I just had a crash to desktop tonight, and thought "oh no, now what?" So I ran the SAV again (it was in debug, which was nice) but this time I didn't have the CTD. So what gives? Does the game just sometimes give up the ghost? Memory problems? Crappy computer? Stuff like that, or should I be looking for an even-more-elusive-than-normal screw up in my modding?

i've had memory problems in the past and remedied it by adding more :) i've also had bunk flc files in there that would crash the game out w/ no error message, too. it could be a host of other issues as well. i guess i'd start by asking you when exactly it'd crash. i mean, what was going on when it happened? in a city screen? while a unit anim was running? stuff like that.

I've had that happen before too, and continued to play the save with no further problems. It could have just been a Windows hiccup. If it keeps happening randomly, I'd suspect a memory problem.

I'll keep playing the SAV and see what happens.

The crash happened just at the beginning of my next turn. The AI had just finished moving the barbarians around; I discovered a new tech, and told my advisor to research another one, and then there was the usual pause before I was able to activate my units and go about my normal routine turn. Well, this time, that pause simply ended with a crash-to-desktop. But subsequent re-runs of the same turn haven't led to the CtD, so I guess it was just a hiccup? Here's hoping!

Thanks for the comments, too.

Strange, I have the same problem continuously when playing civ-army's ACM mod.

In my case it happens whenever I right click a city screen and go to "change production"

I don't know if anyone has ever seen that.

I've have that happen too on occasion. I suspect it's because the computer is working at it's max or something like that.

could be RAM, could be artwork associated with the science advisor, could even be artwork assiociated w/ the city screen (as per turfcat's issue).

i'd first check to see how much random access memory you guys have running on your rigs. not sure of civ3's specs but i'd imagine that you'd run into some crashes if you're under that threshold. like i mentioned before, i had RAM issues myslef and quadrupled it w/ a few new sticks. once that was is in, no more issues. and i even saw faster performance. so in the end, it's worth upgrading imo.

if that fails or isn't the issue, think back to what exactly was displaying or trying to display right at the moment of the crash. this is how i troubleshoot my stuff and in time, i can usually get to the bottom of it w/ this strategy.