Any fix to Puzzle Piece crashes?

[Philadelphia 25]

I havent been to Simtropolis lately and for quite a while and I dont feel like searching all over for a patch or a solution. So my question is pretty strait forward. When I use my GLR or Airport puzzle pieces, my game still crashes and I wish to have a fix for this because it is EXTREMELY irritating when Im trying to build a mass transit system or a major International airport so if any fixes please post a reply or PM me. It would really help.

[His Divine Hand 244]

Are you talking about the CTD caused by hovering puzzle pieces over transit enabled lots? If so, there is actually a very easy fix for that: DON'T HOVER PUZZLE PIECES OVER TRANSIT ENABLED LOTS!!!! See, an easy fix to your problem!

[Mikeaut1 261]

Which airport pack are you using? The most common reason as to why the game crashes could be that plugins are conflicting with each other. Do you notice the game crashes when you put down a specific piece?

Also have you downloaded the new NAM (January 2009)? There are quite a few fixes in there, and maybe a new installation of the NAM might solve the problem. I'm only asking this because you mentioned you haven't been to Simtropolis in a while.

[Philadelphia 25]

Yes I do have NAM 1/09 and Im using the RMIP 2 Small Airport Edition Vol 1,2,3,4 and it happens randomly and Im just placing these lots (NOT OVER TE lots) And its not a specific peice it often happens randomly for no apparent reason.

[north country dude 202]

Originally posted by: Philadelphia I havent been to Simtropolis lately and for quite a while and I dont feel like searching all over for a patch or a solution. So my question is pretty strait forward. When I use my GLR or Airport puzzle pieces, my game still crashes and I wish to have a fix for this because it is EXTREMELY irritating when Im trying to build a mass transit system or a major International airport so if any fixes please post a reply or PM me. It would really help.quote>

No. There is absolutely no fix available for this,...now,...or in the future,...until Electronic Arts releases the code for the SC4.exe itself.

Supporting data,...an excerpt from mott's discussion "TE Lots, Transit Switches, and You"

WHAT TE LOTS ARE

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What you see on the screen in SC4 isn't always what you get.  Diagonal networks and Transit-Enabled lots are two good examples.   

A "Road Top Bus Stop," on the game's internal map, looks exactly the same as a regular bus stop.  There is no road under it or on it.  The road ends, there is a bus stop, and the road begins again on the other side.  It looks like a continuous road to the player, but it isn't one, and the simulators themselves know it. 

WHY PUZZLE PIECE HOVERS OVER TE LOTS CAUSE CRASHES

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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>