Defensive CTD?

[Brenil]

Hello,

I just recently started playing SPQR the past month off and on. It's a really great mod and finally got me into playing Rome after buying it a couple months ago.

All in all, it's a really good mod and improves everything I had a problem with in the game (except I didn't like the music, but I fixed that ). Anyway, tonight I was expanding my Roman Republic through Gaul with my Pre-Marius legions and I ran into two seperate CTDs.

Both of these happened after I had won a critical battle (that took an hour or so each, joy) and all of which I was defending against in the field.

The first CTD happened as such:

My veteran Legion besieged a Gallic city (modern day Maresille I believe) and I attempted to wait them out due to the auto-garrison script and force them to sally. After four turns of sieging a few relief Gallic armies arrived and attacked my sieging army. After a battle of 6500 Gauls vs. my 2800 Romans (600 of them Mercs), I barely fought them off and killed 4900 of them and utterly wiped out the town garrison in the field. This allowed me to take the town. So after an hour battle that crushed my army but even more so theirs and lost my best general, I hit 'enslave population' and boom... crash to desktop.

P.S. I do recall hearing "Settlement under Siege!" right after I won and no other army was near any of my settlements, yet the leftover Gallic armies were all around the town I just captured. I heard this before I had the option of what to do with the town. My theory is some kind of screw up with the Gauls sieging the town prior to me offically owning it, since it was still their turn.

Second CTD:

Similar situation, I was besieging another city of Gaul's at the foothill of the Alps. I was attacked again by another Gallic army of 3100 men. I withdrew from the battle (fearing a repeat of the above) and backed off into a corner. The army attacked me again and I fought the battle out and crushed them in the field. Standard Pre-Marius fully Roman legion (2900ish men I believe) against 3100 Gauls. After the battle was over, I stopped chasing down the last few routers and hit Esc and then hit for the battle to end. Crash.

I've fought numerous battles (mostly against the Gauls) and those two seem to stand out as the few where I was on the defensive and both times I crashed to desktop. Now, I've fought other defensive battles and not crashed, but granted... not many.

So anyone else experienced this problem or is this a known issue I'm unaware of?

I'd appreciate any help as I really want to continue the campaign, but I'm scared of more wasted time in battles that won't count.

Oh and I'm using the latest version on a fresh install of Rome, without Barbarian Invasion installed (although I have it). And haven't messed with any of the files except for the descr_music.txt and music folder/files.

[lt1956]

There are some Hardcoded Bugs in RTW. One of them is if the senate wants a city and tells you to take it and you do sometimes it crashes, and there are some others that relate for some reason to taking cities, but they are NOT that often.

Also the BIGGEST and more common cause for CTDs in RTW especially with SPQR and other mods that really use the graphics and models is Video Cards overheating. Normally on most games this isnt a Game stopper, but for some reason RTW is REALLY sensitive to this. This also happens the most with the ATI cards before the x1900 series. X850 on down. Nvidia cards seem to be ok, but cant say on some of the older ones.

One thing I always notice with the Games is the Logo of the VC on the cover, RTW has Nvidia logo and runs BETTER with those cards as Halflife2 has an ATI logo and seems to run better on that card. Funny because the game developers try to deny it, but independant tests show different.

You may have just got a Random CA bug, unless you keep getting crashes I wouldnt worry about it. Also try to space out the game and use House rules, it will be a challenge.

[Brenil]

Hmmm...

Well, I have an Nvidia 7900 GT/GTO card and when playing the game it usually runs around 60-65 and I wouldn't say that's overheating to me (at least the monitor shows it in the green to occasional yellow). However, I suppose it could be a possibility as I haven't really played Rome for any extended period other than with this mod.

I also, didn't have a Senate mission to capture either of the cities, so I don't think that was it either.

Perhaps it was just a Rome bug, I hope it was and nothing more serious. I'll try playing some more and see if it happens further.

Also, what do you mean space out the game? I wasn't exploiting the AI or anything, nor wasn't I saying the game isn't challenging, quite the contray, it's extremely challenging and enjoyable. While, I won those long odds fights, the one where I was outnumbered almost two to one was a hairy knuckles victory that I barely won (and lost my best general in the process).

Anyway, good job on the mod I'll post back if I have any further CTD issues.

[Jonathold]

What he means is, don't go conquering territories right away, give the AI 20 or so years (80 turns) to build up so they're a real challenge. It'll also allow you to build up your economy.

