Mod crashes whenever I build any improvement

[ruby_sauce]

I know it worked before since I played a game on it. Since then, Ive added 1 extra improvement, and a bunch of civs/units. I also used Quintillius' editor to change the names of units to the same name (they had spaces before). Ive also added a single tech.

It crashes whenever I build any improvement (barracks, library and airports are the ones Ive tested). I get a popup from windows that just says: Civ 3 complete has stopped working.

I have no clue what could cause this. I do remember that I had something like this before, although Im not sure. I think at that time it was that I couldnt have barracks available on a tech. When I changed it back to being able from the beginning it worked.

 

[ruby_sauce]

OKay, now I noticed that it crashes for some civs, but not for others..

 

[Gojira54]

This is why those hacked editors scare me. Ruined too many of my mods in the past. All I can advise is save off different versions as you go.

 

[ruby_sauce]

This is why those hacked editors scare me. Ruined too many of my mods in the past. All I can advise is save off different versions as you go.

I checked the folder of the editor and luckily it made an autosave. So I guess Im just going to have to add all the units again... Its gonna take a while but it does seem like the autosave of the first time (where I didnt save anything yet) does work..

 

[Quintillus]

Do you have copy of the scenario from when it isn't working (and ideally also the one that is, so there's a way to see the differences)? From the description, the only thing that stands out as potentially problematic is units with the exact same name. That's one of those things that may work, but if it's been rigorously tested, I'm not aware of it. Why an issue with that would show itself when completing a building is really hard to say, especially without seeing the scenario itself.

 

[ruby_sauce]

I just got the autosave from the editor and used that to expand again to what I had before, making different saves along the way. I eventually narrowed it down to when it was working and when it wasnt was when I added 6 more civilizations.

However, building a building doesnt work for civilizations that were already in. But it does seem that adding the 6 civilizations was the problem.

I have, including those 6, a total of 24 civilizations. But I dont understand how that would cause an issue for a civ thats already in there that worked before.. Or why it would work for some civs, and not others.

The same civs work on the file edited with the firaxis editor, as well as Quintillius' editor, so thats probably not the issue.

 

[ruby_sauce]

I attatched the .biq thats JUST edited with the firaxis editor. It doesnt have units with the same name as far as I know. I think some of them do, which I have edited a LONG time ago with I think Stephs editor. But they didnt cause problems before.

Every unit after Powder Keg are newly added, as well as the last 6 civilizations. After adding JUST the civilizations, it started to crash, as I have tested with a file that has just that done to a working version.

 

[ruby_sauce]

Even weirder now: I deleted all the civs and all the units added to the version that worked... And it still did not work. Does that mean an added civ ruins everything somehow?

 

[Quintillus]

I took a look at the BIQ... the only thing I've found so far that's somewhat unusual is two of the new Spearmen units have no AI strategy. The only other units I found that had no AI strategy were a Siege Archer and a Nazgul. I'm not sure why this would cause the game to crash when completing a building. But perhaps completing a building is corresponding with the AI completing one of these units?

The other thought is, are you sure that all of the new civilizations are able to build a unit at all times? I know that not being possible can cause issues. Although again, I'm not sure why it would rear its head at that point in time. And it looks like every civ can build at least a Settler at all times.

Another shot in the dark: maybe there's a circular unit upgrade path? I could see myself accidentally doing something like that with so many units, many of which have the same or similar names.

There are a number of units with identical names, but that's true for the units prior to Powder Keg, too. So that isn't likely the new issue. Beyond the ideas above, I'm not sure what is... it looks OK from what I can tell (though I can't run it in-game since I'm missing the PediaIcons.txt and all the other files), and there's quite a few changes to look through with six new civs and a few dozen new units. I guess the next thing I'd try if one of the ideas above doesn't work is adding just one civ at a time and seeing when the problem happens? At least then there would be a smaller haystack to find the needle in.

 

[ruby_sauce]

Yea Im guessing IM just gonna add one civ at a time. What I find weid though, is that when I add all that stuff and then delete it again, it still crashes on me. So if stuff like no AI strategy wouldnt crash it before, why would it after I added other stuff?

EDIT: Okay, nevermind. I just found one of my saves that has all 6 civs added, but no other units after the Powder Keg. And it doesnt seem to crash on any civs building barracks..

So I guess the next step is to add just a handful of units to pinpoint which unit (s) cause the crash..


EDIT: I seem to have pinpointed the issue. I had a working version, and a non-working version. Everything was the same, except the crusader unit, which was unavailable to all civs prior to adding the extra 6, was enabled for those extra 6 units. The non-working version has the crusader unit turned into a swordsman unit for one of the civs. BUT: That is not just the issue.

