Reign of the Ancients: Bugs & Crashes

[Panjer]

Argh, this is doing my head in, how do I install this mod? Do I put it in the mod folder, the install folder or both?

 

[Mr. Charisma22]

Anyone else getting bug where the province menu screen is see through? Anyone have a fix for that?

 

[slitebg]

Hi everyone, joined the forums out of frustration with trying to make this awesome mod to work. I realize this is an old game and an old mod, so probably no support. But maybe someone can help me out, I see there are posts here in 2017.

So I had to install EU:R and the mod several times until I got them to work. I followed suggestions in this thread and the other RotA one and finally got the mod working! (With patch 2.36b and RotA 2.01) However, for some reason, in the Roman RotA campaign I started to get seemingly random crashes after the year 525 AUC (I had an old previous install where I played for hundreds of years game time, not a single crash). Strange that on new install I played so many game years without a single crash and then the save got 'corrupted' or something and just crashes randomly. So something is different on this install, and the CTD is nasty, no message, just straight to desktop. I can't seem to identify an ingame trigger. Happened on two separate saves now and I'm getting desperate. I really love this game, especially with this awesome mod. If anyone had similar issues please share your info, thank you!

 

[Chaos128]

Hi everyone, joined the forums out of frustration with trying to make this awesome mod to work. I realize this is an old game and an old mod, so probably no support. But maybe someone can help me out, I see there are posts here in 2017.

So I had to install EU:R and the mod several times until I got them to work. I followed suggestions in this thread and the other RotA one and finally got the mod working! (With patch 2.36b and RotA 2.01) However, for some reason, in the Roman RotA campaign I started to get seemingly random crashes after the year 525 AUC (I had an old previous install where I played for hundreds of years game time, not a single crash). Strange that on new install I played so many game years without a single crash and then the save got 'corrupted' or something and just crashes randomly. So something is different on this install, and the CTD is nasty, no message, just straight to desktop. I can't seem to identify an ingame trigger. Happened on two separate saves now and I'm getting desperate. I really love this game, especially with this awesome mod. If anyone had similar issues please share your info, thank you!

I had a similar crash issue myself, it turned out a country was at war with itself. So I had to just edit the save file and delete the war.

If its not that maybe its related to resolution/full screen mode. I had a crash issue that kept occurring during the same year. I went from windowed to full screen and for some odd reason this seemed to fix it. Not sure why exactly.

 

[slitebg]

Thank you so much for answering, I was beginning to think noone is going to! Okay, I read your post about the 'war on self' bug. First of all, how did you pinpoint the problem? I tried looking at every country I could click on the savegame load screen, where you pick a country. It seems all of them were at war with another nation or at peace. Second, even if this is the case (and I doubt it), how do I 'edit' my SG? I believe you mentioned picking the country that is at war with itself, it that the solution somehow? Interesting issue with resolution. Unfortunately, I have always played this game fullscreen and seemed to have no problems before, which is the most irritating part. Still, I will try switching back and forth in options, I recently found another game freezes in FScr and actually works in Windowed.

Thanks again for the suggestions. Anything else that comes to mind is welcome!

 

[Chaos128]

No problem slitebg! I actually found out about the War on Self bug somewhere in this forum. I read everything voraciously when I am trying to fix something. Odds are if I had the problem, someone else did too. I think in the ledger you can see who is at war with whom. I think there is a button in the bottom right hand corner to bring the ledger up. You won't need to load up as each individual country, just one is fine. Once you do you can read the ledger section that lists the wars. If one country is on both sides in a war, that is definitely a problem. Next, you need to find your saved game folder and edit your saved game file. Make a backup first. I suggest using Notepad++ to edit saved game files. You can find the section where the current wars are listed. The saved game file is immense, but there should be an area that lists the wars. You can try searching for instances of the specific tag of the country that is at war with itself. Once you find it, you can delete that part of the saved file and continue with your game. I am at work right now or else I'd post a step by step here. EU Rome is a great game, especially with Reign of the Ancients. The more people who can enjoy it the better.

The resolution might not be a problem with your game, that's definitely a plus.

 

[slitebg]

Wow, thank you for the quick and detailed answer! Although you have given a step-by-step instruction how to fix this issue, more info is always welcome. I didn't think of using this 'ledger' (never really used it ingame). I will check this way for a 'war on self' and I would be so grateful if I can overcome this nasty CTD. I totally agree, EU Rome has some nice mechanics, but RotA really makes it the game it should be IMO. It makes the game so much more alive, but also balanced and interesting. I also kinda like micro-managing games from time to time and EUR+RotA fits perfectly. This is why I searched forums online, like you, trying to find a solution. Fingers crossed that it's 'war on self', which means it's fixable!

UPDATE: Okay, here's what I did - I opened the game, loaded save (that crashes 100% on the same date in March 535 AUC), paused the game and opened the ledger. Took me some time to find out where to look for wars and stuff, but found it. No luck - all factions seemed to be at war only with other factions. So I unpaused and waited, ledger opened (don't know it it actually refreshes). Game still crashed 'as normal' on the same date. What a bummer.

