Fluent Errors

[Augustus Lucifer]

Ave all,

I've recently been having a problem that I hadn't noticed before, since I had yet to run my game for a multitude of turns. It seems to be happening fluently, as in, it can happen on Turn 3, Turn 8, Turn 20, or any other turn. And like all fun errors, it's unspecified with no [warning] indications that are at all related to the problem. Here's the log just for kicks:

01:46:38.312 [system.rpt] [always] CPU: SSE2
01:46:38.312 [system.rpt] [always] ==== system log start, build date: Aug  3 2007 version bld-medieval2-kingdoms-104 (45562) ===
01:46:38.312 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_0.pack
01:46:38.312 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_1.pack
01:46:38.312 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_2.pack
01:46:38.328 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_3.pack
01:46:38.328 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_4.pack
01:46:38.328 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/localized.pack
01:46:38.562 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/menu_english.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:38.625 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/expanded.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:38.640 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/diplomacy.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:38.640 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/diplomacy.txt is missing
01:46:38.640 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/diplomacy_speech.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:38.640 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/diplomacy_speech.txt is missing
01:46:38.640 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/missions.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:38.687 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/shortcut.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:38.687 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/shortcut.txt is missing
01:46:43.062 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for ANISELECT
01:46:43.062 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_SABOTAGE
01:46:43.062 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_TRADE
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for DRAGGABLE
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for DRAGGING
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_MULTIPLE_SELECT
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_ATTACK
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_PLACE_CHARACTER
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_PLACE_RESOURCE
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_PLACE_FORT
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_MOVE_OBJECT
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_PLACE_WATCHTOWER
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_DEPLOYMENT_AREA
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_PLACE_TILE
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_PLACE_SPECIAL_PIECE
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_PAINT
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_ADJUST_HEIGHTS
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_ADD_UNIT
01:46:43.078 [data.missing] [warning] missing/invalid cursor for MODIFIER_PLACE_SETTLEMENT
01:46:43.328 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/religions.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:43.328 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/climates.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:43.828 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/event_titles.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:43.828 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/event_titles.txt is missing
01:46:43.828 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/event_strings.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:43.875 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/event_strings.txt is missing
01:46:43.906 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/export_units.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:43.906 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/rebel_faction_descr.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:43.921 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/export_buildings.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:43.953 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/building_battle.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:44.015 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/export_VnVs.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:44.015 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/export_ancillaries.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:44.015 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/export_advice.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:44.015 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/export_prologue.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:44.031 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/export_prologue.txt is missing
01:46:44.031 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/names.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:45.125 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/cursor_action_tooltips.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:45.140 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/cursor_action_tooltips.txt is missing
01:46:46.312 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/quotes.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:46.343 [system.io] [warning] open: data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga.dds is missing
01:46:46.343 [system.io] [warning] open: data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga.dds is missing
01:46:47.718 [system.io] [warning] open: data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga.dds is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_48/symbol48_song.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_24/symbol24_song.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_48/symbol48_song.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_24/symbol24_song.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_48/symbol48_song_roll.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_24/symbol24_song_roll.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_48/symbol48_song_select.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_24/symbol24_song_select.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_48/symbol48_song_select.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_24/symbol24_song_select.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_48/symbol48_song_grey.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_24/symbol24_song_grey.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_symbols_80/song.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_faction_units/song.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_symbols_80/slave.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_faction_units/slave.tga is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/battle_descriptions.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/battle_descriptions.txt is missing
