Unreal Gold - 'connecting' problem in singleplayer

[green_meklar]

Recently I've been trying to play through the original Unreal singleplayer campaign. However, I encountered a technical issue at the end of the Nali Water God Temple. I've collected the eightball launcher and killed all the nasty aliens, and the stone gate at the end of the bridge has risen up to let me through, but when I step through, it just displays a message:

Connecting (F10 Cancels):
unreal://0.0.0.0/ceremony

The next level doesn't load, and although I can wander around in the chamber, it is empty (save for a single healing fruit in a corner) and none of the doors open. After about half a minute, the message disappears.

I can load the Ceremony map using the OPEN command, in which case I appear in that same chamber, but with a nali who runs through one of the doors as it opens. However, in that state I have none of my weapons, items or health boosts, just a dispersion pistol. If I try to load it using the SWITCHLEVEL command, it just gives the same 'connecting' message as before. Does anyone know how I can get the level to load correctly when I go through the stone gate?

I'm using Unreal Gold, version 226. If this thread is in the wrong subforum, someone please move it. Sorry if I'm violating any principles of this forum, this just seemed the most likely place to find help with this sort of issue.

[William(Rainman)]

Recently I've been trying to play through the original Unreal singleplayer campaign. However, I encountered a technical issue at the end of the Nali Water God Temple. I've collected the eightball launcher and killed all the nasty aliens, and the stone gate at the end of the bridge has risen up to let me through, but when I step through, it just displays a message:

Connecting (F10 Cancels):
unreal://0.0.0.0/ceremony

The next level doesn't load, and although I can wander around in the chamber, it is empty (save for a single healing fruit in a corner) and none of the doors open. After about half a minute, the message disappears.

I can load the Ceremony map using the OPEN command, in which case I appear in that same chamber, but with a nali who runs through one of the doors as it opens. However, in that state I have none of my weapons, items or health boosts, just a dispersion pistol. If I try to load it using the SWITCHLEVEL command, it just gives the same 'connecting' message as before. Does anyone know how I can get the level to load correctly when I go through the stone gate?

I'm using Unreal Gold, version 226. If this thread is in the wrong subforum, someone please move it. Sorry if I'm violating any principles of this forum, this just seemed the most likely place to find help with this sort of issue.

Did you try using the Editor to make sure everything is in the Map?

[Smirftsch]

maybe you can have a look into unreal.log and see what it displays there

[GreatEmerald]

Well, a workaround would be to use the "servertravel" command. That saves all your inventory. But yea, I see no reason why this should happen with stock UnrealGold, provided that the maps were not tampered with. If it helps, the md5sum of Chizra.unr in my installation is cb709743e38540a431c18f2326f9a93f, and the md5sum of Ceremony.unr is a01f630cf4cec1ac808a79371148bdad. If yours doesn't match, then your maps are not what they should be.

[green_meklar]

The MD5 checksums for both maps match up.

The Unreal.log file has a bunch of messages near the bottom, of this form:

DevNet: Failed to send UDP packet

These messages only seem to appear after I go through the gate, although it could just be a delay in writing to the file.

What is this servertravel command that GreatEmerald mentioned, and how would I use it?

[GreatEmerald]

What is this servertravel command that GreatEmerald mentioned, and how would I use it?

Just like the "open" command, just use "servertravel" instead of "open".

[green_meklar]

It just says 'unrecognized command'.

[.:..:]

Use "SwitchCoopLevel" to keep inventory.

[green_meklar]

That produces the same message mentioned in the original post. The level still doesn't load.

EDIT: Loading other campaign levels using switchlevel doesn't work either, from where I am in that save. However, if I start a new game and try to load a campaign level from there using switchlevel, it does work (and of course I don't have my items then).

[GreatEmerald]

Huh, so that's probably a corrupted save or something. What happens if you load the save, then choose "Restart level" from the load menu?

[green_meklar]

It gives the same message, but for the Chizra map.

Some time earlier in this playthrough, I encountered a situation where the game was crashing on load, and upon looking up the error, I found a suggested fix consisting of changing MaxPlayers to 32 rather than 16. The fix worked; however, I think I had already started the Nali Water God Temple when I did that, in other words, I haven't successfully loaded a new level since doing it. My intuition is that that wouldn't affect my current problem, but could I be wrong?

[William(Rainman)]

It gives the same message, but for the Chizra map.

Some time earlier in this playthrough, I encountered a situation where the game was crashing on load, and upon looking up the error, I found a suggested fix consisting of changing MaxPlayers to 32 rather than 16. The fix worked; however, I think I had already started the Nali Water God Temple when I did that, in other words, I haven't successfully loaded a new level since doing it. My intuition is that that wouldn't affect my current problem, but could I be wrong?

Reinstall the Game or use the Editor to open the Map if the Editor doesn't open the Map then its Corrupted you will need to Reinstall the Game.

[GreatEmerald]

The maps seem to be fine, it's the saves that are not working right... That said, save files are actually a form of map files as well. But I don't think that would help in this case. Somehow the game thinks you're playing this on the internet on the server 0.0.0.0, which doesn't exist (as opposed to a local game on virtual server 127.0.0.1)... I don't think there is much that can be done here, apart from using the standard ways of debugging:

1) If your OS is of the Windows NT family, run the chkdsk utility on the disk that contains the files of Unreal.
2) Delete your Unreal.ini file, and perhaps the User.ini file.
3) (Re)patch the game.

