Ask the Experts / Corrupt Scenery group causing Error Trapper

I've been working on improving a Canada's Wonderland recreation I downloaded a few years ago. This park Error Trappers when loading if you use ParkDat on it, so to add new scenery, I went back to the Scenario Editor. When I had the park back in the Scenario Editor, I noticed one of the Scenery Groups (Cougers Water Features, WATER.dat) had duplicated and was listed twice in the selection list, taking up two of the 19 slots. Initially, I could deselect one. If I tried to deselect the other one, nothing happened. But the one I couldn't deselect doesn't show up in the scenery tab in game.

At this point, I thought maybe this corrupt scenery group was causing the issues with ParkDat. So I tried using ParkDat to remove that scenery group from the saved game. Nope. Still Error Trappers when I try to load it in the game after using ParkDat. Then I go into my ObjData folder and find WATER.dat in there twice (once in the regular folder, and once in Compatibility Files) as well as similarly named WATES.dat and WATET.dat. I take all of them out. I open the park up again in the Scenario Editor, and Cougers Water Features now only shows once. Ok, that's good right? Well, it's the one that does not show up in the scenery window in game. But now I can actually deselect it. So I deselect it, but doing so causes an Error Trapper when trying to advance to the "Invention List Set-Up" stage in the Scenario Editor.

So I'm stumped. How do you remove a .dat file when neither the Scenario Editor or ParkDat work?

Might help to replace WATER.dat in Parkdat instead of removing it. Try both "WATER.dat"s. I have a similar problem with a corrupt balloon stall.

Tried, and Error Trapper again.

So messed around some more. If I just deselect it in the Scenario Editor, it Error Trappers at the Invention List Set-up stage. If I deselect it in the Scenario Editor and pick another group, I can go all the way through the editor and save it, but then it Error Trappers trying to load the scenario in game.

Make sure you have at least one default RCT object in each of the main default tabs. For example, the garden clock as the only object in the game's garden scenery tab.

That wouldn't be it anyway. Once I suspected the Cougers Water Features being the cause of the problem, I've gone through the editor with an older file and it only has problems when I remove Cougers Water Features. If there were a lack of default objects, that would have been making it not work period.

Water.dat is one of the objects where someone f'ed up.

Objects have an filename but also an internal filename. If I remember right there is an copy of water.dat with a wrong internal filename. So if you deselect it the game still finds a water.dat but the internal name might not match.

I sugest. Remove the both with parkdat. Remove the bad one from your obj folder and add it back in with parkdat and update your headers.

Just now noticed the new post. I fixed it a couple weeks ago. I ended up finding a slighty older version of the park that I was able to completely remove water.dat. Had to redo 2 days of work afterword, but it's fixed, and water.dat has been removed from my ObjData folder.