Trouble with resources in my mod

My own mess... ehm... mod has become increasingly unstable.

In the late phase of the game the game will nearly allways crash, then someone pillaged or bombed a resource. Most often seems to be pillaged coal the cause of the crash.

Refining and Combustion will be rarely reach by now.

There are currently 56 coal using units in game (and even more users of iron, salpeter and oil, while rubber and aluminum is used in a lesser degree).

Is there a limit of how many units can share a resource?

Thanks for your help!

Kirejara said:

My own mess... ehm... mod has become increasingly unstable.

In the late phase of the game the game will nearly allways crash, then someone pillaged or bombed a resource. Most often seems to be pillaged coal the cause of the crash.

Refining and Combustion will be rarely reach by now.

There are currently 56 coal using units in game (and even more users of iron, salpeter and oil, while rubber and aluminum is used in a lesser degree).

Is there a limit of how many units can share a resource?

Thanks for your help!

Click to expand...

What is the error message?
maybe they can't change to another unit now the resource is disconnected.

And eh... I've seen your biq file maybe there are some connections missing

There is no error message. Either it crashs back to windows or more it goes into an infinitive loop during the interturn.

I know, that there are a lot of units. But all addons are tested after installation by giving them to the player in a test game via Civ3multitools (and yes it can be fun to have a Sherman Tank or a Tomahawk Mech in 4000BC on a small pangea map ).

And as far as I know, the KI simply continue to build a unit they started to build, if the resource is disconnected.

EDIT: My BIQ file is also with 400kb and 650 unit entries significant larger than most other mods without maps. CCM-V1.7 is only 70kb, despite over 700 entries.
Second EDIT: Forget the size, I have just discovered, that I somehow deactivated "Compress BIQ" in the Firaxis Editor. It is now 71kb large.

I am trying now a hotseat game and hope that I could discover the trigger for the crashes. But this will take some time even with accelrated production...

We are still in the mediveal age in our hotseat game.

But I have counted the iron users in my mod and if resource use is really limited, coal may not be the main troublemaker: Iron is used by a wopping 248 units.

And a lot of iron using units will apear with Steampower.

And yes, I find it ridiculous to build battleships using only oil and without iron.

We will continue our hotseat, to see what happens and I will also start to slim down my mod.

Kirejara said:

There is no error message. Either it crashs back to windows or more it goes into an infinitive loop during the interturn.


EDIT: My BIQ file is also with 400kb and 650 unit entries significant larger than most other mods without maps. CCM-V1.7 is only 70kb, despite over 700 entries.
Second EDIT: Forget the size, I have just discovered, that I somehow deactivated "Compress BIQ" in the Firaxis Editor. It is now 71kb large.

Click to expand...

In my eyes it´s not the number of units in the biq that causes the problems. The next version of CCM (as you did citate that mod) at present holds far over 2.000 different units and runs without problems.

I had to fight a lot with freezes while bringing CCM to the first Betatestversion. Mostly the freezes result from AI pathfinding problems, especially when units with the wheeled flag were combined with units without the wheeled flag. One of the strangest testified bugs was a chariot with the wheeled flag escorting a settler. The chariot attacked a unit on a mountain that was forbidden terrain for the chariot (and there was no road) and than the unit did freeze until the end of time. The CCM prebetatest-thread is full with such reports.

The best methode is to watch a game of your mod in DEBUG mod. Here you can play computer vs. computer and to see what happens before the crash / freeze. Onother fast methode could be to steal the military plans of the other civs (may be in different starts of the saved game) and to watch what happens before the freeze.

Could you have a wheeled unit with a foot unit trying to travel across a pillaged Road where the Coal or Iron is?

If the AI can still build a unit that requires a resource when that resource has been pillaged, you might have problems with resources. Are you using more than 32 combination of Strategic/Luxury Resources?

As far as I know the Main problem with having too many units using a resource is in the Civilopedia Resource entry... Hypertext Overflow.

Thanks so far for your input and suggestions.

