New Character Set Issue

I'm encountering an issue that only seems to happen when I'm opening a new character set for the first time.

When opening a new character set on 1 PC through Inner Space for the first time, if the server it thinks you last logged into is also the server you intend to log into, it never creates the window for that character. At least I think it's related to the world it thinks you last logged into.

I've tried it on two worlds/servers now, with the same result. In one case I opened a new character set and 4 of the 6 opened (it stopped after the first one, but I could get the other unaffected characters to open by selecting that character specifically from inner space) however the other two would go through the login and world selection, but when it would then be the step where it would open the window for that character, nothing happens. The only thing in common between the two that wouldn't open, that I could see, was that the login window had the server I was connecting to already marked as the "last-played world" for those two characters while the other 4 characters had a different world/server marked there so I had to manually select their server.

I tried it again creating a new set of characters on a different server. This time the login screens opened by Inner Space only had one of them with the server I was going to marked as the "last-played world" and, sure enough, that was the only character that wouldn't open. I've noticed that when I open the login screen manually vs through Inner Space it has a differing opinion on what was the "last-played world" so am unsure how to work around this issue, if that truly is the cause. My other character sets remain unaffected and this only seems to affect new character sets, but since I can't get the full character set open the first time, I'm unsure where to go from here for those character sets.

I've noticed that Inner Space remembers which server is used for a character set and marks it automatically after the first time so I needn't select it manually each time I log in. I wonder if the issue I'm encountering may be related to that and it is somehow expecting that I'll be selecting something other than what is already there as the default "last-played world". As such I experimented with unchecking that box and with selecting another world/server then changing back to the server I desired before clicking <PLAY>, but if that is the cause, it seemed to only matter what the final choice was as none of that experimentation resulted in the character's window opening.

Any help would be appreciated.

[lax]

I've noticed that Inner Space remembers which server is used for a character set and marks it automatically after the first time so I needn't select it manually each time I log in. I wonder if the issue I'm encountering may be related to that and it is somehow expecting that I'll be selecting something other than what is already there as the default "last-played world".

What ISBoxer does is virtualizes UserPreferences.XML and LauncherUserPreferences.XML, on a per-Character basis. This is under your Virtual Files in ISBoxer in the top left pane.

The first time you launch a given Character with such a Virtual File, it will be copied straight from the original (when the game first tries to access the file that is virtualized). So when the game goes to access LauncherUserPreferences.XML it might instead get LauncherUserPreferences-MyCharacter.XML, and if that doesn't exist it is created by copying straight from the main one. (Note: If your "Character" name has characters in it that would be invalid in a filename, that might explain the inability to launch that character.)

So this should give you at least these possible "next steps":
* You can go to the folder containing your LOTRO preference files and manually modify the Character-specific XML files, for example by copying from another
* You can change the Virtual File as attached to specific Characters (select the Virtual File in the top left pane, and select each Character in the bottom left pane to see or adjust the "Virtualize as" filename)

Thank you for your quick response and helpfulness. That work around seems to have gotten me past this hurdle.

Altering the LauncherUserSetting.xml didn't do anything, but altering the UserPreferences.ini on the 6th character slot (the one not opening) to have the name of the character in the 5th slot instead, made it open finally.

That makes it work, but I wonder, are there any adverse effects to having two characters both pointing to the same UserPreferences-<Charactername>.ini ?

Thank you again for your help.

[TonyO]

are there any adverse effects to having two characters both pointing to the same UserPreferences-<Charactername>.ini ?

It should be possible, but I haven't tried it. I recommend virtualizing this file so you can have a main window with high quality graphics. By virtualizing this file, you may greatly improve frame rate by reducing the graphics setting to "Very Low" in your slave windows, while having a high quality setting on your main character.

are there any adverse effects to having two characters both pointing to the same UserPreferences-<Charactername>.ini ?

Nope. I'm using visualized UserPreferences.ini files that are used simultaneously by multiple LOTRO characters without any issues. The only thing to remember is that when you want to change your settings, the last character to log out is the one that writes the final set of values. As long as you remember that (or update settings with only one character logged in at that time), then there is no problem with slots sharing the same UserPreferences.ini file.