Cradle III and CTP2 AE

[MisterEd]

Did a fresh install of CTP2, patched it to v1.11, installed CTP2 AE v1013, installed Modswapper v1.2, installed Cradle III, and the 8.8.09 pacth. Started a new game, everything working fine until turn 54 when I got a CTD. Crash.txt and saved game attached. Playing the Govt-specific unit version of Cradle III.

[MisterEd]

Another CTD

This time I was playing EPIC, got to 60+ turns before the CTD

[MisterEd]

And Another

Got to turn 151 before this CTD. Again playing cradle EPIC.

[MisterEd]

Got 70 turns

Same setup as before.

[MisterEd]

58 turns before CTD

I seem to be regressing in the number of turns I can get before CTD.

[DakaSha]

so does anybody have a comment on this? Its nice that people are working on this on their own free time but any help would be appreciated. Or at least a: "Doesn't work don't waist your time on it"

[DakaSha]

Just hit new turn and the game will crash to desktop.
Ill mess with the cheat mode to see if i can figure out why.

On 2 side notes:
The AI seems to build almost exclusively commerce tile improvements... (although not in this specific game.. yet.. they haven't researched the tech for it) this is really atmosphere destroying. Also they seem to stockpile the tile improvement points and then use them all in one go (i see the ai with 3500+ points)

Maybe its some deep AI routine but it seems kinda inefficient. Not a huge deal though i suppose. Mostly commerce improvements on the other hand is meh

--edit1--
If i take control of the blue player the game doesn't crash. So i guess the problem lies with that AI (or some kind of setup the AI cant handle)

--edit2--
deleting a not yet known number of seemingly random units prevents the crash. Not sure if this is directly related to the number of units/upkeep or if it just changes the "logical path" the AI takes to calculate the turn, thus preventing going down the path that ends up in a crash.. i guess if i knew how to actually debug this it may help some :P

--edit3--
well duh i see the debug options now although i only get errors if i click "reload SLIC" What does this mean?
Im capable enough of understanding/editing the slc files but i need a reliable way of debugging this.

Sorry about all the edits but seeing that i have no understanding of the way the game/mod is built up this helps me keep things organized and lets you guys who do know how this works take a look :P

Anyways if I delete a random city it also doesn't crash..

So im pretty much stumped now. I guess its just some path its taking giving the current empire setup

[DakaSha]

Ok well i seemed to have narrowed it down to the patriarchs (prob any unit capable of converting) trying to convert a city while stacked.

Please try my save game and take control of blue. search for the patriarch and move his stack to the closest orange city. try to convert. it will crash.

Reload and ungroup him. then try to convert. it will work.

It wouldnt surprise me if all units with special abilities that stack will cause the problem...

It would be cool if somebody looked into this after i found out the reason.. (at least it very much seems so. i can replicate the problem and i can solve it the same way)

Im taking a wild guess that the reason it didnt crash when deleting units and/or city's is plainly because the AI decided to do something different, which resulted in the patriarch not converting the city (or ungrouping then converting)

Im going to test with different units and check out the unit spreadsheats

--edit1--
Seems to be only Convert causing the problem. Tried it with a prophet and got the same thing but no problem with the other 2 special "attacks"

Could it be that the AI only stacks units with attack higher then 0? Because ive never seen the problem with prophets. The reason im asking is because when i run AI game tests i only get this problem with patriarchs. (I havnt run alot of tests since discovering this but so far its always been them.. and since they are a special unit and not freely available chances are it only happens with them.. and possibly any other converters with attack > 0)

So im assuming that the AI only stacks when attack > 0. Meaning there is a bug causing conversion to not work when stacked... and cradle is allowing the AI to crash the game by giving the patriarch (and other special units) >0 Attack

Im going to edit the patriarchs attack to 0 and see if i get any more crashes. (and prob have to remove the convert ability for the combat based special units)

Either way there is obviously a problem with stacked converters

[hexagonian]

This sounds logical, and is worth a shot

(as a sidenote, in my older SC setup, Patriarchs also have an attack value of 5, and from what I have seen, it does not crash the game)

[DakaSha]

Maybe the AE improved the AI in the last update (Because there really is no reason to stack a 0 attack unit)

Just ran my first AI only game to 1500BC without a crash. gonna try the next

[DakaSha]

Sooo...
I *seem* to not be getting this crash anymore... Except when i (thankfully) tried a new map set up with islands.. Why? I think because the damn AI is trying to convert directly from a ship... which is already buggy in itself. But it seems to only do it when your not watching. thats right. The ai only cheats when you cant see it lol

If you check the savegame youll see that orange has a patriarch loaded into a ship that can reach the enemy city in one turn.

