So back in the days when "The Horatio" update scored in, i was trying to get ES2 working only to be opposed by the classical "5% loaded and then game is freezing on a splash screen" error.

I posted to some topics on Steam and got pretty much nothing except that it's a rare and strange bug with the game not being able to read through dotnetwrapper64.dll for some unkown reason. Well it's just a public alpha, so things like that tend to happen.

Now, when the mighty "Riftborn" update is in place, i'm still trying to make it work.

Good news: I no longer have this 5% loading freeze error. Somehow developers fixed this issue by whatever they... did. Thank you very much.

Bad news: I have all sorts of stuff going on now. Visually, i got it loaded to 100% and i hear music and i can move mouse cursor and i can freely alt-tab and close the game, but i'm still stuck on that splash screen.

https://hastebin.com/wivojapozu.vbs - DxDiag.txt

https://hastebin.com/iteferumab.sql - 

Steam System Information

Then...

https://hastebin.com/secebihuzu.tex - Output Log

There was bullcrap of loads of text there. So much that it killed my OS first time when i tried to copypaste it. So i cut it a bit.

Basically, it keeps posting (countless times):

(Filename: Line: -1)

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
at AgeSoftwareRasterGlyphRenderer.GlyphPositioning (UInt32 charUnicode, .AgeFont font, UInt32 fontSize, UnityEngine.Vector2& bearing, UnityEngine.Vector2& widthHeight, System.Single& advance) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeGlyphManager.GetGlyphPositioning (UInt32 charUnicode, .AgeFont font, UInt32 fontSize, Boolean distanceField, UnityEngine.Vector2& bearing, UnityEngine.Vector2& widthHeight, System.Single& advance) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeFont.GetCharAdvance (Char charUnicode, UInt32 fontSize) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeFont.ComputeTextWidth (System.String text, UInt32 fontSize, Boolean forcedCaps, Boolean makeClean) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgePrimitiveLabel.ComputeText_ApplyWordWrapIfNecessary () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgePrimitiveLabel.ComputeText () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgePrimitiveLabel.set_NewParagraphSpacing (Int32 value) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at (wrapper delegate-invoke) System.Action`2<AgePrimitiveLabel, int>:invoke_void__this___AgePrimitiveLabel_int (AgePrimitiveLabel,int)
at AgeModifierItem+Setter`2[AgePrimitiveLabel,System.Int32].Set (System.Object component, System.Object value) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeModifierItem.SetPropertyValue (System.Object value) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeModifierItem.SetTargetValue (System.Object value) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeModifierItem.Init (UnityEngine.GameObject target) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeModifierSet.InitItem (Int32 i) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeModifierSet.ApplyTemplate () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeModifierSet.Init () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeModifierSet.Start () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

and

(Filename: Line: -1)

DllNotFoundException: C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Endless Space 2/EndlessSpace2_Data/Plugins/freetype6.dll
at (wrapper managed-to-native) Amplitude.Interop.FreeType:FT_Init_FreeType (intptr&)
at Amplitude.Unity.Graphics.FreeTypeFont..ctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at AgeFont.OnEnable () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

Then again...
https://hastebin.com/reyozecixe.xml - Diagnostics (It had the same things going on so i had to cut it as well).

TL;DR.

Basically, it says i am missing mono.exe and freetype6.dll (which is actually there).

Mono is a thing that handles .NET stuff in MacOS, so i think it's fine and i don't actually need this,

freetype6.dll gives me "Missing DLL exception". IIRC it's a part of some JS handler and i don't know much about it.

There was an opinion, that freetype6.dll gives me an exception 'cos of some sort of unicode error or a problem with system non-unicode language support, but running some tests proved it wrong.

Thoughts?

I have a similar problem wherein I tried to load my Sophons game and the bar reaches a certain point but it stops. The text above it reads: "Connecting to Server. Launching Game." and then it stays like that even after an hour of letting the program resolve itself. Like the OP, I can freely move my mouse, freely Alt-Tab (doing it right now :P), and the music is playing when I tab back into the game.

Only other information I could provide is I remember an entire fleet being invisible both visually and mechanically (e.g., unable to move them around, unable to dock them into the shipyard, selling them just leaves this small triangle with no ship visual beside it with a 0/20 CP info at the panel. Perhaps the two are connected?

I'll keep the save file just in case the devs need it or something. If I need to post anything, please let me know how since I'm not that technologically adept and I found the tutorial on the forums a bit confusing. Thank you for your patience.

Up & Up! Devs, answer me, please!

I also have this issue.

One observation I have made so far after testing several in game elements is that... if no player action is taken I was able to get a uncorrupted save several turns deeper into the game...

So for example if I load my good save (Turn 165 as United Empire) and simply hit end turn every turn, take no action what so ever, I can then save later around turn 170 and have a loadable manual save.

However any attempt at saving after taking any kind of action has resulted in a corrupted unloadable save. Further invesigation required.... interesting find I think.