UH Troubleshooting

Updated 12/2002

Symptom: Setup Error: Unable to initialize setup files!

Cause: All InstallShield setups begin by extracting some standard files to a temporary location (usually C:\WINDOWS\TEMP); if a previous setup has left read-only files with identical names in the same temporary directory, it can cause the setup to fail with this error.

Fix #1: At least two UH players have reported that they got this error when they downloaded the self-extracting EXE to their totala directory and tried to run it from there. In both cases, moving the EXE to a different directory fixed the problem.

Fix #2: If you still can't get the InstallShield setup to extract automatically, try this instead. Open the self-extracting EXE file with WinZip, extract the contents manually to a directory of your choice, and run the setup.exe program when you're finished.

Fix #3: If all else fails, this problem can usually be solved by deleting everything in the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP directory, but be careful. The rule is that applications are not supposed to put anything in this temp directory that isn't safe to delete, but not all apps obey the rules. You may want to check the TEMP environment variable to make sure it's set to C:\WINDOWS\TEMP.

Symptom: Units don't fire, or are greyed out and can't be built

Cause: Both of these problems are almost always caused by a unit or weapon conflict, where UH provides one definition of a particular unit/weapon and some other file attempts to override it with another. Units whose weapons have a conflict can be built but may not fire; units with conflicts will be greyed out and cannot be built by either player.

Fix: Most often the problem is a third-party UFO in your TA directory, but not always. In one recent case, one player reported that the Flea was disabled in his UH games, but he had no non-UH third-party units. It turned out that he had a copy of MOVEINFO.TDF in his GAMEDATA sub-directory, and it was causing a conflict. Deleting or moving files that conflict with UH should fix the problem, though you'll have to restart TA (conflicts can't be fixed in mid-game).
UH does not conflict within itself, but because it uses several extra weapon IDs, it may not be compatible with other third-party units or maps. Do not attempt to resolve the problem with Conflict Crusher; historically, Conflict Crusher fails to understand the custom GUIs that UH uses, and it may make the problem worse.
The only solution is identify the UFO(s) that are causing the conflict and to move them. The conflict is usually a unit UFO, but a few third-party maps use weapon IDs for exploding features, so the conflict may also be caused by a map file.
There should be no conflict between UH and the standard HPI files used by TAMEC.

Symptom: I'm reinstalling TA; what's the right order to install?

Cause: n/a

Fix: Sooner or later, everyone has to reinstall TA at least once, whether you're returning to the more stable 3.1 version or you're lucky enough to get a new computer. In general, the Right Order for installation is:

TA

Core Contingency

Battle Tactics (optional)

Version 3.1 patch

UH 4.0

You don't need any of the downloadable units from Cavedog (including the Battle Tactics units), because UH 4.0 already includes integrated versions of them.

Symptom:	Setup Error: Unable to initialize setup files!
Cause:	All InstallShield setups begin by extracting some standard files to a temporary location (usually C:\WINDOWS\TEMP); if a previous setup has left read-only files with identical names in the same temporary directory, it can cause the setup to fail with this error.
Fix #1:	At least two UH players have reported that they got this error when they downloaded the self-extracting EXE to their totala directory and tried to run it from there. In both cases, moving the EXE to a different directory fixed the problem.
Fix #2:	If you still can't get the InstallShield setup to extract automatically, try this instead. Open the self-extracting EXE file with WinZip, extract the contents manually to a directory of your choice, and run the setup.exe program when you're finished.
Fix #3:	If all else fails, this problem can usually be solved by deleting everything in the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP directory, but be careful. The rule is that applications are not supposed to put anything in this temp directory that isn't safe to delete, but not all apps obey the rules. You may want to check the TEMP environment variable to make sure it's set to C:\WINDOWS\TEMP.