Lord Parkin
aka emperor
It seems that weird and/or catastrophic things can happen when the % character is used in a city name. Specifically, the issue seems to occur when the city name is written to the event log – e.g. finishing an item in a build queue, or notifying of a nearby enemy. When the following combinations occur anywhere inside a city name which is posted to the event log, here is what happens:
% c – will clear the rest of the city name
% d – will replace with a number around -1 billion
% e – will replace with a number around -1*10^-290
% f – will replace with 0.000000
% g – will replace with a number around -1*10^-290
% i – will replace with a number around -1 billion
% n – will immediately crash the game
% o – will replace with a number around 27.7 billion
% p – will replace with BF800000
% s – will immediately crash the game
% u – will replace with a number around 3.2 billion
% x – will replace with bf800000
I’m not a programmer so I’m not sure of what specifically is going on here, but one thing is clear: a % character in the city name causes complete havoc. It probably should have simply been disallowed as a character choice many years ago during bug testing, but apparently it was obscure enough that no-one ever noticed it. For the record, it happens in single player games as well as multiplayer games – whenever a city name which contains one of these combinations is posted to the event log, the result is madness.
To see the bug in action: download the save attached below, load it up in Hotseat, change the city name to one of the combinations above (or leave it as is), press Enter to end turn twice, and watch the ensuing insanity.
% c – will clear the rest of the city name
% d – will replace with a number around -1 billion
% e – will replace with a number around -1*10^-290
% f – will replace with 0.000000
% g – will replace with a number around -1*10^-290
% i – will replace with a number around -1 billion
% n – will immediately crash the game
% o – will replace with a number around 27.7 billion
% p – will replace with BF800000
% s – will immediately crash the game
% u – will replace with a number around 3.2 billion
% x – will replace with bf800000
I’m not a programmer so I’m not sure of what specifically is going on here, but one thing is clear: a % character in the city name causes complete havoc. It probably should have simply been disallowed as a character choice many years ago during bug testing, but apparently it was obscure enough that no-one ever noticed it. For the record, it happens in single player games as well as multiplayer games – whenever a city name which contains one of these combinations is posted to the event log, the result is madness.
To see the bug in action: download the save attached below, load it up in Hotseat, change the city name to one of the combinations above (or leave it as is), press Enter to end turn twice, and watch the ensuing insanity.