Constantly crashing on 9.2.1

[Geppenguin]

I ran the game (updated with the August patch) with only VEM 9.21, R.E.D. v.11 and Infoaddict v16. It crashes about every 10 turns, especially at the leader scenes. As far as I know, no one else has such a problem and both the other two mods have always been compatible with VBC. I had a similar problem using the beta version 9.17, but it's even worse now. I'm running on Vista, 2.4Ghz Quad core 3gb RAM and a 5770, so I seriously doubt its a hardware problem, especially since I can run vanilla with no issues. Help?
P.S. Tried verifying my game files but the problem persists.
EDIT: If it makes any difference, I have steam installed on D: instead of C:

 

[Geppenguin]

I've tried playing with only VEM 9.21, deleted the cache, Modsavedata, verifying game files etc. etc. The crashes just keep occurring. Any help?

 

[ATG]

Did you update an existing save game or did you start a new one? Sometimes you can get away with it but my experience is that most of the time the game will crash if updating an existing saved game....even if you delete the cache as you mentioned above.

 

[Thalassicus]

Are you playing on the current version .383 of Civ? (Check the version number at the bottom of the main menu.)

 

[Geppenguin]

Yes, I am using version 383 I switched to VEM 9.5 and started the game with this as the only mod enabled. Deleted cache, modsaveddata etc. and the crashes still occur. One problem though: when I try to verify my game files, it reports that something is missing and proceeds to reacquire a 22.2 MB file. When I verify a second time, it still detects that that file is missing and proceeds to reacquire it again. The two verifications were between games.
On the other hand, my game on Vanilla 383 is working fine, hit 100 turns with no crashes, exactly same settings Askia, 22 civs, Huge world, 28 city states. Only difference is map (pangaea instead of terra).

 

[Thalassicus]

It sounds like some of the game files might be corrupted. I'm not sure how to solve that, so try some google searches to see if there's a way to solve the verification problem you're encountering. If you manage to get that fixed and you're still having trouble with the mod, we'll explore further options.

There's always the possibility you've discovered some new problem that's not yet on the Common Checklist. That list has built up gradually over many months.

 

[Geppenguin]

After googling it seems that my problem was fairly common at least up to the first quarter of the year, but those users all experienced it with vanilla. Although, I DID have frequent crashes abt every 30 turns after turn 250 at that time, I attributed it to my lack of memory. Oddly enough, it never happened on my laptop. Maybe I'll try reinstalling and get back to you.

 

[Geppenguin]

Reinstalled and IMMEDIATELY verified the cache files. It again failed to acquire that same mysterious file and downloaded a 22.2 MB file. After checking my steamapps folder, I conclude that steam somehow detected my .exe file for CiV and CiV DX11 were corrupt and reacquired it. Again. And again. And again.
Which leaves me no closer to a solution.
BLAST
The weirdest thing is, it simply validates the CiV file, but doesn't touch the "steam cache" file. Even the verification window says "0 of 1" files validated for steam cache.
After googling, I think this is common to all CiV users... can anyone confirm this? I tried it on both my laptop and desktop, and it happened. Which means that my crashes on VEM were NOT caused by failure to verify...

 

[Geppenguin]

More or less confirmed now that the crashes occur only when using VEM and not on vanilla. However, I can't confirm if it happens when I use other mods without VEM.

 

[Thalassicus]

Could you try it with just parts of the mod? Like for example... try it with VEM disabled, but CiVUP active. Hopefully we can narrow down what exactly is causing the problem.

 

[Geppenguin]

Could you try it with just parts of the mod? Like for example... try it with VEM disabled, but CiVUP active. Hopefully we can narrow down what exactly is causing the problem.

