Patch v152 out

[wardhali]

i didn't mean to be rude, i was just frustrated and overtierd (one... more... turn...)

sorry if offence was taken

[Martin Gühmann]

My problem with the new patch is that I can't play the game at all, although I was able to play before. All I get this message that CIVILIZATION4 caused an error in module MSVCR71.DLL by an invalid page.

And can bypass the problem by using the debugger I get by pressing on the debug button, but running the game on a debugger isn't a very clever solution. It eats all the promissed performance improvements if not more.

-Martin

[thamer]

Originally posted by Badtz Maru
Since upgrading to 1.52 I've seen a lot more graphic corruption. Before 1.52, movies skipped, and the skipping got a lot worse with 1.09, but you could still watch the movie (or skip to the end), now nearly all of my wonder movies fill the movie with red, brown, and tan stripes. As the game progresses, I start getting all black or all red screens instead of the 3d animated leaders during diplomacy with increasing frequency...

Have you tried setting low texture resolution in the game options? It might help with graphics corruption.

[jjcole]

win by diplomacy impossible?

I'm using the latest patch, but when in hotseat mode i still can't seem to win by diplomacy. I get a message telling me I've received the required votes, but the game then continues as though nothing happened.

Anybody else found this? Firaxis? Can we fix this?

regards

jane c

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Libertarian
Please stop advising people to disable their virus protection just to increase the amount of memory available for a game. It is hard to imagine more irresponsible advice than that.

Most people are not likely to get a virus these days if they are careful. Firewall, OTOH, is essential. Although if a user is connecting to the Net via a switch/router box, he probably doesn't need a firewall on his own computer.

[thamer]

Originally posted by aebbeka
Well I don't see any way possible of modifying the file. It seems to be encrypted throughout the entire thing.

Maybe I can help. The part of the save file you need to access isn't compressed or encrypted so you should be able to get at it. However, you need to open the file up in a hex editor or something that can handle the binary file format (http://www.download.com/3000-2352-10354867.html).

Here is the initial format of the save file, up to the admin password. The strings first write out the string size, then the string itself (if the string exists).

Write(int version) - 4 bytes
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
Write(int) - 4 bytes
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
Write(int) - 4 bytes
Write(int) - 4 bytes
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString(AdminPassword) - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString(MapScriptName) - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)

I think what you'll have to do is set the admin pwd size to 0 and then delete the admin pwd string from the file.

Good luck

[meriadoc]

I just want to write a quick thank you note to the guys at Firaxis. Admittedly, I haven't had time to play Civ IV since I installed patch v1.52, but I appreciate the effort in getting out so quickly.

Also, thank you for including my most desired feature, the ability to save sign posts in the saved game.

[TheSarge]

Originally posted by Libertarian
Please stop advising people to disable their virus protection just to increase the amount of memory available for a game. It is hard to imagine more irresponsible advice than that.

Actualy, that's not a bad idea... if you disconect from the internet (as in, shut off the modem) before you shut off your antivirus, that is. Terminating unnessisary processes before you run a game is a classic system-optimisation stratagy.
Of course, never do this if you're running a multiplayer game. For that, you want al your protection programs running, including your antivirus.

[opaque]

After installing the patch I am getting one or two problems, some of which seem to have been mentioned here.

There are definitely more crash to desktops than before. I've not had any in single player, but in multiplayer and hotseat a number of times the game has dropped for no apparent reason. In hotseat, it is usually between turns. I have changed autosave to save every turn, but nonetheless rebooting is a bit of an annoyance.

Someone mentioned a problem with leaders eyes. I had that on 1.09, but I don't seem to have it with the current patch unless I just didn't notice it.

I don't know what has happened to combat. Have any major changes been made to it? I have had grenadiers fighting samurais with combat odds of 13 to 10 and they have been losing an absurd number of times for me to think it's more than just bad luck.

Also, in hotseat games, the player who has their turn before the AI players gets to see all the attacks being made on them, however the players who are followed by other players do not see the moves against them. For me, this means I have to click on the event log and click each event to see what happened if there is lots going on between turns. The little flashing icons disappear too quickly to read them all if there are lots of them.

Also, all options do get reset after each patch, because a profile created under a previous patch will not load when a new one is installed, so the game recreates the default profile with all the default options.

