Didz
05-25-2009, 12:45
Just had my third CTD in my Spanish Campaign, and this one is linked to the victory screen after the successful capture of San José de Oruña, the region capital of Trinidad and Tobago. So, far I've tried reloading the game without any mods just to make sure its not a conflict problem.
And I've auto-resolved the battle to in case its related to the battle routine.
No success so far, and I've got an awful feeling the CTD is linked to the New Spain becomes part of Spain event which is supposed to trigger after the capture of this final objective. If so then is a game breaker. But I'll try a few more workarounds first just in case.
I feel like I'm doing CA's testing for them at the minute with all these CTD's, did they even test the game before it was released?
1) Tried deleting the General in charge of the assault, as the General had been the cause of the last CTD, but this time it made no difference.
2) Lol! tried to beseige the city and let the Pirates starve to death, to see if that made a difference. But one move into the siege I got a 'Screw the Player Event' pop-up which announced that Poland (reduced to a land locked feeble province in central Europe, thats already at war with everyone around it.) has declared war on New Spain (a faction it probably hasn't even heard of, let alone has the ability to attack), and guess what as soon as I click on the button to side with New Spain I get a CTD. So, it looks like the 'Geek with the God complex is getting his revenge after all.'
https://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8237/allyattacked.jpg
Interesting, I've reloaded and re-run the last few turns three times now to see if I can avoid the 'Screw the Player Event' as I have twice in the past. But so far it has occurred on every occasion, and I think it might be linked the death of the Spanish King Carlos II, though it doesn't actually claim to be.
Even more interesting is that on each occassion I've selected a different choice from the three options shown.
1) Enter the war on the side of New Spain (Causes an instant CTD)
2) Decline (Causes an instant CTD)
3) Enter the war on the side of Poland-Lithuania: The option least appealing given that New Spain are not just an Ally but a protectorate, and one that I am literally seconds away from absorbing fully into my Empire. However, choosing this option doesn't cause a CTD but does cause the game to go into a loop.
What actually happens is a little event message appears at the top of the screen and slides down to its resting place at the top of the other messages, but the declaration of war screen doesn't terminate and if you click on 'Enter the war on the side of Poland-Lithuania:' again the message just appears again and makes its journey down the left side of the screen. You can't actually read the message as its greyed out but I managed by slight of hand to take a screen snapshot before the title tag had time to close and as you can see it says 'Ally Requests Assistance'. So presumably this is a message from New Spain asking for help in defending themselves against Poland, just in case the Poles have developed some kind of interstellar missile capable of reaching South America from Central Europe.
Anyway, I'm out of idea's at the minute so I'm going to take a break and see if I can think of some other way to avoid 'the revenge of Geek with God Complex.' If I can get past the 'screw the player event' then I'll see if allowing the seige to finish avoids the CTD. I suspect it won't and that the real problem may be the fact that capturing Trinidad and Tobago completes Spain's special mission and oght to give me full control of New Spain. Obviously, the geek isn't happy to allow the player to do that and has included an ultimate piece of 'screw the player' code to stop it happening.
Doing CA's job for them - Take Two.
Had a think about this over lunch and wondered if the problem might be caused by an untested conflict of events. After all I happen to be in the process of completing the Spanish New Spain Mission, in the precisely the same turn as King Carlos II is scripted to die, and 'God the Geek' decides to 'screw the player' again with a war between the factions that have never heard of of each other.
Its just possible that an incompetant set of QA testers like those employed at CA would have failed to test a scenario where more than one event occurred in the same game turn. Bit like the idiots who got 20+ US sailors killed by failing to consider the possibility that an enemy might fire two missiles at the same ship simulatiously and so hadn't programmed an arbitary target selection routine int o the point defence system to cover situations where two threats had equal priority. At least the CA idiots aren't getting people killed, lets just hope they don't move onto a job in the defence industry.
Anyway, I figured if I declare war on New Spain before the 'Geek God' triggers his 'Screw the Player Event' then I won't get asked to intervene in the war with Poland and I can avoid being faced with the three fake choices that kill my game.
Tried it....didn't work.....as soon as I declare war on New Spain the game crashes to desktop, so thats that idea out the window.
Let the King Die in peace.
Next idea was to delay attacking San José de Oruña until after King Carlos II was dead. That way his death could not interfere with the completion of the New Spain Mission and hopefully the combination would not trigger the 'screw the player event'.
Had to let the game run on until 1738 before Carlos eventually did the decent thing and died. No 'screw the player event' was triggered by his death. So, things were looking good. I allowed one more turn to run just to be on the safe side and then tried to capture San José de Oruña and complete the New Spain Mission. Instant Crash to Desktop.
So, it seems there are two problems. 1) Every screw the player event is now causing a CTD (or at least the last two have done so) 2) Completing the New Spain Mission is causing a CTD. I can get around the first one by wasting seven years waiting for the King to die on his own, rather than be murdered by the 'Geek God'.
Now all I need to do is find a workaround for sabotage of the New Spain Mission.
Tried not assaulting San José de Oruña and letting the pirate starve until the were forced to come out and fight me. But it seems the bug is directly related to completion of the New Spain Mission so as soon as victory was acknowledged and the New Spain Mission conditions met the game crashes.