Deleting the crusader, or making it once again unavailable to all civs, BOTH seem to cause the crash. This was the ONLY thing I changed, and from one version to the other it crashes.

EDIT: nevermind that, i used only 1 civ to test but when I tested another civ, that one stopped working BEFORE I edited the crusader. With the units added I didnt change anything for that civ (that was a civ already in the game), so that one just suddenly stopped working. Im gonna see if I can find out what causes that specific civ to stop working..

EDIT: From what I can tell, it starts to crash between 2 versions, where 1 version has the civ-specific units for all added civs enabled, and the other one has them disabled. I guess the next step is to find out which units are the ones to cause it to crash..

EDIT: More testing reveals that when I delete the crusader off a working version, the civ that crashed before with the edited crusader doesnt crash anymore. I dont think the crusader is the problem, but rather availability for some civs. Im just gonna thoroughly check every single unit

 

[Quintillus]

EDIT: More testing reveals that when I delete the crusader off a working version, the civ that crashed before with the edited crusader doesnt crash anymore. I dont think the crusader is the problem, but rather availability for some civs. Im just gonna thoroughly check every single unit

Do you mean non-working there? That would seem to make more sense there since, if I understand it correctly, deleting the crusader is causing it to not crash anymore.

I'm curious to see what exactly this ends up being. It does sound like it's something related to unit availability, although I don't follow quite what the situation is yet. If that does end up being the case, and there's a logical explanation for it (i.e. it's not just some random bug in Civ III), I may be able to add a check for it in my editor so that it would be much easier to catch in the future. (Side note: Does Steph's editor have a circular unit upgrade check already? I'm pretty sure it has a circular tech requirement check, but am not sure about the unit upgrades. Probably isn't the magic bullet here, but it would be nice if another check along those lines could catch whatever ends up being the reason for this issue)

 

[ruby_sauce]

Okay, I am pretty sure I fixed the issue now. I can actually build barracks for multiple civs without issues.

I checked every unit on my mod, even the ones that showed they worked before, and I made the smallest adjustments:
I fixed for a few units that they had the correct flags selected (load, pillage etc.). For example, I noticed one of the starting units had the bombard flag checked (even though I had already played with that unit ingame).

I think the most significant one: one of my units that I added I forgot to check which civs can build it. And this was a unit in the middle of an upgrade path. So, I guess even small mistakes like that can screw you over good... The most annoying part was actually that there was no error message, it just crashed straight to desktop with the message that civ had stopped working :/

Anyway, thanks for responding Quintillius and Gojira

 

[Yoda Power]

I checked every unit on my mod, even the ones that showed they worked before, and I made the smallest adjustments:
I fixed for a few units that they had the correct flags selected (load, pillage etc.). For example, I noticed one of the starting units had the bombard flag checked (even though I had already played with that unit ingame).

I think the most significant one: one of my units that I added I forgot to check which civs can build it. And this was a unit in the middle of an upgrade path. So, I guess even small mistakes like that can screw you over good... The most annoying part was actually that there was no error message, it just crashed straight to desktop with the message that civ had stopped working :/

I would be very surprised if any of this had anything to do with the crash. I make mistakes like this all the time when I add units, but don't get a crash.

I haven't looked at the biq, so I can't say what caused it though.

 

[ruby_sauce]

I would be very surprised if any of this had anything to do with the crash. I make mistakes like this all the time when I add units, but don't get a crash.

I haven't looked at the biq, so I can't say what caused it though.

Oh.. thats weird then. Im going to check most if not all civs, and i think im also going to check different buildings and see if other buildings could cause errors

Oh, what I forgot to mention: I used to have a 0/1/1 unit as a starter unit, but I couldnt assign ai strategy because it needs an attack value and the capture flag. I changed the unit to 1/1/1 with 1 less HP, and now whenever i get ingame it automatically reccomends I build that when I first build a city. It didnt do that before the crash, either.

But, I had that unit in the game that worked, before I added the 6 civilizations.

 

[Karl der Grosse]

I don't know, I'm not an expert in all this, but I'm wondering if maybe ya did something wrong.

Lets see...

(scanning noises)

(more scanning noises)

(even more scanning moises)

Mebe ya failed to adhere stringently to the rituals ordained in the Sacred Scrolls, e.g., Prophecies of Pythia. Looky here:

Building/Improvement Tutorial

How To Add Improvements And Wonders In C3C

 

[Virote_Considon]

If the crash occurs when building an improvement, then perhaps there is a palette problem with either the building large/small .pcx's, or one of the two icons sheets for them?

 

[ruby_sauce]

It doesnt happen anymore. Besides, it was with the barracks and library buildings. Both which are from firaxis. The thing was that my units werent configured correctly which was causing the crash with a building, weirdly.