Blitzkrieg-Mod - The Holy FAQs

Your Guide to fix problems with Blitzkrieg-Mod for Company of Heroes

Blitzkrieg-Mod Website: http://blitzkrieg-mod.de

Blitzkrieg-Mod Forum: http://forum.blitzkrieg-mod.de
ModDB Profil: http://www.moddb.com/mods/blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg-Mod Team:

Xalibur: Founder, Coding, Master in Chief

Gawain77: Co-Modder, Gameplay & Balance
Doombringer: GFX, Gameplay & Balance
SHADOW: PR, Gameplay & Balance, English Translations, FAQ-Guide
Luc: Installer, Betatester
Table of Contents:

General questions:

Q 1: What do I need to play Blitzkrieg? ......................................................... ...........3

Technical problems:

Q 2: When trying to join a game I get the error "Incompatible Version"...................3

Q 3: Where do those "$No Key" errors in the game come from? ..............................5

Q 4: Blitzkrieg won't start! ........................................................................................6

Q 5: Blitzkrieg crashes! .............................................................................................7

Q 6: I wasn't able to solve my problems with this FAQs, what now?.........................8

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Q 1: What do I need to play Blitzkrieg-Mod?

A: You need either CoH, OF, ToV or a combination of any of those three. For example
CoH + OF would work, also CoH + ToV or even ToV alone. At least ONE of them is a
must though. You also need the latest patch for your game. Either run autoupdate or
check the Relic-website for the newest patch. Also Google might come in handy if
everything else fails. Last but not least you obviously need Blitzkrieg. It is always
availible in two versions: the FULL Client that has everything included, and the latest
UPDATE, that has every Patch for BK since the last FULL Client included. Download
and install the latest FULL Client and then download and install the last Update (if
availible).

Tip 1: Upgrading from old FULL Clients to the current version does NOT work. If you
have a old version of BK installed (f.e. v1.70) you can't just download the latest
Update (f.e. v2.51) and be up-to-date again. The Updates only have the
content/changes since the last FULL Client included, so for a v2.x Update to work you
need a v2.0 FULL Client first. If you update from a older version to the latest Update
(f.e. from v1.75 to v2.51) it MIGHT work, but you'd miss a lot of features, won't have
new units, get strange errors and bugs and can't play with others online. So this isn't
a good idea to begin with.

Tip 2: You don't need all Updates to be up-to-date. If you have v2.0 FULL and want to
get v2.51 you don't have to patch to v2.5 to be able to apply Patch v2.51. The latest
Patch always includes previous ones since the last FULL Client, so v2.51 also has
v2.50 already in it.

Q 2: When trying to join a game I get the error "Incompatible Version".

A: This problem can have several reasons, let's start with the most common ones
that are easy to solve.

a) You and/or your friends have different versions of CoH/OF/ToV or Blitzkrieg

installed. Make sure all of you have the latest (or at least the same) version of the
game AND Blitzkrieg Mod. If one of you has CoH v2.600 and BK v2.5 he won't be
able to play with someone with CoH v2.601 and BK v2.51 or CoH v2.600 and BK
v2.51 for instance. If someone has OF and the other one ToV or CoH isn't important,
so you don't have to rush to a Shop to get ToV just because your friends have it, that
doesn't matter. Important is only the game version and Blitzkrieg version, those have
to be identical [check Q 1: "What do I need to play Blitzkrieg?" for details].

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 b) You and/or your friend(s) have the "Model Details" in the CoH options on
"Low". In order to work BK needs every player to set his "Model Details" in the CoH
Options to "High". If one player has a lower setting there it will cause the incompa-
tible version error. In case you aren't sure which setting this is (f.e. If you have a non-
english CoH version), just check the picture below. It is the 2nd option from above in
the left row (marked red). Also make sure the Slider at the bottom right is at "Max"
at the right side of the bar (like in the picture below). If those two options don't fix it
also try to set "Shader Quality" to "High" (it's the option at the top of the left side, in
the picture of my german version it was wrongly translated with "Schattenqualität").

c) You and/or your friends has an additional Skinpack installed for Company of
Heroes. Sometimes this can also lead to incompatible versions if one player has
different skins then the other player. The player with the skinpacks should
completely remove them.

d) You and/or your friends had or still have other mods installed besides
Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg was only tested on regular Company of Heroes. If another Mod
is installed in CoH at the same time this can also cause problems. Most mods place
their content in a subfolderof the Company of Heroes folder (f.e. BK places them in
"...\Company of Heroes\Blitzkrieg") and that content is only loaded when the Mod is
started with the Mods shortcut. After the Mod is shut down the files are unloaded

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again. This keep the regular CoH installation untouched so you can still play
unmodded vanilla CoH.

