*groan*

[Zradha Pahlavan]

The situation: in my recent Saba campaign, I've just made an invasion of Africa. The nearest Ptolemaic city (Ptolemais-Theron or something) is besieged by my feeble skirmisher army. The enemy, instead of coming running out to fight them, is waiting for backup, which arrives, even though it's not long before the city falls. On the very turn in which the battle will be fought that will decide the fate of my tiny empire's attempt at expansion, the Ptolemaic jerks deploy their most powerful weapon: the technical problem.

The problem: when the game tries to load the battle, the little loading bar stops moving and the whole thing just sits there and does nothing. Basically the game crashed, or refuses to load, or something. You have to alt-ctrl-delete to get out of it. It's a pisser.

The solution: is there a solution?

[Duguntz]

try to ,load a previous save, then re-attack that city... maybe it's your save wich is corrupted

[Zradha Pahlavan]

That was a really long time ago though...well, whatever...

[Macilrille]

There is always the Autosave. That is on same turn.

[Zradha Pahlavan]

That doesn't work. It only happens when the battle itself tries to load.

[Hannibal Khan the Great]

It's like the game gets pissed and goes into denial with CTD's....

[Megas Methuselah]

I find that tends to happen if you mod the units in the EDU file or something. Look at all the units to be used in that battle and try them out in a custom battle to determine if this is the problem.

Otherwise, did you save your game exactly before the battle? Or did you save it during the AI's turn exactly before the battle when they were attacking you? If so, you're not supposed to do this; it causes weird problems and crashes with that particular battle.

EDIT: Here, also take a look at this.

[Poulp']

The situation: in my recent Saba campaign, I've just made an invasion of Africa. The nearest Ptolemaic city (Ptolemais-Theron or something) is besieged by my feeble skirmisher army. The enemy, instead of coming running out to fight them, is waiting for backup, which arrives, even though it's not long before the city falls. On the very turn in which the battle will be fought that will decide the fate of my tiny empire's attempt at expansion, the Ptolemaic jerks deploy their most powerful weapon: the technical problem.

The problem: when the game tries to load the battle, the little loading bar stops moving and the whole thing just sits there and does nothing. Basically the game crashed, or refuses to load, or something. You have to alt-ctrl-delete to get out of it. It's a pisser.

The solution: is there a solution?

Are you building rams/towers/anything ?
That's the source of the problem, in my game at least.

Try to cancel any siege equipment being build. I don't remember if already built ones create a CTD or not.

[Zradha Pahlavan]

I find that tends to happen if you mod the units in the EDU file or something. Look at all the units to be used in that battle and try them out in a custom battle to determine if this is the problem.

Otherwise, did you save your game exactly before the battle? Or did you save it during the AI's turn exactly before the battle when they were attacking you? If so, you're not supposed to do this; it causes weird problems and crashes with that particular battle.

I didn't mod any units myself...but nevertheless that might be a good idea to check out. Of course, I've used all of my current troop types in battle before and not had any problems. I'll just check it out when I get the chance to, which unfortunately won't be for a while.
Also, the game is saved right before I ended my turn, not right before the battle itself.

Are you building rams/towers/anything ?

I'll look into this idea too when I can.

[XSamatan]

If nothing helps you may want to use "auto_win attacker" to get a fair result.

XSamatan

[Zradha Pahlavan]

But wouldn't that result in my army retreating? I'm operating behind the lines there, since I had to use boats to get there and I have no spearheads in Africa. Ptolemais-Theron was meant to become that spearhead. Without friendly territory for my guys to retreat to, they just disappear, don't they?
If so, that wouldn't work.

[athanaric]

But wouldn't that result in my army retreating? I'm operating behind the lines there, since I had to use boats to get there and I have no spearheads in Africa. Ptolemais-Theron was meant to become that spearhead. Without friendly territory for my guys to retreat to, they just disappear, don't they?
If so, that wouldn't work.

If you're defending party, use "auto_win defender" of course. You'd win the battle anyway.

[Zradha Pahlavan]

The problem has been resolved. Using Meth's suggestion that it might have been the units on one of the two sides, I removed my two units of red sea hoplites (the troops I have used the least in my campaign thus far), then it worked. Oddly, they've never been an issue before.
Who knows, the whole thing might just have been a fluke. In any case, it's over and I'm glad it is. Thanks to you all for your help.

[XSamatan]

Do you still have a save before that battle? Just to check if it is a coincidence in your campaign and no bug in the game itself.

XSamatan

[Zradha Pahlavan]

Yeah, I checked. Apparently it was a coincidence...whatever...

[Megas Methuselah]

You sure? Whenever I have time, I'll try to load up some Saba red sea hoplites in a custom battle to confirm if it was really a fluke. If this is a bug (i.e. missing sprites), it'd be rather odd to have it go by unreported this long.

Have you modded your game at all, specifically the red sea hoplites? This used to happen when I'd screw up whilst modding the EDU file; even forgetting to put a comma in its proper place in that text file can lead to something like this.

[Zradha Pahlavan]

The red sea guys can be used in the battle now. I had used them before this incident and nothing bad happened. I don't what the problem was, it might not have been them. But I do know the first time the battle ever worked was when they got moved.
I've never modded EB. I wouldn't know how to do it without asking someone, though I understand that some of it is fairly simple.

If you do a custom battle with them, I recommend putting them on a city map to better replicate the situation.

[XSamatan]

Sometime the reason for a CTD vanish after a single character is moved on the stratmap or a building-queue is changed. Good to hear that everything works now fine for you, have fun with your campaign!

XSamatan

[Zradha Pahlavan]

That would make sense then, assuming that putting that character back where he came from wouldn't break it again.

Here's a screen shot of the two forces for anyone interested.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: