Dreaded terran.exe has stopped working -Win 7 32bit

Hello friends... I had been playing Masters of Orion II for years, finding it a dependable escape, which helped facilitate creativity while escaping. So you can imagine my excitement, when I discovered Alpha Centauri...

I had been playing along happily since, well, Christmas (2014), when suddenly, I started receiving the error message, terran.exe has stopped working... , etc... CORRECTION... This is happening after the Windows of Golden Age, Colony Status Queues and Transcend 46... So, I supposed that would make it at the beginning, or toward the middle of the turn. I have been all over the net trying to remedy this. I have tried every possible combination of Windows 7 32bit tweeks, and installation of patches, including Data Execution Prevention, to no avail. Well... Hopefully not all

The tweeks/fixes/patches did work for a little while. Just long enough for Windows 7 32 bit, to figure it out. In fact, the Windows XP process is in on this too. Quite frankly, it seems as if the OS's are on some kind of seek and destroy mission, to accomplish 'terran.exe has stopped working.' I'm not even going into detail about how I tried to get this working on VirtualBox, with Ubuntu... I'm also leaning toward the OS's fault, since there are numerous people reporting this same problem, with different programs, peppered across google. In fact, I know there are many still looking for a remedy for this... through the years

My question is: Has anyone found a way to inhibit Windows 7 32 bit, from performing this senseless process... to stop the program from working. I am convinced that it does not have to do directly with AC... it appears. I want this solved before purchasing Beyond Earth. Thank you for your time and attention...

Welcome to CivFanatics and the Alpha Centauri forum!

Sorry to hear that you're having problems with the game. A few questions:

• Which version of the game are you running (original release, Planetary Pack, SOS, GOG, something else)?
• Which patches did you apply?
• Have you tried any compatibility mode options?
• Are the crashes associated with a specific event?

CivBE is a completely different game and shouldn't be affected by crashes in SMAC.

Hello... Thank you for your reply...

Please see an attachment of my .SAV below...

Posted ...but have a major correction: This is not crashing at the change of the turn, but after the Windows of Golden Age, Colony Status Queues and Transcend 46... So, I supposed that would make it at the beginning, or toward the middle of the turn. Sorry, this has all been in my head up till now...

Which version of the game are you running (original release, Planetary Pack, SOS, GOG, something else)? This would be the GOG setup sid meiers alpha_centauri_2.0.2.23

Which patches did you apply? Pretty certain this is working with Scient's Patch... Liked many of the changes. Even tried to implement the XP/Win 7 compatibility patches... But my system is up to date.

Have you tried any compatibility mode options? I discovered the arts of compatibility mode after awhile. I've uninstall/re- with Windows 7 selected... as well as in XP mode

Are the crashes associated with a specific event? And as mentioned above, the crashes are coming right as the turn is about to end, and begin another. I say this, because I became pretty conscious of turn progression after each fix.

One other thing, I just this evening installed the graphics accelerator... and I'm getting the same crash at Windows of Golden Age, Colony Status Queues and Transcend 46...

Your save file also crashed on my system, running SMAC with scient's unofficial patch. I was struck by how many units were present and I think that's the problem. I loaded your save file again and manually disbanded several dozen formers. I then could play two more turns without crashing.

Without scient's patch there was a hard-coded limit of 2048 units in the game. Once you reached that limit, you were simply unable to build any more units. scient removed this limit in his patch, but his implementation turned out to be unstable and caused crashes when the threshold of 2048 was crossed. You might be able to complete your current game by disbanding any unnecessary units and not building any more. However, the AI may continue to build units, again causing crashes.

You might be able to avoid this problem in future games simply by building fewer units. Another solution is to install another unofficial patch. Patches subsequent to scient's have all (I think) reinstated the 2048 limit. Since you play SMAC, you could install kyrub's patch, which may be found on Alpha Centauri 2. Yitzi also has made patches that reinstate the 2048 limit, but I think his patches are only for Alien Crossfire (SMAX).

Hope this information is useful. Please post again if any questions.

Below is another .sav of a game in which I achieved world domination, but payed no attention to the unit limit.

I had sent you a rather well thought reply this afternoon... But here I am checking in and it is nowhere to be found... Nevertheless... I disbanded probably 30 or so units, but it is still crashing. Not nearly as many as you did, however. I like the idea of a limit... so we do not run into this issue.

I am curious, if a better video card would help this. My old strategy, with Age of Empires and Masters of Orion II has been to overwhelm my opponent by shear numbers... After building an unstoppable economy. I never gave thought to how many units I was producing, assuming everything was being accounted for in my economy.

I will be installing the patches tonight... Thank you for your attention.

