Frustrating Civ IV problem

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-01-16 01:45pm

Has anyone else encountered this?

In the early game, the wonder movies play fine. Towards the middle, I began to notice they got choppy, with big chunks of animation missing entirely. Now as I'm approaching the endgame, the window pops up, but it remains blank, and only a single loop of the music track plays. Eventually the OK button appears and I can close the window, but as soon as I try to save the game or advance a turn, I get a fatal memory allocation error and the game crashes to the desktop.

This has happened with two separate wonders in two separate games (both huge maps, with the maximum number of starting players, though in both games several AI players are gone by the time I encounter the problem). My Windows box handily exceedes the minimum requirements for the game. What's going on here? Is this a common bug, or one unique to me? And is there a known fix? I'd be happy just to turn the damn wonder movies off, but there doesn't seem to be an option for that (thanks Firaxis!).

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2006-01-16 01:50pm

Pure and simple CIV has a memory leak. What your seeing is computer resources going down the drain and not being able to play the game as well.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-01-16 01:56pm

Mr Bean wrote:Pure and simple CIV has a memory leak. What your seeing is computer resources going down the drain and not being able to play the game as well.

I suspected that, but the problem is occuring even after a fresh re-boot of the computer in a savegame that's one turn away from the wonder in question from being completed. If the game is leaking memory THAT fast, how can the game run at all? If I cancel the wonder the game runs fine for a long time.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-01-16 02:10pm

I'm not actually sure if Civ4 has a memory leak in it, or if it simply tracks so many things as to eat up enormous abouts of RAM.

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2006-01-16 02:13pm

Easy solution mate, although sadly I can't help you with the specifics as I am not on my civ 4 machine at the moment. However, if you go to the civ directory and open the .ini file, look through it and find the option that deals with movies on/off and change that setting to '0' from '1', the ingame movies will be disabled and your problem will be gone. This is the trick I used when I was having problems pre-patch.

Sorry I couldn't help with the specifics. You might want to look at www.civfanatics.com forums for the full walkthrough, which is where I found it.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2006-01-16 04:13pm

RedImperator wrote:And is there a known fix?

Buy more ram(1gb minimum!), and get the latest patch(v1.52).

Civ4 simply keeps track of too many things and thus eats memory like there is no tomorrow

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-01-16 05:39pm

I used Ali G's solution and it worked out, though now of course I don't get any Wonder Movies. ggs, I've already got more than a gig of ram and the latest patch. I also tried increasing Winblows's virtual memory, to no avail (though since then, the rest of the game has run smoother).

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2006-01-16 06:21pm

So you are still finding the game fun then? To be honest now that I am stuck between difficulty settings [Prince being too easy, Monarch too hard] I have grown a bit bored with the game. Hoping some expansion packs will be released soon.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-01-16 06:55pm

I am having the hardest time getting the download to work...

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-01-16 10:31pm

ALI_G wrote:So you are still finding the game fun then? To be honest now that I am stuck between difficulty settings [Prince being too easy, Monarch too hard] I have grown a bit bored with the game. Hoping some expansion packs will be released soon.

Right now I'm having fun, but I can tell I'll get bored with it after I beat it a few times. I wish it had a better diplomacy system--the best part of the game for me has been those few times when I've really gotten a chance to play international statesman (hmm, do I break my deals with the enemy of my only longtime ally on this continent, or do I keep open borders with my biggest trading partner?). I do wish the AI would recognize when you're trying to be a neutral power, especially if you really are making an effort to stay neutral.

I'd also like the ability to mark certain technologies as untradeable, just like the AI can. It's irritating to discover a critical military technology, like, say, gunpowder, have the entire world beat down your door asking for you to GIVE IT AWAY, and then they all get pissed off when you refuse.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2006-01-17 03:36pm

RedImperator wrote: I'd also like the ability to mark certain technologies as untradeable, just like the AI can. It's irritating to discover a critical military technology, like, say, gunpowder, have the entire world beat down your door asking for you to GIVE IT AWAY, and then they all get pissed off when you refuse.

Seriousely. I keep having that problem with fission, as if I'm going to give anyone the tech required to build nukes. I'm also getting sick and tired of fucking archers taking out my tanks. I specifically remember several dev interviews where they said that would no longer be a problem, yet low and behold, archers are consistantly taking out tanks.

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2006-01-17 03:42pm

Seriously, archers? As in the 3 power archer?

What strength was your tank down to? What was the battlefield terrain?

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2006-01-17 03:54pm

ALI_G wrote:Seriously, archers? As in the 3 power archer?

What strength was your tank down to? What was the battlefield terrain?

Longbowmen actually, to be completely fair. The tank was down to about 30% I would say, and was attacking a 24% fortified city from the highground. I wasn't crossing any rivers to attack, of course, because I'm not tactically retarded. And I was playing as the Germans so they were in fact the Panzer unit.

