Why my VV2.1/2.2 game Froze - CHECK HERE FIRST, potential fix

[Sordani]

I have been playing Rome for awhile and just installed VV and the patch 2.1 today. I started a new game and after some time ran into a problem where the game and my computer just locked up. Rebooted the computer started from the last autosave and ran into the same problem. BTW the freeze did not happen after a certain period of real time, it would be fine for minutes on end while paused but always occurred on the same game date.

Like many the first thing I thought was that the computer was overheating so waited a while rebooted check my fan control program and started the game and same thing. I then checked the forums, read most of the threads and went back to my savegame file to check for BAR and/or REB cores or owners. No luck. I then started my autosave back up, left it on pause, and started looking for anything out of whack.

In this game the Illyrian province of Taulanti had rebeled and formed a new country of Macedonia. "QMA" in the save file. It had one army named "ARMY_NAME_noculturegroup" and a few more queued up for construction.

I edited the save game file and changed the owner and controller back to Illyria.

Ran the game and voila no freeze, game ran fine right past the crash date.

The crash date may have coincided with the construction of one of the macedonian units.

It appears that there is a bug in the changing of ownership of provinces or new countries appearing.

Hope someone finds this useful.

Great Game.

 

[AndrewT]

They are in the rome/save game directory, just open it with notepad. BUT as you run Vista and if you have UAC enabled (the default) and are not admin and have installed in the default path of c:\program files\rome they will have been redirected by Vista to a non-system directory, like c:\users\[name]\appdata\local\virtualstore\Program Files\Paradox Interactive\Rome\save games.

 

[Cheexsta]

...Just to make life difficult, of course.

Edit: just to make this comment half useful, I've posted a potential fix for the noculture freeze here. If people having this issue could test it out, that would be fantastic.

 

[Fatboyonadiet]

Thanks Andrew....found the save game files (eventually!!!!!) the first time I played. I knew it had to exist!

I just needed someone to say "open the file with notepad".

 

[priestvalon]

Well I have kinda same problem, my computer froze during the game for no reason. Then I rebooted, started again, and reloaded the savegame. Everything is fine till one of my governors considers independence. I click on his portrait in the province information window and the game crashes... any idea what might be causing that? Happens everytime I actualy click on governors portrait no matter which province it is, and it all started when my PC froze. Any help appreciated.

 

[unmerged(129377)]

I have got the same problem. Everything is going fine untill one of the characters has been created with no name. After that I am unable to change governor in all provinces, and go to the character screen as well. The game freezes or crashes to desktop. Anyone knows the solution???? Help most welcome.

 

[jmschaub]

Tried the tip... on vista if you right click on exe then there's a tab (2nd) at the bottom is an option to run as an administrator. The pain is that you have to "Allow" every time you want to play. But at least you get to see the save games.

 

[Anreads]

Very nice solution but i'm really lazzy and reading throught all those files makes me very sleepy, will you (paradox) come with an patch soon ? or have you like moved on from rome ?
I'm gonna read through the files because i really like the game

 

[AndrewT]

They certainly attempted to fix this in the recent 2.2 patch, but I've still not had confirmation either way from any users as to whether it still happens in a fresh 2.2 game or not ... the developers were unable to duplicate the problem so that always makes it hard to fix.

 

[Achab]

They certainly attempted to fix this in the recent 2.2 patch, but I've still not had confirmation either way from any users as to whether it still happens in a fresh 2.2 game or not ... the developers were unable to duplicate the problem so that always makes it hard to fix.

It still persist in 2.2.

Reproduction steps:
a) Start game as Massilia in 474.
b) Keep imprisoning and reappointing the governor of Tarraconensis until he declares independence. It speeds the process if you lower your stability 1st.
c) The new country named Tarraconensis is noculture & noreligion and the game freezes in like 2-3 months when their 1st unit is produced.

 

[unmerged(160202)]

I'm playing 2.2 and have had the same problem with a little twist. Malta went independent but retained Carthagian culture and religion. After a long, long search through the save game file I noticed that Malta was owned/controlled by "QSI" and was building a unit as well. I changed the QSI to CAR and my game ran past the freeze date for about 8 months then the game crashed to desk top. I'm beginning to wonder if the game is worth all this poking around.:wacko:

 

[Vluggejapie]

had the same bug.
any chance this is going to get fixed any time soon?
i'm not fond of going through and altering game files....
edit: i've got 2.2 ..... any thoughts?

 

[AndrewT]

I've reported it back to the developers, including the duplication steps in post #29 here. I've now also posted it in the 2.21 thread in the main Rome forum here.

Note that fixing the problem in a subsequent patch will not fix it in any save game that already has it; inded those old saves will not be compatible with the new patch. So I'm afraid you'll have to continue to edit those saves, or abandon them when the patch is released.

