HELP! Dead in the water.

[Peedo]

I've had a situation since 5-5-14 where my OOTP 14 game will not advance, and although I'm not sure, I suspect it's because of the latest patch (V.14.7 Build 42), which I downloaded on 4-26-14.

I initiated a Support Ticket on this issue on 5-6-14, but I think they're just really busy with working out all the kinks in OOTP 15 right now. In the meantime, I'd like to see if anyone on the forum can help me with this, while fully realizing that this is not the location to be making such a post. If I get no help, I'll understandably get the hint and go back to waiting.

Prior to loading the V.14.7 Build 42 patch, I had no major issues and was sailing along, and within about a week of the 2010 season All-Star break (Houston was still in the National League). I use only real players on the major and minor league rosters, but hardly any of the players are on their real-life rosters (it's a draft league).

I play my favorite team in manual pitch-by-pitch mode every game, while all other scheduled games play in the background that day. Every team is in commissioner mode, so that I can better control major and minor league roster moves, and whenever my regular team has an off day, I can manually play any other game I want in pitch-by-pitch mode on that particular day. This is the way I play the game and have never had a significant serious problem until now.

When the issue began, I just started the bottom of the 4th inning of a game I'd saved at the same point the night before, when after 2-3 pitches a window suddenly appeared in the middle of my monitor screen reading: "OOTP Baseball has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." While this message was in the middle of my screen, I could see the OOTP game screen itself was grayed out behind the message. After waiting a few minutes and nothing more happening, I closed the message window and the OOTP program had closed as well, and the computer's desk top screen immediately appeared.

I reopened OOTP 14 twice more and went to the play-by-play screen to find that no progress from the previous session had been saved (the pitcher's pitch count was the same and the same hitter was at the plate), and each time after the pitcher threw a couple pitches, the same window appeared with the grayed out play-by-play screen in the background, and each time I closed the window, the computer's desk top screen appeared on the monitor. The only time progress was saved was when I hit the save and exit button at the bottom of the play-by-play screen before the window had a chance to appear. If I continued to play in a normal fashion, the window would appear.

The fourth time I opened OOTP 14 to the play-by-play screen, the pitcher was able to throw enough pitches to walk the hitter, but after throwing a couple pitches to the next hitter with a runner on first base, the window again appeared followed by the computer's desk top screen whenever I closed the window.

At this point I used my Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS to try and troubleshoot the issue, and what Windows indicated was "OOTP 14 Incompatible Application". Incidentally, my computer is a Dell Alienware liquid cooled with an immense amount of memory, so I don't think the computer is causing the problem.

Finally, I decided to just sim through the day, but when I hit the sim button, the window appeared again, and the whole process repeated itself when I closed the window, so I can't even sim to advance the game past the game date. I've since discovered that when I reopen the OOTP 14 program to the screen where all pending, unfinished games are displayed and I hit the Resume button for any of the unfinished games, an OOTP Error message appears, which reads, "Could not restore game".

I've played OOTP 11, 13, and now 14 on this same computer, and I've never received a message telling me that OOTP was an incompatible application before.

I've searched thru the forum and Support for any post/threads of a similar issue, but I can find no one who mentions anything similar to this mess. I did, however, notice that several people seemed to experience various issues with the patch they downloaded, and although I could be wrong, I think it was the same patch (V. 14.7 Build 42) I downloaded only 9 days before I began having problems. After downloading the patch, I played about 3-4 games.

On 5-9-14 Gary Breckenridge in Support responded to my Support Ticket, saying that I could safely uninstall the current version and reinstall the previous version that was working, and it would not cause me to lose my saved games nor my license, and my saved games would still work with the older version (assuming they're not already corrupt). This was the extent of Gary's initial message, but he said he'd get back with me later.

When he used the term "version", I guess I can assume he was referring to patches, but when I have game history at stake, I hope everyone can understand that I'm reluctant to assume anything at the risk of losing anything.

I responded back asking for clarification on his term "version", whether he was referring to patch version or OOTP game version, and asked for instructions on how to safely uninstall the current version and reinstall the previous version that was working; however, I've yet to hear back from him because I believe the Support personnel are being kept extremely busy on the OOTP 15 issues.

So, out of frustration, instead of sitting around just waiting, I thought I'd initiate a post in the forum, describing the issues I'm experiencing with this game, and see if anyone has a suggestion. I know we have IT type people who play this game.

As I mentioned previously, my guess is that it's the patch. If anyone agrees that it's probably the patch, please provide me with some instructions on how to properly uninstall the V.14.7 Build 42 patch. THEN, where can I find the previous patch, which I guess is #3, because I think the latest patch is #4.

If you don't think it's the patch, what do you think it could be?

I do have a backup of the game on an external hard drive, but if I use that backup, I''ll also lose about 30-40 games, so if this current issue is a simple fix, I'd rather not lose 30-40 games.

I apologize for the length and location of this post, but I'm now desperate, and desperate people usually throw caution to the wind when trying to find a solution.

I appreciate your understanding and any help anyone can provide.

[Peedo]

FINALLY! After spending an immense amount of time trying to figure out why OOTP14 quit on us, we finally got it running again, and I think we're back on track. What a hassle.

Now, does anyone know what is up with Support? We need to update our support ticket regarding this issue, but when we attempt to go to the Support page, all we get is a blank, white screen. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

[endgame]

Can't answer the support question, but you can answer one. What was the solution?

[Peedo]

I apologize about the delayed response, Endgame, but after losing 2 months worth of game play time, I've been trying to catch up via the play-by-play method, which is fruitless. The only way to immediately cover 2 months time is to sim, which I'm sure you're aware. The problem is that the results are different between simming and play-by-play mode, because the IA does crazy things that I wouldn't do in play-by-play mode, i.e., the IA's substitution scheme is not very sophisticated: I'd never have my backup catcher play centerfield in the event my starting CF is injured, and the backup CF is also a first baseman because I need his bat in the lineup. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, regarding the solution. The problem apparently had nothing to do with the patch. Instead, the auto-save files were full and had to be manually deleted. While trying to figure out what was wrong with the game, I recall receiving a message advising me that the auto-save function could not move one or more of the .dat files to the auto-save folder. After trying everything else with no success in re-starting the game, I just happened to recall seeing something on my screen about deleting the auto-save files. Having tried everything else, I decided to delete the files, as the message said, figuring that if I lose everything in my universe, well, I can't advance the game anyway, so I'll just quit playing OOTP and spend more time on my other hobbie of restoring '60's muscle cars, which is very time consuming anyway.

I hope this info is helpful to you and anyone else that experiences this problem. Now if I can just figure out why I'm getting a blank, white screen whenever I attempt to pull up my support ticket.

My frustration level with this game is reaching an all-time high, and now I can 't even get assistance from any moderators, who are probably over worked anyway. I'm seriously giving second thoughts about ordering OOTP15, thus ending my OOTP aggravation. I thank you for at least telling me you don't know anything about the blank, white screen when attempting to pull up a still pending support ticket.