Using WCSAV on SM2

[hultsfred]

I've been having a fair few problems with the old "overflow" bug in the Secret Missions, the one that seems to kill off your wingmen for no apparent reason. I used WCSAV during SM1 to solve the issue with no problems at all, however I can't seem to get it to work on SM2.

(For some reason Spirit always appears as dead at the end of the Firekka 6 mission. It's a tough mission at the best of times, but after managing to complete it four times with Spirit definitely alive or sent back to base, she's still not there during the debriefing and is KIA on the board. Also, there's no funeral for her, so I'm convinced it's the bug again.)

I understand SM2 uses the CRUSADE.WLD file for its saves, whereas WC and SM use SAVEGAME.WLD. I've always run WCSAV in windows simply by double-clicking on the EXE since I can't worked out the command to run it through DOSBOX.

So my question is, how to I run WCSAV to edit saved games within CRUSADE.WLD? Running it through windows seems to automatically set it to SAVEGAME.WLD, and while I see the documentation does give instructions on how to set it to other pathways, it's not clear enough to me how to do it. More specifically, I can't get it to work.

I've used the standard directories, of WING and GAMEDAT, so the files will be c:\WING\GAMEDAT\WCSAV and c:\WING\GAMEDAT\CRUSADE.WLD, but when I type "GAMEDAT\WCSAVE" into the c:\wing prompt it says "FATAL ERROR: Unable to open SAVEGAME.WLD", so I've been unable to play around to change the pathway to CRUSADE. Although as I said, it will run (with SAVEGAME.WLD as the pathway) in windows.

I assume I'm doing something wrong; could somebody please type out for me exactly what I need to type in DOSBOX to get WCSAV to run on the SM2 files? Or perhaps offer an alternative solution?

Thanks guys.

 

[Max Gene]

I thought WCSAV works on WC2 by default? CRUSADE.WLD and SAVEGAME.WLD have identical file structures, I think- variables like aces killed are preserved in both, even if they don't make sense in SM2. Try temporarily renaming one.

(For what it's worth, my version of WCSAV works on both simultaneously by default, while running in windows, but I'm playing 1 and 2 via Kilrathi saga. Even so, it knows which characters are in what campaign.)

 

[hultsfred]

Renaming the CRUSADE file to SAVEGAME worked like a charm. Thanks very much.

Using the WCSAV editor creates these MS Word backup documents entitled SAVEGAME. It seems to me the game runs fine if these are present in the GAMEDAT folder or not; is it worth me keeping these or putting them any place special, or are they superfluous?

 

[Max Gene]

I wouldn't bother touching them. And also, I said WC2, but I meant SM2 in my original post, though apparently that isn't causing any confusion. Glad to hear it worked!