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Houseboat bug solutions?
- Thread starter Nanuk
- Start date
"Houseboat bug"? -- Do you mean the "settler on a boat problem"? In that case I would expect that you only "make matters worse", if you enable that requirement...
But wouldn't it prevent the game crashing if you were required to completely wipe a civ's units?
A "settler on a boat" doesn't cause the game to crash?! I think we are talking about different things here. So what exactly is the "houseboat bug"?
Houseboat bug is after you capture a civ's last city, if they have a settler on a boat the game will crash.
Interesting: I have experienced the "settler on a boat" several times in my GOTM games, but the game never crashed?! It's only a bit annoying, since you just have to build a couple of ships and scout the coastlines until you find and sink that last AI Settler, so the Conquest victory takes a few turns longer than expected...
You say "the houseboat bug" as if it's some kind of known thing. You don't say "A houseboat bug" or "I have this bug where", you say "the houseboat bug", and yet nowhere on these forums is a houseboat bug even a thing.
Where did you read about it? Can you link the site that talks about it?
Where did you read about it? Can you link the site that talks about it?
It's from this very site. Most recent and quick search I did:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ-3-crashing-problem-with-save.610010/
Got solved in a patch of vanilla, came back with Conquests.
@Lanzelot & @Buttercup The "Houseboat Bug" has been very well documented in the CCM thread and during several of the Succession games.
@Solborn Civinator would be the person to talk to about this as they've done the most extensive research into it. Or, perhaps asking someone in one of the current succession games.
@Solborn Civinator would be the person to talk to about this as they've done the most extensive research into it. Or, perhaps asking someone in one of the current succession games.
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
LK: Civinator recently suffered a major hack, lost a huge amount of his work on CCM v.2.0, and has not been active on CFC very much since.
My understanding, gleaned mainly from reading the CCM thread, is that the Houseboat Bug mainly/only occurs in mods (such as CCM) which use Settlers that have been autoproduced and/or have a pop-cost of zero; the game-engine 'knows' that a defeated houseboat-Civ is still 'alive', but because that civ's total-cities and total-population values are both zero, a conflict is generated which crashes the game.
Post-patch, the bug no longer exists in the epic game (or at least, doesn't result in a crash -- just an annoyance for perfectionists like Lanz
), nor in the Firaxis Scenarios/ CFC-GotMs, nor any other mods which also abide by the (programmers') assumption that 'a Settler-type unit always costs at least 1 citizen'.
My understanding, gleaned mainly from reading the CCM thread, is that the Houseboat Bug mainly/only occurs in mods (such as CCM) which use Settlers that have been autoproduced and/or have a pop-cost of zero; the game-engine 'knows' that a defeated houseboat-Civ is still 'alive', but because that civ's total-cities and total-population values are both zero, a conflict is generated which crashes the game.
Post-patch, the bug no longer exists in the epic game (or at least, doesn't result in a crash -- just an annoyance for perfectionists like Lanz
), nor in the Firaxis Scenarios/ CFC-GotMs, nor any other mods which also abide by the (programmers') assumption that 'a Settler-type unit always costs at least 1 citizen'.LK: Civinator recently suffered a major hack, lost a huge amount of his work on CCM v.2.0, and has not been active on CFC very much since.
My understanding, gleaned mainly from reading the CCM thread, is that the Houseboat Bug mainly/only occurs in mods (such as CCM) which use Settlers that have been autoproduced and/or have a pop-cost of zero; the game-engine 'knows' that a defeated houseboat-Civ is still 'alive', but because that civ's total-cities and total-population values are both zero, a conflict is generated which crashes the game.
Post-patch, the bug no longer exists in the epic game (or at least, doesn't result in a crash -- just an annoyance for perfectionists like Lanz
This is information that I was having a hard time finding. Thank you for specifying further on that bug. It is much appreciated and now I know what to avoid doing with my settlers in my mods.
Again, thank you.
