Error Reports

[Hoopa]

I just opened the editor and I received a messege from th programm itself. It tells me exactly this:
ERROR in
action number 1
of Key Release Event for <no key> Key
for object obj_lAbilityAnims:

Error defining an external function.

What does that mean?

It most likely has to do with the GSdatahandler.dll file the program extracts from itself on start-up.  The exact reasons it happens sometimes are still unknown, it could be because you're running the program from a place that can't be written to, though that usually doesn't seem to be the problem.  Dragging & dropping a file onto the program to start it up, or running it from a shortcut could also be potential causes (Both of which will be fixed in v0.3 if they are whats causing it for you) I'm making a few changes in v0.3 with how the editor handles the file that I hope will reduce the occurrences of that error.  One thing you can also try is deleting the GSdatahandler.dll file, then try running the program again.

There, hope it helps.

[Atrius (He/Him)]

That's a different error Whizkidhv.

The strings file is the 'language.ini' file that is included in the zip file with the program, make sure that you extract it to the same folder as the program.  This file is included to eventually allow the interface of the editor to be translated into more languages.

[Hoopa]

Ah. Shows what I know... >.<

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Strange, but in the Party Members Editor... I can simply switch between any tab and the Level Up tab like 9 times, and when I switch to another, the bar and everything goes away... I've tried this like 4 times, and that was exactly 9 accesses to the Level Up Editor each time.

Editing to add picture of missing bars:



Edit: If this is the same thing you said you fixed on page 3, then ignore this message... Thanks. Though, I do wonder exactly what caused it... I would suspect it to be an overload of something.. but...

...Also, I click Code patches once, it shows maximum name chars of 5, click a different tab, and click back, 11!

[Atrius (He/Him)]

Yes that is the error I mentioned on page 3, it's already fixed for the next release.


The problem was that there was a typo in the code that freed certain parts of the party member editor interface from memory when you switch between tabs.  This caused a memory leak, and the code eventually begins to free other parts of the editors interface from memory instead.


The name length patch error has been fixed already for the next release as well.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Oh cool!!

I must have missed the first page.

Anyway, I'm trying to make an error log to avoid multiple error reports related to the same thing.

I have a "error log" of everything I've seen in this topic.

[spoiler=Error Log]
100% Fixed:
Code Patches Name Length - Name length sometimes switches to 11 automatically.
Enemy Defense not editable
Grouped Enemies: Group Leaders - Change the first enemy in any group and then save. It copies the edited group to the above group (excluding all

the values on the right.) (You have to scroll away and scroll back to see the effects.)
Party Members Editor - A typo was fixed. You can get errors and/or interface missing here. (Visit level up editor 9-10 times.)

[spoiler=Unknown errors: /Rough draft, may need organizing.]
obj_Abilities error
Description: Messing around and clicking on abilities, nav icons disappear; saving sometimes causes an error.

obj_eClasses unknown variable error
Description: Unknown variable unknown; "When you raise Regen to high amounts, save it, test it, don't like it, and lower it... when you save and test

again, UNLESS the amount was 0, the regen doesn't actually change in play, by remains the edited value in the editor for some reason."

Ability Editor: Range
Description: "In the ability editor, despite Wish and Aura having a range of all allies...  The highest level of them (pure wish, Cool Aura) has an in-

game range of 1, which heals all allies in battle, but only one ally out of battle.  I have NO CLUE what I did to get this to happen, and I've no clue

how to fix it or work around it."; "whenever I use any multi-ranged, ally based moves or djinni, (i.e healing series, buffer series, certain djinni) the

range and power keeps changing o.O."

Individual Enemies not saving multiple times.
Description: "It seems that Briggs and the Sea Fighters are bugged in and of themselves.  Once I edit them once, I can't edit them again. As a test, I

edited their HP to the Hack's levels, then down to 1, then back up again, saving each time.  It only kept the previous HP level, plus all the stats and

items.  Changing past the first time never did anything."

Character Classes error
Description: "I basically edited Jenna and Piers' classes to be the same.  When I put in the formulae, she became a Mariner, and made it all the way to

Admiral.  Then, I edited it again, and closed the editor by accident.  Reopening and retesting the rest caused me to only attain Captain, not Admiral.  I

found out after the tests that it was because the game or editor recorrected itself.  I saw an 11 in Mercury for Admiral."[/spoiler]

Minor Errors: (Should be able to bypass...)
Could not find strings file - language.ini could be missing, or you're dragging and dropping the file on the editor, or opening as a shortcut.
obj_lAbilityAnims & external function error - Recieved on startup; causes are not fully known.

Likely not errors: (This is why I placed them at the bottom.)
Enemy HP editor won't work - "I tried to edit the chestbeaters to make them super-powered, but the HP editor won't work. they die after being hit with

1000 HP, even though i maxed it. Help?"
[/spoiler]

[Atrius (He/Him)]

obj_Abilities error
Description: Messing around and clicking on abilities, nav icons disappear; saving sometimes causes an error.

The icons disappearing was likely from the error that was fixed in the profile editor, it can occur while switching from it to a different part of the editor as well.  The saving errors with the ability editor have been fixed as well.

Ability Editor: Range
Description: "In the ability editor, despite Wish and Aura having a range of all allies...  The highest level of them (pure wish, Cool Aura) has an in-
game range of 1, which heals all allies in battle, but only one ally out of battle.  I have NO CLUE what I did to get this to happen, and I've no clue
how to fix it or work around it."; "whenever I use any multi-ranged, ally based moves or djinni, (i.e healing series, buffer series, certain djinni) the
range and power keeps changing o.O."

This error has been fixed

Could not find strings file - language.ini could be missing, or you're dragging and dropping the file on the editor, or opening as a shortcut.

