Can any playtesters look at this?

[DrPraetorious]

Well, I can combine small numbers of mods.

Unfortunately, the game can't hold enough custom graphics for all of these units http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

At least, that's my interpretation - it seems to crap out around unit #2140, which is well below the maximum theoretical length of the unit array.

I've attached the combined mod anyway, just so you can look at it. The combined early and mid mods work just fine, as does the late era mod as long as people don't play nations that need units off the end of the array.

(early era)
Angelic Crusade (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=465649&page=2&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Sar Elad (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=469719&page=2&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Machaka, Spider Cult (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=469758&page=2&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)

(middle era)
Hoburg Alliance (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=474800&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Horror Scourge (http://http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=473279&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Iconoclasts (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=473572&page=1&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)

(late era)
Reign of the Vampiri (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=476419&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Kharam Dzu (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=472982&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Sanguinia (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=469859&page=1&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Sylvania (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=471329&page=1&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Stigian Corruption (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=460770&page=1&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Teutanion (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=467539&page=2&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Blood Elves (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=452103&page=2&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Trade Confederation (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=456462&page=3&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Themiskyra (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=463558&page=3&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)

(all eras)
Worthy Heroes (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=470523&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)


-- I removed these mods as part of a debuging effort.
The Ruinous Powers (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=473859&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)
Risen Emperor (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=473848&page=1&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)

I purposefully did *not* include any of the conceptual balance mods, or any other mods that *alter* existing nations or units, except by adding stuff.

A few comments:
* Perhaps the two vampire nations should be merged into one country? A mix of those units with slight changes could be spread across all three eras.

* Do people mind if I filch their artwork for my own mods? I'll avoid using the same pic in the same era.

I thought I asked everybody, but if I have included anyone's mod without permission, just let me know, I will remove it.

Current Bugs:
* The graphics array is not as big as the unit array, so we cannot, currently, support all of the custom graphics in the late era mods.

Other than the sprite overflow, combining mods with this script seems to work perfectly.

Thanks and Enjoy,
TNDP

[HoneyBadger]

Thanks, DrPraetorious. I mostly like playing in the early age anyway for my own thematic purposes, but it will be nice when this problem gets solved.

By the way, what is the maximum theoretical length of the unit array?

[DrPraetorious]

3000 units - slots 2000-2999 are all availble for modders, and you can use any of them and it'll work just fine. So the "new unit" array is theoretically 1000 units long.

BUT, if you try to add more than ~140 new unit graphics (each new monster takes two sprites, so that's 280 sprites) the game crashes. That's an approximate number, since some of the monsters in these mods are using recycled sprites. The error message it gives is the same as if you try to copy the sprite of a non-existing unit, there are some other things that can give this out of bounds sprite error, so I'm not totally *certain* that is what is happening, but it seems pretty clear.

[Johan K]

Strange, it should be possible to add 1000 new sprites and it shouldn't crash when you do it anyway.

[HoneyBadger]

So it's not that you can't have for instance 12,000 units in the game, except for the fact that the program isn't set up to service 12,000 units. Eh?

[DrPraetorious]

It is of course possible that I'm somehow mangling a sprite reference when I combine the mods, but if so, I can't see where I'm doing it - and it seems to effect all sprites after a certain point in the mod script, not just a few. Obviously I don't know how it works internally. Is there anything I can to get debug info beyond the "ddd" flag?

[Turin]

Just a random guess, but you could try it without my heroes mod.

I made a mistake and used #copysprite instead of #copyspr on some units and that could lead to strange behaviour.

[DrPraetorious]

Changing every instance of #copysprite to #copyspr doesn't have any effect http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

I still get "sprnbr too high for this file" when I call to display some of the sprites for the dwarves (or any nation I included later in the mod.)

Thanks for the headsup, though.

[Edi]

Does the problem disappear when you reduce the number of sprites?

Because all it takes is ONE screwup for the whole thing to crash. I found that out the hard way trying to script more sites into a map file than there are in the game. Instant "sprnbr too high for this file" Något gick fel crash whenever the first province with the incorrect number was accessed (either directly or trying to view nation overview).

So there's possibly something like that. One typo. One misspelling. One incorrect assignment. One mismatch. I suggest you get out the fine tooth comb and get cracking.

Edi

[DrPraetorious]

I've been doing that, but it seems to effect one sprite - and *all future sprites in the file*. Is that normally how it works?

[Edi]

Yes. The first time a single corrupt/out-of-bounds/incorrect item is accessed, the whole shebang goes tits-up. You need to remove the problem sprite altogether and try without it. If the same problem persists after that, it needs more investigating.

Mind you, I'm just conjecturing based on how map files behave. What with the 563 sites (1-563), the game will behave normally as long as you stay in provinces with correct assignment and don't access the nation overview. But as soon as you try to enter a province that has #feature 564+ assigned in the map file, or you press F1 (which accesses the province for site reference) you get the fatal error.

Since mod files, just like map files, are text based sequential command lists where the commands are executed in order, it logically follows that the first instance of accessing an entity supposedly created by an invalid command kills the process dead.