 

[unmerged(175640)]

Thank you all for this support - I just had the same problem (Moesia Superior, in fact, rebelling from Ilyria). Peace now, so I don't feel bad about deleting their tiny army...my only question is, exactly where should I snip on either end of this:
government=despotic_monarchy
citizenship=yes
organized_recruitment=yes
professional_soldiers=yes
manpower=0.950
cavalry="cavalry"
militia="militia"
heavy_infantry="heavy_infantry"
horse_archers="horse_archers"
warelephant="warelephants"
archers="archers"
trireme="trireme"
army={
id={
id=79096
type=4713
}
name="ARMY_NAME_noculturegroup"
previous=124
movement_progress=0.000
location=123
regiment={
id={
id=79095
type=4713
}
name="1st Cavalry"
home=124
type="cavalry"
morale=2.200
experience=0.000
strength=1.000
mercenary=yes
}
base=129
}
ROM={



I assume the correct snip looks like this, but I just want to be clear:
government=despotic_monarchy
citizenship=yes
organized_recruitment=yes
professional_soldiers=yes
manpower=0.950
cavalry="cavalry"
militia="militia"
heavy_infantry="heavy_infantry"
horse_archers="horse_archers"
warelephant="warelephants"
archers="archers"
trireme="trireme"
}
ROM={


This snip appears correct to me, and I managed to escape the crashdate of August 5 using it...just looking for confirmation in case of potential fubar down the line. Thanks!

 

[playerslite]

k so i have figured out how to do the fix in the save file for no_culture group, but now this is just getting annoying. almost every time some one declares independence it happens. playing as pontus and have had to do 4 fix all ready. they need to find the cause of this, its such a painstaking procedure finding all the armies in the file and giving the new nations a culture/religion. have 2.2, any one else have to do it several times in the same campaign?

 

[unmerged(159798)]

k so i have figured out how to do the fix in the save file for no_culture group, but now this is just getting annoying. almost every time some one declares independence it happens. playing as pontus and have had to do 4 fix all ready. they need to find the cause of this, its such a painstaking procedure finding all the armies in the file and giving the new nations a culture/religion. have 2.2, any one else have to do it several times in the same campaign?

Same prob here....fresh game with VV updated to 2.2.
I just posted my VV 2.2 freezes and crashes inTechForum but after reading this thread its clear to me what is happen...Seleucid Rebels declared independency in 2 provinces and additionally Seleucid Empire broke in 2 in a Civil War menawhile Egypt as well is undergoing Civil War...2 o 3 months later...freezes and/or CTD....I just loaded VV a few days ago....before ROME was running perfect for over a year...
Even I could but Iam certainly not going to fix the savegame everytime something is happen. I paid good money for the game and I expect this to be fixed because this breaks the game.:wacko:

 

[unmerged(183285)]

Cultural issue

Almost gave up on playing this game for the same issue. However went in and changed the .rome file after reading the various postings. Solution has worked for at least the last 5 or 6 years of game time. Game logic appears to hang up on having a "non-culture" country, unit, or event. Rather than deleting the non-culture armies I added the following for each non-culture event I found for a particular given country (essentially no culture, religion, and technology preference is defined). Right after the capital= line add the following:
primary_culture=carthaginian
religion=carthaginian_pantheon
technology_group=carthaginian_tech
Rename the army and any attached units as you will. I only chose the carthage values above since I had been just been playing a particularly intense session as Carthage fending off and defeating both Rome and Egypt at the same time. Totally pixxed me off to get shut down after such a demanding effort.

If you want something besides Carthage search thru the .rome file for the appropiate cultural values of your choosing (e.g. roman_pantheon).
If you have to go in and "cheat" you might as well gain a few potential allies at the same time.

At the end of the day I agree that it detracts from the playability of the game if you have to go in and start modifying the config files just to make the .exe run. I almost walked away from EU Rome completely.

 

[AndrewT]

It is fixed in 2.3x, it's just a matter of finalising that patch for official release. I have no info on when that will be, sorry, but the focus is on EU3/HttT right now.

 

[Himser]

well i know that i bought this game 3 days ago and it looked promosing but due to these same constant crashes im glad i didnt buy all 3 paradox games i was looking at at the same time. and i have the same problem as chris10 i dont know how and im not prepared to go in a manualy fix a game that has this many problems. i sure hope that 2.31 beta p[atch works or it may be a long time before i reccomend a paradox game to anyone. expecally seince this game has been out for near 2 years.

 

[bigbastos]

Thanks for the tip. Was about to give up on the game. After spending several hours playing and having it freese up (not for the first time) was realy fustrating. Who said that adding a little culture and religion, never really solves any problem.

 

[unmerged(190704)]

I tried opening my save games with notepad but none showed up? (but I have tons)