01:46:47.750 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/campaign_descriptions.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:47.765 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/_M2_BORDER_FRONTEND.TGA is missing
01:46:47.781 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/_M2_MP_HISTORICAL_BATTLE_CHOOSE_TEAMS.TGA is missing
01:46:47.781 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/TEXTURES/_M2_MAIN_MENU.TGA is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/buttons_composite2.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/slider_composite.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/slider_composite2.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/border_4pix_black_gold2.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/text_border.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/yellow_highlight.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/border_4pix_black_gold_selected.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/border_4pix_black_gold_black.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/_M2_Selection_Glow.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/unit_card.tga.dds is missing
01:46:48.140 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/icons.tga.dds is missing
01:46:49.421 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/_M2_BORDER_FRONTEND.TGA is missing
01:46:49.437 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/_M2_BORDER_FRONTEND.TGA is missing
01:46:51.453 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/map_song.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/map_FE.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/base/map_song.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/map_england.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/map_FE.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/base/map_england.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/map_slave.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/map_FE.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/base/map_slave.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/leader_pic_song.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/leader_pic_song.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_48/symbol48_song.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_buttons_48/symbol48_song_select.tga is missing
01:46:51.765 [system.io] [warning] open: data/menu/symbols/FE_faction_units/song.tga is missing
01:46:53.171 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/descr_battle.txt is missing
01:46:53.203 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/map.rbm is missing
01:46:53.203 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/map.wfc is missing
01:46:53.343 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/text/historic_events.txt.strings.bin is missing
01:46:56.656 [system.io] [warning] open: data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga.dds is missing
01:46:56.656 [system.io] [warning] open: data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga.dds is missing
01:46:58.046 [system.io] [warning] open: data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga.dds is missing
01:46:59.281 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/radar_map_background.tga is missing
01:46:59.343 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/eastern_ambassador.rum is missing
01:46:59.343 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_hand.rum is missing
01:46:59.343 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/eastern_spy.rum is missing
01:46:59.343 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_hand.rum is missing
01:46:59.359 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/eastern_assassin.rum is missing
01:46:59.359 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_hand.rum is missing
01:46:59.359 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/eastern_princess.rum is missing
01:46:59.359 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_model_princess_northern.rum is missing
01:46:59.359 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/eastern_merchant.rum is missing
01:46:59.359 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_hand.rum is missing
01:46:59.359 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/eastern_priest.rum is missing
01:46:59.359 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_staff.rum is missing
01:46:59.375 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/pope.rum is missing
01:46:59.375 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_staff.rum is missing
01:46:59.375 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/heretic.rum is missing
01:46:59.375 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_staff.rum is missing
01:46:59.375 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/witch.rum is missing
01:46:59.375 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_model_princess_northern.rum is missing
01:46:59.375 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/inquisitor.rum is missing
01:46:59.375 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_book.rum is missing
01:46:59.375 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/eastern_general.rum is missing
01:46:59.390 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_sword.rum is missing
01:46:59.390 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/eastern_captain.rum is missing
01:46:59.390 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/shadow_sword.rum is missing
01:46:59.390 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/navy_cog.rum is missing
01:46:59.390 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.rum is missing
01:46:59.390 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/navy_cog.rum is missing
01:46:59.390 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.rum is missing
01:46:59.390 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/navy_cog.rum is missing
01:46:59.390 [system.io] [warning] open: models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.rum is missing
01:46:59.609 [system.io] [warning] open: data/models_strat/symbol_song.CAS is missing
01:47:00.031 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/radar_map_background.tga is missing
01:47:00.843 [system.io] [warning] open: data/models_strat/residences/textures/NE_ship_dock.TGA.dds is missing
01:47:00.890 [system.io] [warning] open: data/terrain/aerial_map/water.tga.dds is missing
01:47:00.984 [system.io] [warning] open: data/terrain/aerial_map/tile_models/alpha_pages/mountain_mask.tga.dds is missing
01:47:01.000 [system.io] [warning] open: data/terrain/aerial_map/tree_models/textures/conifer_01.TGA.dds is missing
01:47:01.000 [system.io] [warning] open: data/terrain/aerial_map/tree_models/textures/conifer_winter.TGA.dds is missing
01:47:01.031 [system.io] [warning] open: auh/data/world/maps/base/water_surface.tga.dds is missing
01:47:01.640 [game.script.exec] [trace] exec <wait_monitors> at line 10 in auh/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt
01:48:27.687 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War has encountered an unspecified error and will now close.

