NAM09 - Tram & GLR probs

[Killm 0]

My game crashes (just pops out of gameplay - back to my desktop) every time I try to place stations on my GRL/Tram network. I installed the NAM 2009 (after uninstalling the old one - of course), yesterday, and when I now tried to build a city with a tram network, the game crashes. I build my network, and everything works fine, until I place a station, connect it to my newly built network - boom - the next thing I see is my neat desktop. -_- Really bugs me out, please help!

[rainyday 2]

you have to delete the glr pieces where the station is going to be. The statioins don't work the same as el-rail stations. You buldoze the tiles that the station takes up and then you place the station. It is caused by a bug that cannot be fixed by anyone except maxis who wont fix it.

[north country dude 202]

What rainyday says is true, sorry.

This is a more technical explanation, but is very good information. From mott's article "TE Lots, Transit Switches, and You":

WHY PUZZLE PIECE HOVERS OVER TE LOTS CAUSE CRASHES

What the player sees as a "TE lot" is the result of some special coding overrides in the lot, that lie to the network and automata *display* processes.  This way, they are "tricked" into drawing a continuous road for the player, with traffic, instead of displaying the ugly reality (a broken road with a bus stop in the middle of it).

These same lies cause the game to crash to desktop when someone hovers a "puzzle piece" over the lot.  The puzzle-piece preview thinks it's over a network (it believes the lie), so it goes looking for RUL tables so it can auto-orient itself.  Lots don't have the proper tables for this purpose; only networks do.  Null/random pointer, meet desktop.  This is not a "puzzle piece" problem, it's a TE-lot problem, and it's not solvable without modding the EXE itself. 

The underlying point is, the network doesn't *really* go through a TE lot.  That's just a clever display trick.  They're really just Transit Switch lots, like any other.quote>

The complete discussion can be found here:

TE Lots, Transit Switches, and You

It's very informative reading.

[The Arrowz 3]

Hovering stations over glr/tram pieces won't cause it to crash, but hovering the pieces over a station (like if you destroy a few tiles of track to add a station, then try to fill back adjacent tiles) will cause it to crash. It's an inconvenience, but not a big deal for the great glr

[Vahr 341]

Try using Draggable GLR. It solves this problem. Some stations can even be placed onto teh dragged GLR.

[grk1011 1]

the same thing happens to me. The GLR (Ground Light Rail) is something new to me that came with the NAM. Whenever I try to put a system in, the game just closes unexpectantly. Some times I am able to lay more track than others, but I have never successfully got a system up and running. Just now I tried three times to build the same system and the game closed three times. The game closes once in a while (about once every 4 times playing) without warning, but it closes religiously when I try to use GLR.

Its not always the same pieces that I try to lay either. Sometimes its the draggable pieces, sometimes its the inroad pieces. Whichever GLR pieces I use causes the game to close.

[CaptCity 4,669]

grk1011 and Killmörck (if still having problems)

What exactly are you doing when the game crashes - selecting the piece from the menu, moving the piece after selecting it, or plopping the piece (clicking to place it on the ground)? Knowing this could help understand your problem better. Let us know...

[grk1011 1]

it was a bunch of different things just trying to place pieces. Sometimes it was right when i clicked on it in the menu, others were when i tried to place it. I realized what the other posts were talking about meaning not moving the piece over a transit lot and it seems to be working ok now, but are there any plans to fix this bug?

[CaptCity 4,669]

Nope, can't be 'fixed'. It would involve modding files that aren't allowed to be modded. See above post by North Country Dude for a more complete explanation.

As for placing those pieces, a good rule of thumb is to zoom as lose as possible to the area you're working on. This will limit those accidental crashes when moving the cursor from the menu to the place you want to plop the piece. Careful is the key...