Final Fixes Reborn

[Nor'easter]

Playing SVN revision 300, just had my starting Settler promoted to Aeron's Chosen.

 

[Joey Diamond]

The most dangerous group of vagrants in Erebus.

 

[Jerrian]

The missing interface is most likely the elusive Python Bug. Do you have Python errors enabled? Also, while your errors don't match the ones I got, do you have RifE installed (as AoE may try and use some RifE resources, apparently)?
Ah, ok, then extended range becomes much less powerful.

I don ´t have the RifE Mod installed. What do you mean with Python errors enabled?

Playing SVN revision 300, just had my starting Settler promoted to Aeron's Chosen.

I got this error too, you shall notice some more "event" errors probably.

I ´m playing with Rev. 300 now again, I noticed when I ´ve crashes to desk while loading a save game, missing interfaces etc. 1 of 5 attempts to run and load a game were sucessful.
I ´m still not sure if it might be an update issue,- I noticed that the "checkout" tries to patch in D:\Games\Civ4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Ashes of Erebus\code even if that folder does not exist it, just source is svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/ashesoferebus/code .I changed the path manually to D:\Games\Civ4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Ashes of Erebus and as it was finished patching to Rev. 300 and loaded my game, I did not had a crash, but again missing dialogues and having this "event" bug again and this with every attempt when I start the game.

i would like to know if there are users who don ´t have any problems with Rev. 300?
If yes I ´ll try a complete Civ4 reinstall with Rev. 300 and look if problems are gone, in that case it might be some problem that´s not regularly sided by AoE , like CC cleaner, or maybe wrong SVN setting for example.
I dunno, it ´s just strange the problems came with Rev. 300 and 299 was ok until then but now even having trouble with Rev. 299 *sigh*. It ´s hard to find the error if problems seem to merge.

 

[black_imperator]

Summary of what i know of the python bug :

Effects:
- The game stops reading python files in subfolders, causing events, spells, interface to stop working.

Causes :
- Not in the release version, meaning it's either related to svn itself, or one of the additions
- Seems to appear randomly for people, usually after an update, which tends to push the svn cause.
-Once it appears, it's particularly difficult to make disappear, sometimes requiring full installation of either the mod or BtS
-Seems to happen more on Steam Version than classic BtS version.
-Some configurations seem to be immune to it, including mine. Several possibilities :
-A certain configuration of OS and versions is causing it
-The fact that i'm using the dev access to the svn which is slightly different
-Something in the coded is keyed to my system and causes trouble when the configuration is too different.


Questions to be answered :
- does it happen also for people who use the snapshot download of the svn version ? if yes, that would push against the svn cause
-If it's not directly linked to svn , since when does it happen ? Assuming the revision corresponding to the release version is without issue, it would help to find which of the additions started to cause the problems,

 

[Bearmarshal]

I don ´t have the RifE Mod installed. What do you mean with Python errors enabled?

You know those screenshots people have been posting with pop-up windows showing more or less cryptic error messages? Those are the Python errors (or rather, Python error messages). They can be enabled following the instructions in the third post of this thread.

i would like to know if there are users who don ´t have any problems with Rev. 300?
If yes I ´ll try a complete Civ4 reinstall with Rev. 300 and look if problems are gone, in that case it might be some problem that´s not regularly sided by AoE , like CC cleaner, or maybe wrong SVN setting for example.
I dunno, it ´s just strange the problems came with Rev. 300 and 299 was ok until then but now even having trouble with Rev. 299 *sigh*. It ´s hard to find the error if problems seem to merge.

I sometimes CtD when loading up a game, but restarting Civ just one time tends to solve it. Other than that, I haven't had any bugs which I haven't brought on myself.

@black_imperator : Do you know if there's any multi-threading/-processing involved in the game initialisation proceedure? My CtD bugs seem to go away after at most two failed loads, and then I can exit and restart Civ as much as I want without crashes until I close it down and do something else for a while. I'm suspecting there's some race condition which only surfaces when the files take a long time loading because they haven't been brought into the hard drive cache...

Summary of what i know of the python bug :

Effects:
- The game stops reading python files in subfolders, causing events, spells, interface to stop working.