We are still in the mediveal age in our hotseat game. It takes significant longer than a normal game against the KI. On the other side we have maximum control over game without KI idioticy (and we have learned a thing or two so far ).

I have 38 resources in the game and unconnected cities often have got some sort of phantom rescources.

The KI only continue to build a unit without resources, if they started it before the loss of same, but they will not start a new one (I really hope this sentence make sense).

There are a lot of wheeled units in the game (all ancient ships with exception of the Viking Longship, Chariots, Cannons, Artillery and Early Tanks).

I will prepare a zipfile with the BIQ and pediaicons.txt.

38 resources caus the phantom bug.

For builing any unit improvement or wonder prerequesites only matter at the moment u start to build it. after that it doesnt matter.

32 total Strategic/Luxury Resources combined. Bonus Resources do not affect Ghosting.

We have reached the Age of Steam in our Hotseatgame.

And then we thought all is well (except for Mursillis the Mad of course), the game crashed.

Steampower was discovered by Byzantine Empire, Carthago, Egypt and Spain without trouble, but the two last one have not connected coal.

Then Japan disovered Steampower the game crashed.

We switching Japan in a reloaded turn to Nationalism and no crash occured.

It can not be the japanese units after Steampower, as I have allready played them multiple time far into the Modern Age, but with little remaining opposition past the Middle Age.

I have now reduced the resources down to 32. Most of the removed resources were bonus or luxuries.

And we have started now a new hotseat game. As far as I can tell, at least the phantom resources are gone.

We rushed the second hotseat game with lot of tech trading and gifting into the Age of Steam and...

the game is still running!

It really seems that the cause for the crashes were the 38 resources.

So our civilisations are celebrating the 4880th anniversary of the coronation of Empress Pallas Athene, Queen Nofretete, Caesar Augustus, Genghis Khan Temujin and Queen Esmeralda with a large Fleet Parade.



Lorenzo the Kind did not join the parade. And the personal physician of Mursillis the Mad has decided that he has not enought dried frog pills for his King...

Thanks to all!

Kirejara... Please Note... you do not have to remove Bonus Resources... Simply keep the Strategic and Luxury Resources to a Total of 32. Bonus Resources do not affect the Ghosting factor for the Strategic and Luxury Resources.

I have another Luxuries problem.

The Olive oil I traded for is displayed as gems in the city screen Luxuries box, while on the Trade Advisor screen it's displayed as Olive oil...

[Edit, answers his own question]
I moved Ivory out of the Luxuries to the Strategic recources. So I needed to move the rest over in the luxuryicons_small.pcx file in the city screen folder, in the order as they appeared in the biq file.

After Vuldacons reply I had added the previously deleted bonus resources.

And the game works fine, until I decided, that I have to play RAZ World again, that I had modified before I had deleted and re-added the bonus resources.

And this what happened:



It took me a while until I finally figured out, that I had added lamas, sheeps and craps in reverse order.

Attack of the Land Crabs Nice! Good to hear you've fixed it. Oh, btw, your Zara class unit gfx could need an update.

More like Mountain Crabs, sort of a "B"-class science fiction film from the 1950s. Ah, those were the days. Giant spiders, giant ants, the giant grasshoppers that invaded Chicago, the Blob that tried to eat Steve McQueen, and of course, Gorgo.

That map has a lot of resources too. I must admit, the Sea Llama are intriguing.

Edit Note: I forgot the Giant Gila Monster.

A new resource problem with only a partial solution by now.

I did not change my resources since I readded some bonus resources (see my last two posts).

But I have added some more units and all was going well, until I decided to add a new type of jet fighter (aluminium and oil). It too worked well in the time travel test (savegame editor ), but everytime someone discovers Steampower, the game freezed.

After I deleted these jet fighter, Steampower could be discovered without problems (thanks to very small maps and fast building ).

I do not get it: how could a unit requiring oil and aluminium, cause a freeze at the discovery of coal.