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The "houseboat bug" got its name from players in CCM succession games. This bug originally haunted all civ 3 games, but was fixed by Firaxis in Civ 3 vanilla patch 1.21f:
tjs282, that´s an interesting theory.
On the other side this would mean, that autoproduced different types of settlers with population cost zero, that in the editor also have the setting population cost zero, wouldn´t trigger that bug. A simple setting in DEBUG Mod shows, that unfortunately this isn´t the case. The bug also haunts other mods like RARR, were there is no autoproduction of settlers.
My current theory is more simple: May be Firaxis connected that fix on the single unit "settler", that is the only "settler-unit" in the normal epic game. CCM, RARR and some other mods don´t use the normal C3C settler unit during the game (CCM only has such a settler unit at the start). These mods use a cornucopia of different wonderful settler units created by Plotinus, Shiro and other modders.
May be the houseboat bug wouldn´t appear, if these mods would only use the standard Civ 3 settler.
And yes, this seems to be a problem of modded C3C games (may be with different settlers) and not a problem of normal C3C epic games.
My understanding, gleaned mainly from reading the CCM thread, is that the Houseboat Bug mainly/only occurs in mods (such as CCM) which use Settlers that have been autoproduced and/or have a pop-cost of zero; the game-engine 'knows' that a defeated houseboat-Civ is still 'alive', but because that civ's total-cities and total-population values are both zero, a conflict is generated which crashes the game. Post-patch, the bug no longer exists in the epic game (or at least, doesn't result in a crash -- just an annoyance for perfectionists like Lanz
tjs282, that´s an interesting theory.
On the other side this would mean, that autoproduced different types of settlers with population cost zero, that in the editor also have the setting population cost zero, wouldn´t trigger that bug. A simple setting in DEBUG Mod shows, that unfortunately this isn´t the case. The bug also haunts other mods like RARR, were there is no autoproduction of settlers.My current theory is more simple: May be Firaxis connected that fix on the single unit "settler", that is the only "settler-unit" in the normal epic game. CCM, RARR and some other mods don´t use the normal C3C settler unit during the game (CCM only has such a settler unit at the start). These mods use a cornucopia of different wonderful settler units created by Plotinus, Shiro and other modders.
May be the houseboat bug wouldn´t appear, if these mods would only use the standard Civ 3 settler.
And yes, this seems to be a problem of modded C3C games (may be with different settlers) and not a problem of normal C3C epic games.
Attachments
timerover51
Deity
Hmmm, TETurkhan's Test of Time uses a different Settler for the Asian Civilizations. Could this bug also effect that mod as well then? Would it be worth running a test? His Asian Settlers are not auto-produced however, and have a high population cost of 6. Would that avoid the problem? I ask this as I am working on some mods based on Test of Time.
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In my eyes tests here would always be a good idea to enlarge our knowledge about that bug.
timerover51
Deity
In my eyes tests here would always be a good idea to enlarge our knowledge about that bug.
Okay, I will have to run some tests next week, and post the results here. Now, the settler in Test of Time does have a population cost. but is not the standard game Settler.
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Some tests show the bug is appearing in modded games that use the king-flag for settlers. In Debug Mod my testgames didn´t crash with surviving settlers without the aditional king flag on the boat. Settlers without the king flag survived, even when they don´t were the original Civ 3 settler units.
May be it´s a conflict between the fix for last settlers dying on a boat long ago done by Firaxis and the use of the king flag for settlers.
May be it´s a conflict between the fix for last settlers dying on a boat long ago done by Firaxis and the use of the king flag for settlers.
Last edited:
Oni Ryuu
King
Doesn’t the multi tool trick work?
1. Reload the game after the crash
2. Take control of the problem player
3. Disband the problem unit
4. Release control of that player
5. Continue the game as though it didn’t crash
It’s not a cure but you should be able to continue the game.
1. Reload the game after the crash
2. Take control of the problem player
3. Disband the problem unit
4. Release control of that player
5. Continue the game as though it didn’t crash
It’s not a cure but you should be able to continue the game.
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