Here There Be Snakes: Bug Reports & Tech Help

[gmshaw]

Right gents, a bit more investigation, and I've now got a very, very good idea about where the problem is (I'm reasonably methodical, so I wanted to find out the issue for myself.)

Firstly, this is not a hardware issue. I've started another game as the English, and played multiple turns/battles at one sitting. My method was to save every turn in order that, if the crash happened again, I would be able to pinpoint the exact cause. I was successful, I think.

It's killing the Irish King/destroying the Irish faction.

I played a new game until turn 11 (when I'd reduced them to just the King in terms of royalty) and by this point had a massed army outside the base the IK was in. Save the game. Leave him alone, ended the turn. Happily goes through the opponent's turn and onto turn 12. Reload from the point where I'd ended turn 11, this time killed the King (and thus destroyed the faction), ended the turn, and now it crashes again, exactly at the same point as before, directly after the Baron's Alliance move.

Whether this is enough to point people in the correct direction on the previously posted event log, I don't know, but for now I'll just have to play and tolerate them occupying the southern part of island (not unlike the sentiments expressed by some people in today's political climate, but that's another issue. )

Once again, thanks to the authors: other than this trivial niggle, really enjoying the game.

[Gigantus]

I checked the 'Wales gets Ireland' event and everything is fine there, it sets an event counter to enable some recruiting fro Wales but nothing else. Picture and supporting text is fine, too.

Initially I thought it might be an issue of a trait trigger when the king gets killed ('BecomesFactionleader' condition\event is faulty) but the crash happens later, not immediately. So I am afraid I can't be of much help here.

[dave1984]

Hi i am having CTD's when playing as scotland whenever i kill the Irish and when i Kill the norwegiens. This error log is for the norweigen CTD as i gave up on the irish and remade the game but this error comes after like 25 turns and i just cant get past it so maybe my game is corrupt? [ATTACH]361039

[dave1984]

please note that i have simply renamed the folder but it is the RB mod with your installer compatible with steam.

[Gigantus]

You need to set the log to trace, in it's present form it's not helping: The crash is nearly 20 seconds after the last entry

05:38:58.431 [system.io] [warning] open: mods/british_isles/data/banners/symbols9.tga.dds is missing
05:39:17.444 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.

Open the mod's CFG file with Notepad and replace the error entry with trace.

I am however hesitant because of your renaming of the directory - using default directory names in Steam is known to cause problems because of Steam's file verification system. Seeing that I took the pains to make the installation Steam compatible and provided a working desktop shortcut I am not sure why you actually did this completely unnecessary step.

Rather install the mod again without changing the installation directory and try then before we continue to search for the error.

[dave1984]

i believe it was simply down to hard drive error as my drive failed due to write errors, i reinstalled it on a new hard drive and used your desktop links as you have stated in previous threads and not merging into the original game folders as i had done previously and other mods like The last Kingdom for example are working fine.
Maybe it corrupted my saves in some way and again due partly to the drive malfunction i recently had. i am a little busy at the moment with other things but i am going to start a fresh campaign again from the start with scotland as soon as possible and see if i get any future errors and if i do i will link them in and change the text line as you requested to trace so you can better see it.
So i apologize for potentially any time wasting with these errors as it could be totally hardware related and not in anyway the mod set up. Thanks for the information and for making the steam friendly mod setups in general as it has made things alot easier to use on a steam version.

[Gigantus]

Responding to genuine questions is never a waste of time. Thanks for coming back on this matter and good luck with sorting out your hardware issue.

As usual: One is glad to be of service

[dave1984]

Hello again. Okay i reinstalled everything fresh today and all the mods via the desktop launch work and initially this game did as well when i first launched it under default settings but when i changed graphic options to maximum and widescreen as well as unit size to huge i now get a CTD when trying to start a campaign as the faction " Scotland " i changed the cfg to trace so it is hopefully the way you want it to be.

[features]mod = mods/rule_b # path to mod folder
editor = 1 # battle editor enabled


[log]
to = system.log.txt # path and name of log
level = * trace # detailed log
#level = * trace # basic log

i will also add my error log. like i stated all my other mods work fine and no issues at all and strange that this one did work and now doesn't. i didn't add anything else to the vanilla folder of med 2 other than the 4gb patch and making the kingdoms. exe copy and renaming it.

