In-game problems
PROBLEM: The event has a zero effect (centralization = 0, stability = 0)
CAUSE: You have used the wrong connector. When the game looks for the value, it doesn't find anything and assumes you meant zero.
EXAMPLE:
command = { type = stability which = 1 }
should be
command = { type = stability value = 1 }
SOLUTION: Go to the event in question and look at the commands. Usually the problem is use of 'which' instead of 'value' or 'value' instead of 'data'. If you're unclear what the proper wording is, try Havard's Bible.
PROBLEM: Event never triggers even when conditions are met (but the event can be triggered from F12).
CAUSE: The most likely problem is a lack of a deathdate. For events that have a trigger (instead of a date), you must include a deathdate for them to trigger.
SOLUTION: Find the event and add a deathdate.
CAUSE 2: The game only loads events it has been told to. If you make a new event file, you will need to tell the game to read that event file - just putting it in the same directory as others won't work. Some scenarios have their own event files, so check to make sure which files are being loaded by the game (this can be especially important for players of the EEP - the fantasy events are not loaded if you're playing the historical campaign).
SOLUTION 2: The events file is usually events.txt, found in the db directory. Add the file to the events.txt (or events1.txt for the EEP) file.
CAUSE 3: If neither of these is your problem, you may have written the trigger condition wrong - province numbers can be tricky and if you're cutting and pasting from another event you may have left in something that shouldn't be there.
SOLUTION 3: Check the trigger in the event text. Especially check any province numbers (an easy way to do this is to search for the number in province.csv, but a faster way is to download the EU2 Provinces Lookup program). Other triggers could be events that you removed or altered or a mistyped date.
PROBLEM: Event flashes when player receives it and disappears almost immediately.
CAUSE: The event has no effect on the player. This occurs if there are NO valid effects from choosing any action.
EXAMPLE: France receives a message indicating a revolt in Provence. However, France does not control Provence.
SOLUTION: Change the trigger so this event only occurs if there will be an effect (with this example, that France owns Provence).
SOLUTION 2: Add a minor effect to every choice that always has an effect. Lots of events can have almost negligible effects. One of the easiest is to add or subtract VP for a choice, but monarch ability, stability, domestic policy sliders, or commands using random provinces or random countries always work as well.
PROBLEM: AI treats a multiple-choice event as a single-choice event. When the player triggers the event him- or herself, the event flashes and disappears.
CAUSE: One or both of the choices have no effect and so are disregarded. See previous problem.
EXAMPLE: France receives an event which forces it to accept a stability drop or lose the province of Provence. France does not control Provence - therefore it automatically loses stability.
SOLUTION: See previous problem.
PROBLEM: Event crashes when you place the mouse pointer over a choice.
CAUSE: There are no effects for the choice.
SOLUTION: Never create a choice with no game effects. See the previous 2 problems.
PROBLEM: The event title and text are replaced with an error message, but the event works fine.
CAUSE: You do not have any text whatsoever in the description.
EXAMPLE:
event = {
id = 15800
name = "The German Confederation"
desc = ""
SOLUTION: Add a description.
PROBLEM: Event title or description reads 'EVENTDESC101' or similar.
CAUSE: The event is looking for its title or description in the text.csv file (in the config directory) and either it has not been added, or it has a different name, or is missing some syntax.
SOLUTION: Check the text.csv file, or simply write the title and description in the events file yourself. Note that you can write semicolons (
in the events file but not in text.csv.
PROBLEM: An event meant for the AI has happened for the player.
CAUSE: This happens when an event has no country listed. Such events are chosen by the human player automatically.
EXAMPLE:
trigger = { owned = { province = 312 which = -1 }
The player, playing the Cherokee (far, far away from Europe) receives the event.
SOLUTION: You must put a country in the event if you want it to be triggered by the AI. Yes, this may mean copying the event several times if you want several countries to be affected by it. Sorry, but it's the way things work.
SOLUTION 2: You can get away with not adding a country by making an event random. Random events can still have specific triggers so only certain countries will get them (e.g. all countries of a single religion). However, random events seem to happen about once a year per country and there is no guarantee that a country will receive your particular random event...ever. This is obviously not a solution for every event, but it works for those with no time constraints.
PROBLEM: An event written for every nation of a particular religion fails to work.
CAUSE: Same as previous problem.
SOLUTION: Same as previous problem.
PROBLEM: An event works fine the first time, but it never triggers again.
CAUSE: This is a design feature, not a bug. The game is set up so that an event will not happen if it has already happened once - otherwise, you could get events like the War of the Spanish Succession
twice!
SOLUTION: There really aren't many ways around this. The best solution is to write the event once for every time you want it to trigger. For best results you will need to give it slightly different trigger conditions each time - perhaps simply a different offset time - to avoid all the events happening at the same time.
SOLUTION 2: Random events can occur many times over the course of the game, and they
can be set to a single country. The downside to this is that you can't control when a random event will appear, and it simply may never appear at all if you're spectacularly unlucky. The only way around this would be to erase all the random events in the game (
not tested).
PROBLEM: The event triggers correctly, but some or all of the effects don't happen at all.
CAUSE: The most obvious cause is that the country receiving the event doesn't own the provinces affected. If an event command is set to affect numbered provinces (or countries) but these provinces (or countries) don't exist, nothing will happen.
Exception: the COT and provinceculture comands still work!
EXAMPLE: An event creates a rebellion in Flanders, but Holland ceded it to France earlier.
SOLUTION: If the location is not important, use the -1 (random) code instead. If the location is important, you can either set the trigger so it only pops up when it's possible, or you can write two events (with each other as NOT triggers) that cover two possible countries that could possess the province in question.
CAUSE 2: Be
very careful with syntax when you're scripting events. Sometimes the syntax changes and in some cases, the game will simply ignore the command entirely.
EXAMPLE 2:
command = { type = provincereligion which = protestant value = -2 }
should be:
command = { type = provincereligion which = -2 value = protestant }
SOLUTION 2: All I can say is,
check your syntax! Havard's guide is irreplaceable in this regard. I keep it handy whenever I'm writing events.
PROBLEM: The event works fine and there are no error messages, but not all the options show up!
CAUSE: Each option must have a different option letter, from a to d - and the game doesn't like more than four options.
EXAMPLE:
action_a = {
name = "Kill them all!"
command = { type = revoltrisk which = 100 value = 60 }
}
action_a = {
name = "Let them live."
command = { type = VP value = 5 }
}
SOLUTION: Make sure that each action has a different letter. (Also remember that regardless of the order, action A is the 'historical' action that is chosen by the AI about 85% of the time.)
