creatures caves welcome, guest
downloads   gallery   dev   community   creatchi   forum   mycaves
bookmarks | search | post new topic
News Forum
old
Creatures 2 Community Edition   
lisdude

lisdude


 visit lisdude's website: Creatures Stuff
  4/25/2023  8

For the past couple of months, I've been doing some tinkering to improve the stability of Creatures 2, both on modern hardware and just in general. It's finally reached the point where I think the community at large might be able to enjoy it:

https://lisdude.com/Creatures/Community/

The website, while not stylish, has all of the information you should need to get started. These updates take the form of a binary patch that you apply to your original executable. It's compatible with the Steam edition, GoG edition, Albian Years, and C2 Deluxe.

Things still aren't perfect, but they've improved a lot. For example, I recently had a 30-something hour continuous wolfling run! We've also seen worlds that were previously unloadable that are now loadable. When it does crash now, it usually isn't world ending, so you can pick back up where you left off. (You may lose a Norn or two, though. One of the fixes is that corrupted creatures now die instead of rendering the world unusable.)

Anyway, there's still a lot of work to do, but hopefully this allows more people to enjoy Creatures 2! Please let me know how it goes.

 
Yme

Yme



  7/4/2023  1

Does this fix the crash that happens when you start the game after previously rearranging the user interface?
 
Kreeep

Kreeep



  10/4/2023

Wow. Thanks for helping to keep this game alive! :)
 
Michiw

Michiw



  10/14/2023

This is amazing! I think I've followed instructions, placing all files where they're supposed to be, but I get an error.

Error: Creatures 2 executable not found in any of the expected locations. You may need to edit this script with the correct path to your game.
Press any key to continue . . .

Help?

 
Michiw

Michiw



  10/14/2023

Somewhat similarly, I tried with the C1 patcher and I received this error:

The system cannot find the file specified.
Error: BPatch.exe not found. Please download it and copy BPatch.exe to "C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Creatures 1".
Download location: https://delphidabbler.com/software/bdiff
Press any key to continue . . .

But I'm looking at BPatch.exe present and accounted for in the Creatures 1 directory.

 
C-Rex
Lollipop Lord

C-Rex


 visit C-Rex's website: The Norn Nebula
  10/17/2023

Did you run Creatures 2 before installing the patch?
 
Urskecs

Urskecs



  11/22/2023

This patch is a night-and-day difference, thank you. I would love to read some kind of short behind the scenes on how you identified/changed/added functions if you ever have time. Killing creatures with bad brain state is a lifesaver.

Only one real bug and it's related to communication with the Owner's and Graveyard kits. On Community Build 12, GoG C2, Windows 10, every creature's birth certificate says they were born @ 7 PM Dec 31 1969. The correct birth times are shown on the Owner's Kit>Life tab, Chronicles kit, etc. Deaths auto-register immediately after death with no chance to choose a picture or write a message, and the headstone has the correct birth date, but no death date at all. This has persisted thru reinstalls.

 
lisdude

lisdude


 visit lisdude's website: Creatures Stuff
  12/6/2023  2

Hey, sorry for the disappearance!

I've written a new patcher that should, hopefully, address a lot of the issues people have been having. You can download it here: https://lisdude.com/Creatures/Community/downloads/unified/Creatures%20Unified%20Patcher%20v1.0.zip

This time around everything is automatic. You just run it, choose patch, point it to your creatures2.exe (or creatures1.exe) file, and it will do its thing.

Along with this, Creatures 2 build 13 is out. It fixes the bug with the Owner's and Graveyard kits. At least until 2038... and then we'll need to write new Owner's and Graveyard applets!

Due to the nature of another bug that was fixed, it wouldn't hurt to reset your registry entries. You can do that by downloading this file and running it as administrator. (Also, if your install path isn't the Steam default, be sure to edit the location at the top of the file!) The file is: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lisdude/CreaturesStuff/main/Misc/RebuildCreatures2Registry.cmd

Hopefully everything works! If not, please let me know.


 
lisdude

lisdude


 visit lisdude's website: Creatures Stuff
  12/8/2023  3

I've updated the patch program itself to rebuild the registry with the correct paths and everything. Now you shouldn't need to run the batch file I linked, you can just choose it from the main menu.

This version also improves compatibility for the GoG version. (Incidentally, GoG has atrocious defaults, so I'd recommend also running the registry rebuilder just to get sane defaults back.)

Patcher is at v1.1 now. Instead of linking directly, here's where you can always find the latest version: Patcher Download

 


downloads
cobs
adoptions
creaturelink
metarooms
breeds
 
gallery
art
wallpaper
screenshots
graphics
promos
sprites
dev
hack shack
script reservations
dev resources
active projects
dev forum
 
community
links
advice
chat
polls
resources
creatchi
 
forum
bookmarks
general
news
help
development
strangeo
survivor
mycaves
log in
register
lost pw
0 online
creatures caves is your #1 resource for the creatures artificial life game series: creatures, creatures 2, creatures 3, docking station, and the upcoming creatures family.

contact    help    privacy policy    terms & conditions    rules    donate    wiki