I recently got Creatures Exodus, but I am having a problem with Creatures 3. Whenever I click on the shortcut, it opens a window that says:

NLE0002: The following directory doesn't exist:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Gameware Development\Creatures Exodus\Creatures 3\Sounds\
Make sure the configuration file entry is correct!

Windows NT/2000 6.1 build 7600 ()
OriginalDisplay DirectX (no modules)
Fri Mar 15 17:47:51 2013 - User - 2.296

A similar message appears when I directly open the engine.exe file, except instead of the first three lines, it says "NLE0001: 'Main Directory' setting not found." Both messages display options to either "Continue", "Quit", or "Brutal Abort" although all three just close the window. The strange thing is I have already gotten Docking Station to work without any real trouble. It should also be worth mentioning that I used to have Exodus installed on my computer until I uninstalled it a while back, in case that is somehow messing with this.

Anybody have any idea what is wrong with the program?

That error is stating that your installation of the game is not able to locate some files when it tried to follow the information stated inside the file machine.cfg.
Locate for the machine.cfg file inside the game folder and use notepad to make the necessary corrections to the directory path of your game installation.

I do not see a machine.cfg in my Creatures 3 folder, though there is one in my Docking Station folder. Should I change that one?

That's the problem for the error, you need to create the machine.cfg file using notepad.
Attached is the screen shot of the machine.cfg file from my Creatures 3 folder.

The following is the file content, copy & paste it using notepad:
"Backgrounds Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Backgrounds\\"
"Body Data Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Body Data\\"
"Bootstrap Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Bootstrap\\"
"Catalogue Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Catalogue\\"
"Creature Database Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Creature Galleries\\"
"Display Type" 2
"Exported Creatures Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\My Creatures\\"
"Game Name" "Creatures 3"
"Genetics Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Genetics\\"
"Images Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Images\\"
"Journal Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Journal\\"
"Main Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\"
"Overlay Data Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Overlay Data\\"
"Resource Files Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\My Agents\\"
"Sounds Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Sounds\\"
"Worlds Directory" "C:\\Program Files\\GOG.com\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\My Worlds\\"

Alright, that made it so that C3 would actually launch, so now I can finally use my old C3DS worlds in Docking Station! However, there is one little problem with C3: whenever I run C3 from either the shortcut or from the engine.exe, it only shows a black screen. When I go back to the folder to see if something is wrong with machine.cfg, it is gone. I have tried to create a new machine.cfg just like the last one, but it just gets rid of it when I run C3. Any idea why it is doing this?

I believe the black screen is due to Creatures 3 requires the screen resolution to be set to 16-bits colour mode.

I am not sure why your system removes the machine.cfg file, maybe you can test setting the file to read-only & check whether is your system still removing the file.

I'm having difficulties with the Creatures 3 Docking. It won't giterve me a uer name or pasword or allow mine to register. It is tating the\at either my computer or their erver are not connected to the internet.

The servers are dead, dude. You'll either need to use a mod like C1 To DS or drop in a modified file.

The servers are offline - you'll want to grab C12DS, as Darvond said, or the DS Offline Option - both of these will modify Docking Station to allow you to play with the world offline.

Hi guys, I have this NLE0001 error too. I tried modifying the machine.cfg to as follows (it's installed under D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus), and it stopped prompting the error message, and instead it gives me a black screen as it did TheOfficeGuy:

"Backgrounds Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Backgrounds"
"Body Data Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Body Data"
"Bootstrap Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Bootstrap"
"Catalogue Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Catalogue"
"Creature Database Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Creature Galleries"
"Display Type" 2
"Exported Creatures Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\My Creatures"
"Game Name" "Creatures 3"
"Genetics Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Genetics"
"Images Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Images"
"Journal Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Journal"
"Main Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3"
"Overlay Data Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Overlay Data"
"Resource Files Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\My Agents"
"Sounds Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Sounds"
"Users Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\Users"
"Worlds Directory" "D:\\gog\\Creatures Exodus\\Creatures 3\\My Worlds"

I also tried launching it under the compatible mode (with WIN98), and the first time I did it, it showed something like "converting graphics in .\Image\" or something like that, before ending with a black screen. The second time onward, it showed only the black screen again.

PS. I can launch Docking Station without problems (at least it did open up a window).