SGOTM 08 - XTeam

[Cactus Pete]

Got a problem: Game crashed again IBT. Had played two turns (will copy report to that point below), but had not saved at all since last report. Hoping there was some kind of auto save operating, but I need help to find and use that if it indeed exists, plus need to report to Administrators again once extent of problem determined.

Have RL commitments until late tonight, but will try to get back on then to act on whatever suggestions team can offer. Sorry about this. Never have had problems like this before.

SGOTM08 REPORT FOR TURNS 186-187

187(1280AD): Adjust Ulundi citizens to generate hammers and send GM west; deploy forces for continued attack on Boudica;

IBT: Guilds>Steel; AP election to determine who proposes resolution – vote for Gandhi

188: Attack Durnovia 3 defenders with airships and 4 cuirs but lose two battles (at 87.3% and 96.8%) so will have to finish off next turn; spy reports Arretium defended by 2 longbows and a crossbow;

IBT: Gandhi solicits Education, but it has trade value and leads to Gunpowder, so I refuse him; Caesar wins vote to select AP resolutions Switch to Word to write up negotiation and, when I return and dismiss Gandhi, game 'crashed.' Thinking Word and BTS together may be too much for my computer. Is that a possible explanation?

 

[leif erikson]

Got a problem: Game crashed again IBT. Had played two turns (will copy report to that point below), but had not saved at all since last report. Hoping there was some kind of auto save operating, but I need help to find and use that if it indeed exists, plus need to report to Administrators again once extent of problem determined.

GOTM requires that we have autosaves value set to "1" in the .ini file so the game saves every turn. If you have it set like this, then each time the turn changes, an autosave is created. If your PC is set like this, then you can reload the autosave and play trying as best as you can to play the turn the same way.

Have RL commitments until late tonight, but will try to get back on then to act on whatever suggestions team can offer. Sorry about this. Never have had problems like this before.

Let me PM AlanH and see if there are any checks that can be done?

EDIT - Let's take a pause until I hear back from AlanH.

Switch to Word to write up negotiation and, when I return and dismiss Gandhi, game 'crashed.' Thinking Word and BTS together may be too much for my computer. Is that a possible explanation?[/COLOR]

It is possible. I assume you use alt-tab to go between programs?

 

[AlanH]

@Cactus Pete:

Autosaves should be in \My Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\Saves\Single\Auto\ folder, or whatever the equivalent is in Vista. If autosaves are not working them you need to save manually every turn so that you don't have to replay much if you have a crash.

What is the memory capacity of your system, and what versions of Windows and Word are you running? If your PC has limited physical memory then it is possible that the combination of Windows, Word, BtS, and any other antivirus and protection utilities is clogging it up and causing Civ4 to bail out. One suggestion is to use Notepad instead of Word. It uses far fewer system resources, and is fine for plain text, which is all you can use for your turn log.

I doubt if the save itself is causing the problem, but that can be tested. I can try loading up your latest save and playing it here. I have no chance of retracing your steps 100%, but if there's a real problem with the save it will probably show up anyway. That will mean you need to upload the latest save you have.

 

[leif erikson]

Thank you Alan.

 

[Cactus Pete]

@Cactus Pete:

Autosaves should be in \My Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\Saves\Single\Auto\ folder, or whatever the equivalent is in Vista. If autosaves are not working them you need to save manually every turn so that you don't have to replay much if you have a crash. I found the auto save and opened it. It starts at the beginning of turn 188, which is the turn I just completed before the problem recurred. Thus, I will have to replay that entire turn. Think I can do that with little change because it's fresh in my memory, but I might not get it exactly identical. Does this mean that my auto save is not working as it should? If so, please tell me how to set it properly.

What is the memory capacity of your system, and what versions of Windows and Word are you running? Windows XP; have no idea what version of Word.If your PC has limited physical memory then it is possible that the combination of Windows, Word, BtS, and any other antivirus and protection utilities is clogging it up and causing Civ4 to bail out. One suggestion is to use Notepad instead of Word. Not familiar with Notepad, but I can use Wordpad in the future if you think that will make a difference.It uses far fewer system resources, and is fine for plain text, which is all you can use for your turn log.

