Game crashes when navy/port is clicked on

[René Artois]

Does anyone have this--> http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/empiretotalwar/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-48488876&pid=942966 because i do and its really annoying.

I'm playing as Britain and every time i click on the navy which i'm trying to get to invade india, the game crashes!

FIX- ADD A SLOOP TO THE NAVY THAT MAKES THE GAME CRASH

Is it my pc-

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Basic (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_gdr.071009-1548)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Dell DM061
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 2.3.2
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6320 @ 1.86GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.9GHz
Memory: 3070MB RAM
Card name: 256MB ATI Radeon X1300PRO
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series (0x7183)

Or does Ganesh not want me to invade India?

Please say if you have the same problem, because it seems quite a few people do.
EDIT: just had it again, this was the crash report:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Empire.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 49b7b98b
Fault Module Name: steam.dll_unloaded
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 49b58bb0
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 301e4d15
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.2
Locale ID: 2057

About 15 minutes after the above, but from selecting the fleet from the fleets list:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Empire.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 49b7b98b
Fault Module Name: Empire.exe
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 49b7b98b
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0083a7c2
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.2
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 8d13
Additional Information 2: cdca9b1d21d12b77d84f02df48e34311
Additional Information 3: 8d13
Additional Information 4: cdca9b1d21d12b77d84f02df48e34311

[Tassen]

Quite a few people do, and an equally quite a few people, in quite a few threads, has said that sometimes it helps sticking a sloop in with your bigger ships since at least one CTD bug in fleets has to do with, or at least it is suspected it has to do with, the tech upgrades makjng your ships be able to travel farther on each turn on the campaign map. Sloops do not benefit from all the techs, and no convoy is faster than its slowest ship.

At least worth a try, and good luck!

[René Artois]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it now

OH MY GOD ! IT WORKED PERFECTLY! No lag or anything! Thank you so much! + rep for you

[WeardLan]

.....sometimes it helps sticking a sloop in with your bigger ships since at least one CTD bug in fleets has to do with, or at least it is suspected it has to do with, the tech upgrades makjng your ships be able to travel farther on each turn on the campaign map. Sloops do not benefit from all the techs, and no convoy is faster than its slowest ship.

Oh now that's interesting. It's never CTD'd on me, but I have a fleet in Portsmouth/English Channel that every time I select (in port or out) I freeze stone dead for upwards of 30seconds, then my movement zone suddenly shows. Once selected it works fine, so I'm assuming it's cached, at least till you flip to another theatre. When you come back, stone dead freeze again.

off to test.

[fisher0065]

@Tassen HOLY CRAP I THINK I LOVE YOU! Still a VERY annoying bug cause this limits my ships speed, but its worth not losing a whole navy every few turns. I would +rep you if I was able to lol

[Tassen]

@Tassen HOLY CRAP I THINK I LOVE YOU! Still a VERY annoying bug cause this limits my ships speed, but its worth not losing a whole navy every few turns. I would +rep you if I was able to lol

Ummm...Thank you, I think.

We just have to ride this one out as I am positive CA is well aware of this nasty/gamebreaking bug and it will be fixed. Maybe if we are lucky even in the next patch we all are so eagerly awaiting. We'll just have to wait and see. In the mean time, at least we can use the fleets, even though at a little lower speed than intended.

[Switch]

I'll certainly try adding a sloop. I now have two navies which will incite a CTD (and selecting any fleet causes a few seconds of lag). Unfortunately one of them is sat on the Straits of Gibraltar, thus blockading the entire Mediterranean - including my own fleets!

[TeutonicKnight]

Does anyone have a solution for a broken General? I've got a general that if I try and move him, it's a CTD. The problem is, he's in a Pirate port that I invaded with what turns out to be too small of a force to take the pirates, and I can't get reinforcements there in time. When the pirates attack him, boom, CTD.

I think I've lost this game. Again.

With Medieval, Rome, M2TW, I never completed most of my games because boredom set in. Empire I think I can easily complete, if not for the CTDs.

[cunobelin]

Thanks Tassen I have 2 fleets that are stuck, so I'll give it a go when I get home.

This fix should be stickied immediately!!

[Tassen]

Yes, it looks like the freezing part, where some people experiences CTDs instead of just freezing, might be caused by the computer for some at least for now unknown reason having a hard time calculating the new, and by techs much improved, movement radius of the fleet.

The cache, and I agree it must be cached, is more than likely cleared when switching to a new theater therefore creating the very same freeze phenomena if trying to select the offending fleet again upon switching back to the first theater.

