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Thread: Frequently encountered issues and suggestions for getting around them

  1. #1
    EB annoying hornet Member bovi's Avatar
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    Default Frequently encountered issues and suggestions for getting around them

    There are a couple of recurring themes in the problems reported in this forum. As I find myself typing much of the same stuff time and again, I'm creating this to summarize the ways to work around issues that I notice this tendency on. Issues are not sorted, while solutions are sorted by increasing effort needed.

    If in doubt about the exact syntax of some console command, type ?<command name> in the console, such as ?move_character.

    CTD = Crash To Desktop

    Legend:
    Simple solution, anyone should be able to do this.
    This requires a minimum of technical knowledge.
    This requires significant technical knowledge and just might be hazardous for your computer's health if you don't know what you're doing.
    Time-consuming.


    Installation

    The installer doesn't run.
    If you are using Vista, this apparently can happen if you have User Access Control (UAC) enabled.
    • Disable UAC and install EB. You can reenable UAC afterwards.




    I installed EB 1.2 but it still says 1.1 on the main menu / I ran the validation and it said I'm missing RomeTW.exe
    You installed EB 1.2 in the wrong folder. You need to install in the exact same location as you installed EB 1.1, and that in turn needs to be installed in the exact same location as RTW.
    • Uninstall EB and reinstall, giving the correct path this time.
    • Move the EB installation from wherever you installed it to where you have RTW. Then update the shortcuts (you may have to see the point below too).




    My EB shortcut doesn't work!
    Sorry about that. A product of lacking experience with creating installers, I made a mistake when creating the shortcuts that start EB 1.2.
    • Use the Trivial Script to start EB instead of the start menu shortcut. You need to have installed this as part of EB 1.1.
    • Modify the shortcut target. Move the end quote from the end of the line to directly after RomeTW.exe and it should work (goes for both the new shortcuts in 1.2). For instance, instead of "C:\My games\RomeEB\RomeTW.exe -mod:eb -show_err -ne" it should be "C:\My games\RomeEB\RomeTW.exe" -mod:eb -show_err -ne.




    Crash recovery

    The game crashes more or less randomly, and my computer has a multi-core processor (if you don't know what the last bit is, please look at this anyway).
    We've been plagued by this for a long long time. Thankfully, Potatodude has found a way to remove this instability by setting CPU affinity to only a single core.
    • Read up on the thread here and use this program to permanently fix this issue (assuming that this is what you're experiencing).




    The game crashes while loading my savegame.
    Your savegame is corrupted for some unknown reason. The good thing is that it happens rarely, but that is not really a consolation for you right now. There is no way around this, except loading an earlier savegame or starting a new campaign. Another good thing is that you have those older savegames to revert to. Right? Right. Anything else would be foolish, of course, sorry for doubting you.



    I saved my game right before a battle begins, and the game crashes after the battle.
    Yes, that's true. You need to always save on your turn, and never right before a battle, as that provokes CTDs. Reload an earlier savegame and you should be fine. Don't have an earlier savegame? Foolish. Make sure you retain them in your next campaign.



    I have just taken an enemy settlement, and the game crashes when I select its fate.
    Are you sure you didn't save the game right before the battle where you won the city? If you did, see the above point. Otherwise, you may have some success using Lusted's trick with corrected_regions.tga. It may be quicker to just revert to an older savegame though, if it's not from very long ago.
    • Make a backup of <RTW>/EB/data/world/maps/base/campaign/map_regions.tga (the path may be wrong, I don't have EB on this computer).
    • Copy corrected_regions.tga from your RTW directory into the folder where you found map_regions.tga. Then rename the file to map_regions.tga (you may have to delete map_regions.tga first).
    • Start EB but do not load your savegame. Delete <RTW>/EB/data/world/maps/base/map.rwm.
    • Load your campaign. Play the battle and see if you get past the crash. If not, revert to an older save.




