Unfortunately crashes are notoriously difficult to diagnose if there isn't some kind of reproducible cause. Does the issue happen when you're running *only* VIET and no other mods? Otherwise can't really think of what else since I haven't encountered the issue myself of course. Since you're already aware of it, might want to check other threads about CTDs for those who have it with other mods or vanilla, and see if there's any common trends that might be related to your issue.
Thank you for responding. Unfortunately, at least on these forums, the other crashing/freezing technical threads only share one thing in a common: the same recommendations ("Do you have a 12th generation Intel CPU? You probably do,"), the same troubleshooting recommendations, and no one actually confirming a solution (either they report it hasn't helped, or they don't report it being fixed, which could go either way). Since it's actually pretty easy to get CK3 to crash with zero mods installed just on startup (fortunately it's not guaranteed), I've decided to troubleshoot with the five mods I have installed (yours, CFP, Beauty is Congenital, and Invites for Noble and Invites for Debutantes). I found the same mod arrangement on Steam also caused the same freezing, rather than a less infuriating but still bad CTD, so you can't blame Microsoft for their file structure/secure sandbox, that's all on Paradox.
I'm going to try troubleshooting with a slightly different arrangement,
and a new save (on the Xbox for Windows version, since I established the same bug is reproducible on Steam). See if that makes a difference. It might just be a case of "Paradox broke their game so badly with the most recent update, you probably shouldn't play it for a few months"--they basically admitted half of that when they rushed through two hotfixes immediately after their mandatory update. That, or just "obtain" an older version of the game, with that version's DLC options, and play it like that. If you're going to lose your saves either way, who wouldn't prefer a game that CTD every few hours, instead of one that completely freezes your PC and forces a mechanical restart every 5 to 10 minutes?
Still, thanks for your help. I'm pretty sure it's not VIET, and if it is somehow related, it's still on Paradox for breaking everything so badly even by their own standards. In the last eight years of
Stellaris, I don't remember any update being
this broken.
