Bèta version of RTRVII Platinum released!

[est Dudus]

Seems to be on the A.I turn. But this time it was turn 4....Also, gets super laggy during the A.I turns.

[20ninescene]

I suspect that both the lag and the crashes are caused by a buggy script that is removed in v4.0, well I'm actually quite sure about the script =P , I'll do a few turns on the roman campaign to find out if the crash is fixed now. Btw: I will also reduce the movement speeds a bit

[est Dudus]

Cool. I think you are right about the script. Loloking forward to playing it. I know you guys hate this but do you have a rough time frame?

[20ninescene]

Well v4.0 will be finished in about +/- one week, it can be a few days if luck is on my side but also a few more weeks if some issues are hard to fix.

[est Dudus]

Ok. Thanks for letting me/us know. Just sucks I was getting all into it and now I have to wait! Lol honestly don't rush, better to take your time and make sure it works well. Thanks for doing the mod in the first place, very few RTW mod guys left.

[20ninescene]

I noticed that two trait triggers had the same name (which is a common cause of ctd's). I fixed it and I'll do some testing to see if the ctd still happens or not.
edit: it seems that that doesn't fix the ctd =/ btw: did the ctd also happened during the rebel's/free people's turn in your campaign?
edit 2: I found that export_descr_character_traits was causing the crash, I still don't know where in the file so I'll need to compare the file with an earlier version and do some testing to find out which trait or trigger causes the crash

[est Dudus]

I noticed that two trait triggers had the same name (which is a common cause of ctd's). I fixed it and I'll do some testing to see if the ctd still happens or not.
edit: it seems that that doesn't fix the ctd =/ btw: did the ctd also happened during the rebel's/free people's turn in your campaign?
edit 2: I found that export_descr_character_traits was causing the crash, I still don't know where in the file so I'll need to compare the file with an earlier version and do some testing to find out which trait or trigger causes the crash

Cool, let me know so I can fix the the file as well so I can continue playing. Good work detective! lol

[Ascarian]

Hello, i installed the version 3.9 for Alexander, followed every step listed above but i got a ctd at the end of the loading bar when i start a campaign. I can't find any error report. Can you help me to fix this?

[endymon]

Question:
Why do all of the factions victory conditions contain the region "terraincognita" ?
Isn't that the "catchall" location for regions that don't exist?
This has been a problem since patch 2 (at least, never tried unpatched version)

[endymon]

Is there a specific place to track issues with the build?
I don't want to report things that are already known and being worked on.

[20ninescene]

Hi, the version for Alexander will be fixed in v4.0, well v4.0 will be only for Alexander in fact =P And the victory conditions are only used to guide the AI, you have to set your own victory conditions or conquer whole the map except the region called "terra incognita".

[est Dudus]

did you ever find out the problem with the script?

[20ninescene]

Here's a copy of my personal to do list of things that I still need to do before I will release v4.0. Every time I did something from the list I will cancel it like I did with the first item on the list. If you notice any bugs, please report them so I can put them on the list and PM me if you want to help me with one or multiple items from the list.

TO DO

-Spear and phalanx units should get a bigger bonus versus cavalry done
-make special buildings indestructible done
-Adjust men height in EDU according to skeleton, _big => 1.8 _verybig => 1.9 done
-Make new sprites for Seleucid bronze shields and implement the sprites for all units with newly generated sprites done
-Convert .tga sprites to .tga.dds done
-Fix theatre text done
-hide the victory conditions done
-remove flaming javelins ability from caetrati done
-Add ruins to the custom tile of mycenae and implement it in the campaign done
-Add these custom tyles: temple of Artemis at ephesos, temple of Zeus at Olympia, Cliffs of thermopylae, tombs of macedonian kings at aigai & Carnac stones done
-Give all spies at the start of the campaign the correct traits
-Give all diplomats at the start of the campaign the correct traits
-Fix the export_descr_character_traits.txt CTD
-Add hippeis with shields as a reform unit (except in magna graecia they should be recruitable from the start of the campaign)
-Rework loose and tight formation - also modify the unit radius and the AI formations

[endymon]

So what you're saying is, that the massive crazy long list of territories for victory conditions are as an AI aide only?
Why is "terra incognita" listed in the victory conditions then?
Would there be any way to make the list NOT display in game ui if it doesn't actually apply to the player?

