Missing icons and slow motion
Missing icons and slow motion usually mean the mod's files are incomplete, stale or mixed with another mod. Move other mods out of data_win32, verify the game in Steam, then press Validate in the launcher. If it persists, update to the current build, because a mismatched file set behaves this way.
These two symptoms look unrelated and share a cause: the game is reading a file set that does not match what the build expects.
Missing character icons
The character select grid draws its portraits from the mod's own files. Fragments of an older install, an interrupted download or two mods sharing the folder leaves the select with blank slots while the character is still playable.
Repair order:
- Move any other mod folder out of the game directory — removing old mods.
- Verify STORM 4 in Steam — verify game files.
- Press Validate in the Evolution launcher.
Slow motion
Everything moving at half speed while input still responds is the classic sign of a mismatched or incomplete file set on this engine. It is not the same as low frame rate from an overloaded GPU: with the GPU you get a choppy picture, with this you get a smooth but crawling one.
Same three steps, plus one more:
- Update to the current build. Slow motion after a partial update is exactly what the mismatched file set produces, and the updater plus Validate resolves it.
Voices and sound
Silent characters, missing taunt lines and effects that do not play are the audio half of the same problem. Recent builds added voice lines and sound effects to a long list of characters, so a build that is one or two patches behind will genuinely be missing audio that the changelog says exists.
When it is the GPU instead
If the picture is choppy rather than slow, or it recovers when you stand still, that is performance, not corruption: 60 FPS and performance.
Do not skip Validate
Install puts the files down. Validate is what compares them with the build. Any time content goes missing, the answer starts with Validate — which is also why the install page tells you to press it before your first launch.