None of the files in there are new to logs from my knowledge. And the few that look suspicious, like the water surface, aren't, because that works fine.

The error pretty much has to be:

1) Something that isn't traced properly, so doesn't link to a wrongly input code line.
2) Something that can happen at any time, but apparently has a low enough probability that 2 in 4 times it took an extra 10+ turns.

The things I can think of which might fit this bill:

Missions
Rebels being generated
Princess "Level"
Disasters
Non-Historic Events?
Advice?

Of those things:

Missions - I removed all of the guild missions from descr_missions.txt, but the guilds aren't present anywhere else either, including descr_guilds.txt and the EDB. There's still some guild lines in the /text files, though I removed a few of those. At any rate I don't think the /text files back-reference, they only are referenced, so that shouldn't explain it. I could have accidentally removed references to the Council Missions, will look into that part. all of the papal missions are still in there even though the Papal States aren't.

Rebels - Well the Pope and Inquisitor agents in descr_models_strat are assigned to slave, since the papal states has been expunged, but it can't be an entry error, because that would CTD before the game starts and cite memory overload. Though there could be a problem with the game generating an inquisitor as a rebel, don't know, all I know is every reference to removing the papal states only goes so far as to say take them out of descr_strat, which is not far enough if you need the faction slot.

Princess Level - These errors have before been associated with having the hidden traits removed, which include the "Level" command which elevates priests and princesses. I'm using parts of alpaca's stripped down folder, which reportedly works, and this has a blank EDCT file. The error doesn't occur relevant to when a person is married, and the crash always gets caused before any offspring could reach however old they need to be to be able to marry, so I doubt this is it.

Diasasters - Made no changes, wouldn't even know what to change.

Non-Historic Events - Again, made no changes that I know of, haven't touched any file with events in the name, or added any to the mod folder besides the vanilla descr_events.txt

Advice - Advice is blanked, but I already tested pressing the advisor button and got no crashes, so I doubt this is it either.

The biggest edits I think, are a large removal of faction-associated areas and mission-associated areas from expanded.txt, so it's possible I removed something from there that was needed, but I've checked a few times and it doesn't seem likely. The other is any mission changes. So tomorrow I'll start by trying to employ backups of those files and see if that solves it, gonna need it to run to Turn 100 to prove it's fixed based on the randomness. Any help is appreciated, if you've had a similar error, or know other things that can happen fluently like this.

Cheers,
Augustus

[Augustus Lucifer]

Well I just did a lot of testing with my old file setup before doing a lot of the removal work, and it seems to work okay. On that backup it seemed like missions were being generated around the times it seems to error, and it was rather curious that I got no council missions by turn 11 in my other game, so I think I've pinpointed the problem as a missions error, still need to poke around to get that area back in working order and insure something else doesn't cause additional issues.

Cheers,
Augustus

[Augustus Lucifer]

Having a conversation with myself here.

Anyways, I think I found another common problem now, maybe, sort of. It seems like the game is erroring approximately 10 turns after England is destroyed(currently only my added faction, England, and Rebels are implemented). Is there a known error with the game crashing once it is only one faction + slaves remaining?

EDIT: Ugh, nevermind, now it's back to crashing after Turn 1, so it can't be the above. Not sure what it could bloody be to be frank. Still would be good to know if the above situation does cause errors. Back to beating my head on the desk!

Cheers,
Augustus

[GrnEyedDvl]

Whats in your script? Its crashing just after the wait_monitor is executed, so its probably waiting for something that cannot finish, then crashes.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Whats in your script? Its crashing just after the wait_monitor is executed, so its probably waiting for something that cannot finish, then crashes.

Nothing is in the script, I'm pretty much running alpaca's Stripped Down Mod Folder, merged with elements of gigantus' mod folder to make it kingdoms back-compatible, with world files off of your map class folder made by Yelu Dashi(and modified in parts, like win conditions, regions, etc to fit the rest of the files). Have no notable errors when I run the game with the last stable version, which doesn't add the stripped down elements, but just adds a new faction. That backup ran til turn 106, and then I think the CTD had something to do with the fact I had about 10 spies and 10 assassins in one settlement, which might have looked for a faulty guild trigger or something.

This is the text of campaign_script.txt:

;
; Campaign script
;
script



	wait_monitors

end_script

Same text in the installation that works. The campaign script being the last thing shown before the error seems to be purely coincidental. There are no errors with performing any functions, any part of the UI can be clicked and referenced and no errors occur, the only error happens when you click Turn End, on Turn 2 or Turn 11 usually. And no events are set to occur on either turn.

I've uploaded the files to a .rar file if anyone wants to take a look, have been plugging away trying different things to no avail for 5-8 hrs of the past 3 days. If you start the game, the Campaign should work no problem, "Song" faction doesn't have a symbol since I haven't gotten those from danova yet, but that's not an issue. The map also has lots of graphical blips, because I'm using an older version of our current map, as I don't want to update to the new one until the rest of the files work.

Any help is greatly appreciated. If you notice something problematic or have possible solutions please let me know.

Download Here: http://files.filefront.com/AllUnderH.../fileinfo.html

Extract the files, auh folder, auh.bat, and auh.cfg into main M2TW installation, all requisite files are run from the mod folder. If you have issues, besides the listed CTD, like your log actually provides information, it might be faulty upload/download. Oh, and you need kingdoms for it to work, it uses that .exe.

