Hallelujah! My mod is rocking so hard!

[HalfThere]

I've been spending all day getting ready for the first test run of the campaign map (just to see the terrain, but still something of a landmark!), and guess what happens.

First, I get sent right back to the menu screen a dozen times, and forced to run around fixing stuff. Alright, fair enough.

Then I finally get past that, I make a big huge breakthrough, I've moved on to the stage of: HARD CTD! (no error message).

What do I do now?

[TheSilverKnight]

I've been spending all day getting ready for the first test run of the campaign map (just to see the terrain, but still something of a landmark!), and guess what happens.

First, I get sent right back to the menu screen a dozen times, and forced to run around fixing stuff. Alright, fair enough.

Then I finally get past that, I make a big huge breakthrough, I've moved on to the stage of: HARD CTD! (no error message).

What do I do now?

Grab a beer and celebrate your thus-forth achievements

[HalfThere]

Edit: Insult to TSK retracted.

[TheSilverKnight]

I have the urge to kick you in your testicles, TSK.

O_O...well, my suggestions for figuring out CTD's would probly be to edit the descr_strat.txt file, because that's probably where the CTD errors are coming from, random lines, dashes, spaces, here and there, this and that. :) Hope that provided a little bit of help.

[Epistolary Richard]

Let's keep it a little more civil, shall we?

It's a little difficult to help when the only information that someone gives is 'It doesn't work anymore,' but generally speaking either undo your changes or restore your last version that worked and then make sure your making that last change correctly.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Hard CTDs are the biggest problem since finding the bug(s) can be quite time-consuming, unless you have a photographic memory and remember every single line you've modded

First try and isolate the problem text file. Now work out where the problem lies using trial and error - keep relaunching RTW to test if the game is working.

Its easier to find bugs if you mod one text file at a time, this way you can guarantee that if you run into problems then you'll know where to look for them. If you switch between numerous text files without creating regular backups, you're making it difficult for yourself because the bug(s) could be in any one of these modded files.

[HalfThere]

Hard CTDs are the biggest problem since finding the bug(s) can be quite time-consuming, unless you have a photographic memory and remember every single line you've modded

First try and isolate the problem text file. Now work out where the problem lies using trial and error - keep relaunching RTW to test if the game is working.

Its easier to find bugs if you mod one text file at a time, this way you can guarantee that if you run into problems then you'll know where to look for them. If you switch between numerous text files without creating regular backups, you're making it difficult for yourself because the bug(s) could be in any one of these modded files.

Unfortunately, in order to get past the regular errors (with messages) I was forced to mod many files.

In all likelihood, the problem lies in descr_strat. Unfortunately, I don't know where to begin.

Note: to clarify, I've made a whole new map, starting from the top down. I put in what I believed to be the bear minimum to function. There are a few possibilities I can think of, tell me if they might be the problem:
I've given many provinces the slave resource, but not placed it in descr_strat.
I've given generals new names without putting those names in their respective faction name lists.
I'll add more as I think of it.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

I don't think adding the slave resource in descr_regions (DR) but not yet descr_strat (DS) is the problem. An example of is the redundant dogs & pigs resources - they are listed in DR, but are not documented in either DS or export_descr_buildings (EDB). Therefore you should be able to get away with this problem, but if you want to actually see the slave resource appear once enslavement occurs, simply add an X, Y coordinate per region in DS.

I think you're problem may lie with the names you've used. They need to be referenced from the various names text files, but more importantly, you cannot use the same name more than once in DS. This applies for family members, agents and admirals. Duplication of a name or an undocumented name (including typos) will cause a hard CTD.

Try this guide for the naming issue:

How to - Add/Remove character names from a faction

I've used this to replace the existing Egyptian names with Greek variations in order to reflect the period of the Ptolemaic Dynasty rather than of Ancient Egypt.

[HalfThere]

Unfortunately, it didn't work. I changed all the names to ones I'm 100% certain should be good, but still no success.

This is a rather confounding and upsetting problem, unfortunately! I'm truly stymied!

Say, I don't have a .hgt converter, and I'm modding in BI. Might that be what my problem is? (Edit: Nope, that's not it.)

[kleemann]

- names are wrong. Some letter missing, mis spelling (i quess it's the problem)
- wrong and not documented rebel sub_factions
- wrong region names
- region names missing

for example, remove start date and see, if the game kick you back into main menu. Then the problems are with names.

descr_names.txt
descr_names_enums.txt
txt/export_names.txt - or what ever name the file was.

[HalfThere]

What a headache! I've tried jsut about everything I know how, and I'm still stymied.

Absolutely everything seems to be in order, but it quite clearly is not.

Perhaps it all comes back to the map. Tell me: is there anything that the .tga files for the campaign map or anything related to them can do to potentially cause a hard CTD?