I have not count my units yet, but the new jet would have build icon number 836. And I only deleted it in the edtior, but not in the pediaicon.txt.

Any ideas? Or should I just try to add this plane (Harrier VTOL by wyrmshadow) again?

Thanks!

I do not get it: how could a unit requiring oil and aluminium, cause a freeze at the discovery of coal

Click to expand...

Kirejara... If Coal is suppose to appear before Oil and Aluminum and is set up as a prerequisite, then when Coal is discovered after Oil and Aluminum, this causes a logical argument in the Editor.
Check the Requirements for Steampower, Coal, the Jet Fighter Tech, Oil and Aluminum and what they allow.

I assume Steampower allows the Coal Resource.

What Tech or Techs allow Oil and Aluminum and is or are the Tech or Techs set up to come before or after Steampower in the Editor?

Look to see if Steampower is set up as a Requirement for the Tech or Techs you have for the Jet Fighter, Oil or Aluminum and look to see when the Resources appear and what Resources are gained when the Tech for Jet Fighters and Steampower are discovered. It seems that Steampower is set up as a prerequisite for Resources and or a Tech that allows a Resource or a Tech before the Jet Fighter and the Resources that appear. Do you have multiple Techs set up to allow the same Resources?

When adding more Units, Resources or Improvements to a game that already has many established, it is easy to overlook what was already added regarding them. Research paths for Techs, Techs that already allow a resource, etc...

Try adding the Jet Fighter, Oil and Aluminum with a Tech or Techs that come after Steampower and Coal in the Editor. Then Oil and Aluminum and the ability to build the Jet Fighter will come after Steampower and Coal.

You can Test the Freeze by adding the Jet Fighter to the Game with only the Required Tech and No Resources. If the discovery of Steampower does not cause a Freeze, it is probably the Resources causing the problem with how they are set up to appear regarding the Techs. If you still get a Freeze, it is probably the Techs and how they are set up regarding Prerequisites and Research Paths causing the problem.

... Otherwise, more detailed information is required to determine the problem.

Otherwise, more detailed information is required to determine the problem.

Click to expand...

Ok, I will try.

The only altered techs are:

"Ironclads"
- relabeled "Iron Construction"
- the unit Ironclad (and flavor variants) are moved to "Steampower"
- is now a prerequiste for "Steel"
- allows building of Ship of the Line, Armored Cruiser, Protected Cruiser and Torpedoboat

"Advanced Flight"
- now required for next age
- shows aluminum on map
- allows more advanced fighterbombers, early jets and heavy bombers (depending on civ)

"Rocketry"
- no longer shows aluminium on map (as moved to AF ).
- allows "modern" Jet Fighters and Cold War Bombers

All other techs are unaltered, except for changed units and some additional small and large wonders.

It is now at least two years since I last altered the tech tree itself.

Since I deleted the Harrier VTOL, I have not tried to add it or another unit into the game. But it is not the first air unit in need of both oil and aluminium.

The Harrier VTOL is intended as Cruiser/Battleship based recon and defence aircraft and marked as "tactical missile" under "Unit abilities" to seperate them from usual carrier aircraft (but so are the other air units in its upgrade path).

The developement is:

Seaplane (Flight) -> Rex/Kyofu Seaplane Interceptor (Adv. Flight, only some civs) -> Attack Helicopter (Adv. Flight, all civs without Rex or Harrier) -> Harrier VTOL (Rocketry, some civs).

While writing this, I stumple upon the fact, that I had placed the Harrier between Seaplane (Flight) and Rex Seaplane Interceptor/Attack Helicopter (Adv. Flight), instead of adding them at the end of the upgrade path.

Could this cause the game to get stuck long before the units and their tech apear?

Thanks for your help.

No, it would just cause the Harrier to be unable to be built, since the earlier available Rex Seaplane Interceptor/Attack Helicopter it upgrades into would be able to built instead.

I've seen this exact error somewhere before, but I can't for the life of me work out where.

I'd start by checking the units again. Create a map and place every last one of them in the game on the map from the get-go.