    I've just played through a huge battle and it crashes as soon as I click to close the battle summary scroll to return to the campaign map.
    There is no certain way to fix this, but there are currently four ways that I know of that are reported to minimize or eliminate them.
    • Leave the battle summary open for 10-15 seconds instead of closing it right away.
    • Do not use the Miles Sound System, but rather DirectSound3D. You choose this by going to the OPTIONS in the game menu, then choose AUDIO OPTIONS and select another SOUND PROVIDER.
    • Replace <RTW>/EB/data/world/.../map_regions.tga with <RTW>/corrected_regions.tga. Delete map.rwm and do not use the trivial script to start EB the next time around. After quitting EB again, copy the newly generated map.rwm file into sp game backup. - This maneuver is done already in the EB 1.2 installation. If you still experience this kind of crash, you can try the striked suggestion, but it's unlikely to have any effect.
    • Try the suggestion of Theages in this thread.



    The game crashes during battle.
    This is unlikely to be a problem with EB, but rather something with your hardware. Yes, RTW vanilla works fine, but we're taxing your system more.
    • Download and run Memtest to ensure that your memory is doing alright. If not, you could have to change your memory speed in the BIOS, or replace one or more of your chips.
    • Try to upgrade your video drivers.
    • Try to DOWNgrade your video drivers. Some are more stable than others. There is a suggestion for a driver version for ATI cards in the validation thread, which is the one I was using at the time with no problems.
    • Run Scandisk on your hard drive. You find this by right-clicking the drive in question, then choose Properties and click the Tools tab. Finally click the "Check now" button on "Error checking".



    The game crashes as soon as I end turn / The game crashes during the AI turn.
    This is most often because of an impending rebellion. We've reduced the occurence of this quite a bit, but there remains some problems. Also some other, unidentified issues remain that cause these kinds of crashes.
    • Try to reload the game and end turn once more.
    • <requires some juggling with the installation>Try to run the game with the Barbarian Invasion or Alexander executable, they have been reported to be able to bypass some of the crashes. This requires the expansion in question, of course. See the unofficial mods subforum for how to setup EB to work with these. You should probably copy the EB folder from your RTW only folder into the BI/Alex folder, so that you have an intact RTW only EB installation.
    • <own cities only and only occasionally works>Demolish all game field buildings in rebellious cities that you own.
    • < own cities only>Magically create happiness enhancing buildings in rebellious cities that you own. add_money <amount> and process_cq <settlement> will help here. Once you've passed the impending crash, demolish the buildings you created this way and restore the money balance.
    • Reload a savegame from 2-16 turns before and play from there. Chances are that the exact same situation causing the crash won't arise again. Don't have any prior savegames? Foolish. Make sure you keep them in future campaigns.
    • Use toggle_fow to check all settlements on the map for rebellion (meaning about to rebel, not being eleutheroi!) and prevent them from doing so.
      • Check for the pitchfork icon when double-clicking each city.
      • For each city with a pitchfork, make sure it does not rebel. There are many ways to do this:
      • EITHER: Reduce the population of all rebellious settlements: add_population <settlement> -4000, where settlement is the name of the settlement.
      • OR: Install the force diplomacy mod and force them to sell you the settlement.
      • OR: Teleport over a unit and lay siege to the settlement. move_character "<character name>" <x>, <y>. The character name is complicated
        If he's named Appivs Cornelivs Blasio, for instance, his real name could be "AppivsG Romanvs", "AppivsJ Romanvs" or any other letter between A and K after his first name.
        for Romans, and "Firstname Middlenamelastname" for others (make note of capitalization, hyphens and lacking space!). X and Y are the map coordinates to teleport him to.
        You may get the coordinates where you want to go to by: Write show_cursorstat in the console (don't press enter), then point the mouse where you want to go and press enter to apply the command. The console will output the coordinates.
        You cannot teleport to sea, cities or impassable terrain.