I doubt if the save itself is causing the problem, but that can be tested. I can try loading up your latest save and playing it here. I have no chance of retracing your steps 100%, but if there's a real problem with the save it will probably show up anyway. That will mean you need to upload the latest save you have.

Okay, how do I upload it to where?

Thanks for the help, AlanH . . . sure there are other things more interesting for you to do. I have to go out for about 90 minutes, but will check in when I return.

 

[leif erikson]

Okay, how do I upload it to where?

You can attach the save just as you do with SGOTMsavein progress, for us to check.

To check your system for memory, please click "Start", mouse over "All Programs", then look for "Accessories" and mouse over it, then find and mouse over "System Tools" and then click on "System Information". A list will pop up on your screen. Look for "Total Physical Memory", that is how much RAM you have installed.

 

[ShannonCT]

CP, I suggest you search your computer for a file called CivilizationIV.ini

There is one of these for each of the three versions of Civ. Open up the one in the Beyond the Sword folder (in Wordpad or Notepad) and look for a line that says AutoSaveInterval = 4. Change it to AutoSaveInterval = 1. This will make the game do an autosave every turn.

When you replay turn 188, you'll have to make sure you attack in the same order as before, so we lose the 2 Cuirs as before.

 

[Cactus Pete]

Using leif's direction, I find that my computer has 640mb of memory. Is that sufficient?

Using SCT's direction, I found the BTS auto save code line and changed it from 4 to 1. (And I'm going to do same for other two games.)

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Here is the auto save plus a couple of clicks (needed so I could make sure of just where it was in the game) from which I must now replay: http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=197130&stc=1&d=1229224025

Can I go ahead and re-play, or do I need to wait?

 

[leif erikson]

Using leif's direction, I find that my computer has 640mb of memory. Is that sufficient?

It is a bit light, usually for Win XP, 1 GB is considered to be sufficient.

Can I go ahead and re-play, or do I need to wait?

I think that you can go ahead. I would not use Word however.

All Win XP computers come with Notepad, as far as I know. To find it is similar to the process above. Click on "Start", mouse over "All Programs", mouse over "Accessories", and in the list that results, you should find "Notepad". Click on it and you should enter into it and can use it from there. You can cut and paste your text from Word into Wordpad before you start if you wish to keep it all together.

Good Luck.

Should you have another crash, we'll have to reevaluate...

 

[Cactus Pete]

Thanks, again, leif. Will start playing shortly.

 

[leif erikson]

Thanks, again, leif. Will start playing shortly.

Good luck CP.

 

[Cactus Pete]

Crashed again, after using the auto save to re-play the missing turn and then proceeding well into the next turn (but unfortunately didn't save during it). Guess 'reevaluation' is in order.

Here is the save that I made after replaying all the unit moves in turn 188 up to the time I go through the cities and adjust the citizens (which therefore still needs to be done by the next player): http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=197140&stc=1&d=1229236440

Incidentally, I checked the autosave and was surprised that it did not contain a save for the completed turn 188. Then I went back into the BTS autosave folder and checked to see that the change I had made from 4 to 1 was still there, and it was, so that's puzzling.

Here is my report up to the crash:

SGOTM08 REPORT FOR TURNS 188-

Re-load from autosave (with notepad running instead of Word)

IBT: Guilds>Steel; AP election to determine who proposes resolution – vote for Gandhi

188(1280AD): Re-play turn with confidence that replication is good, except forget to use airships on Durnovia and the two units remaining after combat have less strength left, but that's a minor thing and certainly gains no advanage. [Saved game about here. Afraid rest (below) has been lost.]

IBT: GSpy is born in Prague (Charlemagne), Charlemagne breaks with Boudica, which is a change. Gandhi does not come soliciting Education or anything else, so that changed also(seems inconsequential). Charlemagne stack of HAs and cats advances on Bibracte; vote for AP resolution determiner is completed (but doesn't say who won, think Caesar was mentioned before)

189: GM, passing thru, notes a praet, crossbow, cat and longbow in Cumae, plus several WEs in India; Durnovia is razed without further losses; Charlemagne's stack is dispensed with; a GG is born in Ulundi and sent east; spy reports 2 longbows, a crossbow, praet, . . . and game crashes when I switch back to it to see what else is in the northernmost Roman city.