Edi

[DrPraetorious]

Okay, here's how I know that isn't the problem.

Compare the two mod files I've attached (megamod_late.dm and megamod_late2.dm are zipped together) - you can swap from one to the other by renaming and then restarting the dominions executable. The only difference between the two is WHERE IN THE FILE the dwarves (Kharam Dzu) appear. You will also need the attachment at the root of this thread for the graphics if you don't already have it.

If Kharam Dzu appears in the middle of the file, you can play them (sprites for their initial commander load just fine), but when you try to recruit units, the game crashes (one of their recruitables is triggering the sprite error, therefore.)

On the other hand, if you move that entire block of monsters to the begining (as in the second file) Kharam Dzu becomes playable - and Trade Confederation, which appears immediately before Kharam Dzu in the first file, becomes unplayable. If you look at exactly what I'm moving, it has to be the number of things and not any particular thing which is causing the crash. The other nations that are playable in version 1 remain playable in version 2, even though they are also now-after Khazam Dzu.

So - Trade Federation becomes unplayable when you add Kharam Dzu to the begining of the file, but everything before Trade Federation remains playable, meaning I haven't added anything to the begining that screws up the entire rest of the file. Am I making sense?

I think this means that something somewhere is overflowing, and it's happening halfway through the unit list, and effecting all units after the overflow, even though all the units are formatted just fine.

Since whatever it is that's overflowing is triggering a sprite loading error - I would tend to assume that it's the custom sprite memory block (or something, again I don't know how Johan has engineered the thing) which is overflowing.

Is too late to be added to the beta testers list? I really want to get this thing working and if any of the beta testers, who are presumably more knowledgeable in this than I am, could verify my conclusions, I'd be quite appreciative because I'm not a tester and I'm kinda in the dark here.

[HoneyBadger]

I'm really hoping that the numbers of units expands a sizeable amount, into the 5000 range, because I'm currently working on something around 7 or 8 nations, and they're all unit heavy. I could probably add that many units to a game as things are, but their are too many good mods out there (and I'm sure more and better to come) that I'd like to incorporate over time into my own version of a balance-mod. Even I would-well...probably-be satisfied with a limit of 5000 units.

[Singularity24601]

Perhaps 5000 units, 50 nations, each with 20 heroes, 10 multiheroes...

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont mod well enough, and dont have the time to look at one carefully, so I will toss this out and you cn forget it if its dumb.

The only mod I did try to do was an All_Nations mod. The problems I ran into was that the game did not handle duplicate handles well. I had to go thru and rename ALL of the nations so Ulm became early_Ulm, mid_Ulm, and late_Ulm. The empty slots became named as their number slots such as Nation_70.

Is there any chance of a "two using the same handle" situation in your mod? Like I said, I havent looked at it so if thats a stupid question then forget it.

[Endoperez]

Actually, Gandalf, that might be the cause. Machaka, Spider Cult is named Machaka, and having it the same game with MA Machaka could cause problems.

[Sombre]

Nah it's not that. It's just a limitation of Dom3 right now.

[Gandalf Parker]

Sounds worth looking at. Keeping to Ulm as an example, in my original version I had been told by other modders that this was all that was needed:
#selectnation 2
#era 1
#end

#selectnation 31
#era 1
#end

#selectnation 52
#era 1
#end

But in play testing it all I got was one of the Ulms as an option. I think it was the first one.

What I ended up having to do was:

#selectnation 2
#name "early Ulm"
#era 1
#end
#selectnation 31
#name "mid Ulm"
#era 1
#end
#selectnation 52
#name "late Ulm"
#era 1
#end

In my case all I was interesting in was getting it to show up on the menu as a nation to play. It apparently only have room for one "Ulm". But Im thinking that if the game treats nations that way then it might also be picky about other things being named the same.

[Sombre]

Yeah I know, but that isn't the problem here. Well, at least as far as I know.

I've never run into the game caring about things with the same name apart from on the nation selection screen, where as you say you can't have two called simply 'Ulm'.

[DrPraetorious]

Yeah, that isn't the problem.

You can name the units "1" through "110" (or whatever number it was) and it still triggers the error, IIRC.

[Johan K]

Good news everyone. The bug has been squashed for the next version of Dominions (3.11).

[Endoperez]

Nice! Now we only have to wait 3 to 6 months for the patch to appear! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Foodstamp]

Excellent!!!

[DrPraetorious]

JK, you rock.

I need a joke for this thread too. When I used to TA for CS classes, I got in trouble for this:

Q - My program seg faults while manipulating a value in an array, but I checked in the debugger and the index isn't out of bounds. What should I do?

A - Go out and buy a bottle of the vilest Schnapps you can find (there is such a thing as Beer Schnapps, but the most disgusting thing you can legally acquire in the US is probably Peach - insist on actual fermented peach pulp, not peach flavored liquer). Take 150 micrograms of acid, wait 45 minutes, and down eight ounces of the stuff. What you taste (and possibly see) is what is wrong with your module.

When you recover, rewrite the module from scratch and don't (expletive) it up this time.