Database error 4712

[A Suitable Boy]

When starting the scenario I get a "database Mismatch error 4712" message.
Called "Critical error!". It is quite early in the scenario load.

I play EU2 European version, patch 1. 09, no mods and on Windows XP.

The game is a GC with Russia, and I played it a few days ago with no problem and with no changes on the computer since!

Please help.

 

[A Suitable Boy]

More info...

After having tried different things, I see that:
- Some of the saved versions of the same game (latest incl autosave) does give the same error.
- Older versions of the saved game as well as other games, does NOT give this error but loads normally.
- There is an "id" associated with the error (the first being 5030793), but after choosing ignore the error seems to appear several times again (hard to see as things goes very fast) probably with new id's. Then the game starts and looks normal - but is it?!

Conclusion:
Something seems corrupted with the save file(s) - and I cannot say it is my own fault.

Does this really mean I will have to discard the entire saved game? A solution I would feel bad about, as well as not being able to trust the game in the future... I don't want to spend hours and days on playing, then having to start over again...

Please help if possible.

 

[AndrewT]

You say that some of the saved games give the same error and some do not. So at worst you could go back to the most recent of those, you don't have to start all over again.

The only alternative I can think of would be if some kind soul would offer to analyse your save game file to see if the corruption is visible and can be fixed. BTW have you looked into it yourself? You could start by searching for the ID mentioned in the error.

 

[A Suitable Boy]

You say that some of the saved games give the same error and some do not. So at worst you could go back to the most recent of those, you don't have to start all over again.

The only alternative I can think of would be if some kind soul would offer to analyse your save game file to see if the corruption is visible and can be fixed. BTW have you looked into it yourself? You could start by searching for the ID mentioned in the error.

Thanks.

Well - I don't want to start over again. I would lose some 20 years of playing time. And I will still not be sure about if the error will appear again.

I would like to check the corruption myself - but how? Where do I look for the id? Please assist on how to start...

"4712" seems to be about id's created by the game itself - and not in any of the normal databases...

After some googling I find a similar error mentioned in a Dooms Day forum... but no reply there either...

 

[AndrewT]

Open up the save game file in Wordpad and simply do a text search for the numbers you've mentioned.

 

[A Suitable Boy]

Open up the save game file in Wordpad and simply do a text search for the numbers you've mentioned.

Thanks! I didn't know you could look into save files that easy... (bad experiences of doing the same with older games I guess... ).

Anyway. The id refers to a mission ("Keep Pskov" or something like that) and it occurs twice in the save-file. I now remember that it is also listed twice in the Mission list in the game too.
Finally it has the year = 3104 which seems a little too much...

I may also mention that I tried to play the game for a while despite the "critical error" and it seems to work fine (despite that I get no new missions).

So... the recommendation is to simply delete the extra mission from the save file (and maybe change the year to something present), and load again?

 

[A Suitable Boy]

So... the recommendation is to simply delete the extra mission from the save file (and maybe change the year to something present), and load again?

It worked fine.

Thanks again for the assistance. It looked much more dramatic than it was.

I guess the error (bug?) comes from that the game assigned the same mission twice. Maybe as a result of me actively taking this mission at the same time as being assigned the mission (by my monarch). Could that be it?

 

[AndrewT]

Yes, that sounds right. Really, no-one plays with missions, as they are essentially an exploit - VPs available to the player but not the AI.

 

[A Suitable Boy]

Yes, that sounds right. Really, no-one plays with missions, as they are essentially an exploit - VPs available to the player but not the AI.

Well... then maybe that should be mentioned in the manual...

Personally I don't care very much about VPs anyway, but since the missions are there...

Seems like a light bug anyway. In any case the amount of "CRITICAL ERROR" messages I got was a bit annoying.