Thera mod crashes on a general dying, how can I fix this?

[Comrade Roboto]

I'm afraid I'll have to ask for some help again. This time it might be fixable though. I've been playing another campaign in the mod Thera, and around turn 140 I got another crash. When I press next turn it crashed when the shield of the Merovangi (french faction) shows up. So now I've used the toggle_fow command to go see what is causing the crash. I see that during the "crash" turn, they fight an army. They lose, then they fight that same army again and I heard the sound of a general dying, then the mod crashes for me. I would like to know if it is possible the general dying might cause the crash, and is there a way to remove the character or something to avoid the crash so I can go on with my game?

[irishron]

I've had ai generals crash on me before.

In the descr_campaign_db.xml, is this line set to false?

 <bribe_to_family_tree bool="false"/>

If it's set to true, edit it. If not, there is a trait trigger doing it.

[Comrade Roboto]

It is set to false, so it must be a trait trigger. What is the next step to sort out that trigger?

[irishron]

The log set to trace and start from the end back. It usually will not show as an error but as a warning. It's been a couple of years but it has triggers dealing with the battlefield promotion of Captains to Family Members that goes totally screwy.

[Comrade Roboto]

thera_pkh.scriptoutput.log.txt thera_pkh.script2.log.txt thera_pkh.script.log.txt

Here are my logs and beneath is the end of thera.system.log.txt since it's too large to be uploaded here. Nothing much out of the ordinary in the logs though, says something about a general taking hits and a battle being won. Which is what I see happening with the Merovangi right before the crash. Maybe someone with more knowledge then me can spot the thing that causes the crash.

13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/southern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/dead/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/dead/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [data.missing] [warning] Cannot find the portrait path: data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga, using the default culture path if it exists
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/southern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/dead/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/dead/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [data.missing] [warning] Cannot find the portrait path: data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga, using the default culture path if it exists
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/southern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.753 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/dead/189.tga
13:30:40.754 [system.io] [info] exists: missing data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/dead/189.tga
13:30:40.754 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.754 [system.io] [info] exists: missing data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.754 [data.missing] [warning] Cannot find the portrait path: data/ui/northern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga, using the default culture path if it exists
13:30:40.754 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/theraV4/data/ui/southern_european/portraits/portraits/young/generals/189.tga
13:30:40.880 [bink] [debug] [data/fmv/faction/minor_lose.bik]Pause on
13:30:40.880 [bink] [debug] [data/fmv/faction/minor_lose.bik]Pause on
13:30:41.239 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.

[irishron]

The trigger is in there but farther up. You won't believe where until you see it.

Compress it and attach it to your next post. If I get a break in a little bit I'll see if I can spot it for you.

[Comrade Roboto]

thera.system.log.rar

There we go, a nice little rar file. I had no idea going further back into the file lines still shows info from the point of the crash.

[irishron]

I would say it would be in this mess.

13:30:40.733 [system.io] [info] open:   found temp/campaign_battle.rpy (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
13:30:40.750 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <loyalty_check2_good_odds_bonus> fired
13:30:40.750 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <BattleCommandGain> fired
13:30:40.750 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <Battle_General_Took_Deadly_Hits> fired
13:30:40.750 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <VanquisherScottishBattleVictory> fired
13:30:40.750 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <triumphs_in_battle1> fired
13:30:40.750 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <Battle_General_Took_Hits> fired
13:30:40.750 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <battle5> fired
13:30:40.750 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <battle1> fired
13:30:40.750 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <battle9> fired
13:30:40.751 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <AI_general> fired
13:30:40.751 [game.script.trigger] [trace] Trigger <BattlesWon> fired

Start from the bottom up. You are only concerned with the one(s) that show up in the export_descr_character_traits.txt. The rest can be disregarded.

Welcome to modding and bug hunting.

[Comrade Roboto]

Sorry I'm a bit confused. Yes those triggers do appear in export_descr_character_traits.txt, but what do I need to do now? How can I be sure which of these triggers causes a problem? And how can I solve it?
Is removing that general with the crashing trait an option somehow?

Also here is my save file if that could be of any help.
Save.rar

[irishron]

Comment out the bottom trigger, delete the map.rwm, and start a new campaign. It maybe the one.

