Modmakers Guide: Common Crashes, Glitches, Errors, and AI problems

[Krayzeenbk]

Hello everyone...

I installed Womok's terrain mod and it worked perfect... then I noticed that it was not displaying some forests (it just displayed bare grasslands). So I saved the game, exited, and copied/pasted forests into the spaces that should have had them (I used the original grassland forests.pcx for reference). Then, I loaded the game in civ3 and.... illegal operation.

I replaced grassland forests.pcx with Womok's original, and it still crashed. Then I replaced it with the civ3 pcx, and still the game wouldn't load.

Then I started a new game, everything seemed to work fine... I right clicked some terrain just to check if it's forest or grassland, and at about the third right-click the terrain box that appeared had no 'X' in the upper-right corner (what does that have to do with grassland forests.pcx?!). The next turn, as soon as the science advisor popped up asking you to select your first research target, the game exited to the desktop.

Firaxis has created some fantastic barriers for modders...

[Pythagoras]

Whatsup, I tried adding a 'pioneer' unit - a modded settler using your tutorial. (uses a copy of settler graphics) However when I attempted to select the unit to build Civ3 crashed and went to the desktop.

[thamis]

A common error in self-made maps in CIV3 is that the game just exists on certain events:

I had the following problems (with no solution):

- Exchanging maps
Whenever the map that I got contained a certain part of the world, the game just exits.

- AI builds improvements
I got the message "The Greeks are building Hanging Gardens". I click "OK" -> exit.

Strange...

Here's one I found the solution to:

If you include sound files with a wrong bitrate, the game will exit whenever it attemps to play them!

[Amesjustin]

Originally posted by Rothy
If you add 25 or more icons in the resources.pcx file, they wont show on the map.

My mod has 30 resources and they all show up and work fine! I have tried several configurations and have never had a problem!

[Elucidus]

Also, I think I saw this mentioned earlier, but governors are stupid unless they are set on Food. They will let cities die. I don't mean ones from war either, ones that we built. That is dumb.

Anyone know how to change the base city tiles food output? That would clear a lot of things up.

[Imp. Montezuma]

CRUSH: Tile property

Well, v1.21, cracked civ3edit, huge map, up to 31 civs, extra UUs, moddings. Right-click on any tile ->Property... CRUSH!!!

[Father Beast]

I noticed that when I set the "not needed for era advancement" flag on all the ancient techs, the middle ages techs were immediately available, as expected. but, the ancient age techs were unresearchable.

[Elucidus]

I have seen a problem with adding new units with the icon for what is currently being built in the city view screen. It seems that the icon is derived from what is in the flc files. Maybe default flic.

For example I use the canoe flc and use the galley's icon, because I couldn't get the one I made for the canoe to work. Well, low and behold when I am building a canoe the canoe's icon appears there and not the galley.

The thing is, sometimes the icon is completely off. Sometimes a B2 is displayed in place of a spearman. It is just really weird. I wish I knew exactly where it got those icons.

Also I seem to be having a problem any icons to the units32.pcx. I made the icons in the file. Heck for the fire galleyt, I just copied the galley and added a streak of fire to the front and anytime it tried to display the icon, the entire game crashed to the desktop.

Anyone have any insight on any of these.

Thanks.

[Thrawn05]

Great thread, it's making me consider what could be causeing my game to crash with what I edited it with.

So far, I havn't seen anyone say anything about changing the leader face animations to cause a crash. I made my own *.flc files (basicly, 1 frame picture, and is used for both forward and backwards animations) and with out warning, the game will crash. Sometimes I can just restart the game and continue onward, other times I just have to start a new game.

Has anyone else get into making leader faces?

[Elucidus]

True, but that is only a minor side-effect.

[Alcatraz]

nope, but cities near the ocean but not ON the coast are getting the increased food benefit from the harbors.

[Elucidus]

I believe that is to represent the power of the hoover dam. Those cities gain something from the Hoover Dam. The other cities gain nothing from having a harbor. They can't build ships, so they can build veterans, etc...

[lockstep]

Originally posted by Alcatraz
New glitch: Set a wonder to give every city a coastal installation, and every city gets it, on the coast or not. That harbor sure looks funny in the middle of the desert....

It's like the Hoover Dam giving hydro plants in every city on the continent, near a river or not ...

[Alcatraz]

New glitch: Set a wonder to give every city a coastal installation, and every city gets it, on the coast or not. That harbor sure looks funny in the middle of the desert....

[Alcatraz]

More questions:
What happens if you flag a wonder to give every city a building, but you don't yet have the tech to build the building?

What happens if you switch governments while building a gov't req'd wonder?

What happens if a wonder gives every city a gov't req'd building?

Why oh why can't I flag a unit to only operate within it's nations borders?