Implications of path length CTD discovery

[Kull]

Ok, this is of great use to some people who keep getting errors and such. I have always installed to more direct places so this explains why I never really get CTDs in many mods.

It should be noted that bovi is a lot more cautious with respect to how widespread this impact could be. He believes the tie is something that CA hardcoded into the Mediterranean climate, and thus the ramifications are much more limited. I think he's technically correct in the instance of this particular bug, but to me this just begs the question of how many similar hardcoded relationships are buried somewhere in the CA source code?

If we know path lengths lead to CTDs in one area (where there is a high probability they will appear, such as in sieges), I'm willing to be they may exist elsewhere where the path-length is only occasionally an issue, and thus the resulting CTDs appear to be much more "random". And if a short path can eliminate the chance of them occurring, why not take that simple step?

[antisocialmunky]

Wow, amazingly nice find EB.

[fallen851]

I am a bit confused. My EB1 is installed under: C:\Games\Rome - Total War\EB which is clearly less than 127 characters.

However, let's say I try to access settlement underlays: C:\Games\Rome - Total War\EB\Data\settlement_plans\underlays. This is 56 characters, do extra characters (\Data\settlement_plans\underlays) beyond EB count? Seems like they do, just want to clarify.

Also does the file the game is trying to access count as well? For instance: C:\Games\Rome - Total War\EB\Data\models_unit\TEXTURES\hellenistic\ebhellenistic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_romans_brut ii_stefan25.TGA is 138 characters, would that cause instability?

Thanks for any and all information. Since I read this, I've shortened my install path to C:\Games\RTW\EB, but will shorten it further if files the game is trying to access count as well.

is the fix immplementable into eb1 or does it only work for eb2 ?

good work ofc if you can handle the white map bug or the end of batles crash i think 95% of all the major bugs in the game are finally solved

Edit: Topic broken out from the Twitter discussion - Kull

The quote fix resolved the end of battle crashes entirely in EB1 At least for me (and many others). The fix to open up your quotes.txt file under EB/Data/text/ and replace everything in it with this:

¬ Localisation file for transition screen quotes
¬ Lines in brackets are not to be translated

{Quote_1}
I swear that so soon as age will permit I will use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome.
{Author_1}
Hannibal

Then find your descr_quotes_lookup.text and replace everything inside it with this:

Quote_1
Author_1

This makes the game reference only one quote, and makes it incredibly stable when ending battles in my experience (obviously you can change the quote to whatever quote you want to use). No more waiting for the music to be done before leaving a battle, or waiting 10 second after a battle and crossing my fingers the game doesn't crash...

[moonburn]

thanks alot to all that have helped once i get a new laptop i will try it again my kart hadast campaigns tend to never be finished due to a few cities in north afrika that keep getting me crashes

[Kull]

I am a bit confused. My EB1 is installed under: C:\Games\Rome - Total War\EB which is clearly less than 127 characters.

However, let's say I try to access settlement underlays: C:\Games\Rome - Total War\EB\Data\settlement_plans\underlays. This is 56 characters, do extra characters (\Data\settlement_plans\underlays) beyond EB count? Seems like they do, just want to clarify.

Yes, it would be the full path.......

Also does the file the game is trying to access count as well? For instance: C:\Games\Rome - Total War\EB\Data\models_unit\TEXTURES\hellenistic\ebhellenistic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_romans_brut ii_stefan25.TGA is 138 characters, would that cause instability?

.......including the entire file name (with suffix).

To repeat my earlier caveat, we don't KNOW that this affects games outside of M2TW, although it seems (to me anyway) to be a plausible possibility.

[fallen851]

Wow, it includes file names...

As I pointed out, there are some really long file names in EB1.

C:\EB it is.

[Kull]

Bovi and I were discussing this with makanyane in the TWC thread that finally led to this breakthrough, and her theory is it's related to certain climates, specifically:

that's starting to sound like it's ones which didn't start out having 'winter' in descr_climates.txt

Does RTW (and thus EB1) have the same file, and does it include some climates that have winter and others that don't? Why yes, yes it does. Again, that doesn't mean there's a definitive link. But am I changing my directory to C:\EB1? Why yes, yes I am.

[LusitanianWolf]

I've changed mine to D:/EB (it was crazy huge before) and while I haven't played much since, at first glance it seems much more stable now (without needing to resort to other tricks I did before to avoid CTDs all the time)!!!!!!!!!!!!!