Causes :
- Not in the release version, meaning it's either related to svn itself, or one of the additions
- Seems to appear randomly for people, usually after an update, which tends to push the svn cause.
-Once it appears, it's particularly difficult to make disappear, sometimes requiring full installation of either the mod or BtS
-Seems to happen more on Steam Version than classic BtS version.
-Some configurations seem to be immune to it, including mine. Several possibilities :
-A certain configuration of OS and versions is causing it
-The fact that i'm using the dev access to the svn which is slightly different
-Something in the coded is keyed to my system and causes trouble when the configuration is too different.


Questions to be answered :
- does it happen also for people who use the snapshot download of the svn version ? if yes, that would push against the svn cause
-If it's not directly linked to svn , since when does it happen ? Assuming the revision corresponding to the release version is without issue, it would help to find which of the additions started to cause the problems,

For the record, I had problems with the Python bug earlier, but when I updated to revision 297 (which I'm currently playing on), I decided to instead clone the repository to another location and just copy the files into my mods folder, excluding the .svn and souce code folders. I haven't experienced a single trace of the Python bug after that, so my story does not contradict that SVN could be to blame.

@Jerrian : Could you try moving the hidden folder named .svn your AoE root folder somewhere else (outside of the Civ folders) and see if the bugs persist? This folder is responsible for keeping the link to the SVN repository, so don't delete it unless you have a backup, but moving it (or copying the entire installation and deleting the original .svn afterward) is totally fine.

 

[black_imperator]

For the record, I had problems with the Python bug earlier, but when I updated to revision 297 (which I'm currently playing on), I decided to instead clone the repository to another location and just copy the files into my mods folder, excluding the .svn and souce code folders. I haven't experienced a single trace of the Python bug after that, so my story does not contradict that SVN could be to blame.

that's probably the most encouraging news i've heard about that damn thing ^^

 

[Vorpal+5]

I have a 'waiting for other civilization 'freeze' happening in revision 85, the 'stable version', at turn 196 with the Scions. Don't know what to do, should I hope for somebody looking at the save, or I'm calling it over on this game (again alas)...

Unrelated, but is it a specific of the Risen Emperor to get a growing 'past event has bought our people together' toward all civilizations he is in contact? The older the contact is, the bigger the bonus (I'm at +9 with my oldest neighbor, that now likes me, whereas he should hate me from the others modifiers).
It seems unbalanced and almost broken, but then... This is the Risen Emperor!!

 

[black_imperator]

i'll see if i can take a look at it.

 

[Vorpal+5]

I rolled back 3 turns and it did not happen, that's nice

About the very powerful +9 I have on most of my neighbors, it seems even more suspicious now that I see I have also a 'you follow a disgusting cult' (Risen Emperor personal cult). So, what is this feature, this growing positive bonus? A bug or something undocumented?

I'll try to run a commit 121 game this week BI, promised

 

[Bearmarshal]

I've found that apart from being able to destroy unique features, barbarian cities are also able to destroy bonuses (one source of raw Mana disappeared when the barbarians put a city on top of it in my game). Destroying UFs just seems like a missing precondition check, but removing bonuses feels like it would be something you have to do actively...

 

[Jerrian]

@Jerrian : Could you try moving the hidden folder named .svn your AoE root folder somewhere else (outside of the Civ folders) and see if the bugs persist? This folder is responsible for keeping the link to the SVN repository, so don't delete it unless you have a backup, but moving it (or copying the entire installation and deleting the original .svn afterward) is totally fine.

I moved it but problems are still there, but I think the save game loaded a bit quicker maybe.

@ Black Imperator

I want also note, If I try to load a save game I ´ve several crashes and missing interface etc. if the the game is running for a while,- the save and load is more solid with less python bugs and crashes.

Another point is, that when I load the mod with Civ 4 BTS , the mod started and if I try to lad a game, AoE says I need to run AoE Mod....
It might be an important detail, that there is maybe a conflict when using SVN for updating, maybe it would be worth a try just to copy paste the AoE files manually.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

You might want to try and set up the SVN on your (client) end so that it downloads into a separate folder and than you manually copy the files into your game directory. Automatic updates are the bane of any project with bugs.

 

[Mknn]

I have a save file that predictably loads, then crashes on the following turn resulting in a loss of interface on the next load. It has done this across a machine reboot. If it would be helpful on tracking the issue, LMK, and I will upload or share via DropBox or whatever works best.

