CTD on ctrl+click on character in observer mode

[faiuwle]

This is a game I've been running on observe. When I loaded it in observer mode (via the "continue" button on the launcher) and tried to ctrl+click on the Aztec Emperor to temporarily "switch" to him without a console command, the game would reliably crash. If I load the game from the load menu and select the Aztec Emperor as the character to play, it is fine. I'm not sure what the problem is. This was saved on the latest (non-beta) patch.

 

[faiuwle]

Something else that might be relevant: at some point this game crashed. I don't know why, or what was going on at the time, because I left it to run while I was at work. When I came home, it was no longer running, so I think it must have crashed. This save is actually the last yearly autosave before the crash. I started it up an ran it for another year to see if the crash would happen again, but it made it to the next January 1 without problems.

 

[AndrewT]

Not a problem I'm aware of, although I doubt many people are doing just what you've done.

Are you saying this just happens in this one saved game, not others in the same situation?

 

[faiuwle]

Right, just in this one case. I'm just wondering what about this game is causing it. I can ctrl+click on other characters and it seems fine, just not on the Aztec Emperor.

 

[AndrewT]

I have no idea, I am sorry. Perhaps the good folks in the User Mods forum can look into your save file and see if they can find a problem with it?

They are more experienced with diagnosing save game file format issues.

 

[faiuwle]

What makes you say this is a file format issue?

 

[AndrewT]

Well, perhaps format was the wrong word. There's clearly something different in the problem save file vs others that do not have the issue. I assume you are wanting someone to help you find what that difference is and potentially fix it. I'm suggesting the modders as a possible source of that help and knowledge.

 

[faiuwle]

But if I had an idea about what was causing it Paradox would look into it? I'm sorry, I don't understand. The crash is reproduceable. It seems like you could just load the save into a debugger and look at the stack trace after the crash happened.

 

[AndrewT]

I'm not a developer and have no access to such tools, I'm sorry!

I'd suggest Bug Reports for work like that: perhaps QA there can do it, or arrange for it to be done for you by a developer. If this turns out to be a game bug then they can put it into the bug fixing process.

If it turns out to be a one-off glitch in this save file, I still think the modders are your best shot if you are looking to get the save file edited and fixed.