" noretinue="1"/
Side id="2" race="15"  resources="2" team="1" ai="0" nohero="0" noretinue="1"/
/Map


Map code="MAP_ROPcity3"
Name file="sm_REALMOFPLAGUEcity1"/
Battle victory="standard" points="0" hidden="0" fog="1" level="5" quests="0"/
Side id="0" resources="2" team="0"/
Side id="1" race="02"  resources="2" team="1" ai="0" nohero="1" noretinue="1"/
Side id="2" race="15"  resources="2" team="1" ai="3" nohero="0" noretinue="1"/
/Map

You need to edit ACT_ROPcity1.act line 1 to:

Code:

<Action code="ACT_ROPcity1" type="battle">

EDIT: Whoops, at first that did not work, then I realized it was because I was trying to edit without running as administrator.

Thank you so much Mr. Winekiller! Works beautifully :-) I appreciate your patience in walking me through all this.

Fixed in 0.9. Topic closed.