So, I'm out of idea's for time being. The only way I can continue to play is to not complete the New Spain Mission.
Nice one CA, you must be so proud of this game.
And I've auto-resolved the battle to in case its related to the battle routine.
No success so far, and I've got an awful feeling the CTD is linked to the New Spain becomes part of Spain event which is supposed to trigger after the capture of this final objective. If so then is a game breaker. But I'll try a few more workarounds first just in case.
I feel like I'm doing CA's testing for them at the minute with all these CTD's, did they even test the game before it was released?
1) Tried deleting the General in charge of the assault, as the General had been the cause of the last CTD, but this time it made no difference.
2) Lol! tried to beseige the city and let the Pirates starve to death, to see if that made a difference. But one move into the siege I got a 'Screw the Player Event' pop-up which announced that Poland (reduced to a land locked feeble province in central Europe, thats already at war with everyone around it.) has declared war on New Spain (a faction it probably hasn't even heard of, let alone has the ability to attack), and guess what as soon as I click on the button to side with New Spain I get a CTD. So, it looks like the 'Geek with the God complex is getting his revenge after all.'
https://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8237/allyattacked.jpg
Interesting, I've reloaded and re-run the last few turns three times now to see if I can avoid the 'Screw the Player Event' as I have twice in the past. But so far it has occurred on every occasion, and I think it might be linked the death of the Spanish King Carlos II, though it doesn't actually claim to be.
Even more interesting is that on each occassion I've selected a different choice from the three options shown.
1) Enter the war on the side of New Spain (Causes an instant CTD)
2) Decline (Causes an instant CTD)
3) Enter the war on the side of Poland-Lithuania: The option least appealing given that New Spain are not just an Ally but a protectorate, and one that I am literally seconds away from absorbing fully into my Empire. However, choosing this option doesn't cause a CTD but does cause the game to go into a loop.
What actually happens is a little event message appears at the top of the screen and slides down to its resting place at the top of the other messages, but the declaration of war screen doesn't terminate and if you click on 'Enter the war on the side of Poland-Lithuania:' again the message just appears again and makes its journey down the left side of the screen. You can't actually read the message as its greyed out but I managed by slight of hand to take a screen snapshot before the title tag had time to close and as you can see it says 'Ally Requests Assistance'. So presumably this is a message from New Spain asking for help in defending themselves against Poland, just in case the Poles have developed some kind of interstellar missile capable of reaching South America from Central Europe.
Anyway, I'm out of idea's at the minute so I'm going to take a break and see if I can think of some other way to avoid 'the revenge of Geek with God Complex.' If I can get past the 'screw the player event' then I'll see if allowing the seige to finish avoids the CTD. I suspect it won't and that the real problem may be the fact that capturing Trinidad and Tobago completes Spain's special mission and oght to give me full control of New Spain. Obviously, the geek isn't happy to allow the player to do that and has included an ultimate piece of 'screw the player' code to stop it happening.
Doing CA's job for them - Take Two.
Had a think about this over lunch and wondered if the problem might be caused by an untested conflict of events. After all I happen to be in the process of completing the Spanish New Spain Mission, in the precisely the same turn as King Carlos II is scripted to die, and 'God the Geek' decides to 'screw the player' again with a war between the factions that have never heard of of each other.
Its just possible that an incompetant set of QA testers like those employed at CA would have failed to test a scenario where more than one event occurred in the same game turn. Bit like the idiots who got 20+ US sailors killed by failing to consider the possibility that an enemy might fire two missiles at the same ship simulatiously and so hadn't programmed an arbitary target selection routine int o the point defence system to cover situations where two threats had equal priority. At least the CA idiots aren't getting people killed, lets just hope they don't move onto a job in the defence industry.
Anyway, I figured if I declare war on New Spain before the 'Geek God' triggers his 'Screw the Player Event' then I won't get asked to intervene in the war with Poland and I can avoid being faced with the three fake choices that kill my game.
Tried it....didn't work.....as soon as I declare war on New Spain the game crashes to desktop, so thats that idea out the window.
Let the King Die in peace.
Next idea was to delay attacking San José de Oruña until after King Carlos II was dead. That way his death could not interfere with the completion of the New Spain Mission and hopefully the combination would not trigger the 'screw the player event'.
Had to let the game run on until 1738 before Carlos eventually did the decent thing and died. No 'screw the player event' was triggered by his death. So, things were looking good. I allowed one more turn to run just to be on the safe side and then tried to capture San José de Oruña and complete the New Spain Mission. Instant Crash to Desktop.
So, it seems there are two problems. 1) Every screw the player event is now causing a CTD (or at least the last two have done so) 2) Completing the New Spain Mission is causing a CTD. I can get around the first one by wasting seven years waiting for the King to die on his own, rather than be murdered by the 'Geek God'.
Now all I need to do is find a workaround for sabotage of the New Spain Mission.
Tried not assaulting San José de Oruña and letting the pirate starve until the were forced to come out and fight me. But it seems the bug is directly related to completion of the New Spain Mission so as soon as victory was acknowledged and the New Spain Mission conditions met the game crashes.
So, I'm out of idea's for time being. The only way I can continue to play is to not complete the New Spain Mission.
Nice one CA, you must be so proud of this game.