Single Player bugs and crashes v42 plus (SVN) - After April 2022

[Thunderbrd]

No you don't - only if you have installed Civ (or any other game) in a protected location like Program Files (x86 or not), which is something you should never have done in the first place.

The mod has always been installed in Program Files x86 and doesn't work all that well if you don't, or at least it didn't used to.

 

[tmv]

The mod has always been installed in Program Files x86 and doesn't work all that well if you don't, or at least it didn't used to.

At least with the GOG version you can install Civ 4 itself wherever you want, and the mod "only" has to be installed in the Civ4 folder.

 

[MattCA]

@MattCA: any thoughts?

1 idea, but that save didn't crash for me.

 

[Konrad Klar]

cmd.exe (as administrator)

Then:

cd "path_to_the_dir_where_BTS_is_installed\Mods"
mklink /J Caveman2Cosmos "path_to_the_folder_where_SVN_Copy_of_C2C_is_located_including_name_of_the_folder"

and no need to install the game in unprotected directory nor running the game as administrator.

 

[strategyonly]

EoT crash

 

[BlueTemplar]

Why?

As though games would be different than any other type of programs and would not require a protection.

Yes, that's why you don't install them in protected locations : there is nothing inside them that is worth protecting, working on files inside protected locations is a hassle, and you also don't risk opening yourself to potential malware by allowing games to run with full admin privileges (at which point they might get access to other protected locations too !).

The mod has always been installed in Program Files x86 and doesn't work all that well if you don't, or at least it didn't used to.

That was never an issue, only if then you didn't run it with full admin privileges (see above).

Making programs secure isn't a priority for game developers, and for good reason, and they also tend to want to push the envelope on performance as much as they can, which is in direct conflict with security.

cmd.exe (as administrator)

Then:

cd "path_to_the_dir_where_BTS_is_installed\Mods"
mklink /J Caveman2Cosmos "path_to_the_folder_where_SVN_Copy_of_C2C_is_located_including_name_of_the_folder"

and no need to install the game in unprotected directory nor running the game as administrator.

That's an interesting solution, but symbolic links tend to have various bugs (because used by a tiny fraction of the user base) and failure modes (especially if running other filesystems than NTFS in parallel).

 

[arihant]

Hmm, this line
algo::for_each(cities(), CvCity::fn::doTurn());

Loops through a NULL city (for player 13 - Greece), that couldn't happen before...
Germany captures and raze Knossos before this happens, so I guess Knossos isn't removed from the cities() array when it is deleted.
@MattCA: any thoughts?

Edit: Knossos is razed due to culture on its city plot falling down to zero, that was impossible before the culture rework. @Blazenclaw @flabbert
....On second thought, possible that it is razed because it culturally flip to German ownership and that it is autorazed due to only having 1 pop (should only happen on conquest though, so maybe the culture flip pass some wrong arguments when it does the ownership change?). I'll investigate further another day.

Any chance fix it? I would like to continue in this game, unfortunately cant coz this crash.

 

[Toffer90]

Any chance fix it? I would like to continue in this game, unfortunately cant coz this crash.

You can... go into WB and destroy the city of Knossos... I'll be working on a fix but can't guarantee it will be delivered this weekend.

 

[Konrad Klar]

That's an interesting solution, but symbolic links tend to have various bugs (because used by a tiny fraction of the user base) and failure modes (especially if running other filesystems than NTFS in parallel).

/J switch causes creating a junction, not symbolic link. Junction connects "Documents and Settings" to "Users" under Vista and later.
Works for me. Previously placing Caveman2Cosmos in "Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\MODS" caused problems that disappeared after renaming target to Caveman2CosmosSVN and creating the junction.

Of course a content of Caveman2Cosmos is not protected (ordinary program, like TortoiseSVN, may overwrite DLL and assets), but at least the core of game is not compromised.

 

[Konrad Klar]

latest SVN , wont let u click on the YES for DLL change .. .game just stalls /. / /

Problem is still present in 42.1.BETA.7250.
Save is loaded without problems with v42.1.BETA.7217.

 

[remseiferenc]

Dear All,

I am on 42.1.BETA.7250. and have a CTD at end ot turn with the attached file. To reproduce just load, and click end of turn.
Savefile and minidump attached.
Can you please check?
Thank you for your support.
Regards
Ferenc

 

[strategyonly]

different EoT crash just in Ancient era, , ,besides the one in 365

unable to play any games. . .

 

[Thunderbrd]

That was never an issue, only if then you didn't run it with full admin privileges (see above).

Making programs secure isn't a priority for game developers, and for good reason, and they also tend to want to push the envelope on performance as much as they can, which is in direct conflict with security.