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2006-01-17 04:40pm

I agree that a Longbowman should never, ever beat a tank. However, the combat system just doesn't work that way, and I can see exactly what has happened here:

6 base strength of Longbowman + 25% foritfy + 24% city defence + 25% unit ability [assumed City defender bonus] = 11.625

Panzer is what, 28? Down to 30% that is 8.4 strength.

Whilst it may be unrealistic, you should have checked the odds before the attack because they would never have been in your favour. Th SDK is being released soon - I am sure 'bugs' like this will be removed by the fans.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2006-01-17 05:02pm

I hope so. And it's not like I lost the battle or anything.
I had 5 panzers right behind it and I crushed the barbarian defenders and took the city. I'm just kind of pissed that the devs made a claim that turned out to be pure bullshit. Granted that's not exactly rare, and I'm not in the least bit surprised.

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2006-01-17 06:32pm

Do you check the decimal odds before you go into battle? This can help to avoid those infuriating loses against pathetic units.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2006-01-17 11:57pm

The game is pretty fun except for the FUCKING SPEARMEN VERSUS TANK scenarios and asshole AI, but I'm already seeing lots of nice looking mods beginning to pop up.
Edit: Goddamn typodaemons.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2006-01-18 12:37am

to be fair, I guess a tank at, like, 0.8 power could have it's treads falling apart and the hatch blown off, so the longbowman just jumps on top, takes out his knife, and starts slashing.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-01-18 01:12am

Captain tycho wrote:The game is pretty fun except for the FUCKING SPEARMEN VERSUS TANK scenarios and asshole AI, but I'm already seeing lots of nice looking mods beginning to pop up.
Edit: Goddamn typodaemons.

I seem to recall Shaka Zulu pulling some pretty crazy shit with spearmen, so you never know...

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-01-18 03:13am

Yeah, it *might* happen once in a blue moon, so lets have a primitive combat system that allows it to happen several times a game! Civ apologists disgust me.

The memory problems interest me: even with the latest patch Civ sucks retarded amounts of memory. It *does* seem to be linked to entity number, since smaller maps don't have the problem as bad... but it makes me think that their database engine thingy is terribly inefficient.

AniThyng · Post by **AniThyng** » 2006-01-18 06:55am

The latest patch and it's modification to the combat seems to have lessened the spearman vs tank problem, or at least, the usage of the base strength not modified by HP seems to have a net effect that my armour/mech offensives have much less downtime.

In any case, I always always bomb the unholy hell out of any city with bombers before even begining the assault so I usually only lose units to counterattacks. Spearman vs tank is still there, but it's less problomatic then in civ III, for all its worth.

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2006-01-18 07:25am

AniThyng wrote:In any case, I always always bomb the unholy hell out of any city with bombers before even begining the assault so I usually only lose units to counterattacks. Spearman vs tank is still there, but it's less problomatic then in civ III, for all its worth.

Try fighting against an ememy withs lots of SAM infantry and Jet Fighters and see if that strategy works. Even B2's struggle to get through to strike the enemy.

The lack of an option to attack enemy aircraft is a real pain. You can't destroy an enemy airforce, you just have to subject yourself to attack after attack and hope that the enemy is silly enough to use their interceptors as strike aircraft in range of your interceptors who in turn will shoot them down.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-01-18 10:10am

Stark wrote:Yeah, it *might* happen once in a blue moon, so lets have a primitive combat system that allows it to happen several times a game! Civ apologists disgust me.

I'm wondering how good their PRNG is if those events keep occuring. Alas, the strength system is susceptable to such weirdness (why, why did they abandon Firepower?)

The memory problems interest me: even with the latest patch Civ sucks retarded amounts of memory. It *does* seem to be linked to entity number, since smaller maps don't have the problem as bad... but it makes me think that their database engine thingy is terribly inefficient.

It's possible, or another reason is the sheer amount of data the simulation engine is tracking at any given time.

Karza · Post by **Karza** » 2006-01-18 10:24am

ALI_G wrote:The lack of an option to attack enemy aircraft is a real pain. You can't destroy an enemy airforce, you just have to subject yourself to attack after attack and hope that the enemy is silly enough to use their interceptors as strike aircraft in range of your interceptors who in turn will shoot them down.

Hold on. A fighter tasked to intercept bombers never ever gets shot down in air combat, even when the "bomber" is actually another fighter? (asking this because I haven't played far enough to get air forces yet)

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2006-01-18 02:00pm

Karza wrote:
ALI_G wrote:The lack of an option to attack enemy aircraft is a real pain. You can't destroy an enemy airforce, you just have to subject yourself to attack after attack and hope that the enemy is silly enough to use their interceptors as strike aircraft in range of your interceptors who in turn will shoot them down.
Hold on. A fighter tasked to intercept bombers never ever gets shot down in air combat, even when the "bomber" is actually another fighter? (asking this because I haven't played far enough to get air forces yet)

I can't remember shooting down an enemy fighter. EVER.

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Frustrating Civ IV problem

Frustrating Civ IV problem

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