FATAL ERROR [...] smart_terrain_control.script:65: attempt to index field 'actor' (a nil value)

[Porcupine]

I'm playing the game in a slightly modded version, and I am now at a point that my last 5 or so saved games crash

I remember that when I played the game two years ago, this issue also occured sometimes.

I've googled the problem, and found that it was fairly common. It is rather annoying, both because I want to continue the storyline, and because the crashes make me having to cold reboot my computer (it does not respond to ALT+TAB, CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, CTRL+ALT+DELETE), which makes is it a rather tiresome excercise finding the last working save game

Here's an excerpt of the error log

FATAL ERROR

[error]Expression : !m_error_code
[error]Function : raii_guard::~raii_guard
[error]File : D:\prog_repository\sources\trunk\xrServerEntities\script_storage.cpp
[error]Line : 748
[error]Description : ...ripyat\gamedata\scripts\smart_terrain_control.script:65: attempt to index field 'actor' (a nil value)

1. Is there an easy applicable fix (like: opening a save game, changing this-and-that value and there you go)
2. Is there an easy way to avoid this in the future?
3. What causes the error anyway?

Any other remark and/or feedback are of course also welcome.

Thanks in advance.

[Alundaio]

This is common because this is what happens when there is an error in bind_stalker.script somewhere. So practically anything you modded in that hooks into any actor_binder class method can potentially have an error that leads to this crash.


First step is to check for syntax errors:

1. Install lua: https://luaforwindows.googlecode.com/fi ... 1.4-46.exe
2. download: http://www.epicstalker.com/uploads/luaCheck.zip
3. Put luaCheck.lua and luaCheck.cmd into your gamedata\scripts and run the .cmd

[Porcupine]

Thanks, I will look into it tonight after work!!

One Q: why does the game work to some point, then gives a fatal crash?? If I had made an error, why would the game carry on for so long without problem (well, there were incidental crashes, but I thought these are indigenous to all the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games)? Is it an accumulation of smaller errors?

I was already well into Pripyat within the story, and even the save game that used to work last night, doesn't work anymore....

[Porcupine]

0 errors found

I only have spawn_items.script in there btw.

[Porcupine]

I tried again to run the game with an older save game; this time the game crashed but I got an error prompt and BugTrap report:

EXCEPTION REASON

xrEngine.exe caused BREAKPOINT in module "E:\STALKER\STALKER Call of Pripyat\STALKER Call of Pripyat - INSTALLATIONS\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat\bin\xrCore.dll" at 0023:00A2E12E, xrDebug::backend()+174 byte(s)

REGISTERS
EAX=51E5E158 EBX=05BB1190 ECX=51E5E160 EDX=51E5E290
ESI=00A588C8 EDI=00000001 FLG=00000216
EBP=00A0F2CC ESP=00A0E2C0 EIP=00A2E12E
CS=0023 DS=002B SS=002B ES=002B FS=0053 GS=002B

And some more info I couldn't copy and paste.

I'll try to user older save games; after that I might try a new install; maybe that game files have gotten corrupted.

[Porcupine]

I managed to get to a save file that *does* work, but I still like to learn what could have caused the corruption.

I got quite a bumch of save files; could that in itself be a problem? There's still more than 7G free on the disc; I don't suppose lack of disc space is the problem.

[Alundaio]

That shouldn't be a problem.