 

[Vorpal+5]

Can you lose the presence of a guild in a city? I have Fabricaforma disappears from my cities progressively. After some time only 1 city had it, and now it is gone too! Are they fighting with others guilds, because I have the Stonefire guild too. Now in another game with same version, I never had that, so this is very weird. I can't create it back with a great merchant, and I can't build artisans. So I would say it is a bug, but who knows?

 

[Bearmarshal]

Can you lose the presence of a guild in a city? I have Fabricaforma disappears from my cities progressively. After some time only 1 city had it, and now it is gone too! Are they fighting with others guilds, because I have the Stonefire guild too. Now in another game with same version, I never had that, so this is very weird. I can't create it back with a great merchant, and I can't build artisans. So I would say it is a bug, but who knows?

That's actually an original BtS feature of corporations (i.e. guilds). Two corporations which use the same resource compete (even if you haven't got any of those specific resources), and if one expands into a city, the other goes away. The Stonefire Guild and Fabricaforma are the only competing guilds in AoE. I'm a little surprised you can't recreate it with the Great Merchant, but since I haven't studied the code, I can't say why yet...

I would probably make the corporation mechanic quite different if I were to implement it today, but then Black Imperator made it a future Dev entry, so I bet they've got plans too.

 

[Vorpal+5]

Right, I cheated some artisans (Fabricaforma) and they eradicated Stonefire guild, darn! I believe I did not notice that in the past game because I was instead propagating Stonefire and the farmer guild and as you say, they don't overlap.

So I'll have to choose between Fabricaforma and Stonefire for my cities. Probably Stonefire for new cities (prod bonus) and then a switch to Fabricaforma when they mature. Although the culture bonus is rather nice also...

 

[Vorpal+5]

I find the AIs very placid and inert in most games. Even with 'aggressive AIs' on, and with them stronger military speaking than me (plus they are generally annoyed by my presence), wars are very rare. They very very rarely will DOW me and in 250 turns between deity levels AIs, only 3 wars happened between the 20 of them. Strange no? Should aggressive AIs not be a bit more aggressive?

 

[Bahmo]

This game always crashes a few turns past the autosave I attached. Could you please take a look at it?

 

[black_imperator]

This game always crashes a few turns past the autosave I attached. Could you please take a look at it?

What version are you playing with ?

Can you lose the presence of a guild in a city? I have Fabricaforma disappears from my cities progressively. After some time only 1 city had it, and now it is gone too! Are they fighting with others guilds, because I have the Stonefire guild too. Now in another game with same version, I never had that, so this is very weird. I can't create it back with a great merchant, and I can't build artisans. So I would say it is a bug, but who knows?

Right, I cheated some artisans (Fabricaforma) and they eradicated Stonefire guild, darn! I believe I did not notice that in the past game because I was instead propagating Stonefire and the farmer guild and as you say, they don't overlap.

So I'll have to choose between Fabricaforma and Stonefire for my cities. Probably Stonefire for new cities (prod bonus) and then a switch to Fabricaforma when they mature. Although the culture bonus is rather nice also...

The only thing i intend to fix about the current guilds is to cut them completely. The mechanic isn't very interesting and they have no lore connection so i have no intent in keeping that. The only question is either i do it well before i'm ready to unleash their replacement or not.

I find the AIs very placid and inert in most games. Even with 'aggressive AIs' on, and with them stronger military speaking than me (plus they are generally annoyed by my presence), wars are very rare. They very very rarely will DOW me and in 250 turns between deity levels AIs, only 3 wars happened between the 20 of them. Strange no? Should aggressive AIs not be a bit more aggressive?

I've worked on that a bit, it's mostly due to the diplomacy values being a bit weirdly calibrated.


Talking about the dev diaries, we're still in need of a tie-breaking vote between Alignments, Units and Religions ( or three votes for another category )
here's the list of categories you can vote for and the former dev diaries : https://docs.google.com/document/d/14P90zYvnsodp-PLfRDmAehvX--nuhGV6yhKZMUxy9NI/edit

 

[Calavente]

ok, I'm on it.

i'd rather we go toward the rather large category of ... units

pretty please