That is not likely to make your saved game work correctly, but should prevent the same issue from appearing again. At least Chizra is not very far into the campaign.

[William(Rainman)]

Ok so hes playing Singleplayer but the game thinks its Muiltiplayer?

[green_meklar]

I did already do a reinstall earlier. It doesn't seem to have helped with anything.

My impression was that, the game being designed for multiplayer, opening a singleplayer map is kind of like joining a multiplayer game on your own machine, and that 0.0.0.0 was some special IP address for that purpose. Should it be trying to connect to 127.0.0.1 instead? If so, is there a command for that?

That aside, if I were to load Ceremony from a new game, and then use the summon command to give myself all the items that I'm supposed to have (I think I can reproduce my inventory accurately, save for the scuba pack), would that allow me to continue the campaign? Or is there some other important state data stored in the save that cannot be recreated? Because it looks like this might be my only option at this point.

[William(Rainman)]

I did already do a reinstall earlier. It doesn't seem to have helped with anything.

My impression was that, the game being designed for multiplayer, opening a singleplayer map is kind of like joining a multiplayer game on your own machine, and that 0.0.0.0 was some special IP address for that purpose. Should it be trying to connect to 127.0.0.1 instead? If so, is there a command for that?

That aside, if I were to load Ceremony from a new game, and then use the summon command to give myself all the items that I'm supposed to have (I think I can reproduce my inventory accurately, save for the scuba pack), would that allow me to continue the campaign? Or is there some other important state data stored in the save that cannot be recreated? Because it looks like this might be my only option at this point.

yeah if you summon weapons you should keep them on map change unless you modified them in the Editor.

[GreatEmerald]

I did already do a reinstall earlier. It doesn't seem to have helped with anything.

My impression was that, the game being designed for multiplayer, opening a singleplayer map is kind of like joining a multiplayer game on your own machine, and that 0.0.0.0 was some special IP address for that purpose. Should it be trying to connect to 127.0.0.1 instead? If so, is there a command for that?

That aside, if I were to load Ceremony from a new game, and then use the summon command to give myself all the items that I'm supposed to have (I think I can reproduce my inventory accurately, save for the scuba pack), would that allow me to continue the campaign? Or is there some other important state data stored in the save that cannot be recreated? Because it looks like this might be my only option at this point.

Huh, so that's mystifying. Unless you just transferred your save games from the old installation, in which case yes, it most likely wouldn't work on a new reinstall either. But at least it should prevent the issue from happening again on a new playthrough.

Yes and no. The game wasn't made for multiplayer (as a matter of fact, on release there were major problems with multiplayer). The engine, however, was made with both SP and MP in mind. So both internet and local games use the same code, but they use different rules. For instance, internet games always have a server and clients. But local games only have a server (with a listen server being something in between). In internet games, there is the concept of relevancy to save bandwidth, while in local games everything is always relevant. As for 0.0.0.0 being a special IP, I haven't seen it anywhere, so I don't really think it would be the case. If the game wants to launch a local file, it doesn't use any IP at all, but rather the system path. And I don't think you can connect to 127.0.0.1 in local games, either, because you would need to set it up first. If you enter an IP to connect to, you automatically go into "client mode" and just wait for the server to handle everything.

And yes, if you summon everything after opening it, it would work just as well, except for items that have charges (like SCUBA gear that you mentioned). Make sure to launch the map with the correct difficulty, though.

[William(Rainman)]

I wonder if he has Anthology cause i know some people have been having trouble with the Anthology Edition.

[GreatEmerald]

I have Anthology, and there are no issues with it.

[William(Rainman)]

I have Anthology, and there are no issues with it.

I know if you don't download a Patch you can't play online.

[Smirftsch]

that's indeed very strange. What patch version are you running?

Maybe paste your complete Unreal.log (after this has happened) to pastebin.com so we can see if there is anything more.

[GreatEmerald]

that's indeed very strange. What patch version are you running?

He said in the first post that it's version 226b.

[Smirftsch]

oh, indeed. Missed that.

[green_meklar]

Unless you just transferred your save games from the old installation, in which case yes, it most likely wouldn't work on a new reinstall either.

Yes, that's what I did.

Playing through the entire first half-dozen levels again would be considered a last resort. More likely, I will end up using summon to recreate my game state.

And yes, if you summon everything after opening it, it would work just as well, except for items that have charges (like SCUBA gear that you mentioned). Make sure to launch the map with the correct difficulty, though.

I think I'm playing on medium, is that the default? Otherwise, how does one set the difficulty when loading? The examples of the command usage that I've seen didn't include that.

[GreatEmerald]

I think I'm playing on medium, is that the default? Otherwise, how does one set the difficulty when loading? The examples of the command usage that I've seen didn't include that.

Yea, I think it is. The command is open mapname?difficulty=n, n is from 0 to 5 I believe. 1 should be medium IIRC.