If this is the best place to report issues here are what I've found so far:

- As Rome If you win the first scripted battle against the king of Aiakides then the campaign script pauses until you "loose" a battle (or withdraw)
- There seems to be a LOT of repeated text especially on the granary and medical buildings, and the small dirt roads in minor regions... undoubtedly many other buildings I've not yet encountered.
- The special buildings "land of the osicans" & "optimus maximus" should not be destructable, its a way to get free money. (and if I recall correctly from patch 2, these bulidings will always respawn, so every turn you can get free money by destroying them again) (I recall many other special buildings also have this problem)
- Many buildings are missing a picture (white image) (I'll get a list if you want)
- Theater has text "WARNING This text should never be seen in game."
- Many roman units have weapon type "pre-reforms", I assume this is a bug, seems like there would be a better place to put that text.
- Do granaries make any sense in minor settlements since they cannot grow anyways?
- When running in windowed mode, when a movie tries to play an error pops up saying "avutil-lav-52.dll" is missing. REGARDLESS of whether no movies flag is set. (if unset, the movie still plays fine)
- The speed at which the text progresses during the "history lesson about phyric victory" is too fast. Users don't have time to read the text before it moves on to "battle of river terias"
- celtiberian caetrati even when flaming javalins is turned off, their attack counts as a fire attack (panicked by fire attack, and the men die in a fireball). The projectiles do look normal though.
- In addition to the TODO item about setting initial spies attributtes, the starting diplomats are also missing stats.

[endymon]

Now I'm just getting a crash during the AI phase turn 2 -> 3
I got this crash both as ROME and as the Spaniards (celtiberi ?)

[endymon]

I'm interested in trying to resolve some of these issues myself, but I haven't the first clue where to look in the data files for these sorts of things. (especially given how many things seem to be referred to by their vanilla names within the data files)
A couple of questions related:
- Is there any sort of version control system for this mod? (git, svn or whatever)
- Is there a way to actually get a crash dump so I can get some idea what is causing the crashes? I figure there must be some tool for this.
- Is there a modding documentation somewhere that roughly explains "if looking for X, check file Y.txt" etc?

[20ninescene]

So what you're saying is, that the massive crazy long list of territories for victory conditions are as an AI aide only?

Yup

Why is "terra incognita" listed in the victory conditions then?

Because only that way you are never able to accomplish the victory conditions, this is necessary since they aren't intended for the player.

Would there be any way to make the list NOT display in game ui if it doesn't actually apply to the player?

I'll try to find a way.

If this is the best place to report issues here are what I've found so far:

If you noticed the issue in the platinum version, not the gold version, yes.

- As Rome If you win the first scripted battle against the king of Aiakides then the campaign script pauses until you "loose" a battle (or withdraw)

I will take a closer look on this and if it's not fixable I'll make a script that makes it (almost) impossible to win the battle.

- There seems to be a LOT of repeated text especially on the granary and medical buildings, and the small dirt roads in minor regions... undoubtedly many other buildings I've not yet encountered.

since you are interested in resolving some issues yourself you could start with this one all you have to do is to look up the building name in RTRVII/data/text/export_buildings.txt and edit the description. Just send the file to me when you're done, I'll merge it with my version.

- The special buildings "land of the osicans" & "optimus maximus" should not be destructable, its a way to get free money. (and if I recall correctly from patch 2, these bulidings will always respawn, so every turn you can get free money by destroying them again) (I recall many other special buildings also have this problem)

what I could do is setting the price to 0, that way you don't have any benefits from demolishing it

- Many buildings are missing a picture (white image) (I'll get a list if you want)

They aren't missing in fact it's a bug in rtw that happens when the buildings/unit limit is (almost) reached, it's hard-coded so there is no way to fix it, except from memory editing.

- Theater has text "WARNING This text should never be seen in game."

Fixed it

- Many roman units have weapon type "pre-reforms", I assume this is a bug, seems like there would be a better place to put that text.

that's not a bug in fact it's a bug fix because it replaces the word "siege" for all reform units and the word "light" for all pre-reform units

- Do granaries make any sense in minor settlements since they cannot grow anyways?

