Mammoth scenario crash

[angamandi]

Hello all,
I recently discovered the Mammoth scenario from the folder bestnet2. I always thought it was some kind of prehistoric scenario but it's a sci-fi one. Anyway.

The problem is i can't pass the second turn. At the end of it, it crashes. I checked for solutions online and i found only one that advised to save the game in the main folder of civII but this is a poor solution since all the special units and building disappear...

Do you have any solution to fix that? Or there is none?

Thanks to let me know!

Lucas.

 

[CurtSibling]

Can you give details about what version of Civ2 you are using, and if you have made changes to your game files, etc?

 

[techumseh]

That flaw has always been there. It's most likely a tech loop that prevents researching Future Technology.

 

[CurtSibling]

It seems so. A comb through the rules file, and custom edit would fix the future tech bug.

 

[angamandi]

Hello, thanks for replying.
I have CivilizationII ultimate classic collection which is MGE i think because it is not Test of Time.
I did not make any change to any file.

Is there a way to fix it or it's too bad and unpayable?

 

[techumseh]

What civilization did you play? I played 11 turns as the Mavericks without it crashing. If it is a tech loop, you will probably have to map out the tech tree. It helps to know which technology is being researched by each civilization just before the crash.

As I recall, crashes happen when a technology is a prerequisite (however many removed) for a technology that is in turn a prerequisite for that technology. So, if you need tech A to research tech B, and need tech B to research tech A, then you have a loop, which can prevent you (or the AI) from researching Future Technology, and the game crashes.

 

[Patine]

Hello all,
I recently discovered the Mammoth scenario from the folder bestnet2. I always thought it was some kind of prehistoric scenario but it's a sci-fi one. Anyway.

The problem is i can't pass the second turn. At the end of it, it crashes. I checked for solutions online and i found only one that advised to save the game in the main folder of civII but this is a poor solution since all the special units and building disappear...

Do you have any solution to fix that? Or there is none?

Thanks to let me know!

Lucas.

Is that the one where Bo Gritz is the default American leader, and "Klintonism," is the renamed Communism government?

 

[Wooly]

Did anyone ever find a solution to this? The bug has been in that scenario since MGE launch and I've always wanted to actually be able to play through it. Unfortunately seems to occur after a dozen turns or so no matter which civ you pick.

 

[CurtSibling]

Maybe someone should take tech's advice and do the quality control check the original designers seemed to have not bothered with.

 

[JPetroski]

@Wooly The easiest solution is simply to make future tech nil, nil and make it 0,0 for desirability (to minimize the AI being dumb and grabbing it). This is achievable by anyone playing in moments. If you want to go through the entire techs you can but it'll be cumbersome. At least this gets you playing, if a tech loop is indeed throwing the error.

I don't have the scenario in front of me (or even MGE) but go through the rules in the @Civilize, scroll down to whatever future tech is (it should have the ; ... at the end) and make the following changes. The highlighted fields should both read 0. The red circled area needs to say nil

Future Technology, 0, 0, nil, nil, 3, 3 ; ...

 

[CurtSibling]

That is the best way to bypass the bug. If the AI wastes time researching the future tech, it doesn't matter too much.

The AI's strategy is basically irrelevant in these primeval scenarios.

 

[Knighttime]

I analyzed the tech tree (with a little help from Lua ) but didn't find any loops. So if changing Future Technology to 0, 0, nil, nil works, great -- but I'd be pretty surprised.

However, if I temporarily get rid of EVENTS.TXT then it seems like I can play the scenario without crashing, at least for awhile. There aren't even very many events, but maybe something there isn't correct. I'd recommend that someone who's good with the macro language review that file carefully.

 

[Wooly]

@Wooly The easiest solution is simply to make future tech nil, nil and make it 0,0 for desirability (to minimize the AI being dumb and grabbing it). This is achievable by anyone playing in moments. If you want to go through the entire techs you can but it'll be cumbersome. At least this gets you playing, if a tech loop is indeed throwing the error.

I don't have the scenario in front of me (or even MGE) but go through the rules in the @Civilize, scroll down to whatever future tech is (it should have the ; ... at the end) and make the following changes. The highlighted fields should both read 0. The red circled area needs to say nil

View attachment 594582

Future Technology, 0, 0, nil, nil, 3, 3 ; ...

Thanks! I'll give that a try and report back

@Knighttime I'll try that out too!

Thanks, @CurtSibling!

 

[Wooly]

Removing/renaming the events.txt file seems to have worked!! I experienced a couple unusual crashes when clicking on the city production queue or selecting a technology in the early turns after removing the events file but those seem to have stopped now. Thank you for helping resolve a 20-year-long problem for me!!

 

[Knighttime]

Removing/renaming the events.txt file seems to have worked!! I experienced a couple unusual crashes when clicking on the city production queue or selecting a technology in the early turns after removing the events file but those seem to have stopped now. Thank you for helping resolve a 20-year-long problem for me!!

Glad to hear that worked for you, at least mostly. I wasn't necessarily advocating removing/renaming the events.txt file as a permanent solution though! Even if it makes the game playable, you might be having a pretty different experience than the designer intended. So hopefully you (or some other volunteer) is able to actually debug the file and put together a version that works correctly. (I'm not really very skilled with the macro language, even if I can write Lua events for TOT, which is why I'm steering away from volunteering myself -- sorry!)

 

[CurtSibling]

If someone posts the events, I will have a look over it...

 

[Knighttime]

Here you go.