[squadleader_id]

Here's the story.

Although the graphics makeover is only about 80% completed and we haven't even started on the first custom BoS45 maps...since the stratmap is done we've started to do a test GC (using existing maps with modified BTDs). The problem is almost 90% of the time the GC would crash before the first battle (during or straight after the "Initializing AI" phase). 10% of the time all battles on turn 1 of Day 1 would be playable...then the first battle on turn 2 (still Day 1) would lead to the same crash (during or straight after the "Initializing AI" phase).

All single battles run fine, ops also run fine (but we've only tested short 3-4 days ops).

What should we look at to solve this problem? Data? BG Data? Stratmap connections and data? Did we miss anything?
Help!

[Sapa]

Hi!

My first thought was that there where missing wrecks in the vehichles.adb but because the Ops and Singles works fine??? Are you sure that there isnt any vechicle wrecks missing that not have been used in Ops or Single Battles?

One other thing is the BTD;s...i can recall i had simular problems using VL points with the lowest value (50 p) changed all to higher value than 50 p.

I suggest you look through all the Base files for teams and vehicles, it is WERY easy to miss small things!

Cheers Mats

[Blackstump]

im no expert but also check missing wreck shadows... ive seen that cause similar probs

[squadleader_id]

We're rechecking the data...but we're pretty sure that the wrecks data are correct and using the method discovered by Tejszd to make sure single battles work fine.

One thing that's suspect.
There are no Air Support for the Indonesians (historic).
No Air Support for Indonesians = No Indonesian Plane data in the vehicles.adb.
Could this be it?
Single battle works fine (Indonesian AI will place yellow smoke for Air Strike...but no actual planes appear to strafe the spot...and when playing as Indonesian calling in you can place the air strike smoke...no planes appearing and no crashes).
Since the number of airstrikes each day is stored in the exe...could this be causing the problem?

[squadleader_id]

Update:

Added Indonesian Plane to vehicles.adb but GC still crashes.
So this isn't the cause (hopefully)...if so then it's possible for one side to have no air support.

Some issues:
- Naval is set for the central part of the stratmap (as historically)...should this cause problems?
- Melee weapons like Samurai swords, Gurkha kukri and Indonesian traditional knives, swords and machettes...could these weapons cause problems due to ammo counts?

One more thing...if it's a wreck/wreck shadows problem...shouldn't the crash accur during the map loading phase? The GC crashes during/after the Initializing AI phase before the battle.

[Drizzt]

Hi, I think you should check all shadows and not only wreck shadows, is also important majuscule and minuscule type: for the game, if in adb files you have for example PZII, and in shadows PzII, is not the same thing: game crash. In my mod, last crash problems (also in campaign) were caused by shadows: not missing shadows but "majuscole-minuscole" type problems. It's only a suggestion, I hope can help you. Regards, Drizzt

[squadleader_id]

Thanks for the info, Drizzt...we will take a close look at the shadows and wreck shadows.
FYI, about 50% of the time the GC would crash on the first battle of the first day...when there's no wrecks involved...so it might be the vehicle shadows problem?

One more thing...I read on Salhexe's vetmods readme that sometimes GCs also crash on his vetmods. Could it have something to do with 10 men teams? Almost all Indonesian squads are 10 men teams (7 fully armed men + 3 men armed with swords, traditional weapons, bamboo spears etc) to simulate the huge numerical advantage the Indonesians had. Could this possibly cause the crash?

[Drizzt]

Hi, ehm.. I don't understand "FYI" what means?
I refer just vehicles shadows: maybe is not your problem, but can be.
About teams I don't think they are involved: ten men sure is not a problem (but spears/knives.. I don't know, anyway I don't think).
About "first battle in first day": this is an old bug: probably you have many battlegroups in stratmap since first day, original CC5 is not in this way: seems that for the game this is a problem (sometime crash, sometime not).
Also reinforcements can suffer about this problem if they are many in a specific day, but in this case crash is granted.
Maybe you can reduce a little bit the number of battlegroups on the map in the first day.

