About the official patches ...

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by Morpheus, Oct 20, 2005.

Remove all ads!
  1. Morpheus

    Morpheus Mindflayer Veteran

    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Messages:
    539
    Likes Received:
    1
    As most of you will know, our installation instructions state that you should install official patch 1 & 2. Patch 2 is supposed to contain everything patch 1 does, but a few people posted about problems when they skipped patch 1 and just installed patch 2.

    I made a little experiment and installed ToEE twice - the first time applying patch 1 & 2, the second time only patch 2 - and used a file comparison utility to look for differences. It turns out "ToEE + patch 2" is absolutely identical with "ToEE + patch 1 & 2", except for the file readme.txt, which is missing when you just install patch 2.

    So, should we adapt our installation guide accordingly and drop patch 1 from the list? This will spare people a whopping 9 MB download.
     
  2. krunch

    krunch moving on in life

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2005
    Messages:
    3,280
    Likes Received:
    0
    Make a poll and ask the question to vote with a yes or no answer.
     
  3. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2004
    Messages:
    2,526
    Likes Received:
    0
    I always go with "patch 2" only, and I skip patch 1 altogether since it doesn't do anything extra to what is done afterwards by the patch 2. At least I played through the game a few times, just with pure patch 2, patch 2 + Co8 3.0.4, patch 2 + Co8 3.0.4 + Liv's 1.5/1.5.1, and now I'm playing patch 2 + Ted's package + Allyx's Shop Map. Never had any problems with that.

    - Agetian
     
  4. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2004
    Messages:
    11,029
    Likes Received:
    42
    Interesting conclusion there, even more so in that it indicates that something else is at play with people who get strange results with patch 2 only. But nothing is ever simple with toEE!

    I say formally dump patch 1. Patch 2 rules the day.

    Edit: I don't think that everything should be decided by polls. Typically, matters of taste are best addressed by polls, not matters of logic.
     
  5. Cerulean the Blue

    Cerulean the Blue Blue Meanie Veteran

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2005
    Messages:
    1,962
    Likes Received:
    0
    Personally I am in favor of keeping Patch 1 on the list. Morpheus, how deep a comparison did you make? Were you just comparing the prescence of files or were you actually comparing the contents of files? Have you personally ever had a problem running ToEE with only patch 2? The real test would be to compare the installations on the systems of the people who have had problems with using only patch 2. Even if all the files and there contents are the same, the problems people have without patch 1 could be as simple as something with the installer of patch 2 failing to create certain files whereas patch 1 succeeds in creating them. We may add a caveat to the intallation guide, stating that while technically only patch 2 should be necessary, some people have had problems when running only patch 2 that they didn't have running patches 1 and 2. From a troubleshooting viewpoint, we know that having both patches doesn't cause any problems, while only having patch 2 has caused some for some people. It would be easier to help people with their ToEE issues if we work from the installation we know doesn't have issues.
     
  6. krunch

    krunch moving on in life

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2005
    Messages:
    3,280
    Likes Received:
    0
    solid Blue...great thoughts and post...well stated *applaud*
     
  7. Morpheus

    Morpheus Mindflayer Veteran

    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Messages:
    539
    Likes Received:
    1
    I installed ToEE, patch 1, patch 2, copied the whole dir, uninstalled ToEE completely (deleting the dir), reinstalled it and only installed patch 2. Then I ran Beyond Compare (checking size & CRC). All files were identical. There was one file missing in the ToEE/patch 2 only install, Readme.txt. I don't see how that could cause problems in the game.

    I've never experienced problems running patch 2 only. Maybe you're right, and it's an installer compatability issue.
     
  8. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2004
    Messages:
    2,526
    Likes Received:
    0
    I remember myself doing the same with WinMerge some time ago. Everything critical was identical, I don't remember if anything else except the readme.txt was different... (I doubt it). I think you're right, Morpheus - patch 2 incorporates the patch 1.

