I've only gotten a few turns in and I've run into my first problem. It's only happened on one game so far, but it happens every time, at about the same time. After I hit the end turn button, the game just sits there, with the hourglass, not allowing me to start a new turn. The weird part is that I can still sort of move my units, I can move them out of the city, which is a free move, but I can't make them go further. I can use the shop, I can even cast spells, but I can't get past that.
WoM had a similar issue that appeared if you set units to explore, but I don't have any units exploring, they're all in the city.
Here's the save in question: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12979284/3.EleSav
And the Debug if it helps (thought there's no crash): http://pastebin.com/5bz4e5ev
The game also appears to be very RAM hungry, even in cloth map mode. I've only got 1GB, so that may be a factor.
Right then. Started a new game, small map (previous was on a medium map), built a town, got a few heroes, foguth a few monsters, started a few quests and BAM. Stuck at the end of a turn. And again, it's at turn 16-17. If this happens a third time, I think there may be a pattern.
Save: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12979284/stuck4.EleSav
Debug: http://pastebin.com/Sfz5hAqg
It happened again, this time at turn 19. I won't post the saved game, since it seems to persist even if I restore back to a state where ending a turn worked. I noticed in the debug.err that it seems to get stuck after this:
Step 2: Thread: Setting AI Event Semaphore
Debug: http://pastebin.com/R1GxN9JN
(note, I cut the part of the debug where it was exiting the game so I could fit it into Pastebin)
I am using Windows XP SP3, just like the other reported incident https://forums.elementalgame.com/416441
did you change any settings?
this happened to me too but only when i change all game settings, i restarted the game 2 3 times all stuck after few turns, but i thik i was using large map strong magic and other non default thing
in general it works well, i think its some of the setting maybe requiring more ram than xp can handle dunno
I got to 19 turns by disabling the auto-save. I'll try starting a game and not changing anything(I tend to fiddle with the cloth map), maybe it'll work. I wouldn't say it's about how much RAM XP can handle, but more about how much I've got. I still hope it will be playable on 1GB. Kinda wish it moved more stuff in the 512MB dedicated video memory(if that's how it works, it probably doesn't)
Tried it again without changing any settings. Got from turn 13 to turn 28 and then stuck again.
Debug: http://pastebin.com/bLATCM1X
I should be getting my other, more competent, PC back on it's feet next month, si this isn't that big an issue for me, but it may relevant to others.
Last attempt, on a tiny map, dificulty set to the lowest. Managed to get 39 turns in before getting stuck. I thought it may have been RAM related, but before it got stuck there were more than 100MB free, and I've seen it work with as low as 50 free. I even had explorer disabled so there woudln't be anything non-vital eating up memory.
Debug: http://pastebin.com/rzybtGzP
This issue continues in 0.77. Can't go past turn 19. Again, there's enough RAM for it to expand, which it does not use, and the processor usage is at around 40%, not 100% like it is when the AI actually calculates it's next move.
Debug: http://pastebin.com/k62jQYPR
Small map, one opponent, few monsters.
Save: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12979284/77b.EleSav
This is going to sound strange, but since I started using the Normal density of resources, instead of Lots/Dense/More(I forget what was the highest one), this hasn't happened, even on small maps with 2 opponents (used to happen on tiny with only one). I'm guessing that having a lot of resources makes the AI think about ways it can have the mall, and it gets to a point where it can't decide because of my slow CPU.
Again, Medium map, 5 opponents, Moderate resources, the issue has gone away. I swear I didn't do anything to my PC, other than praying for it. I'll try a few more games with lots of resources to see if this was really the cause.
I've been unable to reproduce this took your latest save (and made a new game with dense resources) and was able to play each for over a hundred turns with nothing... let me know if you guys figure out a reliable way to reproduce this and I will get it in our bug list
I'll do a proper test of this over the week-end and try to get to the bottom of it. It's probably hard to duplicate on proper hardware, since my rig is ooooold.
I'm not 100% sure how the AI thinks, but if it's multithreaded, one of the threads may be getting stuck(if threads can do that) in some cases. Probably because of a combination of Windows XP and an ancient singlecore CPU. Which would also explain why the game on occasion doesn't shut down after closing it. It stills occupies some memory and CPU until the task is terminated manually.
I was having the same issue and then I disabled "auto turn". It still takes forever to process a turn on my XP box, but it doesn't hang up as often.
yea, I actually got a save from someone that did it, it's an auto turn problem. For now if you go into options and turn that off it will stop doing that. It's on the list with a repro case
I had a similar case (getting stuck changing turns), on a Core 2 Duo, with auto-turn turned off, but it also happened after I unlocked the Legendary Armor from the quest. But I have Windows 7 (I have been using my 64-bit Pro version).
I've just generally disabled Auto Turn. I've found it makes it difficult to know when units have gone and when they haven't. I can't prove it, but it seems like when I just let the Auto Turn go, they don't move sometimes. Maybe I'm just getting impatient.
I also have a hard time adjusting to when a unit moves and discovers something (item/quest), but then it immediately focuses you to a different unit that still needs to move. Makes knowing who found/got the item/quest very difficult!
I remember disabling auto-turn, even auto-save. I'll get to the bottom of this. I'd hate to think I wasted dev time with a non existent issue, caused by some system fluke.
Well, I got a stuck new turn (post #14). So even if it was a fluke, it happened on more than one computer.
Right then. So I spent a few hours running different game setups and timing how long it takes to AI to move between turns. At times it went all the way into the 90 second range. That actually happened with normal resources instead of dense, so there goes that theory. I did manage to get it stuck again 28 turns in on a tiny map, with few monsters and one opponent. I'm sure it was stuck, and not just taking a long time... unless it took more than 2 and a half minutes to think about doing things. I cheated and looked at what the AI was doing, he was just standing there, full moves unused. Maybe it's worth noting the AI was on an easier setting, which I think it was in a few other cases where it got stuck.
So, in other words, I found bupkis. Not even the turn times are consistent, there was 55-8-37s at one time. I thought maybe starting the game fresh would decrease the times(exiting before staring new), and it did, on turn 1, but from turn 2 on, times were higher than from game started with CTRL N.
In hindsight, I should have used predefined maps instead of random ones. I stink at bugtracking.
Good try, unacomn. Even ruling out some issues is helpful.
One concept that hit me was the degree to which AI bug tracking was happening at lower levels than the highest or normal. Maybe there's a locked thread due to different code being used in lower levels of the AI? Or maybe it manifests itself more when it's at an easier level than higher? Some food for thought.
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