I looked at your first game again and the problem might not be with the unit limit after all. Load the save file Ophelia Sona 2526 (Lal-x'd).SAV and, in the F4 screen, open the base named Port Rose of Summer (it's about 7 pages down from the top). Note that the second item in the build queue has an odd name. This item has been corrupted and may be the source of your crash. I turned off the base governor, set the base to Stockpile Energy and deleted both items in the build queue. I was then able to play several turns without a crash. I've attached a save file for your game after having taken the steps described above. No units were deleted. Can you now continue playing?

I doubt that a new video card would help with playing SMAC. The game was designed to run on systems from 1999. Surely your current video card exceeds the 1999 requirements.

Hope this helps. Please let us know what happens.

Again... Posted this earlier this afternoon, but it didn't complete... So here is as it would have read...

Nice!...

I'll be checking this out tonight when I get home...

I am an freelance internet professional, and I am code friendly, but of course this is all AC Centric to me, and $$ess OTJ information... I was able to open AC .sav in a 'C' 'C++' editor, but of course had no idea how to navigate it.

Also, in the reply I created that did not get posted; was elaborating how I wasn't sure why the Sea/Land Formers were meandering around on their own merry mission... causing me stress when they run into infested pods, etc... Are they SPECIFICALLY for simply creating resources around the base/city? What is the role of roads/tubes then? I was thinking one might connect to a resource to a square outside the visual of the base/city?... Or for commerce reasons, connecting base/cities across vast distances...

One more, I am curious, do you think it possible to attempt to put AC into DOS Box?...
Asking just to see...

Ok...

Before accessing the .sav you repaired, I tried to spot the bug for myself so I could see what it was all about. I couldn't even get near the 'Port of Last Summer' in question. It was like a wounded dog... and would crash, as I tried to access the queue. I tried to access it with the other patches, and the same result, only slightly better. I loaded your fix, and was able to make the corrections you suggested. Everything has been running smoothly... So far. I suppose I could crack open the editor, and would be able to locate it... Now that I know what I'm look for..

I had waited to come to the forum as a last resort, after a week of trying to fix it other ways, but this has turned out to be quite a bug. Thing is, I recall now see the bug, and just ignored it.

Not sure where this leaves us with the Formers, however. Still not sure if I should delete the lot of them, or not worry about it.

Here's what scient had to say when asked how he viewed and modified the SMAC code:

A combination of a debugger and disassembler. Debugger is to actively step through the program and locate portions causing bug. It also lets me test out my patches in real time. Disassembler is to do analysis and layout code in a more readable tree format.

Click to expand...

Your save file also crashed several times for me before I figured out the exact order of steps to remove to offending item in the queue. After thinking about it some more, the corruption might be due to scient's removal of the unit limit.

The odd behavior of the Land/Sea Formers is the result of automating them. Most players, as they gain experience, avoid these problems by directly controlling all formers (and also turn off the base governors). The basic role of Formers is to improve the tiles within the radius of each base. Roads/tubes simply allow land units to travel faster. They aren't used to connect resources to a trade network, nor to increase commerce (as in other civ games). I could say a lot more about terraforming. Let me know if you have any specific questions. You might find this page useful. It contains an article about terraforming.

I really don't know about running the game in DOS box.

At this point in your game you don't need any Formers to win. Your military is strong enough to eliminate the remaining factions. I can explain how to delete the Formers en masse. Just let me know.

(I don't know why some of your posts aren't appearing. There doesn't seem to be any general problem on the board. Sometimes this happens to me when I preview a post and then forget to submit it.)

At a certain point, I had given up on playing SMAC again, and therefore not purchasing Beyond Earth. But the work you've done here has given the game a rating again...

The game seems to be running as smoothly as before. I will not put you through anymore programmatic questions, as I will be going through the SMAC Academy link you've provided.

1) I could have sworn it was Scient's patch initially, I had tried... That resulted in the Very Cool upgraded Former and other Unit sounds... I can't seem to locate it again.

2) Do you have a preferred link for Customized Factions?

And just to reiterate for others possibly viewing this post. Petek found a clitch in the queue of a base/city, so that it read like this
1. Sea Former
2.
3. Sea Former
4. etc ...Where number 2 was a null or an empty value. It was causing SMAC to crash like it was 1999... Cheers!

scient's patch fixes bugs and doesn't alter game play at all. From your description, I'm not sure what you were using.

Alpha Centauri 2 has a library of custom factions. I don't recall using any of them, however, so I don't have specific recommendations.

ETA: If you bought SMAC from GOG, you also should have access to the Alien Crossfire (SMAX) add-on. SMAX contains seven new factions.

I've been playing SMAC since the last post above, about a week or so... And no crashes. Thank You again...