Looks like in Strife 1.32s the player can't inwoke a conversation with most of the acolyte guards or wandering citizens in the town. For example the two attacking guards in the first map's first room. Normally they'd reply: "We're going to kill you!". Strife will crash if the player tries to talk to non-moving average citizens in the first map's tavern. The log file: Log: You picked up the clip of bullets. Log: - RunFunction Log: - (engine.Object.substr 0) Log: - RunFunction Log: - (uibase.ConDialog.SetSpeech 148) Log: - RunFunction Log: - (cgame.ClientGame.StartSpeech 21) Log: - RunFunction Log: - (linespec.PlayerEx.ClientSpeech 10) Log: - RunFunction Log: - (linespec.LineSpecialLevelInfo.StartSpeech 164) Log: - RunFunction Log: - (linespec.LineSpecialLevelInfo.StartConversation 143) Log: - RunFunction Log: - (linespec.EntityEx.UseThing 76) Log: - RunFunction Log: - (linespec.EntityEx.UseLines 129) Log: - RunFunction Log: - (linespec.PlayerEx.PlayerTick 673) Log: - VObject::ExecuteFunction Log: - (linespec.PlayerEx.PlayerTick) Log: - SV_RunClients Log: - SV_Ticker Log: - ServerFrame Log: - Host_Frame Log: Doing C_Shutdown Log: Doing CL_Shutdown Log: PLAYER left the game ERROR: Assertion failed: Start + Len <= (int)Utf8Length()

I can't reproduce this bug.

This crash happens to me with two different windows machines. (XP and Vista), skill level "elite", and with this strife iwad here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=5205">http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=5205</a><!-- m -->

I have the same (or at least a similar) problem - constant crashes right from the start. Most of my crashes occur during battle, generally after I've just been hit. I've had it crash during conversations as well. This is with Vavoom 1.32 on Gentoo amd64. Here's the relevant portion of the log:

Log: You picked up the Medical kit.
Log: Sys_Error: Reference not set to an instance of an object
Log: - RunFunction
Log: - (linespec.EntityEx.AutoUseStrifeHealth 130)
Log: - RunFunction
Log: - (linespec.EntityEx.Damage 1097)
Log: - RunFunction
Log: - (linespec.EntityEx.LineAttack 958)
Log: - RunFunction
Log: - (linespec.Actor.A_ShootGun 143)
Log: - VObject::ExecuteFunction
Log: - (linespec.Actor.A_ShootGun)
Log: - VEntity::SetState
Log: - VEntity::AdvanceState
Log: - RunFunction
Log: - (engine.Entity.AdvanceState 0)
Log: - RunFunction
Log: - (linespec.EntityEx.Tick 285)
Log: - VObject::ExecuteFunction
Log: - (linespec.EntityEx.Tick)
Log: - VThinker::Tick
Log: - VLevel::TickWorld
Log: - SV_Ticker
Log: - ServerFrame
Log: - Host_Frame
Log: Doing C_Shutdown
Log: Doing CL_Shutdown
Log: PLAYER left the game

Log: Doing SV_Shutdown
Log: Doing delete GNet
Log: Doing delete GInput
Log: Doing V_Shutdown
Log: Doing delete GAudio
Log: Doing T_Shutdown
Log: Doing Sys_Shutdown
Log: Doing delete GSoundManager
Log: Doing R_ShutdownTexture
Log: Doing R_ShutdownData
Log: Doing VCommand::Shutdown
Log: Doing VCvar::Shutdown
Log: Doing ShutdownMapInfo
Log: Doing FL_Shutdown
Log: Doing W_Shutdown
Log: Doing GLanguage.FreeData
Log: Doing ShutdownDecorate
Log: Doing VObject::StaticExit
Log: Doing VName::StaticExit
Uninitialised: Doing Z_Shutdown
STACK TRACE:

stack 0 0x7f7ad1655bbd frame 0 0x7fff62b1cf40


ERROR: Reference not set to an instance of an object

Hmm, just found this bug report: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.vavoom-engine.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3321">viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3321</a><!-- l --> Looks like that more accurately described my problem. Hopefully your fix will apply to appelzin3's problem as well.

[quote="appelzin3":lse4a5de]Looks like in Strife 1.32s the player can't inwoke a conversation with most of the acolyte guards or wandering citizens in the town. For example all the guars in the first level tavern. I can't start talking to them. In the original Strife they replied something. But I don't know what this means with the crashes: > ERROR: Assertion failed: Start + Len <= (int)Utf8Length()

[quote="appelzin3":1h906sem]But I don't know what this means with the crashes: > ERROR: Assertion failed: Start + Len <= (int)Utf8Length() It means that the game expects a different length of the data sent, but it's different, thus causing an overload or buffer underrun error. You didn't mentioned that you were trying to use the Strife teaser (demo) version <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->. Apparently, the conversation scripts were of different size (smaller) in it, since they don't use all the fields as in the complete game, thus causing the problem I mentioned above. In case someone is interested, teaser version doesn't use the CheckItem fields, it doesn't specified a sound name for voices, but a number of sound, which should be appended to the sound name, also, it seems that the background field isn't filled neither. This one has been fixed now <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->.