I honestly don't expect anyone to have run into this issue before, let alone have a solution, but here goes:
Long story short, if you play on a given map/area/bunker for more than 20-30 cumulative hours (leaving a PC on, such as with Tough Guy mode without pausing the gameplay), the game freezes. The UI still responds, but actions within the game are ignored.
When I spend more than 20-30 hours in a given area, regardless of saving/loading to clear memory leaks, the game freezes. I think it's related to some sort of internal turn-counter reaching its maximum value. That's my hunch.
I don't think it's memory-related. I've tested and verified it's not action-related: It doesn't matter whether I stand still or lockpick for 30 hours -- it freezes regardless. It also accumulates between saves and accumulates when you switch areas -- even if you leave an area and come back to it, it resumes the counter. For example, bunker #2 only has about 4 hours left on its turn-counter before my game freezes forever, regardless of what I do. 2-3 other missions are within 8 hours of freezing. This is why I assume it's a cumulative, area-based, turn-counter.
So a possible solution would be finding a variable in the area files that represents # of turns which have occurred in the area and set it back to 0 -- or patch the executable to handle counters with higher precision.
Any thoughts? Does this ring a bell for anyone?
<disclaimer>
I'm playing on Tough Guy mode. I've dealt with my share of crashes, losing 8-10 hour chunks at a time, but I always end up coming back several months later.
I'm on Mission 8 now, and I discovered I could raise my experience by practicing lockpicking on certain lockers repeatedly. Lockpicking was a lot of fun for about 20 minutes -- much easier experience than that found on the harsh wastes, and risk-free. When this lost entertainment value, I set up my keyboard and mouse to click the locker automatically while I left my computer running. I enjoy doing this a lot -- feels like a simulation is left running while I sleep.
</disclaimer>
Long story short, if you play on a given map/area/bunker for more than 20-30 cumulative hours (leaving a PC on, such as with Tough Guy mode without pausing the gameplay), the game freezes. The UI still responds, but actions within the game are ignored.
When I spend more than 20-30 hours in a given area, regardless of saving/loading to clear memory leaks, the game freezes. I think it's related to some sort of internal turn-counter reaching its maximum value. That's my hunch.
I don't think it's memory-related. I've tested and verified it's not action-related: It doesn't matter whether I stand still or lockpick for 30 hours -- it freezes regardless. It also accumulates between saves and accumulates when you switch areas -- even if you leave an area and come back to it, it resumes the counter. For example, bunker #2 only has about 4 hours left on its turn-counter before my game freezes forever, regardless of what I do. 2-3 other missions are within 8 hours of freezing. This is why I assume it's a cumulative, area-based, turn-counter.
So a possible solution would be finding a variable in the area files that represents # of turns which have occurred in the area and set it back to 0 -- or patch the executable to handle counters with higher precision.
Any thoughts? Does this ring a bell for anyone?
<disclaimer>
I'm playing on Tough Guy mode. I've dealt with my share of crashes, losing 8-10 hour chunks at a time, but I always end up coming back several months later.
I'm on Mission 8 now, and I discovered I could raise my experience by practicing lockpicking on certain lockers repeatedly. Lockpicking was a lot of fun for about 20 minutes -- much easier experience than that found on the harsh wastes, and risk-free. When this lost entertainment value, I set up my keyboard and mouse to click the locker automatically while I left my computer running. I enjoy doing this a lot -- feels like a simulation is left running while I sleep.
</disclaimer>
