Resolved [SOLVED] Game sometimes doesn't start and no NPCs anywhere, even main quest related ones

The game sometimes just doesn't load the Chucklefish logo and get stuck at a black screen, and no matter how long I wait it doesn't get past it. I just have to close the game by crashing it and retry opening it until it loads properly.

If the game loads and I can start a character without a problem. But there are no NPCs anywhere in the game, at the Outpost, at the Protectorate starting area, at random homes on planets; even Esther is missing, making me unable to progress the main quest line. I have seen many NPCs attempting to spawn in front of the penguin bar at a regular interval at the outpost, but instantly dying and dropping their loot.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game to fix this to no avail.

I am running the game Borderless Fullscreen on a Windows 10 x64 and the game is installed on a external HDD. I have 61 mods installed, including Frackin Universe.

I have attached 2 log files:

1. One stuck at the black screen and waited for 5 minutes (starbound1.log)
2. One at the Protectorate starting area where some NPCs supposed to spawn (starbound2.log)

PS: I had to try at least 8 times to get to the main screen, verify once and download something too small to show its size on Steam and resubscribe to the mod Frackin' Races as I though it was the mod that messed up the NPCs, but the game didn't launch without it.

 

Thanks for the fast reply!

I found which mod was the removed one thanks to Workshop Collection list, it was "100% Boss Loot Drop", and unsubscribed from it. But the game still gets stuck at a black screen before, and sometimes during, the splash screen. I unsubscribed from all the mods after trying to launch the game several times, but even after without any mods the game still doesn't get to the title screen.

I have attached a log file which I waited around 3 minutes after black screen.

Also I don't know is this the place for it, I checked the box to subscribe to this thread by e-mail to get notified early but didn't got one. Maybe the e-mail system is down without your knowledge?

 

Surprisingly enough, adding Starbound to the exception list of Kaspersky worked just fine for the black screen issue. Thanks for the suggestion.

Now after starting a new character with a fresh universe, there are NPCs where they should be.

Though after installing Frackin' Universe + Races + Music, black screen made its return and the game crashed off-screen while retrying to open the game. I suspect the culprit is Frackin' Races, I will try without it.

I have attached the error log when the game crashed and the log file as well.

I am very confused about all this happening.

Edit: I moved the game files to my internal SSD, and continue from there.

Edit 2: I had removed all the mods except a single mod (1656164531) that changes a .ogg file and the game was still getting stuck at the black screen before the splash screen. Now I removed that and the game started to run just fine. I subscribed to it again and the game started to get stuck again.

Edit 3: I tried to stay up-to-date by trying a RSS feed for the first time, but https://community.playstarbound.com/forums/-/index.rss just turns '404 Not Found' and doesn't subscribe to it.

 

Well, thanks for the all help you've provided. I don't intend to waste more time of yours, so I guess I just brute force my way into the game until it gets to the title screen from now on. About the NPC issue, I will do just as you said, try which mods are clashing by activating them one at a time. If I find which mod/s are causing it, I will update this post.

 

I thank you for your kind approach. I am still trying to find which mod/s were causing the NPCs to not spawn and narrowed down the culprit list to 5 mods, but am unable to continue furthermore. The game just gets stuck at the splash screen and I don't know how to fix it. I have 3 logs attached.

1. log 1 is when I tried to exit back to main menu from the starting Protectorate dungeon after I saw some NPCs spawn, but the game just crashed without exiting.
2. log 2 is just me being stuck at the black splash screen.
3. log 3 is when I tried some mods, got NPCs to spawn and exited the game successfully.

Even without mods, game sometime just doesn't get past the black splash screen.

The game is currently installed on my internal SSD on Windows 10 x64, playing Windowed for temporary crash convenience, and have 53 mods installed.

 

I have reverted my NVIDIA drivers to a previous version, the game only started once successfully and the issue persisted like before. I have attached the log files of the both instances of the game running just fine (1) and not getting past the black splash screen (2).

I will not try to uninstall my NVIDIA Graphics Card driver and reinstall it. I might mess it up so won't be able to reply again for some time. Wish me luck, for this laptop can run Witcher 3 just fine but behaves like a potato at times.

PS: I think I have found the mod that caused NPCs to die the instant they spawn, it is most likely the "Active Stealth Module" mod (729610667).

 

I have reinstalled my graphics drivers, and now the game runs on fullscreen by itself, normally it would start windowed if I reinstall it or delete the 'storage' folder. Nonetheless, black splash screen is still there.

I tried to run the game on the integrated Intel graphics card, it run without any problem but the framerate was too low.

Log 1 is of game not running properly on NVIDIA, and log 2 is game running without any issue on Intel HD.

Edit: I also attached a log 3 from the 32 bit instance of the game.

 

Well, I think I have solved my problems.

• The NPCs dying instantly I believe was caused by the mod "Active Stealth Module" (729610667), which it says it changes NPC behaviour to implement stealth. It was either clashing with another mod or causing the problem by itself.
• And silly me, only now thought of running the game as administrator. I first tried to run it with Windows 7 compatibility mode but received a negative result, and then I tried to run it as administrator and it never got stuck on the black splash screen again.

I thank you @Iris Blanche for all your efforts of helping me. I attached a final log if you are interested.

Edit: It was causing problems to many it seems https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/729610667/1353742967805215596/

 

I'm having a issue with FU where Vinalisj doesn't spawn anymore.