possibly the worst bug ever

**Major Robert Dump** · 03-23-2009, 04:39

Can't declare war on anyone without a crash...

1760, dutch, vh/vh, i have sledged my way through battle after battle to take control of south america, western europe and the seas, i fielded the first 1st rate, i'm 3rd in prestige, I pull 60k per turn, and all i need to win are the india regions and french guyuna. If I declare war on anyone game crash. It can be through diplomacy, through invasion, or through reverse diplomacy in between turns....game crash. I even tried breaking all 12 of my alliances before declaring war...game crash. I also tried goating the french to the point that they declare war on me....game crash. I'm totally into this game, loved it. worked around all the gay little bugs and now i can't win on a campaign i've been playing for two weeks...game crash. Awesome

**thurjack_mahr** · 03-23-2009, 05:26

Actually, I had some buggy Dutch campaign stuff after 1750 too. For me, any time that I would click on certain ships at sea - POOF! Crash to desktop. It's unfortunate, because I really love this game, but it halted my campaign and now I'm 25 years into a short Prussian campaign instead.

It also seems like the game gets a little buggier - laggier in later turns (ie after 1750)

**Major Robert Dump** · 03-23-2009, 05:44

well, im done with it. 2 weeks, dozens of hours, lots of planning, and now this on the verge of victory. im out

**Shahed** · 03-23-2009, 05:51

I just quit (for now) my 2nd Dutch campaign because it got so buggy.

I had captured all the 2nd rates in the French fleet bar a couple, stuck them all in one fleet and boom.. CTD! every time I click that fleet. It got a lot worse though, I'd click on some random town and boom.. CTD! I agree it's gets worse and worse as the campaign progresses. I've been reading about the Dutch campaign from others and it seems a lot of people are experiencing bugs as the game goes on. A lot of times in that campaign it just randomly CTDs. Was making 80/turn, awesome fleets and military. Literally 2-3 weeks of hardcore gaming.

I just started up again as GB coz I reckon that faction will be properly tested out. I'm already getting CTDs though, it's around 1740 or so.

There is a workaround for the fleet CTD: you take another fleet and try to merge it, popup will appear, click about a bit and then it should be normal again. If the fleet is not full, it's easier... just merge another ship into the bugged fleet and the bug's gone. I know a guy who was playing Marathas and he got the same bug when he deployed his first 1st rate, so it's not limited to captured ships, 2nd rates etc.

For the moment I think anyone's campaign is definitely not safe from an untimely end due to some unworkable CTD bug. I'm sure most of the bugs have workarounds but there is definitely a possibility that you could have your whole game (and tens of hours of your time) wrecked at any given moment. You gotta live with that if you want to invest time into this game. For the record it hasn't happened to me yet, I can keep playing despite repeated CTDs, but the CTDs are very much there. It's much better with my GB campaign but it still CTDs fairly often.

**Monsieur Alphonse** · 03-23-2009, 06:43

Strange. In my Dutch campaign the only problem I had was a very slow computer while Sweden took its turn. I was attacking Sweden and the AI turn took like 5 minutes and almost halted when computing the next moves of Sweden. I just took them out and the game has sped up again. No crashes.

PS Sinan. If you want to use a Dutch navy rank, maybe you should use Schout bij Nacht = rear admiral

**Dayve** · 03-23-2009, 07:08

Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump

Can't declare war on anyone without a crash...

1760, dutch, vh/vh, i have sledged my way through battle after battle to take control of south america, western europe and the seas, i fielded the first 1st rate, i'm 3rd in prestige, I pull 60k per turn, and all i need to win are the india regions and french guyuna. If I declare war on anyone game crash. It can be through diplomacy, through invasion, or through reverse diplomacy in between turns....game crash. I even tried breaking all 12 of my alliances before declaring war...game crash. I also tried goating the french to the point that they declare war on me....game crash. I'm totally into this game, loved it. worked around all the gay little bugs and now i can't win on a campaign i've been playing for two weeks...game crash. Awesome

Originally Posted by thurjack_mahr

Actually, I had some buggy Dutch campaign stuff after 1750 too. For me, any time that I would click on certain ships at sea - POOF! Crash to desktop. It's unfortunate, because I really love this game, but it halted my campaign and now I'm 25 years into a short Prussian campaign instead.

It also seems like the game gets a little buggier - laggier in later turns (ie after 1750)

I have experienced both of the above bugs, and whined about both of them on this forum as well. Would have whined on the .com where there's more chance that someone important will see them, but i was banned long ago.

The first bug, the declare war bug, i ran into that in my French campaign which lasted only 15 turns, not 60 years like yours did, that would have killed me. It's strange, because it's obviously something that we're doing that is sowing the seed of that crash, but it's impossible to know what it is because CA released absolutely no tools or editors to examine or look for the problem. For me, the Huron Confederacy declared war everytime i ended the turn, and no matter how many times i reloaded they always declared war, and as soon as i clicked the check to close the diplomacy screen notifying me, the game crashed to desktop. Seeing as you are having that CTD when you declare war on ANYBODY, it's obvious it would have crashed no matter what nation declared war on me.

