CTD when loading a campaign save if I mod any files mid-campaign

[Lightfall]

Hello all. I'm hoping someone can help with an 'unspecified error' CTD I'm having. I've recently started playing the game again after several years away, so apologies if I've forgotten something simple!

It happens when I load any campaign save, but only if I've changed any of the game files since making the save. As far as I remember, this never used to be the case - you used to be able to modify lots of files mid-campaign without any problems. But now, to test it, I went into export_descr_buildings and export_descr_unit and changed one tiny detail... and crash.

There's nothing helpful in the log files. Any ideas?

[Gigantus]

It happens when I load any campaign save, but only if I've changed any of the game files since making the save. As far as I remember, this never used to be the case - you used to be able to modify lots of files mid-campaign without any problems.

There are a number of files that are not 'save game compatible' and that will cause the crash you are experiencing when edited mid game. Some of them are only read once at game start (script, descr_strat) while others will cause a crash, most notably the 'world' map files. Guess you were just lucky the last time to not edit one of those that are not save game compatible, most, if not all, EDU and EDB changes are not compatible.

[Lightfall]

Thanks for responding so quickly! I'm still pretty confused though. I know what you mean about the map files (for example) being unchangeable mid-campaign, but one of the changes I made was to modify the income generated by a building in EDB, and I'm 99% sure I used to be able to do that mid-campaign without problems. I specifically remember doing this as a work-around for not being able to change the king's purse mid-campaign...

[Gigantus]

There is always the possibility of a format error like using SPACE instead of TAB, spelling error, invalid value. On Mac\Linux there can also be a possible EOL issue.

Hopefully you have kept a backup? Then try by simply removing a number of the building cost value, eg 12345 and see if that works. If yes, then proceed to edit further - always keeping a backup. And do changes in small steps, then test.