I would really like to find a way to continue playing, as I've time and effort invested, but that would seem contingent on finding the cause of the problem and a solution.

 

[ShannonCT]

So the crashes keep happening when you come back to the game after having gone back to the desktop to type up your report? If that's the case, then the problem will probably be solved by not going to the desktop while the game is running. Just write your notes on paper. Hopefully Alan can confirm that nothing is wrong with the file.

 

[leif erikson]

I've PM'ed AlanH again. I agree with SCT that the problem appears from afar to be in the alt-tab between the game and whatever program you are using to keep the log. Perhaps it would be wise to keep a pen and paper log and play the game without any changing to see if you can play the set crash free?

As far as the autosave, there are .ini files for each version of the software. The file name is the same in all versions: _Civ4Config. You should go to the folder for each version and ensure that the "AutoSaveInterval = 1"

Hope this helps.

 

[ShannonCT]

As far as the autosave, there are .ini files for each version of the software. The file name is the same in all versions: _Civ4Config. You should go to the folder for each version and ensure that the "AutoSaveInterval = 1"

_Civ4Config is just a shortcut that takes you to CivilizationIV.ini. If CP has already changed all of his CivilizationIV.ini files to say AutoSaveInterval = 1, he should be good.

CP, you can try playing a few turns of another BtS game to make sure the autosave interval is working properly. I just realized that I hadn't changed mine after patching to 3.17. So I just changed mine to AutoSaveInterval = 1 and it's working properly.

 

[leif erikson]

_Civ4Config is just a shortcut that takes you to CivilizationIV.ini. If CP has already changed all of his CivilizationIV.ini files to say AutoSaveInterval = 1, he should be good.

Of course you are correct.

Just trying to keep it simple as the shortcut automatically opens notepad and make it easy to change. In the jumble of files, finding the .ini file and selecting the program to edit can be a bit confusing sometimes...

CP, you can try playing a few turns of another BtS game to make sure the autosave interval is working properly. I just realized that I hadn't changed mine after patching to 3.17. So I just changed mine to AutoSaveInterval = 1 and it's working properly.

Checked mine too!

 

[Cactus Pete]

Sorry not to have responded sooner -- RL is keeping me busy and will for the next several hours.

I did change autosave to 1 in all three games after getting there by searching for the file name SCT gave me, and I will be happy to play another BTS game for a few turns later today and see what happens with the autosave there, not to mention whether it crashes or not.

The game has not always crashed immediately after I've returned to it from making notes. However, I am suspicious that the process of going out of, and back into, the game could be creating the problem (perhaps additonal memory is required to do so?), as I had no problems playing two regular BTSGOTMs several months ago.

If AlanH is okay with it, I can at least try to re-play my moves and save to the point of the crash, even if it's decided that someone else needs to play from there.

RL for the next three or four hours, and then I will be back for further consultation and will play a few turn in another game.

 

[leif erikson]

Sorry not to have responded sooner -- RL is keeping me busy and will for the next several hours.

RL for the next three or four hours, and then I will be back for further consultation and will play a few turn in another game.

Not to worry. We would just like to get you up and running again!

Sounds good.

 

[AlanH]

I've just downloaded the save. It seems to load fine, and I've tried Alt-Tabbing between it and Notepad with no ill effects. However, I have RL to contend with currently, so I may not get time to play it until later.

It's not really satisfactory to be replaying every turn, so I hope we can fix this issue!

 

[rrau]

I had this same exact problem with one of my computers....It happened usually during later age game wars and on larger maps.....I figured it had something to do with the graphics, but even took it to the computer repair shop and they said 'yes it's crashing, we can see that (from a log of some kind apparently) but we can't tell you why it's crashing'......I finally bought a new computer because I never could figure it out.