Crash after city being built

[nox_angelus]

Hey all, just hit with a bit of frustration after hitting a brick wall here. I've been creating a scenario, and after testing as I was adding things found that everything was working just perfect. But yesterday shortly after "finishing" I found that as soon as I built my first city, the game drops me back to my desktop.

Here's what's been done in the scenario:

Added units
Added techs
Added buildings
Added governments
Added resources

I've modified pediaicons.txt, civilopedia.txt, buildings-large.pcx, buildings-small.pcx, resources.pcx, units_32.pcx

I've checked, double-checked, and triple-checked all the unit folders, to there respective ".ini" files, as per another post I read on here, for a similar problem.

I replaced the units_32.pcx that I was using with my scenario, with the one that ships with Conquests, also as per a previous post I read. To be honest I'm completely puzzled, and can't think of what could be causing the problem.

I may be way off base, but it seems to me that it's crashing out when it's supposed to come up with the "City Screen," which leads me to believe it's a problem related to the City Screen files... buildings-large.pcx, and buildings-small.pcx... but to be honest, I don't see how a graphics file that's just a bunch of boxes with images in it, could cause the game to crash... short of the game itself just not recognizing the files. Grrr... [insert frustration here]

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated, between my job and working on this scenario I've spent a month away from the rest of the world... I guess unless someone can offer a resolution, I'll resurface in public this evening, but I'd hate to have wasted a month to start fresh again.

Help... Please!!!

 

[MarineCorps]

If the error is message is "this program has prefromed an illegeal operation" then the problme lies with the default animation entry in the ini file/=.

 

[Supa]

Export all your change one per one to a new mod (Buildings, Units, Techs). When it'll start to crash, you'll know for sure what cause it.

 

[Ukas]

Check if you have turned those buildings-.pcx's to rgb mode by accident. Does it crash when you build a city making the city screen appear or press build button to see the building queue?

Civ3 checks buildings-large in the city screen and buildings-small with the building queue. If it crashes doing this then civ3 doesn't find the file. Simple copying and pasting will not hurt but if you have saved the file in wrong format, color mode or size it may be corrupted for civ3.

While making all these buildings I have corrupted my buildings-.pcx's quite often let me tell ya.

Files must be .pcx, 256 colors (indexed) and buildings-large.pcx and buildings-small.pcx must be 448 pixels wide. Distances in upper left corner must be 32 pixels to the border as image shows. Distances in right side or bottom doesn't affect the pic as long as it is 448 pixels wide.

 

[Ukas]

BTW this is one of the better first posts, correct forum and problem well explained. Welcome to CFC!

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Ah yes, the infamaos "first city crash". The problem may lie in your units_32 file actually. The same extact thing happened to me. It usually happens if the game can't read the units_32 file correctly.

Yes, and welcome to Civilization Fanatics(noone welcomed me when I first posted here! )

 

[Goldflash]

Make sure you're not in Debug mode. Game doesn't like you start citites in Debug mode.

 

[nox_angelus]

Thanks alot for the advise. To elaborate, here's the events as they occur.

I hit "B" to build... the culture and city pop-up, half a second after this the game just drops to the desktop... no error message at all. Just boom, there's the start menu... (Start: Hey how's it going... Me: Better if I wasn't seeing you right now.)

I'll try out what you all have suggested and let you know how it turns out in this particular case. Thanks again!

 

[nox_angelus]

Well I tried with Debug off, and I tried using the default City Screen .pcx files that came with Conquests (I assume those would be fine as in a regular "New Game" there's no problem,) but I've encountered the same problem still. So I guess it's time to do it the hard way, adding things one by one to see where it crashes out.

Trial & Error... jeesh, why does it mock me so!?

 

[Mr. Will]

The same thing happens to me all the time. I'm going to agree with the Sword of Geddon, your units_32.pcx file is probably out of whack. If you have it backed up, just put your old one back in. (Or better yet, see if you can fix the actual file.) If all else fails, save everything you've done to another folder (i.e. all your Civilopedia and Pediaicons files, any edited terrain files, etc. Any added actual civilopedia icons and unit art should be fine) and reinstall Civilization. Finally, re-edit your units_32.pcx, or do what I do and link all of your units to a standard Civ3 unit. (i.e. a Native American warrior would have the standard Warrior units_32.pcx icon, an M2 Abrams a standard Modern Armor icon, etc.) This is what I do because it gets so cumbersome to try to find the problem in the file or re-install the game. (I always forget backups - ) (Man, I use way too many parentheses!) I really hope this makes some semblence of reason, I get confused just reading it. (And I wrote it! )
Hope this helps!

 

[NateDawgNY]

I've been having the same problem with a mod I made, and I still haven't been able to figure it out. PM me if you find out, and I'll do the same.

 

[Osubaker]

I was having the same problem. I was finally able to get it fixed when I discovered that you cant cut off any of the icon when pasteing into the building_pcx. If you do civ wont recognize it and will crash when building first city. Also start with number 82 in pediaicons. Hope this helps

 

[NateDawgNY]

Osubaker-
What do you mean by cut off the icons??

 

[Osubaker]

I meant when you tell gimp or whatever program your using to copy make sure you get all of the image and then paste it best you can in the empty square in the buildings.pcx It seems to be very picky I had to redo it several times. But maybe I wasnt doing in the best way. This is just what I had to do.

 

[NateDawgNY]

Nox-
Hope this will help you...I've narrowed the problem down to the buildings-large & buildings-small pcx's. So if you can fix those files you should eliminate the problem.