[dave1984]

Extra info, if i leave the settings of the campaign to medium diff and medium fighting diff the game will launch the campaign maybe once every 5 times but if i change these settings to any other variation instant CTD, it is local to scotland as every other faction i tried loaded fine with different variations. Trust it to be the campaign i want to play .

[Gigantus]

The line below from a bit up from the crash message indicates that it is Scotland related but there is no indication what the underlying issue at crash time might be:

17:20:04.739 [system.io] [info] exists:   found mods/rule_b/data/ui/custom_portraits/cormac/portrait_young.tga (from: E:\steam new\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)

The 'huge' unit size setting should only have any performance effect during battles, so that can be ruled out. The other graphic settings however do seem to have an impact, just curious that it doesn't effect other factions.

Suggestion: leave the 'huge' setting but change the other settings to default. Start a campaign with scotland if possible and play for one or two turns. THEN change the graphic settings after saving the campaign. Now exit and try to load the save. Or exit campaign first (after saving), then change graphics before re-loading (can't remember if it is possible to change resolution etc during campaign play). If it works it's fine - I am suspecting the problem is with a graphic that loads at game start, rather messy trying to find the culprit without much help from the log.

[dave1984]

The line below from a bit up from the crash message indicates that it is Scotland related but there is no indication what the underlying issue at crash time might be:

17:20:04.739 [system.io] [info] exists:   found mods/rule_b/data/ui/custom_portraits/cormac/portrait_young.tga (from: E:\steam new\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)

The 'huge' unit size setting should only have any performance effect during battles, so that can be ruled out. The other graphic settings however do seem to have an impact, just curious that it doesn't effect other factions.

Suggestion: leave the 'huge' setting but change the other settings to default. Start a campaign with scotland if possible and play for one or two turns. THEN change the graphic settings after saving the campaign. Now exit and try to load the save. Or exit campaign first (after saving), then change graphics before re-loading (can't remember if it is possible to change resolution etc during campaign play). If it works it's fine - I am suspecting the problem is with a graphic that loads at game start, rather messy trying to find the culprit without much help from the log.

Ok Mr Gigantus, after many different trials and errors i have come to the conclusion that its has nothing to do with the graphics as well, any change to the graphics had no affect however and the error comes when you change pre campaign settings, it then resulted in CTD.
For example when you keep the default the pre game campaign options of medium battle difficulty and medium campaign difficulty settings the game will launch consistantly with no errors but its when you change these settings to lets say hard BD and hard CD or easy BD and easy CD etc etc then it is met with instant CTD (BD,CD being battle difficulty and campaign difficulty) so to summerise any variation of the pre campaign settings to anything other than default hits instant CTD with the Scotland faction, again i will enclose the last try system log in case something different popped up but i would assume its the same as the previous post log. i hope this narrowing down pre campaign options being in what i believe is the CTD trigger may help dwindle down what must be a vast search for errors.

[Gigantus]

Yup, no change. It's still processing the descr_strat file so any scripting related to campaign difficulty shouldn't have any effect **. And it being a faction specific crash doesn't make things easier as it suggests specific editing for that faction, not a global game setting.

** you could try disabling the campaign script by removing the very last two lines in descr_strat:

script
campaign_script.txt

[dave1984]

Yup, no change. It's still processing the descr_strat file so any scripting related to campaign difficulty shouldn't have any effect **. And it being a faction specific crash doesn't make things easier as it suggests specific editing for that faction, not a global game setting.

** you could try disabling the campaign script by removing the very last two lines in descr_strat:

script
campaign_script.txt

Mr Gigantus i did try this soloution and changed CD and BD to very hard on the pre campaign set up and it got to the load screen this time (typically before it just hit CTD when you hit start) and consistantly on a few try's afterwards but upon load screen completion it again went to a CTD, once again i will enclose the last log of this try with these changes in case it offers anything extra with it loading the game up instead of instant CTD like i said before. quick summery, went past campaign start CTD but still CTD when the game loading screen was complete.

[Gigantus]

The difference in the log is only that it is now missing the processing of the script, else it crashes after the same last entry:
[game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <cardinalinit10> fired

Given that in the previous log the script was still processed the above (a trait trigger at nearly the end of the EDCT file) the traits themselves will not be the reason. For the same reason it will not be a descr_strat based error.

