Tales from the Crypt (my EDB is really weird)

**Gigantus** · January 18, 2011, 07:08 AM

Welcome to a tale of the unexplained.

The situation is as follows:

- I have a perfectly functioning EDB with custom building trees
- The building tree in the attachment should be added
Once the building tree and the entries for the export_buildings file are added the following happens:
- After about 4-5 seconds the game crashes without message
- A log is generated, the new export_buildings.string.bin is generated
The last lines in the log (before the trigger list) relates to the name of the last building tree (custom) before the newly added one:

error log

- checking for possible formatting errors (even checking with Notepad++ for the correct encoding) did not yield results

And now the comes the dive into the abyss:
As a test I simply copied the last building tree and only changed the tree's name, the names for the levels and everything else remained as before. Result: the game starts and displays it in the building browser. So far so good.
The next step for the test involves changing the name of the first level to one from the new tree (entered correctly in export_buildings). Result: CTD within 4 seconds while still in the splash screen, no message - same log ending.

Now this is really weird, because even if I didn't have an entry in export_buildings a place holder would show up. So the error must be in the EDB. But I have only changed the two instances where the first level name appears. Worthy of the Twilight zone?

I have attached the two files (part of EDB and part of export_buildings) if someone would like to give it a try. The buildings are supposed to be pre-placed in the descr_strat, that's why they have no factions entered in the faction requirements - but then that's not really the problem here.

Input will be highly appreciated.

.

**Taiji** · January 18, 2011, 07:57 AM

Is it cos you duplicated valleta instead of adding athens?

**Gigantus** · January 18, 2011, 09:01 AM

Doesn't make a difference. As I said: the CTD happens even when I duplicate one of the existing building trees and then only change the tree name and the first level name.

Edit: just tried to add the batch to another mod and the same thing happened - the mistake must be in the added on section.

**Taiji** · January 18, 2011, 09:32 AM

Really? I wonder if you understood me. It seems you designated an upgrade that doesn't exist, and duplicated one that does. If that 'makes no difference' then EDB being 'counter-intuitive' would be an understatement, 'nuts' would be more like it. Just do the entry 'properly' and perhaps the problem will go away

**Gigantus** · January 18, 2011, 09:46 AM

This is somewhat embarrassing:

Turns out my name converter had a bug. Spelled "descr" instead of only "desc" in the export_building entries.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

5 minutes until update for the name converter.

**gracul** · January 18, 2011, 09:48 AM

As a side note you don't need to have a lot of entries for specified cultures, you can just have {%name%} {%name%_decr} {%name%_descr_short} and it's going to work for all cultures. If you want a specific description, just add it once. Like:
{lemberg}Lemberg for all factions
{lemberg_descr}Lemberg for all factions
{lemberg_descr_short}Lemberg for all factions
{lemberg_southern_european}Lemberg southern_european specific description
{lemberg_southern_european_descr}Lemberg southern_european specific description
{lemberg_southern_european_descr_short}Lemberg southern_european specific description

**Gigantus** · January 18, 2011, 10:28 AM

It's not even as complicated as that: just a simple spreadsheet with CONCATENATE formulas.

The aim of the converter was to create an entry for each culture easily so that simple text could be added as was needed (export_building entries for dummies).

But thanks anyhow for the tip, wasn't sure if the culture that can build the building didn't need the culture entry.

**Taiji** · January 18, 2011, 10:31 AM

You're welcome.... But you don't say that you fixed the errors I point out in EDB. So now I wonder...

**Gigantus** · January 18, 2011, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by Taiji

You're welcome.... But you don't say that you fixed the errors I point out in EDB. So now I wonder...

Doesn't make a difference.

I should have been more precise in my response. At that point it didn't really matter, as I had simply related it to this step:

The next step for the test involves changing the name of the first level to one from the new tree (entered correctly in export_buildings). Result: CTD within 4 seconds while still in the splash screen, no message - same log ending.

Red being the major wrong assumption.

I entered everything again into the (now fixed) converter and everything works perfectly.

.

**Taiji** · January 18, 2011, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by Gigantus

I should have been more precise in my response.

Not meaning to be funny but that's only the bit of your last post that made sense to me...

**Gigantus** · January 18, 2011, 12:01 PM

You were asking: "But you don't say that you fixed the errors I point out in EDB."

I was responding: "At that point it didn't really matter"
--------------------
What I had done at that point was the last step in my OP, in which I simply replaced the faulty tree with an existing one in which I had renamed the name of the tree and only the first level.
Sorry for the confusion - I fixed the error you pointed out in my initial building tree. Thanks for saving me another nightmare.