Late-game Crashes/Inability to Resume Games in PS4 Version

[AtlantisAuthor]

I love the PS4 version of Civ VI and have all the existing expansions/DLC. I guess by now I've played a couple of hundred hours or so and finished several single-player games on Huge Maps. But in a couple of cases in single player, and most recently a two-player local Hotseat match we'd been playing once per week for about a month or so, the game will immediately crash when loading a saved match.

In every one of these cases this happened during the late-game (Online Speed), probably after 150-200 turns or so. I'd boot up the game, go into the given mode as usual, and select Load/Resume Game. The music will start and will sometimes even do the Leader Intro screen, but then the game crashes and an error message comes up. Trying to load such a match from Autosaves has no effect; the same thing happens.

Of course this is a real bummer if it happens at any point in a match at any speed, but to have it keep happening in the late-game after hours of effort has definitely put a damper on my ability to enjoy the PS4 version. If you don't know whether you'll even get to finish a match without a fatal crash, it kind of kills your incentive to even try (especially with multiplayer matches).

If anyone out there has a solution for this (and I REALLY hope Firaxis/Aspyr keep a close eye on these threads!), I'd greatly appreciate any insights you can share. Civ VI has all the makings of a classic that I'd come back to for years, but this situation is absolutely a deal-breaker.

 

[Falkman]

Is this happening only on huge maps? Do you have a regular PS4 or a Pro? I've noticed that when I've launched the Earth satellite the game tends to slow down quite a bit since it reveals the entire map, and I've also gotten choppy audio due to this. I've only played on duel, tiny, and small maps though so the games haven't crashed, but I could imagine the game not being able to handle this on bigger maps since I've seen performance issues already on smaller maps. Since Hot seat maps also reveals more of the map at all times (shared vision) this could also contribute to performance issues.

 

[AtlantisAuthor]

The issue here isn't crashing mid-game during a play session; it's happening when attempting to load a previously saved game/hotseat match. So far it has happened only on Huge maps, and I own a PS4 Pro. It's occurred once when loading a single-player game and once when loading a hotseat game; both were in the later eras (post 150-200 in Online Mode).

There is one particular thing I've noticed on ALL games when first starting up/loading: during the Leader Introduction screen, right as the map finishes loading and the icon to play it appears, the music briefly cuts out or becomes garbled. It lasts for roughly a second, maybe less. But this exact point is also where the game is crashing when loading a saved match. I'm wondering whether perhaps there is some sort of strain being put on the software, hardware, or both as (apparently; consider that the Leader Introduction screens are fancy Loading screens to begin with, and they can take awhile) a ton of data suddenly floods through it. These games are intensive even for a decent PC,, so maybe it's a RAM issue or upper limit on something internally that's being hit. But those are just guesses.

For what it's worth, I have been playing some smaller maps with no issues and we plan on doing a smaller map for our next game. If they go without a hitch I guess it means that Huge maps may simply risk being too much for the PS4 Pro to handle (although I have finished multiple single-player games on Huge maps, so it's a random problem). But that would be a shame because any time part of a game is rendered inaccessible by glitches, hardware limitations, or whatever, I can't help but feel that's on the developers. Firaxis/Aspyr really need to either fix this via an update/patch or at the very least give players a heads up about it.

 

[Falkman]

There is one particular thing I've noticed on ALL games when first starting up/loading: during the Leader Introduction screen, right as the map finishes loading and the icon to play it appears, the music briefly cuts out or becomes garbled. It lasts for roughly a second, maybe less. But this exact point is also where the game is crashing when loading a saved match. I'm wondering whether perhaps there is some sort of strain being put on the software, hardware, or both as (apparently; consider that the Leader Introduction screens are fancy Loading screens to begin with, and they can take awhile) a ton of data suddenly floods through it. These games are intensive even for a decent PC,, so maybe it's a RAM issue or upper limit on something internally that's being hit. But those are just guesses.

For what it's worth, I have been playing some smaller maps with no issues and we plan on doing a smaller map for our next game. If they go without a hitch I guess it means that Huge maps may simply risk being too much for the PS4 Pro to handle (although I have finished multiple single-player games on Huge maps, so it's a random problem). But that would be a shame because any time part of a game is rendered inaccessible by glitches, hardware limitations, or whatever, I can't help but feel that's on the developers. Firaxis/Aspyr really need to either fix this via an update/patch or at the very least give players a heads up about it.

Yeah, this sounds similar enough to my performance issue. If I were to guess I think the game has issues handling showing off the entirety of larger maps and I suspect that as the game loads up it first loads the map without the fog of war which is why it crashes for you, since it renders the entire huge map at once, can't handle that, and crashes.

 

[AtlantisAuthor]

Well, assuming Firaxis/Aspyr don't find a fix for the problem before then, MAYBE the PS5 (if it is indeed backwards-compatible) will be able to better handle larger maps with its beefier processor. Of course that also depends on how much the hardware and software overlap between the two console generations in terms of compatibility; if it's dependent on emulation alone the odds of performance issues may go even higher for a game like this.

