Bug Slayer Needed

[Oni Ryuu]

During a test game of my mod we reached a crash point. Usually I can find the cause pretty quickly but I’m having serious trouble figuring out the issue with this one. I’ve identified the problem player as Carthage but I can’t see anything that could cause a crash.

Does anyone have a program or method for finding bugs? Any advice or help would be appreciated.

 

[WildWeazel]

More specific information to start... Do you have a save prior to the crash where you can reliably reproduce it at the same point? At what stage of a turn does it crash? What type of crash: standard Civ error dialog, Windows/OS process dialog, endless AI turn, hard freeze, or automatic exit to desktop? Did you use the expanded editor or other unofficial tools on the BIQ? How much of the rules/tabs have you touched? What was your process to narrow it down to Carthage? Can other players reproduce the crash under the same conditions?

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Hi WildWeazel

Unknown Crash Save and Input from SAV.BIQ
Main Folder: Part 1, Part 2: Units

The game crashes at the end of turn if Carthage is AI controlled. The game is saved 1 turn prior to the crash and will crash every time.
I used Quintilis’ customised editor conquestseditor1_06 to totally remodelled game in every area.
To find the problem player I used Sima Qian’s multiplayer tool to control all players then skipped go preventing the crash. I divided the players into 4 groups and played as ¾ of players and cycled through the sets to narrow down the crash into smaller groups. Eventually I discovered that I only needed to control Carthage to prevent a crash.

Jarovid (helping me test the game) gets this crash window

I get this crash window

Thanks for getting involved; I was starting to lose hope.

 

[Nanuk]

Is Carthage building a unit or improvement that causes the crash?

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Carthage is building a goldmine that’s supposed to be player only but that isn’t causing the crash.

This is everything notable about Carthage.
Buildings: Capital Building, Theatre, Burial Site, Goldmine, Aqueduct, Harbour, Library, Granary
Units: Founder, Toiler, Draught Oxen, Slave, Raider, Hoplite, Hunter, Axe Man, Siege Tower, Hot Oil, Tower, Cog
Under Construction: Axe Man, Siege Tower, Tower, Tetrareme

If I give to player 1 all but the capital of Carthage’s cities and return control to the AI, the game can continue.
If I make peace with all of Carthage’s enemies and return control, the game can continue.

I’ve not been able to establish more than that.

 

[WildWeazel]

So if I'm understanding you correctly, the crash only happens when the AI is in control of Carthage and governing multiple cities, correct?

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Yes, 14 total.

 

[Wolfhart]

Just a thought: could this be caused by modded City Specialists? (tax collector, scientist, entertainer, etc.)
A couple of years ago I added some extra city specialists to a mod, and one of them who I had given negative modifiers caused the game to crash.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Hi wolfhart
My tax collectors produce three gold and one corruption but I’ve set that for many of my previous mods without issue. If you’re insistent that that could cause a problem I’ll have to change it. Did you conclusively confirm your results?

 

[Wolfhart]

Hi wolfhart
My tax collectors produce three gold and one corruption but I’ve set that for many of my previous mods without issue. If you’re insistent that that could cause a problem I’ll have to change it. Did you conclusively confirm your results?

I'm only saying that adding NEW specialists has caused me problems in the past when I've used negative modifiers. If you've only modified the original specialists, with positive modifiers, then I see no probable cause.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I adapted the original tax man so the corruption stat is negative to cause corruption, not reducing it like the police. At least I know not to add new specialists.

Thanks for the information but the tax men don’t seem to be the cause.

 

[tjs282]

Carthage is building a goldmine that’s supposed to be player only but that isn’t causing the crash.

This is everything notable about Carthage.
Buildings: Capital Building, Theatre, Burial Site, Goldmine, Aqueduct, Harbour, Library, Granary

Maybe I've misunderstood your explanation, but how can Carthage (the city) be building a (second) improvement that it already has? Once an improvement's been built, the game engine should have removed that improvement from the 'available to build' list...

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Hi tjs282
That information isn’t just for one city; it’s what Carthage has for its nation. Numbers and locations weren’t mentioned because it didn’t seem relevant so that may have caused your confusion.

 

[Civinator]

Yes, 14 total.

Here is the post of a civer, who could face a similar problem: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-ancient-mediterranean-mod-tam.23420/page-76#post-14867491

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I don’t think that the problems are related.

I have found out something new though. It only takes peace between Carthage and Russia (initiated form either side) to prevent the crash.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Maybe I've misunderstood your explanation, but how can Carthage (the city) be building a (second) improvement that it already has? Once an improvement's been built, the game engine should have removed that improvement from the 'available to build' list...

In TAM (iirc, may be another mod/scenario) there are two types of wall that can be built. Build one & the other becomes buildable - in an endless cycle. Does not crash the game. Until I figured out what was going on I wasted a lot of shields So " ... should not ..." describes the ideal state but is not necessarily the cause of Oni Ryuu's problem.

 

[Nanuk]

Is something being traded in AI-to-AI diplomacy, perhaps the cause? Is this possible to test in debug mode?

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I don’t see anything obvious but I’ll keep checking.
We now have a second example that we can compare but I haven’t found anything yet.
I’m going to continue with my own test game until I reach the crash hopefully giving me a better insight.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I can’t say with confidence that the bug is fixed but it hasn’t reoccurred for a while.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

I spoke too soon.

Somehow the AI has managed to get a tower to load into a ship. All of my immobile units have their load button removed and “transport foot units” enabled to prevent this but it’s obviously not working.

I’ve added the unload button but I’m going to assume that’s not going to do it. Does anyone know a guaranteed method to prevent immobile units from loading onto transports?