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:
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.
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 . . .
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.
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.
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.
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
Hi, I have reinstalled my creatures games again on steam. I came looking for some fixes to try and make it more stable. I have installed the Creatures 2 Community Edition, and now my game won't run. It loads up the world switcher, but when I press the Play World, nothing happens. I have tried running the patcher again, didn't do anything.
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