Mod trouble with a CTD at year 1205

[Kincaid]

Having a persisting problem with a modded Byz campaign I've been running. I made a few tweaks to the build_prod, unit_prod, and projectiles files and everything was running swimmingly up until 1204. As I'm finishing up this year, slipping agents across borders, routing my enemies from the field of battle, etc. etc., I get to the Vice and Virtues list to see which of my Generals has gained new and interesting quirks and then as soon I close the VnV tab I get a nice CTD. I at first thought I had a corrupt save but after further testing with prior saves I found that the only common factor in the CTDs, all of which happened in the same manner, was the 1204 -> 1205 transition. I've tried going through the files I've modified to see if there was some unit or building causing a problem with the transition from Early to High but I'm afraid I'm stumped. I've also successfully started new campaigns in Early, High, and Late which work just fine for the dozen or so turns I tested. I'm afraid the problem has me quite frustrated and I'm simply unsure where to go from here; I certainly don't wish to lose my campaign if possible, but most of all I'd like to identify and fix the problem. Any help would be much appreciated~

[drone]

What kind of changes did you make (mainly interested in unit_prod modifications)? When you hit the end turn for 1204, what units/buildings are on your build queues?

[Kincaid]

I made changes to the stats for various units, tweaking combat stats as well as cost/upkeep factors and in a few cases the buildings required to produce them. I also extended or limited several unit's build windows (making it so Varangians were able to be built into Late, for example).

I actually considered the unit/build queues as the source of the problem and loaded up my 1204 save, then cleared all my building queues or all my unit queues, and then finally cleared both. In each case after they were clear I hit end turn and everything proceeded the same, getting all the way to the VnV window before the CTD occurred as soon as I closed the VnV window.

[drone]

Did you modify the bodyguard unit to be upgraded on the era change? And are all the changes restricted to the Byz or will AI factions be affected?

[Kincaid]

I actually made changes to nearly all the faction's bodyguard units; is that where I should look to see if I perhaps forgot to dot an I?

And no, the changes will affect AI factions as well.

[drone]

My thought process about bodyguards is the changeover at the era boundaries. Make sure each faction has a legitimate bodyguard unit for High. You probably do, since you can play a High game for a few turns, but check Novgorod. Actually, check Novgorod for everything. Since they get replaced by the Russians when starting on High, a problem with Novgorod's tree would not appear in a game started in High.

[Kincaid]

Will do, drone. I didn't know that the game thought of it as a replacement rather than simply a name change when going from Novgorod to Russian; I appreciate the advice.

[drone]

It's a little quirk in the game. They use the same colors and have the same tree, but they are two separate factions as far as the game is concerned. If you start the game in Early, Novgorod will always be Novgorod as you progress through the eras and FN_RUSSIAN never exists (even though they are declared in early.txt, they are not set as an active faction). If you start the game in High/Late, you get Russians only, FN_NOVGOROD is not active. Since the unit/build prod files are not era-specific, you have to support the Novgorod tree through all 3 eras.

Hopefully this gets your mod sorted out.

[Kincaid]

I wasn't able to find any problem in any of the modded bodyguard units so I decided to try the problem from a different angle.

I replaced all of my modified files (unit_prod, build_prod, & projectilestats) with the originals. I then cleared all of my building and unit queues and ended the turn; unfortunately, the CTD still occurred, and in the exact same manner as before.

Does this happen to offer any insight into the problem?

[drone]

Unfortunately, it may still be caused by an AI faction's queued item. You might want to run the game with "-ian" switch, load up the 1204 savegame, and see what the other factions are doing. I think Novgorod would be shift+7 or shift+8, I would check to see what they have on the queues and what they units/buildings they already have.

Apart from that, can you upload your unit/build prod files somewhere? And your early.txt, if you have changed it.

[Kincaid]

Alright, I'll load it up and check to see if the AI is attempting to ensure that if he can't win, no one else can <_> I'll look into finding a host to upload my files later today when I can get some time. Thanks again for all the assistance, drone~

[Kincaid]

Here are the links, via Megaupload, for the files: Crusader Build file, Crusader Unit file, Projectilestats file, and a save-game from 1204. I would greatly appreciate it if any of you could look through the files and see if you could spot whatever has been causing the crash.

Once more, I appreciate all of the help.

Edit: As drone has indicated I apparently uploaded the wrong files originally; these should be the correct ones~ Sorry about that >_>

[drone]

I finally got around to looking at the files (sorry for the delay), but it doesn't look like anything was changed from the originals. Are you sure you uploaded the ones from your mod?

[drone]

I can't try running it at the moment, but I did glance through the unit prod to see if anything looked wrong.

Changes I see:

• Added a bunch of units to the Byz roster (Jannisaries, Turcomans, Ottoman/Saracen Inf)
• Added Armenian Heavy Cav for all
• Added Orthodox to Hashishin cultures
• Upped bodyguard units to 40 men
• Changed formation rows to 4 for spear units

Nothing glaring, but I did notice that for Ottoman Infantry, you added the Byz to the faction association, but the culture says Muslim only. They get activated as mercs in High, maybe that's causing the problem.

Not going to cause a crash, but you should also increase the size of the Sipahi of the Porte to 40. You bumped up all the other bodyguard units to 40, but the Turks will get short-changed in Late.

I'll check it more thoroughly when I get home.

[drone]

So I did basically what you have done:

Moved your unit prod file into a fresh MTW area, fired up savegame, end turn, CTD after 1204 actions resolved
Changed the OttomanInfantry line (removed culture), fired up savegame, end turn, CTD
Removed extraneous endlines from unit prod file, fired it up, end turn, CTD
Backed out unit prod to vanilla, loaded in your build prod file, fired it up, end turn, CTD
Backed out build prod, fired up savegame with straight vanilla, end turn, CTD

You tried older saves, so I'm definitely thinking it's something already on the map. This might take a while...

Edit-> broke this off onto a new thread.

[Kincaid]

Speaking of the save files, the different saves I tried only went back 5 years at the most. When a save file gets corrupted does it CTD immediately or is it possible the error carried over several years and then caused a problem at the 1204 -> 1205 transition? I'm curious if I should go back and try some of the save games from even farther back, say, 10+ years, but I don't know exactly how the game treats or reacts to corrupt save files.

[drone]

I ran a fresh campaign on autorun last night, and it got past 1205. So I'm guessing whatever the problem is is on the map in your saved game. Either you have a corrupted save, or something got built/recruited that causes a conflict in High. I'll look through the files again.