RTW 1.3 Crashing after 5 minutes of play?

I'm about half way through a long campaign with the Julii family and now I'm getting a severe crashing problem.

The game just kicks me out to windows and is usually trigger when the game begins loading a battle or when I press the end turn button.

I don't think this is the memory leak since I don't even get to play that long...

Any ideas? Is it just me or this wonderful patch?

Hopefully the new patch will be decent.

Thanks.

My comp if it matters:
Dell laptop, 2.4 ghz, 512mb of ram, 64 meg ATI Radeon 7500 Mobility

Yeah, I've encountered this problem, and have similar specifications to you, except its not a laptop.

Think this CTD is caused by a change in the model_flexi values in descr_model_battle.txt. Don't worry if this sounds like jargon, here's what you need to do:

* Open up My Computer and browse to:

C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data

* In the bottom half of this folder you should see loads of text files. Browse to the one called descr_model_battle

* Create a backup copy of this text file before you open and edit it

* Once you've created a backup, open this file

* Press Ctrl+F to bring up the Search dialogue box

* Type in the roman_velite, then hit enter or click find next

* You should now have the roman_velite data in front of you, you might need to scroll down a bit to see all of it

* All you have to do is replace the last line of model_flexi, but only the bit after the comma. You should see 40 displayed there, simply change this to max

* Your text should now look as below:

Code:

---

type                roman_velite
skeleton            fs_fast_javelinman,  fs_fast_dagger                        ; throwing spear/javelin & short sword
indiv_range            40
texture                romans_julii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_roman_peasant_julii.tga
texture                romans_brutii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_roman_peasant_brutii.tga
texture                romans_scipii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_roman_peasant_scipii.tga
texture                romans_senate, data/models_unit/textures/unit_roman_peasant_senate.tga
texture                slave, data/models_unit/textures/unit_roman_peasant_slave.tga
model_flexi            data/models_unit/unit_roman_velite_high.cas, 8
model_flexi            data/models_unit/unit_roman_velite_med.cas, 15
model_flexi            data/models_unit/unit_roman_velite_low.cas, 30
model_flexi            data/models_unit/unit_roman_velite_lowest.cas, max
model_sprite        slave, 60.0, data/sprites/slave_roman_velite_sprite.spr
model_sprite        romans_senate, 60.0, data/sprites/romans_senate_roman_velite_sprite.spr
model_sprite        romans_scipii, 60.0, data/sprites/romans_scipii_roman_velite_sprite.spr
model_sprite        romans_brutii, 60.0, data/sprites/romans_brutii_roman_velite_sprite.spr
model_sprite        romans_julii, 60.0, data/sprites/romans_julii_roman_velite_sprite.spr
model_tri            400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

---

* Save and close the text file.

Think this should solve your problem. The roman velite battlefield model was causing a crash to desktop (CTD), simply beacuse of the 40 rather than max value.

You may also need to change roman_velite_gladiator, as one of the values there is 400. This is directly below roman_velite, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding it. Simply replace the 400 with 40 and this should stop the CTDs from happening. If you still get CTDs, then its probably something else entirely, just though I'd provide this solution because I'd ran into it myself the other day.

That's wierd, because I don't have the 40, or 400 you speak of, both are "max" and I have not altered them. Are you sure something else didn't alter your file? You might have gotten a corrupt patch.

This could be what has caused some potential errors, think I downloaded RTW v1.3 from download.com rather than from the official site.

I've noticed that the file sizes differ on the various servers hosting the patches by a few MB, looks as though some have been edited before they were uploaded.

I have had similar problems with v1.3 as the Egyptians. I play for a while, enter a battle and BAM the game crashes. It also happens with some save-games.

What is interesting is that I've been playing the campaign fine for a long time and I just load it up one day and "crash!".

Unforunately, the "max" is in the place of the 40.

If you're not doing so already, try using -show_err. If you have a shortcut to RTW on your desktop, here's what to do:

* Right-click RTW shortcut, click Properties from the pop-up menu.

* Browse to the Shortcut tab

* In the Target text box, simply add -show_err to the end of what already exists, as below:

"C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" -show_err

Note that you need to use a space between the target string and -show_err. The game should now provide an error message everytime it finds something it doesn't like in the text files. However, if there are more than one errors present, the error message may not be displayed. Then again, the game may cycle through the errors one by one each time you run RTW, its based a bit on chance really.