[Skyphos]

Meh, mine doesnt crash out when I click my ports/ships but it does seem like its going to (locks up for 1-5 seconds). I'm on a q6600 with 4 gigs ram with sli'd 8800 GT's. Thinks its an all around issue, not just your system.

[Thomas_Kenobi]

Tassen cheers mate! You just saved my UK game. (The advantages of having Steam. If I had bought a physical copy, the disk would be flying out of the window by now)

I had a very similar problem. Almost from the start, when I clicked on Portsmouth, where my fleet resided, the computer would lock for 10-15 seconds, plus another 5-10 when I clicked the navy tab. Recently, I decided to go to war against Spain and France, so I started building a lot of ships and assigning admirals to them. The end result was that I could not longer click on my naval base in Gibraltar, without a CTD. I tested the possibility of it being a performance issue, by bringing the graphic settings to low and shutting down every other program, that was running. I also tested the possibility, that it was relate to the number of fleets present. So I started disbanding my one-sloop picket fleets, that I had placed all over east Atlantic, as an early warning system. Neither made a difference.

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
  Application Name:    Empire.exe
  Application Version:    1.0.0.0
  Application Timestamp:    49b7b98b
  Fault Module Name:    Empire.exe
  Fault Module Version:    1.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:    49b7b98b
  Exception Code:    c0000005
  Exception Offset:    0083a7c2
  OS Version:    6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.6
  Locale ID:    1032
  Additional Information 1:    fd00
  Additional Information 2:    ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
  Additional Information 3:    fd00
  Additional Information 4:    ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

As you can see the exception code and offset are identical to that from rkid3's error, which is a pretty good indication, that we had a similar problem, which tripped the same exception handler in the code.

So far it would seem that adding a sloop to a fleet does indeed help, so I'm going to use this as a temporary stopgap, by placing them on all fleets and shipyards. It appears, that, the smaller the vessel selected, the smaller the chance of a CTD. I rarely have the issue, while selecting 4th rates, but I am rather cautious, when selecting 2nd rates (i.e. I save first).

Is there any indication that CA is aware and working to fix this issue? i.e. do they frequent these forums often enough, for us to be sure they have seen this thread?

PS: I don't like ranting much, but in this case I can't stop myself. It looks like CA wasn't paying a lot of attention to their beta testers. How on earth could they have missed things like this or the 254 firepower galleys (which isn't a typo btw, it's real)... Every piece of software will inevitably ship with some bugs, but this reminds me of Ultima IX. If you as much as look at it the wrong way it can crash.

edit:

The cache, and I agree it must be cached, is more than likely cleared when switching to a new theater therefore creating the very same freeze phenomena if trying to select the offending fleet again upon switching back to the first theater.

I can confirm this observation. It does indeed look like changing theaters empties a short term cache.

[WeardLan]

PS: I don't like ranting much, but in this case I can't stop myself. It looks like CA wasn't paying a lot of attention to their beta testers. How on earth could they have missed things like this or the 254 firepower galleys (which isn't a typo btw, it's real)... Every piece of software will inevitably ship with some bugs, but this reminds me of Ultima IX. If you as much as look at it the wrong way it can crash.

Yup 254 firepower galleys, with 1 or 0 hull strength, depending on whether your talking normal, or light version, which means basically your firepower is worthless as your opponent only has to shout loudly at you and your fleet explodes into a billion matchsticks. (at least on autoresolve anyways: 8 galleys went down to 1 sloop and a indiaman

Game devs are people, they spent 80% of their time playing with the toys (Mocap dueling videos, battle animations etc) 19% of their time doing the fun bits, i.e land battles/sea battles, and 1% of their time glueing it all together. Oops, broken campaign.

I challenge CA to deny that. :o)

[adamsleath]

...add a sloop? ok ill try it...

omg it worked....thx again dudes

[The Alcotroll]

Are we sure it's sloops? In my Britain campaign, selecting a fleet in the America theatre is an instant CTD, but everywhere else is fine. In the Sweden campaign I just started, I can select any fleet I like, but putting them into port dumps me on the desktop.
All of these fleets have sloops in ('cos sloops always get sunk first in auto-resolve battles, leaving my bigger ones intact...)

[adamsleath]

no idea what the actual bug is, but merging a sloop into my 'stuck/ctd-causing navies' solved my problem, for now anyway...

i havent yet tried putting these 'bugged' navies into port yet

[nuckinfutts]

This is great!! I can now use two Fleets that have been useless for about 75 Turns. Thanks.

[adamsleath]

im almost thru my first campaign.. first rate ships are impressive thangs ; im up to 76000 from trade per turn...i havent actually conquered much