Laucher Problems (Yet another one...)

[Sssargon]

I know there has been solutions posted on how to fix the launcher trying to download this istaria.exe.auc file and stalling/not going on anymore. I have tried everything to get this to go on, including reinstalling Microsoft .NET (All versions of it) and installing those patches onto them. Nothing works.

I'm currently just bypassing the updates, but it causes the game to load slower and a few minor problems with certain monsters not even appearing.

Another problem I've recently encountered is while trying to create a new character. I launch the game as always, and have to continue skipping the patching process, but before the game can even start loading I get this error:

Run-time Error
FATAL ERROR: Invalid biote number, must be 200000 or above. : 0 @ .\source\ClientErrors.cpp:728

*Grumbles* If it's not one problem it's another. Anyone have any ideas on what I could possible do to fix either, preferably both, of these problems? I have tried all I can and am now looking for a bit of help here <.< Thanks in advance for any possible solutions you(s) may have!

~Sssargon

[Steelclaw]

What shard are you trying to create a character on?
What client build are you using? (the build number is in red text in /window fpswindow)

[Sssargon]

I'm trying to create another character on Order.

Client number is:
Build #383.7 (Jun 14 2009 15:05:15)

June 14th... was I supposed to download another client at some point? :S I had no problem up untill I came back from my vacations, which were only 3 weeks long. So something must have gone wrong between the latest patch and now.

Hope this helps a bit with solving these two problems.

[Steelclaw]

There's a new patcher and client build on Blight that should solve the problems you're having. 383.7 has been deprecated for months. Blight uses 383.15 and live is using 383.13.

[Sssargon]

How do I go about getting the new patcher and client build? On the main Istaria site?

[velveeta]

how do you access the game? do you go thru the stand alone launcher?
if so, then clik the patcher options button after you sign in and choose the first 2 options......
hold on, let me check what they are,,,,

full scan and multithreaded are the options to check. i also check the 'perform system check' button as well, but that is not necessary.......

and this will only work if you ave the stand alone launcher update, available here: http://community.istaria.com/pg.php/download

[Sssargon]

To answer your first question: Yes, I used the stand alone launcher, and it has worked perfectly fine up untill not long ago.

I had downloaded the new launcher earlier, installed it and I was still getting the dreaded crash, but this was without having the firts two options checked.

I tried again, checking off the first two like you recomended and the problem is still persisting. I've let it sit for 5-10 minutes now and it still wont download this istaria.exe.auc file. As for creating a new character, I don't think that will begin to work untill I can actually patch, there's 35 files I still have to download

I'll fiddle around with the patching options in the meantime... Thanks for the help!

[velveeta]

hmm sorry ssar, can't be much help......i have the launcher on 3 puters and it works fine on them all, so i never really had to troubleshoot further.
i just did all the above actions to login on the laptop, as i had to update it anyway, and absolutely no probs, even after i realized i logged in the wrong alt and relogin after forgetting to uncheck the patcher options......

so do you ever get the screen asking you whether or not you want to delete some files? i recommend deleting them when told to, of course, but it sounds like you aren't getting even that far.....

[Sssargon]

Nope, it crashes when trying to download the first file which is apparently called istaria.exe.auc

I'll post some screenshots after I get back, about to go out for supper.

[Gothos]

i have the same issue, ive been hauling my comp to a friends house that has better inet and it seems to work, ive also sent ion a ticket about it, im hoping they fix this soon cuz im sick of packing up everyweek and going to my friends house, its getting really annoying , for now im skipping the patch process to log in

[Sssargon]

i have the same issue, ive been hauling my comp to a friends house that has better inet and it seems to work, ive also sent ion a ticket about it, im hoping they fix this soon cuz im sick of packing up everyweek and going to my friends house, its getting really annoying , for now im skipping the patch process to log in

Are you saying it might be slow internet connections causing this silly problem? Ours is horrible and want to upgrade sometime, but we don't have the money for that yet...

I'll keep trying different things when I have time, maybe I'll discover something, but here's hoping the devs find a fix soon!

If anyone still has any possible solutions, I'm willing to try -almost- anything.

