Mods broke my game, removed mods, game still broken.

[KerBlammo!]

Hi, I'm running KSP 0.24.2.559 x64 on Win 7 x64. I have a pretty heavy mod list, but everything was working until I added Action Groups Extended and Bahamuto's Dynamic Parts. At first the game crashed trying to load the VAB, then I tried again and it seemed to work, but trying to launch I got this bizarre situation showing some of the atmosphere effects from EVE but no Kerbin, no ship, no keys related to ship control doing anything (still had a navball), no escape menu (escape just seemed to pause it) and a map view centred on the sun that refused to move regardless of time passing. No way to do anything except hard kill the game with no crash log.

I removed those two mods, but apparently they've written to some file somewhere and this horrible change has been made permanent, so basically I'd like to know what files I might be able to delete or revert to their original state, such at toolbar settings or stuff module manager might have changed and not changed back with a hard quit, that sort of thing. I have so many mods it'd be a real pain to have to re-install all of them in a new, clean KSP install. I'm going to try startign a new save to see if that makes any difference to the inability to launch anything, thinking perhaps it's the save that's broken (which luckily doesn't have a lot in it, since I was just using it to try out new mods and see how stuff works in a sandbox game).

Thanks in advance.

Fixed: The problem was not the mods but the ship I was using, which was built using an assembly for the first piece. This is an easily duplicated bug.

Edited August 27, 2014 by KerBlammo!
Discovered the problem

[Mecripp]

What ModuleManager.*.*.* you running and, I haven't had any problems with Bahamuto's Dynamic Parts ? There was 1 ModuleManager that made a save file in the KSP folder if , I remember right.

EDIT- looks like it might have been ModuleManager 2.1.5 it made a save_backup folder in ksp folder if you have it try and delete the folder or files in it.

EDIT- Be sure it's SAVE_BACKUP and NOT THE SAVE.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Mecripp2

[KerBlammo!]

Using MM 2.2.1 - It didn't make any kind of backup folder that I can see. Would there be any mods that would be good to re-install, possibly writing over anything that was changed? I'd be surprised if Bahamuto's parts were the problem, but oddly they never showed up in the VAB, either. Once I removed AGExt and the dynamic parts, there were a LOT less things modified by MM at the start screen - 600-odd instead of over 1000. I thought that would do the trick, and that the problem was with AGExt not playing nice with something, but with both those mod folders deleted the game is still completely whack, as above.

[Mecripp]

Best way to install mods is by hand, About all Mod-Installers just lead to problems on how some mods folders are and they would add like more then 1 copy of ModuleManager with diffrant # that's bad sorry can't help you more.

EDIT- Did you check your log file to see if maybe you can pinpoint it ?

[KerBlammo!]

I DO install mods by hand. Module manager is not a mod installer (although I can see how it sounds like one) - it modifies specific files at startup so they can be changed for that instance of the game without changing them permanently. I wouldn't use it, but some mods force you to.

I've just started a new save and it seems to work fine. I may add the two mods back in and see if it has the same affect on this new save, but even if they do I won't be able to tell what they are conflicting with or what's going on. I'll also try and import my ships from the old save and see if maybe it was one of the ships that was dodgy. I'll report back here if I find out anything useful.

Thanks for your replies, MeCripp You've also reminded me I should probably backup my save before installing new mods!

[KerBlammo!]

AHAH! I discovered it was happening because of a specific ship I'd built using an assembly (of a sattellite using pieces from the BoxSat mod) as the first piece. When I load that ship it's all there, but none of the pieces are actually attached to each other and regardless of the fact it has 3 different probes, the game thinks it doesn't have one at all. So fairly sure it has to do with trying to build a ship using an assembly as the first piece, even if that assembly has a probe/command pod. I might try this out on a fresh install and see if it does the same thing with no mods and then report it as a bug if it's not already known about.

[Mecripp]

Glad to hear you may have got it.

[WololoW]

It hasn't been stated here, but Win x64 will give you crashes that have nothing to do with the specific mod or mods you installed or deleted. It's instability is well documented on this forum and I recommend that you don't use Win x64 if you want support from the mod authors (As the crash or problem was most likely not caused by their mod, but by Win x64's inherent instability.)

[KerBlammo!]

It hasn't been stated here, but Win x64 will give you crashes...

Actually, I've found it incredibly stable. Once I upped my mod count I had some issues when I was running other progs taking up memory (it doesn't like using the page file, maybe) but basically have no problems as long as I don't have too many other things running and eating up RAM. If an install is working fine and then you change a few things and it stops working, you should be able to sort it out (eventually). I'd only give up if the stock game crashed at the drop of a hat, but it doesn't.

P.S. I really like how you've laid out your mods in that spreadsheet. I'm only a few off having the same number and should probably do the same.

[Mr Shifty]

AHAH! I discovered it was happening because of a specific ship I'd built using an assembly (of a sattellite using pieces from the BoxSat mod) as the first piece. When I load that ship it's all there, but none of the pieces are actually attached to each other and regardless of the fact it has 3 different probes, the game thinks it doesn't have one at all. So fairly sure it has to do with trying to build a ship using an assembly as the first piece, even if that assembly has a probe/command pod. I might try this out on a fresh install and see if it does the same thing with no mods and then report it as a bug if it's not already known about.

That would be a pretty major bug. Good to know about.

[orcmaul]

AHAH! I discovered it was happening because of a specific ship I'd built using an assembly (of a sattellite using pieces from the BoxSat mod) as the first piece.

Hello, sorry to hear you are having problems while using BoxSat. Am I reading this correctly? You started with a subassembly as your first part?

[WololoW]

Actually, I've found it incredibly stable. Once I upped my mod count I had some issues when I was running other progs taking up memory (it doesn't like using the page file, maybe) but basically have no problems as long as I don't have too many other things running and eating up RAM. If an install is working fine and then you change a few things and it stops working, you should be able to sort it out (eventually). I'd only give up if the stock game crashed at the drop of a hat, but it doesn't.

P.S. I really like how you've laid out your mods in that spreadsheet. I'm only a few off having the same number and should probably do the same.

I found it(Win x64) crashed too often and from random reasons(mostly during scene changes) for me to want to continue using it, so I reverted back to x86.

Thanks for the kind words~ I also plan on having another page added onto there. One that lays them out by category so that if people want to improve x part of their game, they can reference the category and get what they like. (I.E. "IVA" category with RPM, probe control room, mk2 cockpit internals, etc.)