Custom Civilization Mod Crashing

[BonafideDog]

I made an earlier post about this but I finally figured a lot of stuff out and no longer get error messages when booting up my custom civ mod, the problem I do have is that every time it reaches the stage of parsing out the xml files BtS crashes with no popups telling me why. Is there a way to fix this?

Again I've included my mod as is, it's modular for BtS. Thanks again in advance!

 

[Kjotleik]

Hm...

Most of the time I do get error-messages if all is not well.

However, there is one thing that I've seen crash without a popup: Audio-files. If you have any of those in your mod, I would've compared them with the originals and looked for missing lines.
To the best of my knowledge (but I'm not 100% certain), audio xml-files cannot be modular. They have to be in the [Assets/XML/Audio] folder.

If you don't have audio-files, I'm afraid I'm unable to think of anything at the moment.

 

[BonafideDog]

I did add the Diplo-music to the base game's audio folder, didn't seem to be the issue though :/

 

[f1rpo]

I get two failed-assertion popups when launching the mod with a debug DLL:

get##name##ArtInfo: ART_DEF_UNIT_ANTHRAXIAN_AUSLANDER was not found
get##name##ArtInfo: ERROR was not found

The first one looks helpful; maybe the second one has the same cause as the first.

 

[BonafideDog]

I get two failed-assertion popups when launching the mod with a debug DLL:

get##name##ArtInfo: ART_DEF_UNIT_ANTHRAXIAN_AUSLANDER was not found
get##name##ArtInfo: ERROR was not found

The first one looks helpful; maybe the second one has the same cause as the first.

Where can I correct that? I'm losing my mind over keeping track of these changes to be made

 

[f1rpo]

Well, I don't know much about custom civs and modular loading. Let me do a full text search ...
Looks like it has to be ART_DEF_UNIT_ANTHRAXIA_AUSLANDER in Auslander_CIV4UnitInfos.xml, not ...ANTHRAXIAN. To be consistent with Auslander_CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml. That fixes the crash for me. Then there's a new failed assertion:

info type AMERICA not found, Current XML file is: modules\custom civilizations\anthraxia\anthraxia_civ4civilizationinfos.xml

Probably needs to be CIVILIZATION_AMERICA or something like that.

 

[BonafideDog]

Well, I don't know much about custom civs and modular loading. Let me do a full text search ...
Looks like it has to be ART_DEF_UNIT_ANTHRAXIA_AUSLANDER in Auslander_CIV4UnitInfos.xml, not ...ANTHRAXIAN. To be consistent with Auslander_CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml. That fixes the crash for me. Then there's a new failed assertion:

info type AMERICA not found, Current XML file is: modules\custom civilizations\anthraxia\anthraxia_civ4civilizationinfos.xml

Probably needs to be CIVILIZATION_AMERICA or something like that.

Thank you, this whole thing has been killing me mentally

 

[BonafideDog]

So I had already changed all instances of ANTHRAXIAN_AUSLANDER to just AUSLANDER, and that CIVILIZATION_AMERICA was a good catch, thank you

 

[BonafideDog]

Here's the most recent iteration, could you tell me how you're finding these errors?

 

[f1rpo]

Sure, that's really why I responded to this thread. (I thought the link to the debug DLL might be self-explanatory.) When a mod uses a custom DLL, then one needs to recompile that DLL in order to get assertion popups – which is what XML and Python modders always want to avoid. However, for a mod without a DLL, one can just drop the BtS debug DLL into the Assets folder. Doesn't help with every problem, but, as Asaf has put it,

can be useful to find problems with your mod if it doesn't have a DLL of its own.

Your latest version gives me an error popup though (which shouldn't require a debug DLL), complaining about your </ProductionTraits> brackets in Arcology_CIV4BuildingInfos.XML. Should be:
<ProductionTraits/>
With this change, the mod launches without apparent errors. (The debug DLL will still show some popups about "info type PLOT_..." – those aren't caused by your mod, I think they're due to a harmless bug in the BtS EXE.)

Thank you, this whole thing has been killing me mentally

I can understand that. Looks like making a modular civ is quite the task with all those XML files and folders and copied schema files.

 

[BonafideDog]

You are a blessing upon this Earth. Also how exactly does one run the Debug DLL? I dropped it in the Assets folder but I'm not sure what to do from there

 

[BonafideDog]

I still don't quite understand what's happening. I launch the mod as is with the fixes and it only ever gets as far as Init XML (uncached) before it stutters and dies?
This from the Ini Log
[2292428.609] ERR: InitWinApp() failed, exiting
[2292428.609] ERR: CIV Init FAILED, exiting

 

[BonafideDog]

I did catch one issue where I incorrectly defined the path for the static leaderhead art, so I'll alter that first

 

[f1rpo]

I still don't quite understand what's happening. I launch the mod as is with the fixes and it only ever gets as far as Init XML (uncached) before it stutters and dies?

Can't reproduce that with the latest version you uploaded. If I just fix the ProductionTraits line in that one, it loads to the main menu for me and I'm able to select your civ on the Custom Game screen.

[...] how exactly does one run the Debug DLL? I dropped it in the Assets folder but I'm not sure what to do from there

That's all it should take to make the game check assertions. Once you make it past XML loading, you should be seeing a popup like the one I'm attaching.

 

[BonafideDog]

So how can you open it but the same file crashes for me? -_-

 

[BonafideDog]

It seems like it should work fine but like I said whenever the loading graphic reaches "Init XML (uncached)" something forces it to exit

 

[BonafideDog]

Here's the latest version that won't open for me still. The only answer I can find online is that the graphics may be interfering somehow, but I doubt it.

 

[BonafideDog]

That's all it should take to make the game check assertions. Once you make it past XML loading, you should be seeing a popup like the one I'm attaching.

I have the DLL inside the assets folder but it didn't even show any assertions, all it does is hit Init XML (Uncached) and crashes straight to desktop without anything happening after

 

[BonafideDog]

Can't reproduce that with the latest version you uploaded. If I just fix the ProductionTraits line in that one, it loads to the main menu for me and I'm able to select your civ on the Custom Game screen.
That's all it should take to make the game check assertions. Once you make it past XML loading, you should be seeing a popup like the one I'm attaching.

Is my civ playable for you? I'm honestly flabbergasted as to why it works for someone else but not me

 

[BonafideDog]

Can't reproduce that with the latest version you uploaded. If I just fix the ProductionTraits line in that one, it loads to the main menu for me and I'm able to select your civ on the Custom Game screen.
That's all it should take to make the game check assertions. Once you make it past XML loading, you should be seeing a popup like the one I'm attaching.

Well I just re-downloaded the version you checked and changed the Production thing and my mod loaded. Amazing! Now I just need to figure out where I went wrong from there and then insert the game text stuff