[Gothos]

well it could be the inet speed, mine is about 75kbs , its a satilite system, when i go to my friends house he has cable inet and i get about 165kbs, and the troublesome file downloads with no trouble. im not saying thats the cause but i am saying it seems to be the fix for me, and its a real pain in the can to go over there everytime there is an update, im waiting for blight to come back up atm and am preparing for a trip to kenny's house

[Creme]

I have heard of this problem with a friend with satellite.

[Sssargon]

I'd love to be able to say I have the same thing.. but sadly, we have cable here. So that can't be the reason...

[Raeshlavik]

*puts on senior test engineer hat*

It's possible that the patcher isn't coping well with packet loss or huge latency.

Sat-based systems have incredible latency - when you have to send data 22,500 miles (geo-sync), even at the speed of light (186,000 miles a second), that's a minimum of about 250mSec of latency just to get a packet up and back down (bi-directional systems like Hughes 'pegasus' can double this) - and doesn't take into concideration any processing time required for that packet.

So, if things aren't running at peak efficiency, it would be possible for the IP stack to figure the latency on a particular packet is so high that it is effectively "lost" and signals for a retry.

Here at work I have a LANForge setup, which basically allows me to emulate just about any form of network problem (latency, loss, jitter, reorder, etc) and tomorrow I will run some tests to see if this might be the cause of the 'patcher hang' issue.

[Steelclaw]

After running a packet sniffer and watching what the patcher does when interacting with the patch server, I noticed that the patcher keeps requesting the same file over and over when it's "stuck".

I think this is a threading issue (like missing synchronization or use of non-thread-safe classes in multiple threads).

There's a new patcher on blight that may address the above issue. The question is: "how do you patch a broken patcher?".

I don't know what the final solution will be, though this should work for you:
grab the following two files and overwrite the existing ones in your Istaria/Horizons directory. Then, log in to Blight using the standalone launcher with patching enabled (not bypassed).

http://patch.istaria.com/blight/patcher.dll
http://patch.istaria.com/blight/silentpatcher.exe

[Raeshlavik]

I think this is a threading issue (like missing synchronization or use of non-thread-safe classes in multiple threads).

Hmm... I wonder how many folks with this issue are multi-core...

If this is a symptom of the issue, setting ProcessAfinity to a single core is a way to test it, but isn't a solution in and of itself.

[Creme]

Hmm... I wonder how many folks with this issue are multi-core...

If this is a symptom of the issue, setting ProcessAfinity to a single core is a way to test it, but isn't a solution in and of itself.

Have a couple of dual cores and have had no problems with the patcher...other than the graphics/background and reading the text against it.

[Sssargon]

After running a packet sniffer and watching what the patcher does when interacting with the patch server, I noticed that the patcher keeps requesting the same file over and over when it's "stuck".

I think this is a threading issue (like missing synchronization or use of non-thread-safe classes in multiple threads).

There's a new patcher on blight that may address the above issue. The question is: "how do you patch a broken patcher?".

I don't know what the final solution will be, though this should work for you:
grab the following two files and overwrite the existing ones in your Istaria/Horizons directory. Then, log in to Blight using the standalone launcher with patching enabled (not bypassed).

http://patch.istaria.com/blight/patcher.dll
http://patch.istaria.com/blight/silentpatcher.exe

Thought I would try this method but the URL's don't seem to be working for me...

On a side note, I have a dual core, although, nothing has ever troubled me when it came to Istaria, untill now that is.

[Sssargon]

*Cheers* Someone helped me fix the problem.

All they did was give me their istaria.exe, which was fully patched and working fine. Then told me to run the resetpatcher.bat and launch the game with the patcher to update it. The patcher told me it was outdated and I would have to launch form play.istaria.com in order to updat to the newest patcher, which is what I did. All of the downloads completed (Including the dreaded istaria.exe.auc) and the game started without problems.

I quickly closed the game and tried once more with the launcher, having the scans and update boxes checked and it worked with only the Silenpatcher crashing once. (The game launched despite the crash).

I can now log into the game without problems and without having to bypass updates. I am also able to create a new character as I wanted to the other day

Hope this information helps find a solution to this problem x.x