Thief won't launch without Dromed

Axebeard on 14/8/2016 at 02:53

So I've been messing with doing a Thief FM after all these years, and suddenly ran into a problem.

I have two separate installs of Thief 2, one with Dromed, one without. Both were installed with TafferPatcher.
I use DarkLoader to load my FMs, and Thief 2 won't launch at all. If I go into T2 through Dromed (I'm working on a T2 FM right now), then I can get into it, but of course it spawns me in a random place.
Any ideas?

Tannar on 14/8/2016 at 03:35

First, welcome to the forum. It's always nice to see new folks arrive, especially new authors.

First, how are you trying to launch Thief 2, and what exactly happens when you try? Second, use Persistent Player Position in Dromed to spawn where you left off. That command is in the Game menu.

Axebeard on 14/8/2016 at 06:06

Thanks Tannar, I've been lurking to figure out how to use Dromed and have a decent handle on it now.

I've tried launching T2 through Dark Loader. Whether I try to play an FM or the vanilla game, nothing happens. The game doesn't seem to take a single step towards launching. I've also tried launching it from the Thief2.exe in the installation folder, but usually nothing happens. I just tried it right now and got a Windows error window with this in it:

"Thief 2 has stopped working"

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Users\HP\AppData\Local\Temp\WER8792.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
C:\Users\HP\AppData\Local\Temp\WERBB5F.tmp.appcompat.txt
C:\Users\HP\AppData\Local\Temp\WERC1A7.tmp.mdmp

Of course, I can't actually find these files. I can get into my temp folder and have Show Hidden Files enabled and all.

Tannar on 14/8/2016 at 06:58

I'm no expert, but my first thought is - what version of Windows are you using and where do you have Thief installed? If you are using any version of Windows from Vista onward, you cannot install Thief in the Program Files folder, which is the default. Thief needs to be installed in some other location. Just create a folder elsewhere if you don't already have one. For example C:\games\Thief2. I believe you can just drag and drop your Thief2 folder there and don't have to reinstall from scratch. No doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Given that you get the same behavior both with Darkloader and with Thief2.exe, I suspect this is most likely the issue. But I could be wrong of course, so let us know.

Also, I suggest downloading (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146917) NewDarkloader and trying that instead of Darkloader. Darkloader isn't supported anymore and has increasing difficulty dealing with newer FMs, though that is not likely part of your problem here.

voodoo47 on 14/8/2016 at 08:11

look for thief2.log and crash.dmp, zip them up and make them available, that's always a good start.

the clean, unDromeded TafferPatched install is working ok?

Axebeard on 14/8/2016 at 22:28

I'm on Windows 7 and Thief 2 is in it's own folder on the C: drive. I tried NewDarkLoader, didn't help any, so I'm just going to try and reinstall the whole game and see what happens.

The T2 crash file didn't have anything in it that jumped out at me.

Edit:
Reinstalled with Tafferpatcher... everything works now. I appreciate the help anyway!