    • If it's not a rebellious city, or you're unable to prevent the revolt through other means, you can try to take over control of the faction in question.
      • Make a backup copy of your savegame just in case.
      • Make a backup copy of eb/data/scripts/show_me/generic_script.txt.
      • Modify eb/data/scripts/show_me/generic_script.txt to include a line console_command control <troublesome faction> between script and end script. Look up the internal name of the faction in question here:
        seleucid - Romani
        greek_cities - Koinon Hellenon
        thrace - Epeiros
        macedon - Makedonia
        numidia - Ptolemaioi
        romans_julii - Arche Seleukeia
        romans_brutii - Baktria
        romans_scipii - Hayasdan
        carthage - Pontos
        pontus - Saka Rauka
        armenia - Sauromatae
        parthia - Pahlava
        dacia - Getai
        germans - Sweboz
        scythia - Arverni
        gauls - Aedui
        britons - Casse
        spain - Lusotannan
        egypt - Qarthadastim
        saba - Saba
      • Run EB and load your savegame. Activate the normal background script.
      • Activate the generic script by pressing F1 on your keyboard, then the question mark button and finally SHOW ME. You should lose control of your faction and gain control over the troublesome one.
      • Save the game at this point so you can experiment freely.
      • One thing in particular that you should try in your experimenting (below) is to destroy a bunch of buildings in all settlements that have a lot of them. Basically, if the whole building list at the bottom is filled in any settlement, start knocking them down. They may have exceeded the amount of buildings allowed and are crashing because another building is being created.
      • Do stuff to see if you can get around the problem. Make sure they don't have any revolts, check out their characters for clones (if so, endeavour to move them somewhere they can't interact with anything), cancel all construction/recruitment, destroy all governments, move all their units around and so on. Experiment without inhibitions. End turn.
      • If you do get past the crash, save and exit the game.
      • Modify the generic_script.txt to no longer switch control to the troublesome faction, but rather back to your own.
      • Run EB and load the savegame. Do the same maneuver you did when transferring control to the other faction; F1 and so on.
      • When you're back to your own faction, save the game and exit.
      • Revert the generic_script.txt to the original one.
      • Run EB and continue your campaign.



    Performance

    The game takes forever to load.
    We know. We prefer cramming in the most possible information and features in the game to getting great performance for lower-end computers. Yes, EB runs slower than M2TW.
    • Buy more RAM. 2GB is ideal for playing EB.



    The game is really slow on the campaign map.
    This should be less of a concern with EB 1.2 than earlier versions. Regardless, if you're having performance problems, this may or may not be possible to get around. It also depends somewhat on your computer. Here are some tips.
    • Buy more RAM. 2GB is ideal for playing EB.
    • <profound impact>Make sure Free Download Manager is not running.
    • Disable town and character names on the campaign map. Ctrl-T and Ctrl-N will toggle them.
    • Follow the advice given in this thread.
    • Disable shadows in the preferences file.



    Modding EB

    I'm trying to mod EDCT and any tiny change I do means the game crashes.
    Stop using Notepad to edit the files, it will screw up the encoding.
    • Get a free encoding-aware editor. There are lots available, but Crimson or Notepad++ should be sufficient. Google them.



    I'm trying to mod EDU and nothing I do seems to make any difference/my changes are overwritten.
    You're likely editing the EDU while using the Trivial Script to start the game. The trivial script is designed to ease switching between multiplayer and single player EDU, so will overwrite it each time you start the game.
    • If you want to mod EB's EDU, you need to edit the one under sp game backup. This is the one being used. You could edit the MP one, but unless everyone did the same as you you won't be able to play multiplayer...



    I was modding some stuff and now the game doesn't work. Can you send me the original files?
    No. Learn to take backups.
    • Uninstall and reinstall EB.



    I was modding some stuff and now the game doesn't work. Can you help me fix whatever I did wrong?
    No. Don't waste time asking about it here, the general forum is a better place for it.


    Miscellaneous

    I conquered Tuat and there's a "Victory" building there saying WARNING.
    Yes. We mostly use Terhazza for our internal coding, but we ran out of space and Tuat has one of them. It's harmless, just leave it as it is.



    The "Year in history" popups have stopped turning up.
    You've gone past the period that we've made these for. It takes a lot of time to create these, and that's how far we've got with EB1. There are no workarounds for this, but thankfully it's hardly a critical failing



    (I've installed Vista and) I can't open the command console anymore.
    There is likely something interfering with the Rome shell.
    • Follow the suggestion here:
      Quote Originally Posted by Rimmer
      Yep, but the problem is that it is not working in some cases (esp. under Vista). The reason that has been figured out is that RomeShell interferes with some infrared devices (e.g. Microsoft infrared receiver in Vista, some remote keybords, etc.). If you experience such problem with Rome console, you should go to device manager and disable the infrared receiver. It worked for me and it had cost me a lot of time to figure out where the problem is.