[player1]

Well, at least you do have a log.
Remember Civ3 Hotseat where there were not even logs. You are left guessing what happend in the last turn.

[thamer]

152 crashes

If you are crashing with V152, set GenerateCrashDumps=1 in the config ini file and save out a normal sized crash dump. Then post it or send it to me thru this forum and I'll try to check it out and see what's going on. No guarantees but I might be able to get more info as to what's happening. Normally GenerateCrashDumps defaults to 0 since you want to send your error reports to Microsoft.

[Martin Gühmann]

Re: 152 crashes

Originally posted by thamer
If you are crashing with V152, set GenerateCrashDumps=1 in the config ini file and save out a normal sized crash dump. Then post it or send it to me thru this forum and I'll try to check it out and see what's going on. No guarantees but I might be able to get more info as to what's happening.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to generate a dump. However this "fancy" message box came up. At first I wondered why there weren't any buttons on it. Then I realized those three extra windows, that looked to be supposed to be buttons. But they don't seem to work. Why can't you use just a simple windows message box for that. Maybe it would be very helpful to know the place where I could find the dump on my hardrive. However I can give you some logs the game created.

And I can add another little bit of information. The game crashes in my case after a while the game init box reached the point XML (uncached).

Originally posted by thamer
Normally GenerateCrashDumps defaults to 0 since you want to send your error reports to Microsoft.

Not really, I don't trust them. They accused me to use an illegitimate copy of windows, just because I wanted to download the latest version of DirectX. In other words they assumed I was a pirate and they exspected from me to prove the opposite. Not very nice.

-Martin

[thamer]

Re: Re: 152 crashes

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann

Unfortunately I wasn't able to generate a dump. However this "fancy" message box came up. At first I wondered why there weren't any buttons on it. Then I realized those three extra windows, that looked to be supposed to be buttons. But they don't seem to work. Why can't you use just a simple windows message box for that. Maybe it would be very helpful to know the place where I could find the dump on my hardrive. However I can give you some logs the game created.

And I can add another little bit of information. The game crashes in my case after a while the game init box reached the point XML (uncached).



Not really, I don't trust them. They accused me to use an illegitimate copy of windows, just because I wanted to download the latest version of DirectX. In other words they assumed I was a pirate and they exspected from me to prove the opposite. Not very nice.

-Martin

I'm not sure why the dump message box isn't showing up. It's a standard windows dialog with 3 buttons. The button text should be in the app resources. The button you want is the button on the left. It should save out the file to:
C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Local Settings\Temp\Civilization4.dmp

According to your logs, the game crashed loading this file:
xml\text\civ4gametext_new.xml

That file is just used to provide translated text. If it's been modified or somehow corrupted it could be causing the problem.
There are a few things you could do:
1. delete the file. The game should proceed but you might see TXT_KEY_FOO in the game instead of actual text.
2. Try to re-install that file
3. Use an older version of that file from V109

Let me know how it goes.
Also, the MS error reporting is the only way we can get crash dumps (thru their system), other than people sending it to us manually. That's why I suggested it. I understand your concerns though.

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by thamer
Here is the initial format of the save file, up to the admin password. The strings first write out the string size, then the string itself (if the string exists).

Write(int version) - 4 bytes
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
Write(int) - 4 bytes
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
Write(int) - 4 bytes
Write(int) - 4 bytes
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString(AdminPassword) - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)
WriteString(MapScriptName) - 4 bytes then string (N bytes)

I think what you'll have to do is set the admin pwd size to 0 and then delete the admin pwd string from the file.

Good luck

thanks a lot for this overview!

unfortunatly it doesn't work. i managed to figure out the position of the admin password (where i had assumed it), but setting the length to 0 and deleting the string doesn't work unfortunatly.

at least i got it that it loads up without a runtime error. but the error message is still the "protect assets [...]" one.

comparing games that use admin password and games that don't, i also saw that the bold values (see in your quote) are all inexistant too in the unprotected games. should i remove those aswell?

[sabrewolf]

to answer myself: yes, that's the solution! thanks thamer.

but one thing strikes me odd: when i loaded the game i was offered that my own capital would be willing to join my empire. the stupid thing is that a settler build was close to completion and now it's all gone.
is that a side effect of the hex editing? anything i can do against this annoying effect?