Lastly, many of these files are heavily modified, so looking for discrepancies from Vanilla files might be a tedious task, rather than just looking for known or supposed errors. In addition to the files such as traits, ancs, EDB, EDU, advice, cultures, factions, rebel factions, etc. which alpaca stripped down to minimal(and haven't otherwise changed much), the biggest strips of mine are in descr_models_strat, descr_character, descr_missions, missions, expanded, and a couple others. They haven't just been absentmindedly stripped though, the problem may very well be a file looking for something that isn't there, but it is probably obscure or not readily obvious as "necessary". My hunch says the issue is in expanded or one of the mission-associated files, or possibly with the re-association of the "Inquisitor" and "Pope" agents due to the removal of the papal states. I haven't touched things like walls, projectiles, engines, et al, that would be kind of stupid.

Cheers,
Augustus

[Eothese]

I'm Downloading now and i'll have a look 2night, not sure if I've got the eye for it but it might be fun to work on someone else's prob for a change...

[Augustus Lucifer]

I'm Downloading now and i'll have a look 2night, not sure if I've got the eye for it but it might be fun to work on someone else's prob for a change...

Thanks mate . I know for me it's a lot easier to comment on other people's problems than solve my own(and no, I'm not making a real-life comparison, it's the opposite outside of modding). I'm going to keep trying various different things today, and at the same time copy my old working installation and re-do the changes and see if I can go about it any better. Would really be bloody nice if the error reporting was better, any specified error I have no problems fixing, even if it's obscure and may take 15 minutes to puzzle out .

Cheers,
Augustus

[Eothese]

Well, I'm not sure how much help I can provide but I've had a few hours so I'll give you what I've come up with. Firstly I struggled to get to a CTD because my only settlement went rebel and I lost, repeatedly.

So I had to make a lot of changes, give the core building a huge public order bonus etc.. then success my first CTD's

I gave both factions the horde ability. Still crashed so I dont think its one faction or the other being eliminated.
I made the english king 16 years old and turned down all offers of adoption and marrage so its not a coming of age or other family related issue.

Nothing in any of the files looked out of place, but I didn't get round to commenting out the inquisitor...
Hope this is of some small use to you.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Well, I'm not sure how much help I can provide but I've had a few hours so I'll give you what I've come up with. Firstly I struggled to get to a CTD because my only settlement went rebel and I lost, repeatedly.

So I had to make a lot of changes, give the core building a huge public order bonus etc.. then success my first CTD's

I gave both factions the horde ability. Still crashed so I dont think its one faction or the other being eliminated.
I made the english king 16 years old and turned down all offers of adoption and marrage so its not a coming of age or other family related issue.

Nothing in any of the files looked out of place, but I didn't get round to commenting out the inquisitor...
Hope this is of some small use to you.

Thanks for taking the time to look around, and yeah the settlement going rebel is sometimes an issue, but at least playing as Song I was able to not get it to rebel by just throwing the emperor in there and putting it on Low rates.

At the least it's been determined there aren't glaring errors in my file work. Whatever the error winds up being, it will probably have something to do with picky CA hardcode saying "Nooo, Nooo, Nooo" to a removal of something or exclusion of something else.

I'll keep plugging away at it and trying different things. After looking at the BC files, they removed the Pope Missions and the Crusade "Other" mission without obviously causing CTDs, so as I suspected it shouldn't be the missions file being picky. They still have the Pope and Inquisitor assigned to the papal_states who are labeled orthodox and made unplayable. Of course that also amounts to taking up a faction slot, something that can be dealt with if that turns out to be the only issue.

Looked through the files for references to papal_states and pope and didn't find any besides some in strat.txt for pope paybacks. But again, my understanding is you can have excess information in the text files, just not information which isn't referenced there. This is supported by maps that use the vanilla imperial_regions_and_settlement_names.txt and use vanilla names for a few regions, and the game still works even though names for 100 other regions are in the file it's reading.

Thanks for the help, any further assistance is as always, appreciated.

EDIT: Took out a few more unused banners, changed faction religions to orthodox, made the region religions be 100 orthodox, this at least solved the order problem. Also commented out inquisitor and pope from descr_character, no noticeable changes, game still loads, indicating no issues in the initial scanning of descr_character, but then crashes after Turn 1. Still not seeing any errors in the files that have been edited .

For whatever reason, sometimes it errors on Turn 1, other times on Turn 2, almost as if it is timing the error and you can beat in a few turns before the error... -_____-

Cheers,
Augustus

[Eothese]

Maybe its that on some occassion's both factions are turning rebel?
On easy difficulty it stopped CTD'ing on turn 1, it just did it later on.
It may be around the victory conditions...
I did get a rebel character turn up around turn 70 as Song, looked like a witch with a sword, she put pay to reaching turn 100. Song seemed quite 'stable', it seemed to be the english who were the problem...
I'll have another look 2 night, maybe put some spies in to keep an eye on the other faction.
I'll also try altering the victory conditions because there are only 10 regions and you've gotta control 15 on short 35/45 on long...

