Well, after reading all 45 pages (yes, I wanted to be thourough in making sure that my problem wasn't stated before), I have learned that I have a corrupt CD2. At least, based on the fact that others have had the same problem. I also downloaded CDcheck, and the culprit, most disheartingly, was "M04S.P16" (as has been mentioned previously). That file, contained in the "SOUNDS" directory, is over 50mb in size. I strongly doubt that I'll simply be able to replace it with another file in the sound directory. I haven't downloaded CDmage yet (which was also mentioned), but from what I can tell, the image itself is bad (I think it's 2mb short of the full thing).
Does anyone have any suggestions on getting my 2nd disc working? Call me crazy (I am half the time anyway), but if I copy that bad file from the GC version (if it's in there at all, that is), do you think that might work? While you may, or may not believe me, I have the GC version of this game in actual disc form. In fact, I've been playing it while waiting for the DC version to download and patch... The reason I wanted the DC version is because I went to the Skies of Arcadia Worlds site (the one done by Fina/Sam), and saw the screencaptures they had hosted there. Once I saw that, I couldn't stop thinking about. The pictures were so crisp and clear! So, I'm emulating it, not to play it again (I'm already doing that with the GC version), but because I want drop-dead-gorgeous pictures from this game. So, in that regard, I suppose it's not required that I have disc 2...
As for version 4 of this patch coming out, awesome! After reading through this whole thread (it took me like, 4 hours? And it's now somewhere around 5 or 6 am here... I wanted to be in bed around 1... DANGIT! Well, maybe that illustrates how much I wanted to fix this problem?), I can see how much work you've put into getting this game running better. Thank you VERY MUCH for the tips and tricks provided in the manual file.
The worst thing about my problem is that, I had from a year or 2 ago, CD2 on my drive. I deleted it maybe an hour or 2 before I read this thread... D: The reason I deleted it, instead of keeping it, is because it was in NRG format, and DT 3.29 can't mount that format (3.44 can, but I can't run the games using that version). It didn't occur to me that I might have a bad image... So my next request (yes, a poor one, I'm sure) would be, if possible, could you somehow provide a way to patch that faulty file in v4 of this patch? Apparently, based on the comments in this thread, a corrupt 2nd disc has started getting passed around somewhat recently (no one complained of the problem until around page 25-30. From there, it became more frequent). I really wish I hadn't deleted that CD2 NRG image now! At the very least, I might have been able to get a non-corrupted file off of it... I've thought about using some data recovery utilites to see if I can still find the file, but I'm fairly certain that I can't recover it because I've already written data to the drive... (maybe, though, since I had that image file on my drive twice, one as RAR, and one as NRG, I can recover at least one of them? Hmmm... worth a shot, if I can find some data recovery utilities...)
Well, crudders. Sorry for the long post. But thank you VERY MUCH for this awesome patch. The game looks stunning on my PC! Sounds like a cat getting run over, sure, but it looks great! Good luck with v4 coming soon. Mouser X over and out.