B3 - CTD When adding ship components – Reproducible

Please install 'SmartException' from the free stuff section in Stardock Central. Make sure that SE is running and start your game as normal. If the game crashes it will generate an exception report that can be emailed to [email protected].

Include in/attached to the email:
+ A description of what you were doing at the time.
+ How to reproduce the crash (if possible).
+ A zipped save (if applicable).
+ The appropriate debug.err file.

The devs cannot help if you do not provide these details!

Yeah, we're not able to reproduce this one over here   A smart exception log or a debug.err would help us stomp-out this CTD

Thanks Paul!

Well gee! I thought it was since it was so reproducable you'd be able to see it happen over there! That's why i didn't bother with the usuals, DOPE!

I should have been a lot more specific too, again i thought it was a super easy thing so i didn't spend a lot of time reporting it.

I run the game with the debug tools enabled (for obvious reasons), as i imagine most of you do too. So this is how to reproduce the bug:

Start a game as the Terrans (dunno if it's race specific, i'm just being specific this time), once you're at the main map CTRL + SHIFT + R to give yourself all the techs (this is probably why you couldn't reproduce it earlier, the problem wasn't in your components list), then open up the shipyard, click UPGRADE to go ahead and upgrade the first highlighted ship, click on the modules tab, then click on the weapons tab, CTD.

I just reproduced it here on my laptop, and it happened on my workstation earlier. Do forgive the out of date drivers in the debug.err file (this is my laptop after all, ), i don't think they have anything to do with it, as my workstation drivers are all up to date.

Here is the debug.err, and smart exception report:

Shipyard CTD Info

LogicSequence,

I'm unable to reproduce the crash.  Please save your game before you go to the ship yard.  Zip it and send it in to [email protected].   This way we can see if there is something wrong with your data files, or if there is something in your race configuration that is causing the crash.

After you try that, you could try deleting your /my documents/my games/gc2TwilightArnor folder  (or renaming it if you want to preserve the files)

This resets the game back to its defaults.  Try doing the steps to reproduce it, and please let us know if you still get the crash.

Thanks.

Well there's nothing custom about the race config, it's the default config, and it's happening both on my laptop and on my workstation. I'm on my laptop again now, but i'll go ahead and grab a savegame, and re-generate a new smartexception report for you.

UPDATE:

I've narrowed it down to the prefs.ini file. Generating a new prefs.ini solved the problem, however the moment i put the old one back, the crash is in. So you might stick that prefs file in your system and see if you can reproduce it. Notice too, when you use the prefs.ini file in the ZIP, that you'll see a bunch of 'blank' black 'missing' ship components listed when you upgrade the ship, something you WILL NOT see using a new prefs.ini file.

I suppose it's really not worth testing if the solution is as simple as deleting your prefs file, did the format for the file, or any options change? I suppose it could be my combination of preferences that's causing a problem, in that case i suppose it would be worth looking at. Anyways, in the ZIP is the smartexception report (new), a savegame, my prefs.ini file, my TerranAlliance.customracexml file, and debug.err file. FINALLY that should be everyting you need to reproduce the crash, like i said it's happening on two different computers for me (though i will just reset my prefs file and move on).

Shipyard Crash Files 2

Narrowed it down to unchecking "remove functional components". Once you uncheck that, you get a CTD like i said, at least over here on my end.

I deleted the GC2TwilightArnor folder in My Documents, which reset all the preferences. I then played with the default prefs.ini file, not even changing the screen resolution, the game plays fine, no CTD as described above. But the moment you uncheck "remove functional components" under the "interface" settings, you get the CTD described above, along with a lot of blank 'black' 'missing' ship components. So i've included the default prefs file my game is generating, and the one with that one option changed, that's causing the crash.

prefs.zip

Ack... I usually have that active too. I got the crash once, but it seemed random (and I had forgotten to run SE prior to that session ). Guess I better recheck that option, huh?

Well not if you're not getting the crash! If you're not then it must mean my files are corrupt, or something else is going on. But if you are getting the crash, and it's reproducible (are you, is it?) then it's definately a problem that needs looking in to.

Heh, sorry to say, but i hope it does crash if you try it  , 'cause i don't want to have to think i've got a fraked up file somewhere, if it's a bug CC and Cari can squash it, if it's just me, that's more complicated and very uncool  .

I've had this crash too (or what I believe is the crash being described) and have reported it along with saved game files, debug error files, and the Smart Exception generated files. I was afraid it would not be reproduceable because on reload it seems to go away. I'll explain.

