Calling All Hands! Need Help!

[Candelarius]

To all experienced modders in the RTR Community:

I am having a problem with my mod. Apparently, when the Marius Reform occurs, after the second or third battle, the game crashes as the battle loading screen. The game works fine up to the Marius Reform, and the first battle works fine. Maybe the second. But the third battle crashes at the loading bar screen. I've tested this by forcing the Marius reform, but, the weird thing is, the mod works fine when you force the Marius reform (be editing the descr_strat), but only has the problem if the reform occurs "naturally". Romavictoria and HopliteEite reported the problems, and, I've verified it is a problem with their saved games (though I've never played my mod to the reform). So, can the community:

A. Has anyone played my mod past the reforms with no problems?
B. Has anyone else had this problem?

C. Can the experienced modders check out the saved-game and check out my mod files, and help me with this? I've spent two days going over everything, but, I can't figure out. The save-game is located here.

Thanks for your help!

(Florin: I'll have you close this if and when there is a resolution, but, I don't want my entire thread being devoted to this problem).

[AngryTitusPullo]

If I'm not mistaken, during Lusted early version of TE he's having a problem regarding the second or third battle (not actually after reform). Probably due to some wrong sprites (show_err didn't inform if there's wrong sprites).

Did you add post marian units which had incompatible sprites for example ? I downloaded you patch/fix but I couldn't see any text error. Since it's CTD during battle loading it's usually either
a) model (show err will inform)
b) skins/textures (show errwil inform)
c) sprites (no show error reported)

That's all I can think of.

[limes]

I think AngryMan is right. Candel, try to check up extensions of your sprite files. Some time ago i spent 3 days trying to find reason of CTD in AE. Result, very simply - lack of "tga" ext. in one of the sprite.
Are you sure forced reforms works properly?

[HopliteElite]

Rome Save File

Candelarius: I hope this works, as I'm not used to uploading and sharing files and the such, but this is my Rome saved game file that is still crashing on the second battles.

I am using an English version.
I am using the Promethean pack.
No I have not installed any other mods.

[Candelarius]

I don't know if it's a Marian sprite...wouldn't it crash in a custom battle? Why only crash when loading the second campaign map battle? If it were a sprite, wouldn't it crash a custom battle, too?

[Candelarius]

Rome Save File

Candelarius: I hope this works, as I'm not used to uploading and sharing files and the such, but this is my Rome saved game file that is still crashing on the second battles.

I am using an English version.
I am using the Promethean pack.
No I have not installed any other mods.

Thanks Hoplite, I'm testing this.

[The Walrus]

I have to help don't I? I'm downloading...

[dharos]

I'm not an experienced modder, but I have played past the Marian Reforms twice before i reinstalled everything to make sure i got to 2.2d (Cande's Extended Realism). however, since i finally started fighting battles on my own instead of autoresolving all the time, i have yet to have any crash in any battle, be it the 2nd or 3rd etc... after the Marian Reforms. not to sound mean, but are you sure you're not playing with a really old or slow computer?

i played as both Rome and Bactria past the Marian Reforms.

[The Walrus]

I'm not an experienced modder, but I have played past the Marian Reforms twice before i reinstalled everything to make sure i got to 2.2d (Cande's Extended Realism). however, since i finally started fighting battles on my own instead of autoresolving all the time, i have yet to have any crash in any battle, be it the 2nd or 3rd etc... after the Marian Reforms. not to sound mean, but are you sure you're not playing with a really old or slow computer?

i played as both Rome and Bactria past the Marian Reforms.

Couple questions.

1. Do you play through the BI exe?
2. Did you autoresolve battles after the Marian Reforms in Extended Realism?

The bold/underlined part might be something. Did the patch accidently for some reason have wrong install or the users installed it wrong? Also, do the two people having a problem play through the RTW exe or BI exe?

[HopliteElite]

I play through BI and my computer, while not the most up to date, is sufficient to handle RtR, as I've played rtr gold extensively, prior to candelarius's rtrpe mod, with few to no ctds. I would sincerely doubt that the computer performance capabilities could be a factor though, since it would have to be a pretty magical problem to only make the game crash on the second battle in a row and also only after the Marian reforms. We'll have to just wait and see if Candelarius can dig up anything from testing my saved game file.