Played with just CiVUP but it still crashed. Ran the tuner at the same time. This came up:
DiscussionDialog: Handling LeaderMessage: 15, Although feigning friendship with you wasn't very polite, few who make their mark on history were known for their manners. May your passage be swift.[NEWLINE][NEWLINE](WAR DECLARED!)
SocialPolicyPopup: INFO TriggerPolicyAdopted 9 true
LeaderHeadRoot: Handling LeaderMessage: 0, Hold! Who dares to enter my august presence?
Nothing that indicated any error... What is odd is that this is the second time it crashed at the leader scene with Monty at the first meeting... And it happened once with Harold too. Other times, it just crashes while I'm waiting for the AI to end their turns.

 

[Geppenguin]

Do you think that my steam being installed on the D: drive instead of the C: drive could cause a crash when a mod is being used?
EDIT: Moving CiV to the C: drive didn't solve it either. Perhaps CiV can't run VEM on vista? That would be a real bummer. I'll have to test it out with some other mod like RED
I wonder though. When I reinstalled CiV, the CiV folder under Documents/MyGames wasn't touched. And previously I moved CiV frrom the C: drive to the D: drive. Would this mean that somehow the folder and CiV were out of sync hence causing all these crashes (since the MODS folder is also in there)?
2nd EDIT: Played a game with Polynesia, same settings (Huge, 22 players, Terra) with only RED. No crashes. Either CiVUP or VEM is somehow crashing my CiV

 

[Geppenguin]

I did another full reinstall, though this time I deleted the CiV folder under MyGames too (the one that holds the MODS). Installed VEM again, no luck. Crashed on turn 19 when meeting Napoleon.
I'm beginning to suspect that VEM is having trouble with Vista 32-bit. No idea why though. Maybe because Vista has no Directx 11? Even though the game launcher says it's compatible with DX10, maybe VEM isn't in its current form?
How many users of VEM are there that use Vista anyway? >.< If it's really an OS problem, I don't mind getting Windows 7 (planning too anyway) but I want to make sure it's not anything else.

 

[Thalassicus]

I'm not aware of anything in the project that would be OS-dependent... it'd be very puzzling if it turns out to be an OS or hardware issue.

I can't figure out anything else that might cause it, and since I haven't encountered the problem it's difficult to test for solutions. Still, we can try further narrowing down the search.

There's some parts of CiVUP you can disable... try placing an _ underscore before these folder names:

• Attila Mods
• Capital Railroad Boost
• CsebMod Extended Plot Mouseover
• Flag Promotions
• Free Research Balance
• Hover Info

As always, clear cache before starting the game.

 

[Geppenguin]

I'm not aware of anything in the project that would be OS-dependent... it'd be very puzzling if it turns out to be an OS or hardware issue.

I can't figure out anything else that might cause it, and since I haven't encountered the problem it's difficult to test for solutions. Still, we can try further narrowing down the search.

There's some parts of CiVUP you can disable... try placing an _ underscore before these folder names:

• Attila Mods
• Capital Railroad Boost
• CsebMod Extended Plot Mouseover
• Flag Promotions
• Free Research Balance
• Hover Info

As always, clear cache before starting the game.

I got 9.9 and miraculously everything works. One thing though: every single building gives me GG points?! was that intentional or a bug common to 9.9?

 

[Thalassicus]

I'd accidentally set the default value for that attribute to 1. It should be fixed to the correct default of 0 in 10.0 (out now).

 

[Geppenguin]

Err somehow I'm getting similiar crashes on 10.4 now.
Ran a test game on vanilla. The game is very noticeably slower on VEM. This wasn't an issue with 9.9. Were there any changes you made that might have affected memory usage?
Loaded my game as Greece with the graphics turned down to medium. Crashed after ten turns. The whole game was very laggy, extra long turn times, and it just crashed as the AI took its turn. Somehow VEM is causing CiV to use a lot of memory or processing power... I read earlier that there were 'memory leaks'. Is this something similiar? Checking memory usage, it never went above 70%, so I really am stumped.

 

[Thalassicus]

I don't think it's possible for there to be memory leaks due to the mod... I don't do any direct memory access. It seems there's a common problem several people are encountering lately, and I'll try and address it in other threads on the topic.