So the question is: what did u do exactly to find out the 'same-faction' bug, where and what exactly did u see in the ledger? Was I doing it right? I'm sure this crash is caused by something trivial such as this (or it will happen on all saves, all dates). What I mean is this is the second save with Rome that ends up like this after years of playing very different campaigns and always end up crashing the same year. Very annoying and prevents me from playing this good game and awesome mod.

 

[Chaos128]

Wow, thank you for the quick and detailed answer! Although you have given a step-by-step instruction how to fix this issue, more info is always welcome. I didn't think of using this 'ledger' (never really used it ingame). I will check this way for a 'war on self' and I would be so grateful if I can overcome this nasty CTD. I totally agree, EU Rome has some nice mechanics, but RotA really makes it the game it should be IMO. It makes the game so much more alive, but also balanced and interesting. I also kinda like micro-managing games from time to time and EUR+RotA fits perfectly. This is why I searched forums online, like you, trying to find a solution. Fingers crossed that it's 'war on self', which means it's fixable!

UPDATE: Okay, here's what I did - I opened the game, loaded save (that crashes 100% on the same date in March 535 AUC), paused the game and opened the ledger. Took me some time to find out where to look for wars and stuff, but found it. No luck - all factions seemed to be at war only with other factions. So I unpaused and waited, ledger opened (don't know it it actually refreshes). Game still crashed 'as normal' on the same date. What a bummer.

So the question is: what did u do exactly to find out the 'same-faction' bug, where and what exactly did u see in the ledger? Was I doing it right? I'm sure this crash is caused by something trivial such as this (or it will happen on all saves, all dates). What I mean is this is the second save with Rome that ends up like this after years of playing very different campaigns and always end up crashing the same year. Very annoying and prevents me from playing this good game and awesome mod.

Basically for me what would trigger it would be when peace was enacted between the two sides. In my game Pontus was on both sides of a war with multiple nations/tribes. Around the same time of that particular game once both sides decided on peace the game would instantly crash. So here is what I did. Lets pretend Boii is on both sides in a war. To find this out we look at the ledger's diplomacy page. You may have to click next a few times until it shows up.

Now if the glitch is there Boii would be on both sides. Lets pretend it is in the 4th war. Now we know what to look for in the save.

Now in your mod's saved games folder or your regular saved games folder (if you copied and pasted the mod over the originally installation of EU:R) find your saved game for me its Dacia837_08_11 b4 dict.rome

Open it in notepad++

and search for "4th War of Boii Aggression"

Now if the glitch is there you would see
attacker="BOI"
defender="BOI"
To be safe, just delete the entire portion regarding the 4th War, save the saved game file under a different name and that should take care of it.

Actually slitebg, can you post your saved game, i'd be happy to take a look at it.

 

[Chaos128]

Another thing you could try, what does the diplomatic log say in the run up to the crash? Is it the same type of event that is occurring over and over again? or maybe something different?

A new issue I hadn't thought of, your saved game file might be getting too large. Try following the instructions from post 26 from -lolmaker- using notepad lite here
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ame-trimmer-tool-for-vae-victis.576916/page-2

 

[slitebg]

Chaos128, you are my savior! Thank God there are still such people in the world! ^_^ Оkay, let's start: I opened the ledger's diplomacy screen and there was NO war with self I could see. Maybe I'll load up again today just to make sure. Since I believe 'war-on-self' is is not the problem, here is my savegame:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/sp02n74qns4io6w/Rome535_02_12.rome

It's dated on my birthday Didn't help though. Game crashes for me at the middle of March, every single time, no matter what I try ingame. Maybe you'll have better luck.

Your help is much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Chaos128]

slitebg, I took a look at the save, tried trimming it and also checked the wars. I even made several of the countries stop their wars but still March 18, the game crashes no matter what I do. Its extremely frustrating, I wish I could fix it, but it seemed to be beyond my skills. Do you have any earlier saved games? Maybe you can get past the "crash point" in one of them, its a drag to have to replay all of those years, but maybe the problem is unique to this save.

 

[slitebg]

First of all, I sincerely thank you for spending precious time on my save. I'm sorry to hear you get the same results. The bad news is the problem is not unique - the reason I came to the forums was I tried all of the above and this is not my first save or my first full EU:R RotA installation that crashes in this exact period. The pain is not playing all those years again, the pain is having to play to that exact date every time and still CTD, despite the different installation or how the save played out.

As you said, really frustrating because it seems it's not a random CTD at all - it's a 'set' CTD, unavoidable. Strangest thing is that it crashes when you use it too, so probably not my PC or my game setup are the culprits. I still believe maybe I have a corrupt installation or something, and that corrupted the savegame. Maybe at some point, out of desperation, I will try to completely reinstall again with a fresh copy of the game and the mod (although we all know what a headache it is to install and run this mod properly).

Thanks again for your time and effort.