If not, you now have an idea where to look and what to look for.

I don't have Thera installed now. Sorry.

[Comrade Roboto]

Comment out the bottom trigger, delete the map.rwm, and start a new campaign. It maybe the one.

If not, you now have an idea where to look and what to look for.

I don't have Thera installed now. Sorry.

That's ok, it was just in case you had it installed anyway. But I'm still not sure how starting a new campaign will point out the trigger causing the crash. Starting a new campaign would work fine, even without commenting out a trait.

[irishron]

It's one less trigger to hunt for next time. It may eventually lead to the real culprit but you have to get this one out of the game so the next one can crash. Think dominoes and this is the first to fall.

I went through this with one that had five ctds caused by triggers before it finally got stable.

This one you had and I also ran into is random and you may go five campaigns before ever seeing it, again.

[Comrade Roboto]

So are you suggesting playing campaigns untill I get a crash to single out the trigger? That might take long because usually the crash happens when I'm playing for a pretty long time, this time it was around turn 140. Is their any other way?

Also, is my current campaign saveable at all? And thanks for being such a great help man . You're the true hero of this forum section.

[irishron]

You can try to load it but I have never had that good of luck.

No, play your campaigns as you usually do. When it crashes and you can follow it around some to try to pinpoint it, the answer maybe in the log.

Try to find the priest that goes heretic on a ship and crashes your game. I finally got lucky and found the priest in one campaign doing it and could prove it. Squid in the Mod Workshop came up with a way around it in the Mod Workshop. I haven't have one do it since. I had a ai family member once assuming died aboard a ship and never did get that one cured.

[Comrade Roboto]

You can try to load it but I have never had that good of luck.

No, play your campaigns as you usually do. When it crashes and you can follow it around some to try to pinpoint it, the answer maybe in the log.

Try to find the priest that goes heretic on a ship and crashes your game. I finally got lucky and found the priest in one campaign doing it and could prove it. Squid in the Mod Workshop came up with a way around it in the Mod Workshop. I haven't have one do it since. I had a ai family member once assuming died aboard a ship and never did get that one cured.

Yes as I've said my save loads just fine, it's when I press "next turn" my campaign game crashes. Also you have to know that I invest a lot of time in any campaign I start, trying to conquer the whole map. Thera is a mod with a huge map so you can see why my main interest is trying to save my campaign. Hopefully by removing the character that has the crashing trait or something along the lines. If that isn't possible I guess it'll be better to just leave it alone. It's not worth the trouble seeing as it usually crashes late in the game.

[irishron]

I've had 300 turn campaigns die on me this way and I've been playing since the game came home about two weeks after its release. 90% of the crashes that I've fixed including this one have been nothing but loose ends left by CA, nothing to do with the mods. These were here before the mods tried to make it better. If TFON were still active I doubt he'd be aware of it short of you filling up the mod's bug thread with proof it happened.

[Comrade Roboto]

I'd be more comfortable with it if it wasn't such a "reliable" crash. Every campaign I start in the Thera, I just know that sooner or later it will crash and corrupt my save. I never really had this playing vanilla. Not save corrupting crashes anyway.

[irishron]

Vanilla is "only" 225 turns at two years per turn.

I could never blitz vanilla like Askthepizzaguy bragged in the www.totalwar.org foums but I could usually get my win before "The World is Round" event fired and I still had my share of crashes. One reason I learned to mod was to get these ctds if possible out of my life. The EDCT we both are dealing with modded by a mod team or not is the same one released with M2TW 1.0. It has not changed a line.

[Comrade Roboto]

Good point, mods with a huge map do take a longer time to play compared to the smaller vanilla map. As such the longer you play the more chance you have to get a crash.

[irishron]

I have been working on Regions and Provinces mod since sb2ean abandoned it. It took me five years of playing with it to get it to what I can call "stable" and 90% of them were EDCT entries or a lack there of and 99% of those were CA's loose ends. Keep in mind my campaigns will 500 turns, give or take a few. I found entries missing in the modeldb, misspellings in the EDU, wrong portraits referenced in the EDA, missing unit cards, nothing to crash a game but are niceties when added.