When I run my Bare Geomod without script then the next file it processes are the 'quote' files. I do know that an interrupted number sequence causes issues but I would have no idea how a change in difficulty would change (increase) the number of the random look up of a quote. You can try if it has anything to do with it:

Remove data\descr_quotes_lookup and both data\text\quotes - the first one may not exist depending on the total number of quotes used.

After that it's fonts and descr_transition_screen followed by the loading screens. The screens may have an invalid TGA format, but then again why would the campaign difficulty influence the random choice? Actually the first loading screen is the same in nearly all campaign starts, usually the 'middle' number.

You can test involvement of the loading screens by simply renaming the data\loading_screen directory

[dave1984]

The difference in the log is only that it is now missing the processing of the script, else it crashes after the same last entry:
[game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <cardinalinit10> fired

Given that in the previous log the script was still processed the above (a trait trigger at nearly the end of the EDCT file) the traits themselves will not be the reason. For the same reason it will not be a descr_strat based error.

When I run my Bare Geomod without script then the next file it processes are the 'quote' files. I do know that an interrupted number sequence causes issues but I would have no idea how a change in difficulty would change (increase) the number of the random look up of a quote. You can try if it has anything to do with it:

Remove data\descr_quotes_lookup and both data\text\quotes - the first one may not exist depending on the total number of quotes used.

After that it's fonts and descr_transition_screen followed by the loading screens. The screens may have an invalid TGA format, but then again why would the campaign difficulty influence the random choice? Actually the first loading screen is the same in nearly all campaign starts, usually the 'middle' number.

You can test involvement of the loading screens by simply renaming the data\loading_screen directory

Mr Gigantus when i remove both the quotes text and quotes bin the game takes a little longer to load in however the campaign loads under the modded settings of very hard on both CD BD on the pre campaign set up as well as easy and easy for the same BD and CD. i have backed up the files i have removed and will keep them just in case you have a fix and i can re insert them but if not not big deal as the extra load in time is very minimal and its like maybe 5 or so seconds, but if anyone has a similer issue with the faction Scotland then it may help them as well to do as i have done like you requested. i have not enclosed a system log this time but if you would like to see it for whatever reasons let me know and i will upload it for you. Thank you for the time you have taken to help me with this situation and at the very least let me to be able to play the campaign on different settings other than medium and medium on BD and CD. i will check in 12 or so hours from this reply incase of any further instructions or things you would like me to try for further routing of the original problem.

Again thank you for all the help thus far.

[Gigantus]

I checked both quote files and cannot see any obvious issue (formatting, missing numbers). I have processed the data\text\quotes files with the BinEditor and attached the new files, see if it works with them. Also realized that the number of quotes (29) is drastically lower then the default numbers (120) but the quotes_lookup file has been adjusted to that and thus should not be an issue in itself.

Rule_B_quotes.zip

[dave1984]

I checked both quote files and cannot see any obvious issue (formatting, missing numbers). I have processed the data\text\quotes files with the BinEditor and attached the new files, see if it works with them. Also realized that the number of quotes (29) is drastically lower then the default numbers (120) but the quotes_lookup file has been adjusted to that and thus should not be an issue in itself.

Rule_B_quotes.zip

Hello again Mr Gigantus, the modified quotes rar you gave me is fine, i added it into the folder named text and the game boots up fine and i have no issues at all now so thank you very much, i never messed around in that folder and have no idea why my text quotes was like this but i am just glad it is fixed.
I can finally play the Scots campaign ! if i find any errors during my play through i will let you know but i am hoping that is the end of my issue's and thanks alot for helping me out again

[dave1984]

Hello again Mr Gigantus, the modified quotes rar you gave me is fine, i added it into the folder named text and the game boots up fine and i have no issues at all now so thank you very much, i never messed around in that folder and have no idea why my text quotes was like this but i am just glad it is fixed.
I can finally play the Scots campaign ! if i find any errors during my play through i will let you know but i am hoping that is the end of my issue's and thanks alot for helping me out again

Okay ignore that message as it worked for a couple times but is now failing again like the original issues of CTD when hitting start on pre campaign and doing it allways now with the modified quote text etc. i have enclosed the latest log file of the CTD, really strange behaviour indeed, again if i remove those 2 files the game loads.

[Gigantus]

The crash is at the same spot. I am afraid I am out of ideas.

[dave1984]

The crash is at the same spot. I am afraid I am out of ideas.

would keeping the quotes text and bin that were removed hinder the game at all ? like i said it works with them removed but i was not so sure if removing those would affect the game in anyway long term ?