French traders cause freezing

[Emre Yigit]

OK, I read the Uglyduck thread. So there.

I have a problem which I wonder whether anyone else has encountered? This problem has only happened in my last game, when I was playing the 1617 scenario. I'm using v1.05, and have not encountered this problem in either the 1419 scenario or the 1773 (both with v.105).

In brief: the game froze. In 1710, October 10 or something. Fortunately, I always save at end-quarters. Alt-shifted out of EU, then ran the savegame. Same problem, same date. Aha! Going through the savegame line by line, I noted several things that were supposed to happen on or around that date. Taking backups, I deleted each one, then ran the game. No help until I deleted the French traders that were due to arrive in Ile de France (province/cot id 385). Presto! It worked.

Thinking that the problem was over, I ran the game again. Same freeze on 8 January 1711. This time I just opened the autosave and removed the traders. Again, the game continued - until 7 March, when the problem repeated.... Yep, same freeze. Try again, freeze on 9 January. (Tried umpteen times, the game freezes either immediately on 8 January or on 9 January.)

(By "freeze" I mean everything looks OK, animations move, I can start building troops or tax collectors or whatever, check my log - but cannot save or reload in-game. Only the date stops advancing.)

As of, say, 1 January 1711, the offending COT was inhabited as follows:

cot = { 
    location = 385 
    merchant = { tag = ENG level = 0.000 value = 0.000 } [i]
    merchant = { 
        tag = FRA 
        level = 0.000 
        value = 0.000 
        extra = { 
            country = FRA 
            date = { year = 1711 month = january day = 8 } 
            location = 385 
            success = yes 
            } 
        } [/i]
    merchant = { tag = HOL level = 5.000 value = 185.530 } 
    merchant = { tag = POR level = 4.000 value = 117.313 } 
    merchant = { tag = SPA level = 0.000 value = 0.000 } 
    merchant = { tag = SWE level = 2.000 value = 46.584 } 
    merchant = { tag = TUR level = 2.000 value = 40.001 } 
    merchant = { tag = POL level = 1.000 value = 20.100 } 
    merchant = { tag = PFA level = 0.000 value = 0.000 } 
    merchant = { tag = SCO level = 2.000 value = 58.695 } 
    merchant = { tag = MOG level = 0.000 value = 0.000 } 
    merchant = { tag = EIR level = 2.000 value = 45.202 } 
    merchant = { tag = BRA level = 1.000 value = 21.252 } 
    merchant = { tag = XHO level = 0.000 value = 0.000 } 
    merchant = { tag = ORI level = 0.000 value = 0.000 } 
    }

Remove the section in italics and the game runs fine. Until the next time.

Now, I have looked at events in the other COTs, but can see similar situations which cause no crash. Now, I can hardly give France trade tech 0, nor can I remove knowledge of their capital city! Can anyone help? My current best guess is that it has something to do with 19 traders already at the COT. (Why do I think this? Because I cannot send traders to some heavily populated COTs - a minor annoyance by comparison.)

(PS, I can't really upload the game because I have an abysmal internet connection at home which crashes when transferring large files.)

(PPs, clean install, never had any problems with EU/ occasional CTDs with EU2, game started in US version 1.05, P2 400MHz, 256MB RAM - and I do not think this is a system issue.)

Can this possible be a bug? I have checked the bug list and my "minor annoyance" bug (limits on traders that can be sent) is listed as #161. Could this be a variant of #208? Might this have occurred on a number of non-reproduceable freezes reported elsewhere on this forum?

I think this is a CRITICAL issue. (But it does kill the game....)

Best regards.

 

[viper37]

it sounds like a bug and should have been posted in the bug forum

anyway, I'll handle it here as I don't visit the bug forum quite often nowadays

send me your save game at viper37@sympatico.ca (give me your nick and a link to the thread); I will replicate the freeze and forward it to Johan; he'll take care of it when he comes back from vacation.

It could be a variant of bug #161 but definately not #208.

 

[Mediator]

@ Viper
That seems to be the problem I am also encountering (in the clock stops thread). You should have got my save game file by the time to check if it is the same problem with the French COT. When I removed all traders to arrive in every COT. the game continued also (I will also check it in the evening with only the French COT).

I agree that it is a critical issue since it forces you to save frequently (other option is to regularly empty the COT totally, than you can play a couple of years longer before the freeze).

 

[viper37]

I agree with both of you that it is critical.

I will forward both files to Johan, but to solve your problem(s) until 1.06 is released, I think you'll have to edit the files manually

 

[Mediator]

It is annoying, but as soon as you know how to deal with it, you can work around it.

 

[viper37]

file as been forwarded, he'll look into it as soon as he is back

 

[AndrewT]

Johan has diagnosed and fixed this problem for next release. It was caused by sending infinite merchants in certain circumstances. There is an way to edit savegame to avoid this... Go through and increase the tradetech on anyone below tradetech 3.