My experience has been that when one tries to upgrade a preesixting ship design for the first time in a game, one will notice that some of the component thumbnails of that design are blank. As soon as one tries to switch between component types, e.g. between hulls and engines or weapons and defenses, one will get the crash to windoes. Upon reload from the crash (usually the autosave of the same turn in my case) one can go the same preexisting design and upgrade it just fine. Of note is the fact that there are no blank thumbnails on reload. Quite odd-I'm not sure how to reproduce this when that is the case.

CC, did you get everything you needed? Any "luck" getting the game to crash on your end?

I just tried it, and was able to get the "blank" component icons to come up.  However, it is not crashing.  Please try again with the latest beta update and see if it still crashes for you.  Please let me know what happens.  Thanks.

 

 

I just noticed there was a new version posted on Stardock today. I will download and see if this continues to occur.

It's still crashing, both on my laptop and workstation (of course, only if i have 'remove functional components' unchecked.

CC, you mean when you loaded MY save game and tried it, it DID NOT crash? How is that possible?

Is there anything else i can send you? I already sent in a savegame, my prefs.ini file, my smart exception reports, and my debug.err file. I can generate all of those from my workstation and send them, that way you'd have a set from two different computers that have the same problem, if that would help??

There's only one other thing i can think of to mention that MIGHT have something to do with it, but i'm doubting it. When you are hitting CTRL + SHIFT + R what ethical alignment are you selecting? Make sure you select neutral, that's what i've been selecting. That's the only thing i haven't mentioned that has anything to do with the process of causing the crash.

I only mention it because i noticed that hitting CTRL + SHIFT + R is giving me ALL of the eithical techs, including those for which i'm not ethically aligned, so maybe the crash is caused by the game trying to display components in the shipyard you aren't supposed to have because of your ethical alignment, but do have b/c of CTRL + SHIFT + R?? I mean it's a long shot, but it's all i could come up with without better knowledge of the coding.

What can i send you to help further? Is anyone else still having the crash?

I may be on to something with that last post, when i chose Evil as my ethical alignment, it didn't wait until i switched from modules to weapons to crash, it crashed as soon as i selected modules.

UPDATE:
Same when choosing good.

LogicSequence,

I haven't tried your game yet, just your most recent steps to reproduce it.  I will try your save now to recreate the whole scenario.

 

You could be right about the alignment.  Usually I just pick Neutral when I do the cheat key since it's right in the middle.  The cheat key will give you ALL techs in your tech tree, including all techs for each alignment.  I will look into it and see if that is the cause or not.

Hmm I've tried your save and your prefs.ini, and am still unable to get the crash.  Have you tried beta 3a (released yesterday)?  Please let me know if you can reproduce it with beta 3a.

I tried it with a clean version of 3a from Stardock Central and didn't reproduce the crash even when using your save and prefs.ini

I tried unchecking and checking the option for "Remove functional components," and still can't crash it.

We're going to try on other machines here and see if we can get to the bottom of this.

Yes that's what i meant earlier, i can reproduce it with 3a, on both my laptop and workstation. That is what i was decribing in my last two posts.

CC, you're going to love this twist... It gets weirder.

So i made a ship in the ship designer, just playing around with the new animated parts right? Well i named it Animated whatever, the point is it started with 'A', thus it's the first ship in the list when you start a new game.

I had forgotten this when i was testing it just now, and clicked upgrade before changing the ship to the "battleship" which was usually first on the list. So when i chose to upgrade my design, it didn't crash, so i was like, "WHOA! WHAT DID I DO!?" Then i realized i had chosen the wrong ship, so i exited, and chose to upgrade the battleship, expecting another crash.

However, low and behold, no crash, and no blank ship components. "WHA?" i said... So i closed the game out, and started over. This time however, i went straight to the battleship, and it crashed again. I exited the game again, and went back in, first choosing to upgrade my design, no crash, then choosing to upgrade the battleship, and NO CRASH!

It seems if i choose to upgrade a design of my own make, it 'fixes' something so that it will no longer crash when upgrading the other ship(s), however if you go straight to those ships, you get the crash.

Weird eh?

Does it have anything to do with whether you have the save ships to hard drive selected or not? I think I turned it off for a while and I would crash (maybe once a game or so)... then I deleted the My Documents folder and it seemed to work for the next game or so.

I have downloaded TA 3A but have not yet upgraded a ship. I will report more when I do, but for now I can say that my situation does not involve using any shortcuts to choose ethical alignment etc. I play the game as normal. As I said above, this one might be difficult to reproduce because the crash seems to happen only once a game for me. Once I reload from that crash, the blank component thumbnails are gone and the crash does not occur on again on that reload. That being said, I do seem to recall it happening again on a subsequent reload. It's almost as though we have some kind of residual effect from the corrupted saved game files that I also experienced some time ago.

This problem seems to be more under control in Beta 3B. I've not had a crash yet, but had a different problem that froze the game. That is reported in another thread.