At any rate, I'm not planning to pick up a PS5 (or any other next-gen console) to play one single game, and I highly doubt I'll be doing so anywhere near the launch, either. It honestly still feels like this current console generation has just hit its stride, and a lot of folks only recently got their PS Pros or Xbox One Xs thanks to that "mid-generation upgrade" business model (and a business model is EXACTLY what it is). Most of us can't afford to plunk down another $300 to 500-plus (depending on the specs and rumors circulating) every two or three years for hardware. Publishers need to make the software work right on the platforms they're making them for in the here and now.

 

[justjon]

I had this problem - I deleted all of my old no longer needed saves and the problem went away.

Not sure if this will work for everyone but worked for me.

 

[kgolf78]

Second time I’ve had this issue on a huge map. Both times it occurred the World Congress screen loaded but the AIs all voted without me. Then back at the game screen it won’t advance to the next turn - it keeps going back to world congress but you can’t vote. So you have to exit game. But all saves and auto saves are then corrupt and won’t load. Extremely maddening.

 

[Kopernikus1979]

I have a Xbox One X, but I'm having the same issues. Paying a big map with New Frontier Pass. My Xbox was venting a lot, but when the first meteorite crashed on the map, Xbox One X shut down due to overheating problems. After that I had several issues in that game, mostly when a meteorite was coming in.
I just relocated the position of my Xbox the check if it's really a venting problem due to my Xbox position.

 

[Tony086]

I have encountered the same issue on PS4, reinstalled the game still crashes, is removing saves the fix? And did you have to remove them all? Thanks

 

[HiRezAudio]

Loading a saved game created before a software update can be bad news, so I would delete any saves made before the last game update installed.

 

[Tony086]

The saved games were all saved after an update, as mentioned above I experienced a weird crash and ever since then I can't open any saved games without crashing, so annoying I am on 451 turns so highly frustrating.

 

[HiRezAudio]

I know how you feel - right now, I am stuck with the bug where the coloured PS4 buttons stop working, and I cannot advance an era.
Workaround is to create a new email address, a second 2K account - somehow keeping it separate from other 2K games on the same console - and linking the account, saving all games to the cloud.
That will not work for me as the PS4 is primarily a golf game machine, so adding extra accounts & secondary logins and email addresses when the real fix should be an immediate PS4 patch to either roll back the update that caused the damage, or fix the problems. I get the feeling nobody play tests for PS4 - these crashes since last update are terrible. I am lucky - got it on PC - but that is not the point.

 

[kgolf78]

Deleting saves and reinstalling the game never fixed for me. I had 4 games crash and become unrecoverable - all were around the turn to the modern era during the world congress and all were on huge maps with the faster speed option (330 turns). Since then I’ve successfully played 3 games on standard map and standard speed - so not sure if it was the bigger map or faster speed that was causing the issue.

 

[ClimateChange]

Same Issue on PS4
Hadn't played since April. Saw there was the Frontier Pass and bought it last week. It loaded Maya/Gran Colombia/Ethiopia. A month ago the overall game updated to version 1.06.
I've begun 3 campaigns in the past week, all haven't been able to load when starting up the console. None have been a huge map or accelerated speed. One was tiny, other two were standard.
Read the resolution on here and elsewhere whereby deleting all saves prior to the update (regardless of opening them) and it still won't load the one i left last night.
How have you guys been sharing this with Firaxis/Aspyr?

 

[HiRezAudio]

Will check this on the latest patch tonight.
It will definitely pass the era, that I already know but not yet tested reloading a saved game.
Odds are high that all games created with earlier version may not load but this is pure supposition at this time

 

[Steve Westerhoff]

I have had this problem also with standard size maps. Made sure all upgrades are current. Had them become unloadable at fewer than 200 turns. Plenty of memory to spare.

 

[HiRezAudio]

I am now seeing this as well since the last update.
New game, created in most recent build (details inaccessible on PS4 right now) and I keep getting error Blue Screen crashes during the turn change, whilst the AI is moving around.
So far can only confirm this on a large map (I set one up specifically to test this bug) but am now seeing if it also happens on a regular map. Will test other map sizes too and post back as I can.
It's frustrating as all hell - I can restart the console, reload the game & get maybe another 10 turns before it happens again.
This is on a PS4 Pro.

 

[Sebastien Nadeau]

Any fix for this? Unable to end a game I really want to win!!!

 

[kgolf78]

Any fix for this? Unable to end a game I really want to win!!!

I never found a fix. I just don’t use huge maps any more. Kind of a bummer but at least it doesn’t crash.

 

[HiRezAudio]

It happens almost every time I try to play on Large/Huge maps now with the PS4.
Filed bug reports, but all I ever get is to 'clear my cache', 'delete/reinstall' and the usual tosh (The PS4 does not HAVE a cache, and all memory is purged automatically at shut down so how can that even be a thing?)