[The Walrus]

I play through BI and my computer, while not the most up to date, is sufficient to handle RtR, as I've played rtr gold extensively, prior to candelarius's rtrpe mod, with few to no ctds. I would sincerely doubt that the computer performance capabilities could be a factor though, since it would have to be a pretty magical problem to only make the game crash on the second battle in a row and also only after the Marian reforms. We'll have to just wait and see if Candelarius can dig up anything from testing my saved game file.

Hmm. Could it be a BI problem??? We still need more answers...

[Quinn Inuit]

Ah, well, I was kicking enough butt in that Armenia game that it was getting annoying anyway. Time to upgrade!

[The Walrus]

Unfortunately, I have been busy and am now going to dinner. Hope you find it Candelarius

[Candelarius]

It's not a matter of system performance. I have a P4 3.0 Gig processor with 1.5 gigs of RAM, and an ATI Radeon x1600 512 meg card. More than sufficient. I play RTW at max settings, with zero lag whatsoever.

Plus, I have never, ever, ever had a CTD with my mod until now. I've tried Romavictoria's save-game, and, it crashes each time at the loading bar after I play a couple battles. So, something in there is seriously messed up.

HopliteEite, I downloaded your saved-game but haven't tried it yet, I've been out of the house all day, and, I start work for another six days straight tomorrow. I had really hoped to fix this today, I spent about 4 hours this morning, tweaking and loading, and crashing, with Romavictoria's save-game.

I'll hopefully get some time tonight to figure things out. I'd really like an experienced modder to install my mod, Promethean edition, and then take one of those saved games, and see if it crashes, and then come up with some theories as to why a game would do this. I need to figure out if it is my mod, or if it is the BI.exe method of playing, or what.

[Candelarius]

I'm not an experienced modder, but I have played past the Marian Reforms twice before i reinstalled everything to make sure i got to 2.2d (Cande's Extended Realism). however, since i finally started fighting battles on my own instead of autoresolving all the time, i have yet to have any crash in any battle, be it the 2nd or 3rd etc... after the Marian Reforms. not to sound mean, but are you sure you're not playing with a really old or slow computer?

i played as both Rome and Bactria past the Marian Reforms.

Well, that's encouraging news...do you have the Promethean Edition or the Standard Edition?

Please say the Standard Edition, because the Promethean one is what's been causing the crash! If I can rule it's the Promethean one, I can find the error by comparing it against the Standard one. Please respond ASAP.

[Candelarius]

hang On!

I May Have Found It!

Standby!

Testing....

[Candelarius]

SOLVED!!!!

Ok, I took the sprite advice by AngryTitusPullo and also dhuros' comments that the game works fine for him (I am suspecting he doesn't have the Promethean Mod) and examined each and every sprite entry....and found a missing one! The roman medium cav sprite is referenced, by not included in my download. Damn. I forgot to include it when I integrated the Promethean Mod.

So, I took HopliteElite's save game, and tried this test twice:
1. Attack with his Greek stack.
2. Attack with his N. Italy stack.
3. End turn.
4. Attack with his Greek stack.
CRASH

Then, I changed the sprite for the medium cav to be the equites sprites, and repeated the above test twice...no crash.

So, I'm sure that's it.

So, if you guys want to test this, open your descr_model_battle.txt file, and rename the roman_medium_cavalry sprite from

romans_julii, 60.0, data/sprites/RG/romans_julii_roman_medium_cavalry_sprite.spr

to this:

romans_julii, 60.0, data/sprites/RG/romans_julii_roman_equites_sprite.spr

And then test your saved-game. It should work. I've tested this with six battles in a row, no crashes now. I'm uploading a new hotfix now.

EDIT: HOTFIX HAS BEEN UPLOADED. See my main thread for the link and instructions.

[The Walrus]

Cool. Good job.

[Candelarius]

Cool. Good job.

I'm going to wait for the final word from HopliteElite and Romavictoria, before I give it my final stamp of approval, and, if it passes their muster, I'll have Florin close this thread.

[HopliteElite]

Candelarius:

Great job, it seems like you've done it; five battles in a row, throughout 2 turns, without a ctd. Kudos for the hard work, I can finally continue my Roman conquests. Again, great job.