[BtS] Super Spies

[Trojan Sheep]

I have warlords installed, but I don't see why that would matter, there is nothing specific to warlords in this mod, it's all BTS related.

I did look through your logs and there wasn't anything I could see describing why the crash occurred, and yes I've loaded up several of your saves and pressed enter 100+ times and never had a crash.

Have you tried a standard game rather than one manufactured through the world builder? I'd be curious to see if this crash affects you all the time, or just under extreme test-only type circumstances.

 

[Mister Giggles]

Skodkim...this'll be an odd question...but are you using Windows Vista?

I've found that certain, very specific mods, when played on Vista, cause the game to just...die. It happens with Overlord when founding a city, for instance.

As I, myself, use Vista, I've tried finding a solution to the problem to no avail.

Thankfully I have an extra hard drive and a copy of Windows XP. <.<...

My only theory for why Vista barfs up on seemingly harmless coding is the fact custom coding for the DLL slightly changes how the game interacts with the OS...and Vista is catching something, then terminating the process (Leading to a clean, very instant, crash to desktop).

Of course, I'm no programmer by any means so I'm unable to test the theory in a meaningful sense...but I've seen odder things occur...

 

[skodkim]

Skodkim...this'll be an odd question...but are you using Windows Vista?

I've found that certain, very specific mods, when played on Vista, cause the game to just...die. It happens with Overlord when founding a city, for instance.

As I, myself, use Vista, I've tried finding a solution to the problem to no avail.

Thankfully I have an extra hard drive and a copy of Windows XP. <.<...

My only theory for why Vista barfs up on seemingly harmless coding is the fact custom coding for the DLL slightly changes how the game interacts with the OS...and Vista is catching something, then terminating the process (Leading to a clean, very instant, crash to desktop).

Of course, I'm no programmer by any means so I'm unable to test the theory in a meaningful sense...but I've seen odder things occur...

I use XP 32 bit

\Skodkim

 

[Mister Giggles]

<.<

There goes my last ounce of usefulness, I guess...

 

[ripple01]

I've merged the Super Spies mod into my mod, CivFusion, and I am experiencing the same CTD's on turn 1 that skodkim mentioned. A few test games have gone on for a number of turns past that but still end up in CTD's. But the majority crash after the first turn.

I hope you can figure this out as I'd really love to incorporate this into my mod.

Cheers,
ripple01

 

[skodkim]

I've merged the Super Spies mod into my mod, CivFusion, and I am experiencing the same CTD's on turn 1 that skodkim mentioned. A few test games have gone on for a number of turns past that but still end up in CTD's. But the majority crash after the first turn.

I hope you can figure this out as I'd really love to incorporate this into my mod.

Cheers,
ripple01

Always nice to hear I'm not alone with the problem

Hope it can be fixed too!

\Skoddim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

ripple01, do you have warlords installed? That seems to be the only difference between skodkim and my systems and if you also lack it that would at least give me a direction to look in even if it would be one that doesn't make a lick of sense

If that is the case I'll reinstall with just BTS and vanilla and see if I can't at least start reproducing the crash.

 

[skodkim]

Riplle01, it could be very interesting if you would try loading one of my savegames to see whether it crashes.

\Skodkim

 

[ripple01]

I do not have Warlords installed, FWIW...

Trojan Sheep, have you tried starting a few new games in succession to see if you can reproduce the turn 1 CTD? I had a few games that ran long so maybe it's possible your game is one of those.

Skodkim, I will try to install just Super Spies and load your game and see what happens. Currently, I have the code merged into my own mod which won't load your saved game.

Cheers,
ripple01

 

[Trojan Sheep]

I've tested the code pretty thoroughly on my end and interestingly enough have two multiplayer games going right now using a merged older version of Super Spies along with a much larger homebrew mod. Interestingly the multiplayer game with the friend who has warlords has involved no CTDs, but the other, which does not have warlords , suddenly ground to a screeching halt this past weekend when he started CTDing like crazy and we could not find a cure (despite the fact it was running fine the previous weekend).

So it looks very much like this mod requires warlords for some utterly bizzare reason. I'll be doing a reinstall as soon as I have a free evening, and leaving out warlords so I can hopefully at least start reproducing this dang thing if not fixing it.

Many thanks to both of you for helping me narrow this down.

Now I get to face the baffling challenge of figuring out what is different between BTS w/warlords and w/o, because last I heard they were technically the same.

 

[skodkim]

I've tested the code pretty thoroughly on my end and interestingly enough have two multiplayer games going right now using a merged older version of Super Spies along with a much larger homebrew mod. Interestingly the multiplayer game with the friend who has warlords has involved no CTDs, but the other, which does not have warlords , suddenly ground to a screeching halt this past weekend when he started CTDing like crazy and we could not find a cure (despite the fact it was running fine the previous weekend).

So it looks very much like this mod requires warlords for some utterly bizzare reason. I'll be doing a reinstall as soon as I have a free evening, and leaving out warlords so I can hopefully at least start reproducing this dang thing if not fixing it.

Many thanks to both of you for helping me narrow this down.

Now I get to face the baffling challenge of figuring out what is different between BTS w/warlords and w/o, because last I heard they were technically the same.

Can hardly wait to se the results!

Only glad I could help - I really love the idea of this mod!

\Skodkim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

Well I reinstalled without warlords and tried all the saves you sent me previously along with a few starts of my own, and I still can't reproduce the crash

I'm going to keep looking, but with that out of the running as a potential cause I am very much out of ideas for the moment. If you'd be up for helping out I have a few solutions I'd like to try, but given that I can't reproduce the crash I have no way to test them myself.

 

[skodkim]

I have no idea what is causing these problems.

I did however try loading my latest SS savegame on my laptop and there it crashes after three rounds or so - not after the first which it always does on my desktop - really weird!

Both machines have had a clean installation of BTS (but not Warlords) not long ago.

This question might really demonstrate my lack of knowledge of Python but is there a possibility for you to write some kind of log file of every event that happens in SS? If you build it in a test version I could try to load it and see what happens. The info in the log itself will of course have to be written before the event actually "happens" so that the game doesn't crash before it.

\Skodkim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

I'm not much of a python guru, and from what you've said about your experiences combined with what has been happening to a friend of mine in multiplayer I don't think Super Spies "functionality" is really the problem (My friend managed to get CTDs in the ancient age with no spies and before anyone met anyone so no espionage was being spent, which rules out essentially everything)

I can't test this myself since I can't reproduce it, but there's really only one viable suspect left and that would be my attempt at modular xml. I've attached a version of 1.21 that is completely non-modular, if you have a moment could you give it a try and let me know? It should be save game compatible theoretically, but even if the save crashes please try a new one too just to make sure.

Make certain to delete the previous version of 1.21 or the old modular files will just override the ones I've included in this one.

Thanks again for your continued patience, hopefully this hasn't made you nearly as frustrated as it's made me

 

[skodkim]

Just played 50 rounds and no CTD's!!!

I'll try again later but it seems to do the trick - even had the opponent do a lot of spying after I declared war on him.



\Skodkim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

Wow you just made my day Skodkim!

I'll put together a better documented version in a bit as the main download.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Trojan Sheep]

1.22 is up, if you're having CTDs please download it, if not... you probably don't have to.

As noted on the main page, you will need to remove any previous versions in order to get rid of the modular XML that was causing the CTDs in the first place.

 

[skodkim]

1.22 is up, if you're having CTDs please download it, if not... you probably don't have to.

As noted on the main page, you will need to remove any previous versions in order to get rid of the modular XML that was causing the CTDs in the first place.

I really, really do not understand this but just started the PC again and now it crashes after round 1 every time.

Since you said something about crashes in ancient times when no missions should be conducted anyway (this seems to be the case with my CTD as well as its after round 1) I tried one thing though which was to remove ALL the enemy's spies form my test game and still it crashes. Without spies he CAN'T have conducted any missions - right?

Could it be something else? Before, when I had not had the crash, I had been messing a bit around with CIV IV, loading a different save game. Could it perhaps be some kind of sproblems with one of the pop up messages in the game? I remember from the game I could run for some turns that I should have a pop up after turn 1.

Wll keep thinking!

\Skodkim

 

[skodkim]

Just did it again!

Loaded my save game from HiTM, clicked around at building, techs, etc. in tech tree, exited the game and reloaded the exact same save game that just crashed on me before and now it doesn't again.

The pop up I have after turn one tells me that I might want to revise some of my civic options - have no idea if the is related.

Will keep thinking...

\Skodkim

 

[Trojan Sheep]

I knew it was too good to be true

Can you try clearing your cache?

Should be under:
C:\Documents and Settings\<your PC user name>\Local Settings\Application Data\My games\Beyond the Sword\Cache

Delete everything out of that folder, I've also heard you can hold down shift while the game is starting up and it will automatically clear the cache, but I'm not sure about that one.