The second one was an un-avoidable CTD regarding fleets. I was playing as Spain and a Moroccan fleet had had my main trading port blockaded for over 3 years, had defeated any fleets i sent at them, and i had actually gone bankrupt because of it with one of my ports in America blockaded by an unfairly enormous pirate fleet comprised of many 3rd rates and galleons, and this was before 1710. I had one fleet left which i had brought over from America, and it had 6 ships to the Moroccan 3, which were beaten up by now, i was sure to win. Problem was, the game kept crashing in 3 places. The first would be when i right-clicked to attack the Moroccan fleet on the campaign map, it would crash right there. I tried moving my fleet away, using all its movement points, ending turn and then attacking again, sometimes this would work, mostly not.

Second, when i right clicked to attack the Moroccan ships in battle, or simply when i grouped my ships up and gave the order to sail forward together. And the third was when i won/lost the battle and clicked the check to return to the campaign map. I had to quit this campaign also, because that was my last fleet and i was bankrupt and could recruit no more.

It's for these reasons i don't play campaigns very long anymore. It's obvious CA had to release the game before it was fully ready because of the marketers and deadlines, it isn't their fault... they've given us something amazing, but they didn't have time to finish it, but they will. I just play now until i either lose or until i become so powerful that continuing would be pointless, since all challenge has disappeared, which is usually around 1720 for nations like GB, France, UP, Spain, and around 1735-40 with nations like Poland, Austria, Russia, other landlocked dumps where it takes 2 decades to kickstart your economy and technology.

Originally Posted by Monseiur Whatshisface

Strange. In my Dutch campaign the only problem I had was a very slow computer while Sweden took its turn. I was attacking Sweden and the AI turn took like 5 minutes and almost halted when computing the next moves of Sweden. I just took them out and the game has sped up again. No crashes.

I've had that too, so obviously another universal coding cock-up. Sweden has always taken forever to take their turn in every game i've played since release, even when they got battered by Russia and reduced to a half stack army and 2 provinces.

**Major Robert Dump** · 03-23-2009, 08:49

well, another bug durng this game, which i managed to work around, was producing 2 unique generals bodyguard generals when the city is full so they spawn outside.....this army with 2 gens is unable to be moved, disbanded, killed in battle or split without a crash, so i just left them in place for the sake of local garrison. I have one of these issues in mexico and in cuyana currently, not sure if that has anything to do with the declare war bug or not. I guess the moral of the story is as soon as something like this rears its head then start a new game

**IRONxMortlock** · 03-23-2009, 11:31

I've got exactly the same problem with my carefully planned Dutch campaign (though for me a bit earlier - 1736). Very, very annoying!

I've been playing as Ottoman's since (a LOT more challenging btw) and haven't had an issue like that yet.

**Furunculus** · 03-23-2009, 14:06

Playing as the British - Long Campaign
Year 1758

Just taken Newfoundland from the French with an army transported by by four 2nd rate ships of the line.
Parked the ships in the harbour to repair.

Ever since this point if i click on the harbour at all the game freezes, and the CTD's about 30 seconds later.

So my fleet og four 2nd rates is stuck in Newfoundland harbour for the rest of the game. :(

**Melvish** · 03-23-2009, 14:47

I'm at my 3rd game killer CTD during AI turn right now so i understand what you feel (4th if i include the never ending recurring payment bug i had with UK). The only faction i didn't suffer a game killer CTD was with Prussia (manage to take it to 1799, but man those Mughal turn were long after 1775). I suppose that refraining to play navy focused factions is the only way to avoid dreaded GK-CTD.

**Quillan** · 03-23-2009, 19:01

I had that fleet issue as Great Britain late in my game. I'd made a new fleet (Admiral's 1st rate flagship and 13 first rates) and was unable to use it, because anytime I clicked it the game would crash.

My most recent fleet issue was as the Dutch. I could use the fleet fine, but any merging with another or sailing into port crashed the game. Strangely, I was able to sail one ship at a time into port (I was transporting troops) and offload just fine, then the fleet worked normally from that point on.

**Karash** · 03-23-2009, 22:11

Dump, if you were not such a warmonger it wouldnt be a problem...oh wai...

(The inability of the campaign AI to move troops via fleets has killed all immersion for me)

**Veresov** · 03-24-2009, 01:11

I wish my Empire game was stable enough for me to experience a gameplay 'bug'.

**McLeod03** · 03-24-2009, 01:20

I pray for the day I can get as far as an ingame CTD, instead of staring at the very first splash screen for hours on end. It's very pretty, but £35 is a lot to pay for white text on a black background, as interesting as it may be.

**Major Robert Dump** · 03-24-2009, 01:43

ok, so in both instances where i made the unique general unit who spawned outside of the town and became forever buggy also happened to be turns where someone had just waged war on me. One war was the actual province where the unit spawned, the other was in an an entirely different theatre. I have save games for both of these instances, and in the immediate aftermath I can declare war

**Major Robert Dump** · 03-24-2009, 01:51

Ok so heres some advice for anyone who wants to try UP campaign...this may actually make the game more interesting so i am going to try it....

you need land that belongs to new spain, spain, france, britain, muhgals and marutha. as soon as war is declared between france and great britain, declare war on all these nations. I think i'll break my trade with gb, marutha and mughal early on and establish new partners. i don't foresee a very long campaign here