    • Change the key used to open the console using Africanus' workaround (the text is significantly edited, the original wording is here)
      • Go to the <RTW>/data/text folder. (<RTW> means the folder you installed Rome Total War and EB in)
      • Use a standard text editor (like Notepad/Word etc.) to open "descr_shortcuts.txt"
      • Scroll down or search for "misc." (at the start of the line)
      • There should be a line with "show_console" here, and it says "hidden" behind it. Remove "hidden" and save the file.
      • If and only if you are using BI, you need to also repeat the above sequence with <RTW>/bi/data/text/descr_shortcuts.txt
      • Start EB, go to controls > misc and press reset to default
      • There should now be a line "show debug console" . Set to whatever key you want (cannot use any key already assigned to another function though).





    I'm trying to play EB multiplayer but all games appear as having another version than me.
    This can be due to a number of things, first and foremost that the versions are indeed different.
    • Verify that your EB folders have the same capitalization. If your EB folder (inside the RTW folder, that is) is called eb, and another player's is called EB, the game will think it does not match. Simply rename the EB folder to whatever the others have. Perhaps standardizing on all capitals (EB) is best. You may have to update the shortcut to reflect the change in capitalization.
    • Run a validation. Some deviance from the checklist is expected, considering that you have installed the fixes. However, the output of the validation should match exactly that of the others you're trying to play with. If it's different, try sending the files that are different from one of you to each of the other players. This will synchronize your versions.
    • If you've installed several submods, or even worse, modded your own copy extensively, it's likely that you will have a hard time finding opponents with an installation like your own. Consider copying your 1.5 RTW and create a parallel installation for EB multiplayer, where you only install 1.1, 1.2 and apply the official fixes.


    Last edited by bovi; 03-09-2011 at 07:05.

    Having problems getting EB2 to run? Try these solutions.
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    I do NOT answer PM requests for help with EB. Ask in a new help thread in the tech help forum.
    ================
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  2. #2

    Default Re: Frequently encountered issues and suggestions for getting around them

    You may want to add that people can obtain the coordinates of a particular postion by typing show_cursorstat in the RTW console/shell. It'll return the x,y value as well as the province of the position your mouse currently resides.

    DO NOT try to teleport an army onto a pond, sea, impassable terrain or cities.

    If in doubt about the exact syntax of some console command type ?<command_name> in the Rome shell/console. It'll return syntax, parameter types, and the sort of output data it provides (what the thing actually does).

    For instance (> means the prompt):
    Code:
    >?process_cq
    Will return something like this:
    Code:
    process_cq "<settlement_name>"
    Completes the construction queue of the settlement specified by <settlement_name>.
    AFAIK all commands you may enter at the prompt support this short desciption feature. If you are playing as the Romans you may want to test for a character's name by using the following command: character_reset "<character_name>"

    When you 'hit' the right name the movement area of the character will be restored; but it will also be visible on the screen. Hence you can by process of patient elimination figure out what a particular character is called in the engine.

    For first names the pattern is OnScreenFirstNameSomeLetter

    For instance some "Appivs" may be actually "AppivsA" or "AppivsF" ...
    One of the scripters posted something which can give you an indication of the task (and hence why it would be useful to keep a note of who's who; plus merge and split a lil' more carefully) : "Titvs" goes all the way up from "TitvsA" to "TitvsK" .
    Last edited by Tellos Athenaios; 05-17-2008 at 05:03.
    - Tellos Athenaios
    CUF tool - XIDX - PACK tool - SD tool - EVT tool - EB Install Guide - How to track down loading CTD's - EB 1.1 Maps thread


    ὁ δ᾽ ἠλίθιος ὣσπερ πρόβατον βῆ βῆ λέγων βαδίζει” – Kratinos in Dionysalexandros.