[Brenil]

Well I had another CTD when engaging the southern gladiator army in Italy with two freshly raised Legions. Once I hit "fight on the battle map" I was kicked to desktop.

I ran a triad of malware/virus/spyware detectors today and discovered a malware bug in the process. Perhaps, there's a chance this was causing my CTD issue, I'll try playing again and see if I run into anymore CTD issues.

As for the waiting 80 turns prior to taking enemy settlements...

I'm sorry, I can't stand the tedium of purely defending against never-ending barbarian hordes besieging my cities almost every turn. If they won't accept terms, I make them accept through force if I have the capability. That's just how I play, I respect the idea of house rules but doesn't mean I have to play by them.

[lt1956]

No actually what I meant was using the Garrison Script and NOT Blitzing the Battlefield. See the AI doesnt blitz and doesnt know how to react to that tactic. I dont say you have to sit and do nothing. I just say use more of a strategy than the normal RTS tactics so common in todays games.

Take a look at the house rules and I think you;ll see what I mean on challenging.

I have no idea what is causing your problem, but it sounds hardware related. Most people that have Highend hardware have NO CTDs anymore, so I would say CA messed up somewhere on their code where the game Crashes when it thinks there is something wrong. Its really weird but I have seen it myself and not just in Mods but in the Vanilla. The reason Vanilla doesnt crash much is LOOK at the models and Skins! lol They are LOW quality and dont really tax a system. Plus you never See HUGE battles all the time? Those traits are what cause machines to konk out in SPQR and other mods that require more higher System specs.

Though you should be getting CTDs like that, What I suggest it turn off AA and put all Graphics to MEDIUM except Units leave on High. And see if you get another CTD. Also remember that Playing on the highest setting for units will remove the sprites, and not even systems using 8800GTXs can handle Huge battles without Sprites.

Keep in mind while you have a nice card you wont be lag free in SPQR with full Settings, so consider turning them down. I have an 8800GTS OC and I can play full settings without Lag, but before with the TOP older tech Cards I couldnt play full settings without lag. Of course I never play without Sprites enabled.

Hope this helps?

[Brenil]

Well, perhaps a little more information was required about how I play SPQR without causing some speculation.

I've been using the garrison/4tpy script the entire campaign and I haven't been blitzing, as I know what it is from Medieval 2 and I didn't care for it either. So, that wasn't part of the issue, these battles I listed earlier were after numerous battles of repelling the Gauls and after defeating all their large armies and I began to push back.

I also run Rome on nearly full graphics without much lag unless there's an enormous amount of units on the screen. Last night I had a battle of 10,500 men and it only chugged a bit, quite enjoyable compared to the limits of Medieval 2.

However, last night after getting rid of that malware and playing for about 3-4 hours, I didn't experience any CTD issues. So hopefully I've discovered the problem.

I do have one question though. In regards to the garrison script activiation, if you do not hit "show me" after you load a game, and do a few actions (but don't end your turn) before you remember to hit that button, could that cause some issues?

I thought of that last night as frequently I would move some armies, build some stuff, and so forth before I remembered to activate the script.

Could that cause some issues later on, such as CTDs? Last night, I did nothing prior to activating the script and along with cleaning the malware, perhaps I solved my issue.

I certainly hope I did and I appreciate the help and will post any further CTDs if nessarcy.

[ricardo]

Hi Brenil,

I have also had the odd ctd associated with Rome, so I usually save the game after the battle has finished but BEFORE clicking exterminate the population. Just hit ESC, save it, then exterminate.

Also I read somewhere here that if you forget to activate the script it can mess up the game, so if I forget i usually cut my losses and load up the last clean save.

One more thing,I JUST LOVE PLAYING THIS MOD. Thanks very much to LT, plus the community for providing some good info.

[lt1956]

The garrison script check on every end turn, so if you dont activate before you click end turn you could have some weird issues, Its hard to say. Mainly the problem is Dates with 4 turns being a different date than the unscript version when you forget to activate it.

Well I hope that you issue is resolved also.

I am glad you are playing with the script, not many do, and I think it makes a HUGE difference in gameplay. I do hope you like to play by most of the house rules? Mainly those are ways I play and helps those that have a hard time controlling themselves have a rule book so to speak. lol I play in a certain way and the mod is made toward that style of play.