Civ5 PBEM 5 Organizing Thread

[HitAnyKey]

Guess we probably should have done a test run of turns on a generic map to make sure everything worked for people before getting the game rolling....oh well.

[Ichabod]

Why does Civ V crash sometimes when I try to load a GMR save file?
Civ V can crash when loading a GMR save file for many reasons including missing Mods or DLC. But at this time the most common reason for a save file becoming un-loadable is due to a bug in Civ V hot seat mode we refer to as "save file bloating". This occurs when a player loads and plays multiple save files one after another without exiting Civ V between them. When you launch Civ V and load a hot seat save file, play your turn, and save it, the resulting save file will be approximately the same size as the original file. However if you then go back to the main menu in Civ V and load another hot seat save file, play your turn, and save it, the new save file for that game will almost always be considerably larger than its original file was. This is what we mean by "bloating".

These "bloated" save files are still valid and will be loaded by Civ V on most player's computers. However if the save file is "too bloated" it can cause Civ V to consume an abundant amount of system resources, and if your system doesn't have as much as it tries to consume then the game will crash.

What can you do?
There are a couple things you can try if you think you've run into one of these "bloated" save files. The first thing to try is turning down all the graphics settings in Civ V to their lowest values and then restarting Civ V. Another trick that one of the players in our community discovered is to start up Civ V fresh, go to the Single Player menu and load any single player save file. Once the game has loaded, exit back to the Main Menu and proceed to load your GMR turn through the hot seat menu as normal. We're not exactly sure why but this will allow Civ V to load the "bloated" file in the majority of cases.

If you've tried all of these things and are still unable to load the turn, you can try reverting the game back to the previous player on the GMR website and having them replay and submit their turn again, hoping the save file you get is better. If this still fails to work then try letting yourself get skipped for that turn. Sometimes a player won't be able to load the save for their turn in a game, but the next time it comes around to them they can. This is all strange stuff and we're truly sorry that it happens

That seems pretty close to the problem Adrien is experiencing.

I suggest we do the following:

1. Adrien tries to lower the Civ graphic settings and load a previous game before loading the save, as suggested above.
2. Nic replays the previous save and Adrien tries this new one.
3. A lurker (could you help with that, chumchu?) plays this first turn according to Adrien's instructions and we see if the problem solves itself on the next turn.
4. If everything fails, we

[yuris125]

I was initially thinking along those lines, but considering the save size was only a few Kb larger than the initial save I played, and Adrien's save opened fine on my system, I dismissed the possibility. That being said, my graphic settings are quite low, so lowering them might help

I looked around various forums quite a bit today, and saw a lot of suggestions, down to apostrophe in the game's folder name creating problems on non-English systems. I don't want to suggest any ideas on the lines of "reinstall Civ5, or better still, reinstall your Windows"

[AdrienIer]

I did read about the bloated save file thing, but I've never played multiple saves without exiting civ 5 so it didn't seem to make sense. I hardly ever play civ 5, and when I do it's only SP, so no loading multiple games in one session. On the other hand, the other link says it fixes a C++ runtime error which is exactly what I have.

I'll try turning down the graphics just in case, but I doubt it'll work.

[chumchu]

I can help if needed

[AdrienIer]

BTW here's the error message (which I once again had with low res settings)

[Ichabod]

I did read about the bloated save file thing, but I've never played multiple saves without exiting civ 5 so it didn't seem to make sense. I hardly ever play civ 5, and when I do it's only SP, so no loading multiple games in one session. On the other hand, the other link says it fixes a C++ runtime error which is exactly what I have.

I'll try turning down the graphics just in case, but I doubt it'll work.

The bloating would have occured in Nic's end, if I understand correctly.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I'd be surprised it that happened, the thing's 509kb

[AdrienIer]

I'd be surprised it that happened, the thing's 509kb

Just in case, would you mind replaying your turn and sending me a new version ?

[AdrienIer]

If that doesn't work I'll try to uninstall and reinstall the game. There's no save that I'd like to keep, and maybe that'll work.