Tearing my hair out

**Lord Condormanius** · October 25, 2008, 04:38 PM

Ok...I have spent the past 5 hours trying to fix this error and I can't figure out what the hell is going on.

All I did was change the family tree for Sicily and add some names to the descr_names file and the names.txt file. Now I crash every time I try to run the Grand Campaign. I have since returned the descr_strat file to exactly as it was before I started to change these things. I also removed the names that I added to the descr_names file. I still get the same unspecified error. The log does not help at all. I have run the log at "trace", "error" and "warning" levels and there is nothing that will help me out. Does anyone have any clue what this could be?

If I can't get my campaign to load, that is the end of modding for me. If I can't figure out this error, that's almost two years of work down the drain.

**Harry Lime** · October 25, 2008, 04:47 PM

Try deleting the string.BIN files in the text folder.

Did you make back-ups before you changed stuff or did you manually reverse your changes? It's possible you may have missed something or did a typo when switching back.

**Lord Condormanius** · October 25, 2008, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

Try deleting the string.BIN files in the text folder.

I have done that at least 1000 times in the past 4 or 5 hours.

Did you make back-ups before you changed stuff or did you manually reverse your changes? It's possible you may have missed something or did a typo when switching back.

I didn't back anything up since I was only changing 3 files that I have worked with 1,000,000 times before: descr_strat, descr_names and names.txt. The descr_strat file is the only one that I can imagine would cause an unspecified error like that. I only changed the information for Sicily, so when I reverted back, I copied and pasted the entire entry for Sicily from a backup of that entry.

Is there a limit on names?

Well...it looks like that is the end of my mod. I am literally sick over this.

**Harry Lime** · October 25, 2008, 05:11 PM

I don't think there is a limit on names.

Any mistakes in the descr_strat do throw up a log entry in my experience. Have you used the name validation tool?

**Lord Condormanius** · October 25, 2008, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

Any mistakes in the descr_strat do throw up a log entry in my experience. Have you used the name validation tool?

I don't know what that is. This is insane. I was only working with those 3 files and nothing else.

**Mythic_Commodore** · October 25, 2008, 09:43 PM

You did add the names to the descr_names_lookup.txt, right? The name verifier is a handy little tool that reads your descr_names, descr_strat, descr_names_lookup, and names files and warns you of any potential errors. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=85734. Since the download link seems to be broken, I will attach it to the post. Just so I can say I said this, this is NOT my work. This is tornnight's work. I am simply reuploading it.

**GrnEyedDvl** · October 25, 2008, 10:00 PM

LC I feel your pain. I had a similar issue once, and it ended up being a bracket. I used a ) instead of a }. Took me forever to spot it.

**Lord Condormanius** · October 25, 2008, 10:35 PM

I found a backup of my descr_strat from a few days ago and it runs fine. I've managed to redo most of my work. I still don't know what caused that error.

...and what's with the descr_names_lookup.txt? I have never used that file and have never had any problems with names before. I have added many names just using the other two files.

**Userpro** · October 25, 2008, 11:44 PM

do you use notepad++???

**GrnEyedDvl** · October 25, 2008, 11:44 PM

Maybe you ran into a cap on names??

**Lord Condormanius** · October 26, 2008, 12:38 AM

Originally Posted by GrnEyedDvl

Maybe you ran into a cap on names??

That's what I thought at first. I think I figured out what I did wrong. I was moving an army from a faction to rebel army and I forgot to put the subfaction bit at the beginning of the entry. That is the only mistake I found.

@userprobe

I use regular notepad.

Thanks to everyone who helped.

**Kundich** · October 28, 2008, 01:47 AM

Did it work once you corrected that error?

Thanks,
ADM

**Lord Condormanius** · October 28, 2008, 01:53 AM

Originally Posted by Kundich

Did it work once you corrected that error?

Thanks,
ADM

As I said before, I went back to a backup, then redid my work...then I found the error. So the error ended up being kind of a moot point. I didn't find the error until after I got it going again.

**alhoon** · October 30, 2008, 03:01 AM

Out of curiocity... did you saved your 2 years work after all?
If you did, make a backup of the workable mod. Now. Then copy it to a CD so that even if your disk burns up, you'll still have a mod.

**Lord Condormanius** · October 30, 2008, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by alhoon

Out of curiocity... did you saved your 2 years work after all?
If you did, make a backup of the workable mod. Now. Then copy it to a CD so that even if your disk burns up, you'll still have a mod.

Yes. As I said before, I managed to find a descr_strat from a few days earlier. I remade the little bit of work that I lost. At the moment, I am not adding anything new to the mod, so I am not worrying about messing things up. The mod is pretty big with all of the skin changes and everything, so it will take 3 CDs.

Anyway, this thread can probably be closed, since the problem has been resolved.

**alhoon** · October 31, 2008, 02:15 AM

Originally Posted by Lord Condormanius

Yes. As I said before, I managed to find a descr_strat from a few days earlier. I remade the little bit of work that I lost. At the moment, I am not adding anything new to the mod, so I am not worrying about messing things up. The mod is pretty big with all of the skin changes and everything, so it will take 3 CDs.

I still suggest you take the time to make those 3 CDs or 1 DVD. Even if you change nothing, just in case.