[Augustus Lucifer]

Maybe its that on some occassion's both factions are turning rebel?
On easy difficulty it stopped CTD'ing on turn 1, it just did it later on.
It may be around the victory conditions...
I did get a rebel character turn up around turn 70 as Song, looked like a witch with a sword, she put pay to reaching turn 100. Song seemed quite 'stable', it seemed to be the english who were the problem...
I'll have another look 2 night, maybe put some spies in to keep an eye on the other faction.
I'll also try altering the victory conditions because there are only 10 regions and you've gotta control 15 on short 35/45 on long...

Well I haven't been using England so I can confirm the issue is happening with Song, at least on my end, and only in that installation. As well, when I made both factions orthodox in the sm_factions and made the regions they owned 100% orthodox, plus put the emperor in the settlement, the order was in the green, and the error still occurred, so it doesn't seem likely it's caused by a double rebellion.

The victory conditions are the same in the other installation, which works fine to Turn 100+, so I don't think they matter, you just obviously can never achieve victory via the victory conditions. I'm pretty sure the game is hardcoded to let the player be deemed victorious, regardless of victory condition file, if they control every region. As well, same thing happens if you take out the non-existent factions from the outlive and replace it with the other existing faction, so that line isn't causing problems in and of itself.

The part about difficulty is something I hadn't looked into, but I also don't know enough about the internal differences between the difficulty settings to come to any conclusions on what function could be postponed by having an easier setting. Curiously though, I recently got the error after saying yes to an adoption, as well as when clicking End Turn, which seems rather strange, as though the error isn't attached to anything in particular. At any rate, I'm working from the last stable point and trying to take it as piecemeal as possible to see if I can find which files created the error.

Thanks for the continued help.

Cheers,
Augustus

[Augustus Lucifer]

Another update, still seem to be receiving the error, even though I thought for a little while it was fixed. It has happened around Turn 6 some times, and other times around Turn 26-28 or so. I counted the number of turns after England was destroyed that it crashed and it seemed to be 5 or 6 or 7. It's certainly possible, based on this information, that the game will crash 5 turns after it's only you and the rebels left on the map. It seems like an odd error, but this is the only trend I seem to be picking up here.

The time difference can be explained by the current setup as well. The English King spawns outside the settlement, where the order is poor. It would make sense that in scenario 1, where it crashes on turn 6 or 7, the king doesn't make it into the settlement, or the settlement revolts regardless since the CPU doesn't lower taxes. The second scenario might see this solved, since England isn't destroyed, but it may still be destroyed later, since their King is 50 at the start and it's possible he's having trouble making babies. If this is what's causing the error, it will be in many ways a godsend since it shouldn't happen in a real game scenario, but in other ways a true measure of retardation.

The other possibility, is the turn it crashes on, is somehow a turn that my faction is being destroyed on. This seems less likely considering the order seemed to be in the green on the settlement. If this were the case, it could mean one of two things, either the game isn't finding whatever "Your faction has been defeated" message that it's looking for, or the game crashes whenever it tries to remove the last faction besides the rebels and so never shows that message. It could be a response to the designation as a slave_faction, not being able to be the only one left.

Just for reference sake, a couple things I did change that seem to be preventing the Turn 1 crash. I moved England's leader from his interesting position in the middle of the Phillipines 100 miles away, to right next to his settlement. This if the first hypothesis is true, would explain why the settlement takes longer to rebel, since it doesn't die on Turn 1 with him unable to enter it. I also changed the "ai_label" lines in the descr_strat for both factions to say "default" rather than "catholic", which could in theory be looking for some sort of pope mechanism if the faction labels are set to catholic, thus eliminating an early bug and showing a different one(this one being displayed now).

Any input would be useful. And for those who downloaded the files, move the england leader to this location:

x 354, y 375

Change the ai_label for both factions to default

Change England's leaders age to 16

See if that helps at all...

EDIT: I seem to be getting the time-based error again. I can click End Turn and it works fine. I can click Recruitment tab and it works fine. I can click adoption tab and it works fine. But it seems at a certain time amount in, 30 seconds, or however long, any action taken crashes it. This almost has to be a separate error. Maybe it's my computer overheating :hmmm:, Eothese are you getting this error too or just the above one?