Dragging & dropping a file on the editor, or opening it as a shortcut should no longer cause this error.  A default English version of the language.ini file will be packed into future releases of the .exe file as well so it can try to fall back on that if the file does not exist in the program's directory.

obj_lAbilityAnims & external function error - Recieved on startup; causes are not fully known.

Usually these are related to the .dll files the program extracts from itself and uses, some causes are:
- The files cannot be extracted (The program is running from a non-writeable location like a CD), or cannot be found after extraction
- Can occur on language versions of Windows that don't use a standard Romanic alphabet, because it has difficult locating the file after extracting it.  (May be able to avoid by storing it in a location that only uses Romanic characters)
- Compatibility issues  (I have rewritten some of the code to reduce these in future releases)

Also in previous versions the editor actually extracted and used 2 separate .dll files.  I've combined them into one so there will be less chances for problems to occur.

obj_eClasses unknown variable error
Description: Unknown variable unknown; "When you raise Regen to high amounts, save it, test it, don't like it, and lower it... when you save and test
again, UNLESS the amount was 0, the regen doesn't actually change in play, by remains the edited value in the editor for some reason."

Individual Enemies not saving multiple times.
Description: "It seems that Briggs and the Sea Fighters are bugged in and of themselves.  Once I edit them once, I can't edit them again. As a test, I
edited their HP to the Hack's levels, then down to 1, then back up again, saving each time.  It only kept the previous HP level, plus all the stats and
items.  Changing past the first time never did anything."

I have yet to find anything in the code of the editor that could explain these, although they could easily be user error caused by reloading from a save state while testing the ROM.

Character Classes error
Description: "I basically edited Jenna and Piers' classes to be the same.  When I put in the formulae, she became a Mariner, and made it all the way to
Admiral.  Then, I edited it again, and closed the editor by accident.  Reopening and retesting the rest caused me to only attain Captain, not Admiral.  I
found out after the tests that it was because the game or editor recorrected itself.  I saw an 11 in Mercury for Admiral."

Again, I haven't noticed anything code-wise with the editor that could cause this yet.  There are many oddities with editing classes that could cause a class not to work, eventually a tutorial may need to be written, although I do plan to clarify, in the editors interface, what exactly one of the previously unknown values does to help make things easier.



Thank you for the list, I've run out of time for now, but I'll have to edit it into the first post when I am able.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Oh cool, and you are welcome.

Could not find strings file - language.ini could be missing, or you're dragging and dropping the file on the editor, or opening as a shortcut.

Dragging & dropping a file on the editor, or opening it as a shortcut should no longer cause this error.  A default English version of the language.ini file will be packed into future releases of the .exe file as well so it can try to fall back on that if the file does not exist in the program's directory.

You know if there was a way to read/write and save the file that is in the editor itself, you may not even need the external one....

I have thought of some optional ideas.

1. Allow for dragging/dropping of language.ini files onto the opened application ( though, the mouse looks like a (\) ). Especially useful if you have multiple language files and don't feel like moving them to the editor's folder.
2. Another button in the toolbar "Options" => "Languages. Maybe used for importing/exporting... perhaps to open the file in notepad directly or within the editor.

Though, if those take too much time, no need to worry about those. (We've already been without a new version for about a year and a half...)

I think, with Visual Basic, it may be possible to drag/drop on the opened form, but... I'm starting to doubt the same with Game Maker.... hm...

[Atrius (He/Him)]

I would be extremely surprised if anyone had a need to switch between languages on the editor on a regular basis, it should be adequate to just place the language.ini file of whatever language you want the editors interface to be in the folder with the program and be done with it.

The purpose of the language.ini file is just to change the text in the editor's interface itself, it doesn't affect how anything in a ROM you load appears.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

I would be extremely surprised if anyone had a need to switch between languages on the editor on a regular basis, it should be adequate to just place the language.ini file of whatever language you want the editors interface to be in the folder with the program and be done with it.

I guess I would be too. I guess they were silly ideas.

The purpose of the language.ini file is just to change the text in the editor's interface itself, it doesn't affect how anything in a ROM you load appears.

I knew that.

[Atrius (He/Him)]

That's not an error with the editor...

[Aile~♥]

The fact that marking an item as "rare" doesn't make it behave as a rare item isn't an error? Really?

[Atrius (He/Him)]

You said it yourself, the flag that marks an item as rare isn't the same one that makes it appear in the Artifact section of a shop when you sell it.  It's part of the game's design, so how is it an error with the editor?  In this way you can have items that the shop keeper will tell you are rare when you sell them, but you can't buy them back as artifacts afterward.

[Aile~♥]

OK, I guess I could move my post to the "new feature preview topic" or one of those similar topics.

[Clara Vita (she/her/hers)]

purge

[Atrius (He/Him)]

What do you have the "Min" and "Max" values set for each of them in the enemy group editor?

[Clara Vita (she/her/hers)]

purge

[Atrius (He/Him)]

So, enemy group #48 contains a regular Ruffian with min/max values of 1, #49 contains the alternate Ruffian min/max 1, and #50 contains Ruffian Leader min/max 1, and two Ruffian Kids min/max 1?  Why not just put 1 set of Ruffian Kids and set their min/max value to 2?

Once you've verified that's what you have save the ROM file, and start a new saved game (or at least start from before you begin the battles, if you use a save state during them or just as they're beginning the changes won't take effect properly)  If problems persist, turn off Automatic IPS Patching in your emulator, and try again.


EDIT:  Ah, yes, I just remembered, there is a glitch in v0.2 with enemy groups.  When you set the first enemy in a group it will also become the first enemy in the group before it.  This glitch has been fixed for v0.3 though.

[Clara Vita (she/her/hers)]

purge

[Aile~♥]

The game actually reads two separate encounters for the Ruffians at the beginning of the game.