Yes they do, they give a supply bonus for armies especially during sieges

- When running in windowed mode, when a movie tries to play an error pops up saying "avutil-lav-52.dll" is missing. REGARDLESS of whether no movies flag is set. (if unset, the movie still plays fine)

I don't get that error, so I can't fix it

- The speed at which the text progresses during the "history lesson about phyric victory" is too fast. Users don't have time to read the text before it moves on to "battle of river terias"

I'll take a closer look at that section of the background script

- celtiberian caetrati even when flaming javalins is turned off, their attack counts as a fire attack (panicked by fire attack, and the men die in a fireball). The projectiles do look normal though.

I'll try to fix that and if I can't get it fixed I will remove the flaming javelin ability

- In addition to the TODO item about setting initial spies attributtes, the starting diplomats are also missing stats.

I'll add it

Now I'm just getting a crash during the AI phase turn 2 -> 3
I got this crash both as ROME and as the Spaniards (celtiberi ?)

It's a problem with export_descr_character_traits.txt, it's already on my TODO list

I'm interested in trying to resolve some of these issues myself, but I haven't the first clue where to look in the data files for these sorts of things. (especially given how many things seem to be referred to by their vanilla names within the data files)
A couple of questions related:
- Is there any sort of version control system for this mod? (git, svn or whatever)

nope but I regularly make backups

- Is there a way to actually get a crash dump so I can get some idea what is causing the crashes? I figure there must be some tool for this.

Well there is a -show_err command line switch which shows what causes the error (it doesn't work for all crashes), but I don't know any ways to get a crash dump

- Is there a modding documentation somewhere that roughly explains "if looking for X, check file Y.txt" etc?

There is a lot of documentation on modding rtw. You can find it here: http://rtw.heavengames.com/rtw/mods/...aq/index.shtml here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...-and-Resources and here: http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumd...77-Scriptorium

[endymon]

Hi Thanks for all the information.

Yes all of these issues are from the platinum version from the links you supplied on the first page.
It would certainly be easier to collaborate if there were some sort of version control system applied, but meh.

For the special flavor buildings that you were going to set to zero value, why is it not an option to flag indestructible like the policies or government buildings? (or like campus martius in the city of Roma)

Let me clarify, its not actually the description text that has a lot of repeats, its the bonus/penalties text.
Where would this be fixable?
Here is a screenshot.

[20ninescene]

Hi Thanks for all the information.

you're welcome

Yes all of these issues are from the platinum version from the links you supplied on the first page.
It would certainly be easier to collaborate if there were some sort of version control system applied, but meh.

Just modify the files and send them to me I'll merge them with winmerge

For the special flavor buildings that you were going to set to zero value, why is it not an option to flag indestructible like the policies or government buildings? (or like campus martius in the city of Roma)

I found how to make buildings indestrucatle, I will do this now

Let me clarify, its not actually the description text that has a lot of repeats, its the bonus/penalties text.
Where would this be fixable?
Here is a screenshot.

Well those bonuses/penalties are automatically generated and there isn't much I can do about that I fear =/ all those different bonuses are needed for the building to work properly

edit: this is my current progress:

TO DO

-Spear and phalanx units should get a bigger bonus versus cavalry done
-make special buildings indestructible done
-Adjust men height in EDU according to skeleton, _big => 1.8 _verybig => 1.9 done
-Make new sprites for Seleucid bronze shields and implement the sprites for all units with newly generated sprites done
-Convert .tga sprites to .tga.dds done
-Fix theatre text done
-hide the victory conditions done
-remove flaming javelins ability from caetrati done
-Add ruins to the custom tile of mycenae and implement it in the campaign done
-Add these custom tyles: temple of Artemis at ephesos, temple of Zeus at Olympia, Cliffs of thermopylae, tombs of macedonian kings at aigai & Carnac stones done
-Give all spies at the start of the campaign the correct traits
-Give all diplomats at the start of the campaign the correct traits
-Fix the export_descr_character_traits.txt CTD
-Add hippeis with shields as a reform unit (except in magna graecia they should be recruitable from the start of the campaign)
-Rework loose and tight formation - also modify the unit radius and the AI formations

[endymon]

Question:
How did you determine its a CTD because of export_descr_character_traits.txt if there are no crash dumps?


I'm going to analyze the bonus/penalties section and see if I can figure out a way to slim them down without changing functionality.

My personal take on it is to remove those extra bonuses so that the UI doesn't look terrible. But I'll poke around with it before concluding that is the only option.