Potential Crash Bug with Defection

from GalCiv2 Forums
With the official version of the 1.2 patch, I have encountered a nasty bug. I actually described it in a post here before as a random crash bug, but now I have seen it is not random. The bug appears when a computer planet is ready to defect to me. Sometimes I will be shown ships moving on and off that planet on the control panel screen during the start of my turn, when there is also a pop-up window telling me something. If I don't shut the window while the ships are moving, the game can crash to the desktop. The exception is during research, when if this bug happens, it will always crash. If you check my list of submitted games, you will find that most of them are Cultural Conquests. That's always how I intend to play the game, so this is a major bug for me. I would appreciate any advice on how to get rid of it, or at least deal with it better.
5,540 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Finishing off my last game absolutely confirmed it: if I don't get to the defection notice soon enough, the game will crash instead. I love this game because I can win and get many planets without firing a shot, I was hoping to play a game with Influence Victory turned off and get a Military Conquest result by absorbing an entire galaxy -- and the new patch, which is otherwise great, has introduced a bug into this section of the game. Few things could be worse.

In case anyone from Stardock is reading but not replying to these posts, I believe a basic solution would solve this problem: make defection the first thing to occur in the turn. That way, there is no delay between the event and the announcement, and no time for the game to crash.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ras1310,
Do you have any save games from before a defection that crashed? If so, please e-mail them to gc2bugs@stardock.com. That would help us to find this crash quicker. Please include a link back to this thread in your message.

Also, if you still have the debug.err (found in c:\program files\stardock\totalgaming\galciv2) please post it here and/or send it along with your message.

Also, if you download and install SmartException (a free program in Free Stuff in Stardock Central) you can run it and then when you experience the crash, it will generate a detailed report that shows us exactly where the crash occurred. This report can also be emailed to the address above.
For more information on SmartException, please see this link: https://www.stardock.com/products/smartexception/

Thank you.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm glad I came here before starting my next game. I have the debug.err file from that game. For save files, unfortunately I cannot remember saving a game and then having it crash right after. The best I can do is a save which I am fairly sure I had to reuse because the game crashed soon afterwards. If I can remember a better one, I will send that along. I have also downloaded SmartException and will try that out. Thanks very much for responding. Now that I know what you need, I'll do my best to get it to you.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I seem to have encountered the same problem, I was just playing a game on gigantic, and I had massive fleets of constructors building everywhere. I was unsure as to the cause, but I notice this problem only when I am doing a cultual conquest, so it would make sense that it is related to defecting planets. I can also send a copy of my game file, as well as the debug.err if you wish.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Personally I say -- don't wait for them, send it along! I'm sorry you're having this problem too, but I have to say, I am a little glad I am not the only one, and hopefully also having two (or more) people sending in information on this bug will help them solve it. Stardock have given me a tracking number for this problem: 10498. It might speed things up if you use it -- or possibly confuse things, if it turns out we have different bugs.