Regards, Drizzt

P.S. About "first battle in first day" I mean before the battle, but maybe you mean meanwhile load battle: in this case can be a map problem (often txt or btd). And shadows remain a possibity.

[squadleader_id]

Umm...FYI = for your information. Sorry for the confusion

Vehicle shadows are not giving us problems in single battles...so hopefully the data is okay...but we will recheck.

Thanks for mentioning the "first battle in first day" bug! I wasn't aware of this bug. We will try again with reduced number of BGs on the first day. Thanks a lot for your help, Drizzt!
Hopefully we can start moving along to the maps...phew!

[Sapa]

If you want i could look at your Data Base files if i could find any strange things....(Teams.adb, Vehicles.adb, Weapons.adb, Soldiers.adb) Send them to me! btw are you using Element file from Battle of Berlin, standard CC5 or...?


btw again..what the hell should i do to get higher rank on this page!! making three mods and trying to help people with support, what else should i do...say the Mr Bush is a fantastic president?


matsjoel [at] spray [dot] se

Cheers Mats

[squadleader_id]

Thanks for the kind offer, Mats!
But I think I've finally solved it (hopefully)!
I did not want to trouble you with the data files (Eaglereach and I should at least recheck everything a few more times...Hehe). So I re-examined the problem with a microscope...and after some trial and error...I took a wild stab and checked the names files.
It turns out that the Indonesian names files (Genames.txt) might be giving problems. For BoS45, Eaglereach worked on the Genames.txt and came up with 1360 Indonesian names. I checked with other mods and the original game...Genames.txt usually contain around 600 names (except Uberdave's KG with over 36,000 names!!!). So I cut down the BoS45 Genames.txt to 700 names...and voila...no more crashes. Yipeee!
Since I didn't want to waste the a lot of the Indonesian names (and we needed a lot of names to represent the 100,000 Indonesian troops and militias) I played around with the Genames.txt...after some trial and error...about 1250 seems to be stable for now...but still needs some more testing to be sure.

It seems that since most mods do not modify the Genames.txt (most mods feature Germans), not too many modders found out that modified Genames.txt will give you problems in GCs, but works fine for single battles and short ops. 600+ names is fine...but above that...we need to test the limits. KG's 36000 names works...but makes the game pause when loading the data (in the Stratmap Screen).

[Drizzt]

Hi, I'm glad you have resolved, you have find where is the problem! But.. About names: I think that the number of names is not your real problem: I have 2400 german names in my mod. I think that one (or more names) has been written in a "wrong way": maybe with "a space" at the beginning of the name, or something like this (a name too long for example?). I tell you these only to help: there is a possibility to hold all names if you find the name (or the names) that cause crash.
Regards, Drizzt

[squadleader_id]

Drizzt, thanks for the extra info and input.
Yeah...maybe some of those names I edited out was written wrong...maybe.
So you have 2400 names in your Genames.txt...KG Mod has 36,000.
I'll just experiment with the names.
Long names should not be a problem though...the Gurkha names are long (they don't even fit in the Soldier Monitor boxes)...or maybe these will give me problems later on too?

[Sapa]

That was great news!! :bye


Cheers Mats

[Drizzt]

Hi, I can't be 100% sure that long names cause crash. In past I have heard of crash caused by errors in names, normally for string line errors: empty line, a space before the name, lists without "#" ecc. Long names is a supposition but I mean very long names (an error: like "Drizztttttttttt")
Anyway is really good that you have find where is the problem: crash problems are the nightmares of the modders.

Regards, Drizzt

[Nembo]

Another thing to check with the names, you might have more names listed at the top then your have for real.

[veers]

I'm experiencing the same problem while playing Utah Sector mod- when the first afternoon battle of the first day loads, game crashes after reaching "Initialising AI", and I have no clue what could go wrong as i get no error message.

[comradeone]

Veers sounds like u having same trouble as me.
There was a fix for it but was only temporarily hosted,and never added to the downloads. see here http://www.closecombatseries.net/CCS/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3813&start=20

[veers]

Hey, it worked!

Thanks, I was pretty despered to get this mod running, and yet couldn't do it for over two weeks now.