Hit end turn. Crash

Reload and turn off fog of war. center on that area. Hit end turn... the patriarch disembarks first and THEN tries to convert loool. What a sneaky bastard. Also.. no crash

If i remove the convert ability from the patriarch and try there are no crashes either way

So in short: Convert needs to be worked on.. (unless im wrong of course and this is just coincidence)

For now im going to remove convert completely and see what happens

Edited by Martin Gühmann:
The content of the crash.txt included in the post properly, so that I am not downloading it all the time just to see what it actually says.

Code:

Version 2010-02-20
  0x0046e52f  [?ConvertCity@ArmyData@@QAE?AW4ORDER_RESULT@@ABVMapPoint@@@Z + 0x22f]
  0x00477ae2  [?ExecuteSpecialOrder@ArmyData@@QAE_NPAVOrder@@AA_N@Z + 0x442]
  0x00472bca  [?ExecuteOrders@ArmyData@@QAE_N_N@Z + 0x44a]
  0x004725ef  [?AddOrders@ArmyData@@QAEXW4UNIT_ORDER_TYPE@@PAVPath@@ABVMapPoint@@HW4GAME_EVENT@@@Z + 0x64f]
  0x00471ca9  [?AddOrders@ArmyData@@QAEXW4UNIT_ORDER_TYPE@@ABVMapPoint@@@Z + 0x19]
  0x0047c844  [?GEVHookCallback@ArmyConvertCityOrderEvent@@EAE?AW4GAME_EVENT_HOOK_DISPOSITION@@W4GAME_EVENT@@PAVGameEventArgList@@@Z + 0x54]
  0x00580a87  [?Activate@GameEventHook@@QBE?AW4GAME_EVENT_ERR@@PAVGameEventArgList@@HAAH@Z + 0x37]
  0x00581448  [?ActivateHook@GameEventManager@@QAE?AW4GAME_EVENT_ERR@@W4GAME_EVENT@@PAVGameEventArgList@@HAAH@Z + 0x28]
  0x0057f56d  [?Process@GameEvent@@QAE?AW4GAME_EVENT_ERR@@XZ + 0x2d]
  0x0040c291  [?Process@CivApp@@QAEHXZ + 0x201]
  0x00406ef4  [?CivMain@@YGHPAUHINSTANCE__@@0PADH@Z + 0x394]
  0x00406925  [WinMain@16 + 0x65]
  0x0080ea8c  [WinMainCRTStartup + 0x134]
  0x7c816fe7  [__onexitbegin + 0x7be3f1ef]

[hexagonian]

On 2 side notes:
The AI seems to build almost exclusively commerce tile improvements... (although not in this specific game.. yet.. they haven't researched the tech for it) this is really atmosphere destroying. Also they seem to stockpile the tile improvement points and then use them all in one go (i see the ai with 3500+ points)

Maybe its some deep AI routine but it seems kinda inefficient. Not a huge deal though i suppose. Mostly commerce improvements on the other hand is meh

I've seen arguments supporting each type (commerce, production, food) of tile improvement as the best to build in the game, so for me, its not a huge issue. As long as the AI is maintaining empire growth through number of cities, it can provide competition, which is the bottom line for me.

Without the Source Code influence, the AI would primarily focus on farms.

[DakaSha]

Personally (which is of course a personal opinion..duh) the AI should build everything just for atmospheres sake. and small cheat bonuses could make up for commerce loss.

But nothing but trade on the map just destroys the feel.

Btw so far getting rid of conversion has worked as a band aid fix

[hexagonian]

For your setup, you can limit specific tile improvements to specific tile types.

[MisterEd]

Get rid of conversion attack to stop CTD?

Btw so far getting rid of conversion has worked as a band aid fix

How did you do that?