Cheers,
Augustus

[Eothese]

But it seems at a certain time amount in, 30 seconds, or however long, any action taken crashes it. This almost has to be a separate error. Maybe it's my computer overheating :hmmm:, Eothese are you getting this error too or just the above one?

Cheers,
Augustus

No, the only time I got a ctd was on the end turn, either on or after the slave turn, and on my last test I was up to turn 53...
Will update more when time allows.

@Edit, Success!!!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[url=http://g.imageshack.us/img61/0016ka9.jpg/1/][IMG]

OK, overheating you say? Maybe? I've just got to 115 turns, I altered the ai labels to default and set my Antiscorpic and Antialising to 2X all other graphic settings on low. I had already reset the victory conditions.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

england
hold_regions Inverness_Province
take_regions 10
short_campaign hold_regions ;Inverness_Province
take_regions 5

song
hold_regions Inverness_Province
take_regions 10
short_campaign hold_regions ;Inverness_Province
take_regions 5

slave
hold_regions Inverness_Province Novgorod_Province
take_regions 10
short_campaign hold_regions ;Inverness_Province
take_regions 10

Additionaly I tested as England on easy, with Cpu moves off.
Song were eliminated around turn 40...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

@Edit, More Success!
The victory conditions are not the prob, its the video settings!
Whenever I had a CTD I would try to continue campaign and get another CTD when I ended turn, no surprise. However having exhausted all other possibilities I ran a test with your origonal victory conditions, crashed on turn 76. Reloaded and put video settings on low with Antiscorpic and Antialiasing set to 2X and continued campagin, ended turn and no crash!
Now when I first started testing this I changed the CFG so Antiscorpic and Antialiasing were on 4x as 8x is far to much for my vid card.
Let me know how you get on with this info...

[Augustus Lucifer]

Wowe, great, that's kind of what I figured was the issue after all the chips started to fall in place. You see my graphics card is a rather notorious one, the new HD 1850, which without my BIOS edits and flashing it back on the card to manually re-adjust the fan speed, wouldn't even be viable.

I'm guessing the issue is in fact a graphical one, and that certainly explains at least why the error is happening so randomly on my end. At least my coding isn't incompetent as of this juncture. I'll try like you said and lower the video settings, because mine are undoubtedly set to Very High everything, because this is a brand spankin new, relatively high-end card, which I feel I'd have to throw out the window if it can't play a 2 year old game on high. That being said my issue is probably the overheat.

Are you also running it with any other changes? You said you altered aspects of the Inquisitor, like the lines in the campaign.xml. I think if everything is in order, the main problem I'm seeing right now, is that it certainly seems like the AI aren't having kids. As a player I get a full family by Turn 60 or whenever, but this is when the AI faction leader dies, apparently without an heir. This is curious, something that might need resolving.

Gonna turn my comp off now and let it cool down while I go grab a bite to eat, then fire it up again in an hour or two and try continuing the campaign and lowering settings, because up until now I've just been starting new ones each time.

Thanks for the help

Cheers,
Augustus

[Eothese]

I didn't alter the inquisitor at all. I did keep the AI Labels as default, I'll try your entire origonal setup with just low grahics a little bit later...
@Edit
I'm quite sure there was a decent size family tree, with coming of age for both factions in my early testing...
PS. I'm not so sure why your graphics card should be causing a CTD on my machine... maybe its all that grass or something?

[Augustus Lucifer]

No I didn't mean my graphics card causing a CTD on your machine, I just meant if it was a graphical error that might explain why yours worked and mine didn't.

At any rate even after a reboot there seems to be issues occurring, and in the first turn even after a given time period has passed. My backup installation doesn't have this problem, but it still has the 5 turns after England dies issue. Perhaps maybe the England dying was remedied by adding slave to the win conditions file, seems obscure but that seems to be one of the few differences.

At any rate if you get it working spot on then make a .rar out of it and put it on filefront so I can see if I can run it from the same setup. Not entirely sure what changes I've made to try and remedy it since the upload of the files is why. Have to go for a bit now, will attack it some more later.

Cheers,
Augustus

[Eothese]

Not so good news, I tried your original upload with low vid settings and I got the old CTD again. The main problem is that I didn't backup the working files.
So I made all my changes again but Im getting the CTD just like before!
Im sure I've put all the changes I made back in again but I can't shake off the crash... Not too sure if I can help much more with this, its difficult to get my head round...
With luck your backup copy plus the victory conditions I posted earlier will work...
Here's hoping so anyway.

