game crashes when building city

I have been putting together my own mod. I built a 362x362 map, added new resources and leaderheads, and I put all of the files in their proper places. I can start the game fine. I can see that my new leaderheads are working. I can explore around the map for several turns to see that my new resources are working. The problem is that when I build my first city, the game crashes when it tries to go to the city screen. It doesn't give me an error or anything, the screen flashes black and I'm back on the desktop. I used debug mode and I can access other civs city screens that I am not playing with no problem, but my city screen crashes the game. It doesn't do it in a normal game, just my mod. I've even tried playing different civs but I get the same result. I sought help from civ3files.com, and they said it could be the luxuryicons file but I'm not sure what they're talking about. Could someone please help me out with this problem?

Do you have access to buildable units from the start?
Did you change some gfx, and forgot to index it with a 256 colour palette (aka color table)?
If you're new to modding, then a tip is to not change everything at once without testing, as that means that you don't know what you did wrong. One at a time, especially if it's stuff you haven't modded before.

And welcome out of lurkhood.

The only thing that I can think of is maybe the map is too big. The only thing that I can think of that would alter the city screen is the new resources showing up in the resourcebox of the city, but I don't build anywhere near the new resources I added. The new leaderheads work (although I haven't been able to test them in the diplomacy screen yet), but they work in the civ selection screen. The resources show up on the map and are in the civilopedia, and the new units work just fine too. I tested the game in debug mode and I can access enemy civ's city screens without a problem, but when I build my city and it tries to go to the city screen it crashes. I'm not sure why. Maybe someone could elaborate on changing the gfx. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Well, you've been lurking for a while.

Don't know... I highly doubt it's the map size issue, because TETukurhan has already made a map that size.

Hmm... I've heard of this happening before, and IIRC it was a problem with the build queue icons, but if that's the case it should crash when you try to view an AI city.

19Delta, your crash can belong to a lot of different reasons. First we don´t know, what version of Civ you play. We don´t know if you have looked in the debug mod to AI cities of the same cultural style like the city you want to found. We don´t know how much resources, especially luxury resources you added to your mod.

Alone with the words "Luxuries crash" you get hundreds of hits in the forum search machine in the upper right corner of this side. May be you have added more than 66 resource shadows. May be there is a graphic problem with your city screen or with the "cities" file. Have you altered the city style for the civ you found your first city? Have you chanced the luxury box in the city screen ?

May be, you must build back your mod step by step till you catch the mistake.

Ok, first of all I'm using Civ 3 Complete. Now, I THINK I've got the problem isolated. I tried going into an enemy civ's city screen with the same culture group, no problems. What I discovered is that it crashes when I click on the build button. I tried another map without my mod folder and I don't have the problem, so I know the problem is isolated to my mods folder that i'm telling the map to use. As far as the new resources that I've added, there are 15. 10 strategic, 2 luxuries, and 3 bonus. I downloaded the resources complilation v2 by Cassus_Belli from Civ3files.com, and I'm using those as my resources and resource shadows files. I only have one new unit on the game, I don't have a units32 icon for it so I just told the map to use a blank space. I told the pediaicons file the correct files for the new unit, and the new unit works fine during testing. I did add a units32 icon for another unit that I haven't added yet. I used Jasc paint shop pro 7 animation shop to add the new icon to the Units32 file and saved it as a pcx file. I don't know if any of this will help, but I'm giving any and all information as it becomes available while trying to correct the problem myself. Thanks for any help.

Than it seems that Weasel Op is right that it could be a problem with the build queue icons. May be a graphic problem with a unit or building you can build from begin of your game ? With the catchwords "build button crash" you get 471 hits in the search machine.

Sorry Mate but this fix may all be in vain, have you heard of the "Too many city error" that pertains to these sized maps. Your cruizing for a full house back in biblical times with this monster.
I guess if you only have a few civs and modded the food value..... err sorry to interupt I guess its do able
bye.

If it only happens when you click on the build button, it's certainly a problem with the icons.
Take a look at this tutorial andsee if you're doing everything correctly: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83122 Especially check to make sure that all graphics are indexed to 256 colors, and the proper size.

Well, I can be the map. I have the problem with one big map, too. Everything works fine in my mod, only this map won't do. The rules are exactly the same as in the wiorking scenarios.

It's murphy's law.

I have discovered the problem. It's the units32 file that I had added the two new icons to. I isolated the file in a seperate folder on the desktop. I'm not ready to kill it just yet. I just copied and pasted the units32 that came with the game. Everything works fine now. Can someone please tell me how do I change the color in my units32 to 256 color? By the way, I've been gone from Camp Casey for a few months. Now I'm in Ft. Knox, KY. Need to change that. Thanks for all your help guys.

It depends on what program you're using. You have to change the image mode to indexed, and make the palette 256 colors. Also, the last 2 entries (or the first 2 if you're using Photoshop) should be the background colors (pink).

Ares: really? What happened?

Well, it crashed.

When you built a city?

Yes. I built it, the game jumped to the city screen... bang! CTD.

Weasel Op said:

It depends on what program you're using. You have to change the image mode to indexed, and make the palette 256 colors. Also, the last 2 entries (or the first 2 if you're using Photoshop) should be the background colors (pink).

Ares: really? What happened?

Click to expand...

Well, when modding the units32 you shouldn't do this. The units32 has a special palette, and you should never change this, unless you really know what you're doing when modding palettes.
This palette has a lot of special places for the civ colours, and if you mess that up it'll look like excrement.
If you use Photoshop you just paste the new icon into the units32, and the palette will be kept automagically, unless you actively change the pic to RGB from Indexed.

19Delta, What program did you use?

Oh, that's right. I forgot about it being civ-colored.

I used Jasc paint shop pro 7. More specifically, I opened the units32 file and the unit that I wanted to add the icon with in the animation shop. I then exported the two files to paint shop, and then I cropped the new icon from the unit and sized it to fit into one of the spaces provided in the units32. I transfered the changes back to the units32 still open in animation shop, then I saved my new units32 as a pcx and replaced the old one in my folder. I hope this helps. I'm not very good at this stuff and I'm really just trying to teach myself a lot of this stuff through trial and error. Thanks for the help.