An update on the crash introduced in 1.74: There is hope!
Added 2025-12-07 14:40:24 +0000 UTCEDIT: A fix has been figured out, implemented, and just needs fine tuning. A bug bounty was paid out for this - yet another reason why your Patreon support helps make LL:E better and better!
So it looks like the Spectre crash introduced in 1.74 may be a memory issue in the engine.
Here's how it's supposed to go:
A ghost enemy applies an ActorDot to a hero - Floating hands.
When the hero attacks, the ActorDot completes and adds a new one to the hero itself: Grabbing hands.
Each time the hero attacks, the hero takes a small StressDOT.
The fight carries on until it ends, then all ActorDots vanish.
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Or at least that would be the plan.
What happens instead is:
A ghost enemy applies an ActorDot to a hero - Floating hands.
When the hero attacks, the ActorDot completes and adds a new one to the hero itself: Grabbing hands.
[We crash here, with one ActorDot completed and the new one applied]
[We reload the save. Everything works fine.]
Each time the hero attacks, the hero takes a small StressDOT.
The fight carries on until it ends, then all ActorDots vanish.
From here on in the crash stops existing. It only happens the first time you boot up Darkest Dungeon and encounter the Spectre's aDoT. Each subsequent time you encounter the Spectre's ADot everything goes off without a hitch unless you restart your PC and relaunch DD. This suggests that we are encountering an engine issue with memory and allocation.
This is bad news because there's fuck-all we can do about engine level bugs.
But wait, there's hope-! Don't pull that trigger, stock photo lady!
As some very clever individuals in the DD modding discord have pointed out (after I put out a private bug bounty) I can achieve a very very similar thing using Buff FX. It should be cleaner, look nicer, and hopefully not crash anything!
Hopefully!
There we go. Have a cigarette instead, stock photo lady, things aren't hopeless yet.
Kindly,
Ancestress
EDIT: A fix has been figured out, implemented, and just needs fine tuning. A bug bounty was paid out for this - yet another reason why your Patreon support helps make LL:E better and better!