[Augustus Lucifer]

I think I've found what the issue is, and it's one of the things that had previously been considered potential. The error is indeed tied into being the last faction left besides the slave faction. I tried two campaigns with the exact same settings.

In campaign one, I made it impossible for the English General to reach his settlement, so England died on Turn 2-3. By Turn 7-8, the game crashed.

In campaign two, I made sure the English General kept his faction alive, and the game worked fine until my own faction was destroyed in Turn 136.

I can now conclude that the error which is not the one where it happens 30 seconds in, that happens on the non-backed up version, probably linked to inquisitor problems, is caused by all other factions being destroyed. Now, further analysis of files shows that the Vanilla M2TW gives slave faction victory conditions, holding 80 provinces or something ridiculous that it will never reach. Nonetheless, it has viable victory conditions. Eothese also noted his game working once he applied his new victory conditions. Thus I can surmise the following:

The game will indefinitely crash 4-6 turns after the last faction with viable victory conditions is destroyed, and the player faction hasn't achieved its victory conditions.

Knowing this, I can hopefully re-create my folder step by step, and maybe pinpoint the other recurring error, or at least avoid it entirely.

UPDATE: After further testing, it seems the error will still occur even if the slave faction has viable victory conditions, if the other non-slave factions have been destroyed. This either means the victory conditions were input bad, or that this is a facet of the slave faction. This may also be true for the regular M2TW game though, except in regular M2TW, there will hardly ever be a scenario where it's only you and the slave faction are left and you haven't claimed victory. All of this being said, after the CTD, the "Continue Campaign" works fine, and the campaign has no issues after this point, so it seems like an odd hardcoded one-time CTD.

EDIT: If a moderator reads this, please remove the poll, it was added to test the poll function to see if I could remove a poll that I put up and add a new one or not, for the purposes of later application.

UPDATE #2: I tried adding the slave faction as needing 10/10 of the existing provinces in order to win, but the crash still occurred 4-6 turns after England was eliminated. So I bumped the number down to 9, and now it works. It seems the game doesn't like having the needed regions be the same as the total regions, it needs to be one less. This may be true for any faction, I'm not sure, and might be centered around the fact that the "Total Victory" style of winning is achieved by taking every region, which may be hardcoded. At any rate, even after the slave faction held 9 of 10 provinces, all except mine, it still didn't achieve victory, but the game didn't crash. So perhaps another property of the "ai_label slave_faction"(in descr_strat) and/or the "special_faction_type slave_faction"(in descr_sm_factions) is that it isn't able to achieve victory.

Cheers,
Augustus

[Augustus Lucifer]

Am trying to rebuild the file as bit-by-bit as possible from the last stable point which only experienced the win conditions error and not any of the others, and keeping a good changelog. Also, opting not to remove the papal_states faction for now, just to volatile and to many possibilities for errors. Will update this post with success/failure along these lines.

Also, for anyone who hasn't read the descr_engines.txt file, which I imagine is a good bit, I thought I'd share this hilarious comment that at first I thought was left by gigantus, but was in fact left by CA:

engine_flammable false ;;; Bob. This'll probably come back as a bug. Please don't fix it as we're not aiming for an endorsement from the KKK

This is an entry for "great_cross" engine, making it inflammable .

UPDATE: Added the files little by little and it is working now. After Change 9, it ran fine until Turn 121, after England was Destroyed on Turn 33, and I'm inclined to believe the Turn 121 CTD is of no relation. This is the changelog(probably makes no sense to anyone who isn't me but whatever):

Changes made from Stable

:::::Changes Part 1:::::
- Replaced all resources listed in descr_regions.txt with "none"
- Replaced all rebel types in descr_regions.txt with "English_Rebels"
- Replaced all faction creators in descr_regions.txt with "Song"
- Replaced all religion percentiles in descr_regions with 100 in one, 0 in the rest
- Moved all regions and factions into southern_european in descr_sounds_music_types.txt
- Removed all unnecessary region names from descr_regions_and_settlement_names_lookup.txt
- Added file imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt to folder, trimmed to fit

Changes Part 1 Test: Stable - No noticeable errors

:::::Changes Part 2:::::
- Commented out all events in the descr_events.txt
- Replaced descr_mercenaries.txt with Stripped Down Mod Folder version(all pools removed)

Changes Part 2 Test: Stable (Win condition-related crashes)

:::::Changes Part 3:::::
- Small changes to descr_win_conditions.txt, notably, making needed regions less than total
- Change to faction owners in descr_strat.txt
- All regions 100% Orthodox in descr_regions.txt

