crashing when I get to a new age
- Thread starter Schisgall
- Start date
A few more details would help...
- Has it ever worked? If so what have you changed that might have stopped it working? Civ Mods? OS upgrades? ...
- What OS are you running? Probably not an issue, but it always helps to know what kind of system we're discussing so that I don't suggest things you can only do on OS X and then discover you're still on 9
Having said that, if it used to work and has stopped working and you are convinced you've done nothing to provoke it then all you can do is to reinstall Civ3.
- Has it ever worked? If so what have you changed that might have stopped it working? Civ Mods? OS upgrades? ...
- What OS are you running? Probably not an issue, but it always helps to know what kind of system we're discussing so that I don't suggest things you can only do on OS X and then discover you're still on 9
Having said that, if it used to work and has stopped working and you are convinced you've done nothing to provoke it then all you can do is to reinstall Civ3.
thanks for getting back to me so quick . Okay -- the long version:
I'm using Panther 10.3.2 on a g4 dual processor desktop, CIV III version 1.29 beta I.
The game used to work fine. But I did lots to mess it up....
I had to upgrade another application (I'm playing on a video editing station I own) and moved all the civ 3 files off the hard-drive to a peripheral drive. Then my assistant _downgraded_ the operating system (from 10.3.3 to 10.3.2) so that our new upgrade would run -- it is not supported for 10.3.3.
I began this game, I noticed later, without the civ disk in and without a disk image on he screen ... it played fine right up to when I got feudalism, and then it crashes. I tried replaying from an autosave with a disk image, same problem.
I've lost my original install disk, so it would cost me another X bucks to reinstall.
Any ideas?
David
I'm using Panther 10.3.2 on a g4 dual processor desktop, CIV III version 1.29 beta I.
The game used to work fine. But I did lots to mess it up....
I had to upgrade another application (I'm playing on a video editing station I own) and moved all the civ 3 files off the hard-drive to a peripheral drive. Then my assistant _downgraded_ the operating system (from 10.3.3 to 10.3.2) so that our new upgrade would run -- it is not supported for 10.3.3.
I began this game, I noticed later, without the civ disk in and without a disk image on he screen ... it played fine right up to when I got feudalism, and then it crashes. I tried replaying from an autosave with a disk image, same problem.
I've lost my original install disk, so it would cost me another X bucks to reinstall.
Any ideas?
David
dojoboy
Tsalagi
I'm not sure how the changes you made would affect the game. Alan likely can help you there. But, you should upgrade to 1.29b2, its more stable and fixed some issues. Also, w/ the 1.29 betas, you don't need a cd in the drive or a disk image. It'll run w/ out them.
You originally said the crash happens at era change, but now you're saying it happens when you get Feudalism 
The most likely reason for a crash at era change is that one of the files that comes into play at that point is hosed. Possible culprit is the pretty era change splash screen that comes up to say you are entering a new age, or maybe some of the leader head pictures, as they change in the diplo screen when leaders improve their dress sense, though that would normally result in a crash in the F4 screen.
If the crash happens specifically when you learn Feudalism then it may be related to files for the Pikeman unit that you can build with Feudalism.
The only way to determine whether it's your software installation or the game file itself would be to upload your autosave from the turn before it crashes, tell us what you do next to provoke the crash, and one of us can try loading it up to see if the crash recurs. If it does it's possibly just the game file, and starting a new game may be OK. If we don't get the crash then it must be your software. Then you could try trashing your prefs - two files in |/Library/Preferences/ called "com.westlake.[something].plist" and "civ3prefs.plist" if I recall correctly. (I'm at work right now, in front of a boring Windies machine
, so I'm guessing). Otherwise it's reinstall time, with your lost CD 
The most likely reason for a crash at era change is that one of the files that comes into play at that point is hosed. Possible culprit is the pretty era change splash screen that comes up to say you are entering a new age, or maybe some of the leader head pictures, as they change in the diplo screen when leaders improve their dress sense, though that would normally result in a crash in the F4 screen.
If the crash happens specifically when you learn Feudalism then it may be related to files for the Pikeman unit that you can build with Feudalism.
The only way to determine whether it's your software installation or the game file itself would be to upload your autosave from the turn before it crashes, tell us what you do next to provoke the crash, and one of us can try loading it up to see if the crash recurs. If it does it's possibly just the game file, and starting a new game may be OK. If we don't get the crash then it must be your software. Then you could try trashing your prefs - two files in |/Library/Preferences/ called "com.westlake.[something].plist" and "civ3prefs.plist" if I recall correctly. (I'm at work right now, in front of a boring Windies machine
, so I'm guessing). Otherwise it's reinstall time, with your lost CD Thanks, Alan!
I misspoke -- it actually crashes just at the "new age" screen, not when I get feudalsim -- woops.
I'll try trashing the prefs -- thanks.
I don't think its the game file -- I went back a several turns on the autosave and I still got the same crash. I'm sure its a corrupted "new age splash screen." Can I fix that without reinstalling?
Otherwise I'll have to buy the game -- again. I tossed the cd a few months ago in a futile attempt to break my life-destroying civ addiction. Better than other possible addictions, I suppose.
Thanks alot,
D
I misspoke -- it actually crashes just at the "new age" screen, not when I get feudalsim -- woops.
I'll try trashing the prefs -- thanks.
I don't think its the game file -- I went back a several turns on the autosave and I still got the same crash. I'm sure its a corrupted "new age splash screen." Can I fix that without reinstalling?
Otherwise I'll have to buy the game -- again. I tossed the cd a few months ago in a futile attempt to break my life-destroying civ addiction. Better than other possible addictions, I suppose.
Thanks alot,
D
I'm home now with my lovely Mac, sigh! 
.
The prefs files are "~/Library/Preferences/com.westlake.Civ3.plist" and "~/Library/Preferences/Civ3 Preferences" where "~/" means your Home folder.
Do you see the era change splash screen before it crashes? Possible problems: the splash screen image fies or the splash screen template file. Unfortunately I can't track down the template file
There are four graphics files in Civilization III/Art/EraSplash/. They are the four era change pictures, named xxxx.pcx. You could try opening them to see if one is corrupted - Graphic Converter will open a .pcx file. If there's one corrupt one you could duplicate a good one and rename the copy to replace the bad one. You might even get away with preplacing the baddie with an empty file of the same name.
I thought there was a way to suppress the era change splash screen, but I can't see it in the prefs, so maybe I was dreaming.
.The prefs files are "~/Library/Preferences/com.westlake.Civ3.plist" and "~/Library/Preferences/Civ3 Preferences" where "~/" means your Home folder.
Do you see the era change splash screen before it crashes? Possible problems: the splash screen image fies or the splash screen template file. Unfortunately I can't track down the template file
There are four graphics files in Civilization III/Art/EraSplash/. They are the four era change pictures, named xxxx.pcx. You could try opening them to see if one is corrupted - Graphic Converter will open a .pcx file. If there's one corrupt one you could duplicate a good one and rename the copy to replace the bad one. You might even get away with preplacing the baddie with an empty file of the same name.
I thought there was a way to suppress the era change splash screen, but I can't see it in the prefs, so maybe I was dreaming.
Brad Oliver
Civ3/4 Mac programmer
In case this comes up again, this was a known bug with 1.29 beta 1 - it would crash when trying to play some cinematics in-game. b2 definitely takes care of it.