Unfortunately some Mods copy their content directly in the CoH folder and over-
write existing files there. This applies especially for small Mods that only change a
few values. If another (big) Mod like BK is then installed afterwards this can lead to a
couple of problems [check Q4?: "BK won't start" to read more]. So if one player has
some of his vanilla CoH files altered that way he can get the incompatible version
message because files of other Mods have altered his CoH files and thus make his
CoH files differ from the ones of the other players. If you know which files had been
altered and if you have made backups then you are a good boy and can simply
change everything back to normal. If you have no idea what files could be changed
or if you have forgotten to make backups then the solution to this problem will
surely convince you to make backups in the future: completly reinstall CoH. With
completly I mean deinstall it, delete the remaining folders (the initial game folder
AND the folder in "...\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Games\") and
then reinstall it. After that you have a clean CoH and can start installing OF and/or
ToV and then patch up to the latest version again.

This whole procedure can take several hours so it will teach you to make backups
before installing Mods in the future, I promise [I'm saying this as a guy who has gone
trough this already...]. ;-)

Q 3: Where do those "$No Key" errors in the game come from?

A: Those errors can happen for several reasons and indicate, that the text for a
certain object/action is missing.

a) If you have a lot of them you probably have a version of CoH with an
unsupported language in BK. Currently BK supports German, English, French and
Polish game versions.

Tip: If your game has a different language then you can play BK anyways (with
english texts). Simply go to your "Company of Heroes\Blitzkrieg\Locale" folder and
copy & paste the "English" folder in there. Then rename that copy to your game
language, f.e. "Spanish". Then go into the "Spanish" folder and rename the .ucs file
in there to "Blitzkrieg_SP.Spanish". Then your game will be able to find a text file that
fits your language settings and will be able to load texts for BK.

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 b) If those errors are rare or if it's just one then most likely we forgot to add a
text for that object/action. Nobody is perfect and sometimes such an error will slip
trough unnoticed. Just report it to us and wait for the next patch and it will get fixed.
c) If there are some of them, then you maybe have upgraded BK from a very
old version and not from the last FULL Client. Make sure you have the latest FULL
Client installed before applying the latest BK Update. Those ingame texts are
changed/corrected pretty often so skipping a FULL Client always results in quite a
few "$No Key" errors. Read Q 1 on how to install Blitzkrieg correctly to fix this.

Q 4: Blitzkrieg won't start!

A: If a Relic-Error-Message pops up after you tried to launch BK this can have several
reasons (obviously a lot BK errors can have several reasons). To find out what exactly
could be the problem check your "Warnings.log" located in "...\Documents and
Settings\My Documents\My Games\Company of Heroes\". Directly at the top you
should see some lines with a timestamp before them. Check EACH of them if it
mentions a problem. Filepath-Errors like "19:28:03.62 FILESYSTEM -- filepath
failure, path does not exist 'DLC1\DataArtHigh\'" are normal, so don't be scared if
your Log is full of them.

If you have checked the Log for the exact error, here are the solutions to them.

a) You had or still have other Mods installed that messed up your CoH
installation. When you try to launch BK and it tries to load it's files this results in a
conflict and causes the crash. The Log should only mention loading BK (f.e.
"19:28:03.62 MOD -- Mounting BlitzkriegDLC1, 1.0"), so only Blitzkrieg files should
be mounted, if it mentions another Mod or another Mods file then this could be the
problem. Delete the other Mod to solve it.

b) A file of another Mod is conflicting. A file conflict looks something like this:

Failed to load file CoH\Engine\Locale\English\PattenMod.English.ucs due to

overlapping range with Blitzkrieg\Locale\English\Blitzkrieg_SP.English .ucs-- FATAL
EXIT --

In this example the .ucs file of the other Mod (.ucs files have the texts for the the
Mod in it) was placed in the "Locale" folder of CoH by the other Mod. That way it is
ALWAYS loaded when starting CoH or a Mod. So when BK tries to load it's own .ucs
text file (located in the "Blitzkrieg/Locale" folder so it only exectued when BK is

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started) both .ucs files conflict with each other because they try to change the same
texts. This results in a crash and BK won't start. Delete the conflicting file(s) and BK
should work.