    - Agetian
     
  9. Allyx

    Allyx Master Crafter Global Moderator Supporter

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2004
    Messages:
    5,001
    Likes Received:
    250
    Maybe It's just me then? As far as I know I'm the only one who has a problem with patch 2 on it's own - The damn thing uninstalls itself if patch 1 isn't applied first! Could be a dodgy batch of UK disc's or the USA programmers just picking on us guy's in the UK? I dunno? - Morph do what you like - I'll have to use both patches anyway!
     
  10. Sapper_Astro

    Sapper_Astro Established Member

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2004
    Messages:
    151
    Likes Received:
    0
    I remember Steve Moret said that patch 2 contained all of Patch 1's fixes. He said this was due to him being 'an Uber programmer' or something similar.

    Im sure you could dig the post up on the Atari forum if you looked hard enough for it...

    Wonder what happened to that guys super patch he was apparently doing in his spare time....
     
  11. ddamaged

    ddamaged Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2005
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    I downloaded and installed all three of Atari's official patches, and now I receive a message asking me to insert the play disk--WHEN THE DAMN THING IS ALREADY IN THE DISK DRIVE. I had uninstall and reinstall TOEE!! I've installing them individually to see if only one patch was cause this problem, but no all three of them have a bug that doesn't allow the program to detect the presence of the play CD (or install CD for that matter). Patches are designed to repair broken code and correct bugs not render the software completely inoperable. Has this happen to anyone else? I tried calling tech support, but apparently Atari doesn't have tech support operators, because I can't get through the automated menus. Please help! :twitch:

    What I would like to do to the designers :dead:
     
  12. krunch

    krunch moving on in life

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2005
    Messages:
    3,280
    Likes Received:
    0
    1. Reinstall the Official Atari Patch2 and do NOT install patch3.

    ****************************************

    2. You may need either A or B.

    A.

    You can replace the ToEE.exe executable file with the no-cd fix executable file.
    * You can get the ToEE no-cd fix below.
    DOWNLOAD *** Temple of Elemental Evil v2.0 [ENGLISH] No-CD/Fixed EXE (V2.0 for ENGLISH ToEE)
    -> http://m0002.gamecopyworld.com/game...ntal_evil.shtml

    or

    B.

    1. Make a backup copy of TOEE.exe (in game folder).

    2. Open Windows registry editor (start > run... > regedit). Browse to
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Uninstall
    Create new key, called
    {AD80F06B-0F21-4EEE-934D-BEF0D21E6383}
    Inside it, create new string value, named InstallLocation and modify it with the full path to the game install. Also create new string value, named InstallLanguage and modify it with value 9

    3. Run Patch2 setup. It should install the patch.

    4. Goto game folder and replace toee.exe with the one you've backed up (keeping the old toee.exe is essential, because it has the copyprotection of downloadable version - upon runtime it decrypts some *.dat files, which are otherwise unusable. TOEE.exe of the CD version and the official patches for it (and the no-CD hacks for those) doesn't have such protection so you can't use them).

    ****************************************

    Let us know how it works out for you.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2005
  13. bradrinwi

    bradrinwi Established Member

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2005
    Messages:
    226
    Likes Received:
    0
    btw dont shoot the desingers my understanding is atari rushed production by a Critical(can you say alpha and beta testing.. boys and girls)period of time.. so bits of arcanum are left loose ends of toee are hanging about actually i said this to blue the other day..
    the only other time ive seen a 600+bug report with so many critcal bugs and such poor coding... was elder scrolls 2 which suffered from a huge rush job too and had i think 4 patches in the first 8 weeks of release(alwaysa bad omen)


    so blame atari not the game designers .. really the company putting up the money and doing the publishing often has the last word and its usually different than the programers and desingers...
     
  14. AeoN2

    AeoN2 Member

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2004
    Messages:
    24
    Likes Received:
    0
    Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall had a total of 30-something patches I seem to recall... and it was actually possible to really complete the game after the first 20 patches or so hehe :)
     
  15. ddamaged

    ddamaged Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2005
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0

    Modify how?
     
Our Host!