When I started here, back in the days when you could still only use VS 05 and anything newer was impossible to get to work, before any GoG or Steam online downloadable versions even existed, you would get errors if you installed the mod outside of any path but program files x95-firaxis-civilization iv-beyondthesword-mods. Win 7 wasn't even a thing then. There was a myfolder-mygames path that you would get your savegames stored in but you couldn't put mod files there for some reason. I realize things have changed since then and so have the rules of installation along the way.

 

[BlueTemplar]

/J switch causes creating a junction, not symbolic link. Junction connects "Documents and Settings" to "Users" under Vista and later.
Works for me.

This sounds to me to be even worse than symlinks for userbase size and outside-NTFS compatibility ?

When I started here, back in the days when you could still only use VS 05 and anything newer was impossible to get to work, before any GoG or Steam online downloadable versions even existed, you would get errors if you installed the mod outside of any path but program files x95-firaxis-civilization iv-beyondthesword-mods. Win 7 wasn't even a thing then.

My bad then, but this *really* sounds C2C-specific ? I don't remember having to do any of that for any games or mods or even Civ4 mods, but I guess it was quite long ago now...

Previously placing Caveman2Cosmos in "Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\MODS" caused problems that disappeared after renaming target to Caveman2CosmosSVN and creating the junction.

There was a myfolder-mygames path that you would get your savegames stored in but you couldn't put mod files there for some reason.

Yeah, this might be a related issue to the one we are discussing.
(I hope that My Documents are at least somewhat protected !)
Another very Civ4 and/or C2C-specific thing ? Generally mods tend to only go into a mods folder at the root of the game folder...
(which is the case for Civ4, but it also in theory allows for My Documents ?)
(sometimes for newer games into <User>/AppData/..., not sure about the fine points of protections there...)
I recall seeing people having issues in C2C with that several times this very year, which is why the very first message here says :

On V42 mod won't load if you have mod folder in documents/my games, or if your mod isn't named Caveman2Cosmos.

At least with the GOG version you can install Civ 4 itself wherever you want, and the mod "only" has to be installed in the Civ4 folder.

Pretty sure also with the CD-ROM version ?

And maybe also with Steam, not sure how well custom user libraries work these days, they might require a whole separate drive letter ?
In fact, Steam itself can not only be installed outside of Program Files (not sure that's a good idea these days though, it might hold sensitive information ?), IIRC in the XP/Vista era Steam (sometimes ?) would NOT work if installed in Program Files, IIRC because it needed to use various hacks to do everything it wanted to do (which is to replace "missing" parts of the OS, Steam wouldn't have happened if Windows had a proper package manager !)

 

[Konrad Klar]

This sounds to me to be even worse than symlinks for userbase size and outside-NTFS compatibility ?

If someone has BtS installed on non-NTFS partition, he is on its own with problem of which reparse points (symlink, hardlink, junction etc.) the filesystem supports.

(I hope that My Documents are at least somewhat protected !)

Not against writing by ordinary program. Is protected from writing by programs with privileges less than normal.
Otherwise it would be against purpose of the folder (place where ordinary programs my save their data).

Steam makes a crack in the wall. Its folder and subfolders have lowered integrity level. Ordinary programs may write to the folders.
It eases work for operation of Steam at cost of protection.
There are other solutions, like Mozilla Maintenance Service.

 

[tmv]

Pretty sure also with the CD-ROM version ?

Probably. But then you need the 3.19 patch, and the entire installation process is a lot more cumbersome.

 

[BlueTemplar]

Not against writing by ordinary program. Is protected from writing by programs with privileges less than normal.
Otherwise it would be against purpose of the folder (place where ordinary programs my save their data).

Right, of course...

So why does C2C have issues when installed in My Documents ?
Because it just wasn't programmed with this eventuality in mind, and so it errors out when it finds nothing in the main game folder ?

 

[Konrad Klar]

So why does C2C have issues when installed in My Documents ?

I am suspecting that issue is very long filepaths. There is API that handles long filepaths but many programs do not use it.

 

[Konrad Klar]

Never mind...

I have checked it and I see now that path to MODS inside Documents is shorter than path to MODS in BtS directory.
I will try to remove junction and to rename Caveman2CosmosSVN in documents to Caveman2Cosmos. And I will see what will happen.

 

[Konrad Klar]

I got:

GFC Error: failed to initialize the primary control theme

with Caveman2Cosmos placed in Documents\... . No such problem if Caveman2Cosmos is junction in BtS\Mods pointing to Caveman2CosmosSVN in Documents\... .

I do not know why, but apparently length of file paths is not issue.