Changes Part 3 Test: Stable - No noticeable errors

:::::Changes Part 4:::::
---descr_character.txt---
- Removed all factions except: papal_states, song, england, slave
- Changed all strat models to eastern_ except: inquisitor, pope, heretic, witch
---descr_model_strat.txt---
- Removed all unnecessary text below Admiral-agent, defunct code
- Removed all factions except: papal_states, song, england, slave
- Moved all entries into eastern_ except: inquisitor, pope, heretic, witch
---descr_banners_new.xml---
- Removed all factions except: papal_states, song, england, slave
- Left multiplayer factions rebels, Ally, Enemy
- Removed all UnitSpecific and Holy Banners, as well as test banners in other sections
---descr_names.txt---
- Removed all factions except: papal_states, song, england, slave
- Gave all factions the Song Dynasty names so the rest can be removed from names.txt
---names.txt---
- Removed all unused names (kept {women}women)
---descr_rebel_factions.txt---
- Added file to folder from alpaca's stripped down mod folder
- No changes necessary
---descr_sm_factions.txt---
- Removed all factions except: papal_states, song, england, slave
- Changed Song and England culture to: southern_european
- Changed Song and England religion to: orthodox
---export_descr_buildings.txt---
- Replaced file with file from alpaca's stripped down mod folder
- Removed all cultures from required except: southern_european
- Removed all 'and' parameters, since they linked to non-existent events
o Need to remove hidden resources after confirmed it is working
---export_descr_unit.txt---
- Replaced file with file from alpaca's stripped down mod folder
- Added factions to NE Bodyguard ownership: papal_states and song
---export_descr_guilds.txt---
- Added file to folder from alpaca's stripped down mod folder
---descr_lbc_db.txt---
- Removed all factions except: papal_states, song, england, slave
---descr_offmap_models.txt---
- Removed all entries from the navy section except: papal_states, song, england, slave
---descr_strat.txt---
- Removed all building entries
- Changed all settlements to non-castle and village level
- Removed all factions from playable area except: england, song, papal_states, slave
- Removed all factions from faction standings except: england, song
- Removed all factions from at_war_with except: england, song, slave
---descr_win_conditions.txt---
- Fixed a capitalization error on province requisite

Changes Part 4 Test: CTD on Startup (Error Log v1 in 9-06-08 backup folder)

:::::Changes Part 5:::::
---descr_faction_standing.txt---
- Added file to folder from alpaca's stripped down mod folder

Changes Part 5 Test: CTD on Startup (Error Log v2 in 9-06-08 backup folder)

:::::Changes Part 6:::::
---descr_missions.txt---
- Added file to folder from alpaca's stripped down mod folder

Changes Part 6 Test: CTD on Startup (Error Log v3 in 9-06-08 backup folder)

:::::Changes Part 7:::::
---export_descr_character_traits.txt
- Added file to folder from alpaca's stripped down mod folder
---export_descr_ancillaries.txt
- Added file to folder from alpaca's stripped down mod folder
---export_descr_advice.txt---
- Added file to folder from alpaca's stripped down mod folder
---export_descr_advice_timing.txt---
- Added file to folder from alpaca's stripped down mod folder

Changes Part 7 Test: Can't start campaign (Error Log v4 in 9-06-08 backup folder)

:::::Changes Part 8:::::
---descr_strat.txt---
- Removed invalid unit type "Kwarizmian Cavalry" from Song general
- Removed all traits in trait section for generals

Changes Part 8 Test: Stable (Crash on turn 56-68, seemingly unrelated)

:::::Changes Part 9:::::
---descr_sounds_music_types.txt---
- Removed factions which were removed elsewhere
- Added song to faction list
---descr_strat.txt---
- Updated "William" General's coordinates to a valid tile
- Updated population level for all cities to "800" to match village level

Changes Part 9 Test: Stable (Crash on turn 121, seemingly unrelated)

There's no events tied to Turn 121(date 242), since all events are commented out. Doesn't seem to be any other relevant stretch like 100 turns from England dying or anything like that. Couldn't otherwise find issues. Will check later if Turn 121 is a consistent error or a random one, no time to play that many turns now. Continue Campaign doesn't fix it, but if it isn't a consistent error, periodical saving should.

Cheers,
Augustus

[Eothese]

You seem to have come up with a similar idea as I did, to add a third faction make rebellions almost impossible and see if it was an elimination issue...
So what's the verdict?