 

[Chaos128]

First of all, I sincerely thank you for spending precious time on my save. I'm sorry to hear you get the same results. The bad news is the problem is not unique - the reason I came to the forums was I tried all of the above and this is not my first save or my first full EU:R RotA installation that crashes in this exact period. The pain is not playing all those years again, the pain is having to play to that exact date every time and still CTD, despite the different installation or how the save played out.

As you said, really frustrating because it seems it's not a random CTD at all - it's a 'set' CTD, unavoidable. Strangest thing is that it crashes when you use it too, so probably not my PC or my game setup are the culprits. I still believe maybe I have a corrupt installation or something, and that corrupted the savegame. Maybe at some point, out of desperation, I will try to completely reinstall again with a fresh copy of the game and the mod (although we all know what a headache it is to install and run this mod properly).

Thanks again for your time and effort.

No problem man, glad to help. You could try another play though except this time either full screen the entire time instead of windowed or vice versa. I remember once playing full screen helped get past a crash point. It didn't work with your save, but its worth a shot.

 

[slitebg]

To be honest, I don't have the time or the nerves to start a new campaign right now. I guess I'll wait until I'm itching to try again and then follow your advice. I'm pretty sure the windowed/fullscreen thing is not the issue, but it seems we've checked out every other possible reason we can think of. Oh well, plenty of nice games and mods out there, even for my outdated rig. Let 'issues' such as these be our biggest problems

 

[sillent]

This mod is a CTD simulator, there is no way to play this mod for more than 1 year without crashing.

 

[slitebg]

This mod is a CTD simulator, there is no way to play this mod for more than 1 year without crashing.

I beg your pardon sir, this is not true. Maybe an improper installation could cause multiple CTDs but I personally have played the mod CTD-free for hundreds of years of game time. Yes, now I have encountered a game-breaking CTD which is awful etc. but I wouldn't blame the mod, since many people seem to enjoy it without problems.

What I'm trying to say is not that this mod is perfect, or EU:Rome for that matter. Still, you can see for yourself how much hours have gone into this brilliant mod. It surely makes EU:Rome what it should have been, at least according to my personal taste. Is it stable? I'd say yes. Is it absolutely unshakable and CTD-free? No, not by a long shot. But I urge you to point us to a game and especially a mod with no CTDs or other problems. I'm not saying there are none, but there are very rare indeed.

These mods are created and published for free and for our enjoyment. If we pay for this, I would say we could be very unhappy, with right. I value your opinion on the mod's stability, but referring to it as a 'CTD simulator', even if that's the case for you, is just not fair.

 

[CrowSky]

I'm getting negative enemy casualties in combat during governor breakaway wars (which usually results in me losing the battle). Any idea why combat is causing the enemy's numbers to grow?

 

[Chaos128]

Hey slitebg, I know its been a very long time, but i took another look at your save. Looks like I didn't use the trimming formula correctly, I tried it again but instead of just using the following instructions...


"Open your savegame file in EditPad and bring up the search dialogue (button on bottom left corner). Click the button that says "Regex" and the "Dot" button next to it, so they are both selected. In the "Search" box, type:
Code:

^\t\thistory.*?^\t\t}

And in the "Replace" box, type:
Code:

\t\thistory={}

Click the "Replace All" button and let it do its thing. This will delete all character history.""

I went the next step and tried

"than u need to get rid of dead characters:

use formula: ^\t\tfather.*?^\t\t} --> "literally nothing, i mean litarally"
analogivally to: ^\t\thistory.*?^\t\t} --> \t\thistory={}

than do the same with mother and children to destroy blood connections, otherwise it crashes"

So now the save goes past March, I am in August now, so give it a shot.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BbShqUuqDqgssCl7KB9yvqqhxYx2lTEy/view?usp=sharing

 

[slitebg]

You are a true wizard, my friend! I can confirm this altered savegame solved the CTD and I can play until next year, at least with this particular copy of the save. This means the problem is in the save itself and not my rig or game/mod installation. I'll have to test more extensively, but it's clear you found the solution. What causes the issue in the first place is still unknown which is the downside. Since it was not the first save to be corrupted, all the Rome saves I start crashed at that point. Which means any new save (at least with the same faction - maybe the most important one - Rome) is still going to crash in the same way, on the same date. The only way to 'prevent' this from happening again in a new save if I somehow understood the method you described in above post, this 'trimming' so I can 'clean' the saves myself, since you cannot do it for me every time, that much is clear! Does the fact that you have such knowledge of these fixes mean your own savegames have gotten corrupted the same (or similar) way? Isn't there a way to extrapolate the cause of the issue by following your solution?

Anyway, thank you again wholeheartedly for your time and your help... I can now play this nice game again and will use this Rome save as far I can...

 

[Moredrug]

Hi,

Wanted to play the game a bit as Imperator reveal got me into the mood.
Installed the game as per instructions, but m game fails to recreate provinces textures for some reason.
Anyone with a working version of RoTW would be so kind to upload the somewhere?
These files are located in: Europa Universalis Rome\map\cache\province_textures

Using provinces textures from base game instead of one created by the mod gives me graphical glitches so kinda sucks to play.