  3. #3
    Member Member Lysandros's Avatar
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    Default AW: Frequently encountered issues and suggestions for getting around them

    Force Diplomacy Minimod:
    https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=80763
    still works with EB 1.1

    Speed up the game by removing the Client Ruler section in EBBS (easy to do yourself):
    https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=96967
    Last edited by Lysandros; 05-18-2008 at 13:19.
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  4. #4
    Pharaoh Member Majd il-Romani's Avatar
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    Default Re: Frequently encountered issues and suggestions for getting around them

    Quote Originally Posted by Bovi View Post
    Replace <RTW>/EB/data/world/.../map_regions.tga with <RTW>/corrected_regions.tga. Delete map.rwm and do not use the trivial script to start EB the next time around. After quitting EB again, copy the newly generated map.rwm file into sp game backup.
    can you clarify this, like be more specific on how? I'm not the most computer-savvy person in the world...
    Last edited by Majd il-Romani; 10-07-2008 at 02:15.
    "An army of Sheep led by a Lion will always defeat an army of Lions led by a Sheep"
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    "War doesn't decide who is right, only who is left."
    "In order to test a man's strength of character, do not give him adversity, for any man can handle adversity, but instead give him POWER.
    -Abraham Lincoln
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  5. #5
    EB annoying hornet Member bovi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Frequently encountered issues and suggestions for getting around them

    I'm not sure which level you're at, so I'm making this on a very trivial level. Please do not get insulted if the detail level is too high, it probably is.

    • Start Windows Explorer. Use Windows+E, doubleclick "My Computer" or find the shortcut in your start menu.
    • First, to avoid confusion later in these instructions, select Tools=>Folder Options in the application menu. Click View, then find an option called "Hide file extensions for known file types". Make sure this is deselected. Damn Microsoft "ease of use".
    • Navigate to your RTW folder where you installed EB. If you don't know where this is, you can check the properties of the EB shortcut by right-clicking on it (and selecting properties). You navigate through the path by
      first going to the "My Computer" level by tapping backspace until you're there. If you tap it too many times you'll end up on your desktop, then just doubleclick the "My Computer" again. You may be here already depending on how you started Windows Explorer. Once you're at that level, doubleclick the relevant folders down the path, IE if your RTW is installed in c:\games\RomeEB you first doubleclick your C: hard drive, then the games folder and finally the RomeEB folder.
    • Copy the corrected_regions.tga file by selecting it and pressing Ctrl-C, or Edit=>Copy on the application menu. No reaction from the computer is expected at this point.
    • Navigate to <RTW>/EB/data/world/maps/base through the same procedure.
    • Select the map_regions.tga file and press F2 to rename the file. Call it anything that will make you remember that this is a backup of that file.
    • Paste the corrected_regions.tga file into this folder by pressing Ctrl-V or selecting Edit=>Paste in the application menu. You should now have a file called corrected_regions.tga in this folder.
    • Select it and rename it to map_regions.tga.
    • Keep the Explorer window open and start EB. Do not load your campaign.
    • Once on the menu, alt-tab out of the game. Find your Explorer window again.
    • There is a file called map.rwm in this folder (<RTW>/EB/data/world/maps/base). Either rename (to anything backup-like) or delete this file.
    • Go back into the game and either load your campaign or start a new one.
    • Once your game has started, alt-tab out of the game. There should be a new generated map.rwm file there.
    • Select the map.rwm file and copy it with Ctrl-C or the application menu.
    • Navigate to <RTW>/EB/sp game edu backup. You can either start a new Explorer window or tap backspace until you're back in the EB folder to get there.
    • Select and rename the map.rwm file there to anything that makes you remember it's a backup.
    • Paste the map.rwm with Ctrl-V or the application menu.
    • Keep playing the game. Hopefully it will have fixed your problem.

    Having problems getting EB2 to run? Try these solutions.
    ================
    I do NOT answer PM requests for help with EB. Ask in a new help thread in the tech help forum.
    ================
    I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image. - Stephen Hawking

  6. #6

    Default Re: Frequently encountered issues and suggestions for getting around them

    With regard to crashes during end-turn (Winter, 231 BC, Lusotanni campaign), I tried going back to an earlier turn a couple times and replaying from there but it didn't work. So the next time I started the game, I DIDN'T click the "show me" on the adviser, just hit end-turn without doing it. That did the trick. Then after the AI turn was over I clicked the adviser to restart the script. Everything's fine now, let's hope it continues...

  7. #7

    Default Re: Frequently encountered issues and suggestions for getting around them

    Why on earth does demolishing game fields actually work? Crazy. Thank you though.

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