Tip: Those error reports in the Warnings.log are a great help to find out what exactly
is wrong and mostly indicate how it can be fixed, so use them to your advantage.

Q 5: Blitzkrieg crashes!

A: There are a lot of possibilities (here we go again...) why this could happen. Look in
the Warnings.log to find out the exact crashing error. The Log is located in
"...\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Games\Company of Heroes\" and
the reason for the crash is usually somewhere at the bottom and marked as "FATAL
EXIT". So what could be responsible for a crash?

a) You don't have the latest drivers for your Hardware installed. Also you
should use the latest Software updates for your Operating System (running
Windows-Update is a good choice to ensure this). If you have installed the latest
drivers and the problem isn't solved, read on.

b) Your PC can't handle the CoH Graphic Options you selected. Yes, yes,
everyone says that his PC is uber and can run every game without problems. Also
you might say that CoH runs smoothly with ULTRA settings without problems. I'll tell
you a secret: it doesn't for the most people (including me). Even though the game
might run smooth and the performance test in the options might indicate that
ULTRA settings will run smooth they very very often cause crashes or graphical issues
like flickering textures. Sometimes the game even randomly crashes. Also keep in
mind that BK has a much higher unit limit then vanilla CoH and also new High-
Detailed textures. This requires a lot more performance then vanilla CoH and that
fact is not calculated by the the performance test.
Just reduce your settings to "High" to get rid of those problems and crashes. If the
problem doesn't get fixed that way read on.

c) Sometimes the game crashes with a strange error like:

"SIM -- Attempting to query bag not associated with this group type.Group is of type
8. Query is for type 1. Group name:
'sbps\races\axis\soldiers\pioneer_westwall_squad'-- FATAL EXIT --"

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The Westwall-Pioneers are the Wehrmacht Defensive-Doctrine special Pioneers, so
this clearly is a BK bug. Unfortunately we don't have ANY idea what causes this and
how it can be fixed. Until today this happens from time to time for some folks and
every method to solve it hasn't worked so far. It SEEMS to happen a lot more often
on slower PCs then of High-End machines and is most likely caused by a AI player
that tries to use that squad. Then something horribly fails causing that crash. It also
seems to happen more often on certain maps. If you experience it and want to play
the same map again, remove the Player that caused that error and replace him with
a AI Player of another faction (if the crash was caused by your AI Wehrmacht ally,
replace him with a Panzerelite ally in the next game on that map).
But sometimes the game will crash again (f.e. it could still crash because one of your
AI enemies causes a similar one with another unit), then don't play that map again
anymore. I fear there is no better solution to this right now. I hope we can get this
fixed in the future, as it is annoying as hell.

d) Some players reported crashes during a game or when loading a map with
an error-message saying their "Temp-Folder" (the Windows temporary files folder)
would be full. They could solve the problem by closing uneccessary background
programs like Xfire. It's worth a try.

e) Another weird error is responsible. There are at least a dozen reasons why
the game could crash and I can't get into everyone of them. If none of the above
methos worked, create a post in the Forum and describe your problem and system
spec. Maybe someone had a similar problem and know how it can be solved.

Q 6: I wasn't able to solve my problems with this FAQs, what now?

Then register at our Forum (http://forum.blitzkrieg-mod.de), read this Thread

(http://forum.blitzkrieg-mod.de/index.php?topic=6.0) and describe the error as
detailed as possible in our "Technical Support" Forum. The more details you can give
us regarding your PC, the error itself and the solutions you already tried, the higher
the chance that we'll be able to help you.

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This FAQ isn't finished yet and will be expanded & updated from time to time.

Last Update: August 2nd 2010

Good luck in fixing the problem and hopefully have fun playing Blitzkrieg.

SHADOW