can just one city cause a crash??

[nycsc4 5,250]

i have this one city called Thousand Oaks, every time i go to open it, the game just shuts off.  no warning, just closes and returns me to my desktop.  This does not happen with any other cities, just this one.  can somebody please help me?
Thanks in advanced.

[onlyplace4 603]

You've probably got a bad plugin somewhere along the line. First thing to do is test this by taking everything out of your plugins folder (a good time to make a backup of it if you haven't already got one), and then run the game and load the city. If it doesn't crash (though it will probably be full of big brown parcels), you know it is a plugin causing this. Now you have the long-winded bit to do. Shut down the game and put things back into your plugins folder one plugin at a time, testing the game and the city each time until the city crashes meaning that the last plugin you put back into the folder is the likely culprit. Remove it, but carry on doing the test sequence until you have completely repopulated your plugins folder just to be on the safe side.

Sorry, but there's no real quick fix for this. I've had to do it on many an occasion (mainly because I've stuffed up on a Lot I've been working on). It's tedious, that's for sure, but it is the only way ..... unless someone else knows better

Mike

[nycsc4 5,250]

i took out every plug in and it still won't load.  anybody else have a suggestion, thanks for your help any way.

[dwayner 1]

Sounds like your city is done for. The only solution is to import a "New City" and start over again. I know this might not help but it is the only way I know of.

[pnorrell 4]

Originally posted by: nycsc4

i took out every plug in and it still won't load.

[Oly_Ontario 0]

I was just going to post the very same issue. I have just downloaded about 150 pluggins and I was creating seawalls along the whole south coust of a large city when crash it goes. I have had intermitent crashes before this one and had been saving evry 1/2 hour or so. Now I cannot get this city to load at all. Is there a limit as to how many pluggins you can use ? I have a 2.6 ghz 1 GB 160GB Radeon 9800PRo 256MB XPP system and have buffered max of 4096 MB for the hard drive. Any thoughts thks.

[nycsc4 5,250]

Originally posted by: Oly_Ontario

I was just going to post the very same issue. I have just downloaded about 150 pluggins and I was creating seawalls along the whole south coust of a large city when crash it goes. I have had intermitent crashes before this one and had been saving evry 1/2 hour or so. Now I cannot get this city to load at all. Is there a limit as to how many pluggins you can use ? I have a 2.6 ghz 1 GB 160GB Radeon 9800PRo 256MB XPP system and have buffered max of 4096 MB for the hard drive. Any thoughts thks.quote>

i don't think there is any limit on plugins, i have over 2,000, so i doubt that, you may just have a bad plugin.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Both of you have found a probable bad plugin or combination of plugins. This is one of the dangers when you have many contributors to something like the STEX with a program that is anything but bulletproof.

The most important thing about plugins is testing. One of you admits to downloading some 150 plugins. I don't suppose you thought they were not guaranteed? The author(s) probably tested them on their eqipment with their configurations. There are millions if not billions of possible combinations, and they cannot all be guaranteed to work.

The point is, you must test each plugin individually. Each new thing must be put in your plugins structure, then tested. One at a time. Shotgunning plugins is alike quail hunting with the vice-president. If you want to know the number of things that can go wrong for each plugin out of a set of 150, proceed as follows:

Write down 150 x 149 x 148 x ... x 3 x 2 x 1. That is for each plugin, all lthe others or any of them may be incompatible with it or have a game problem. That's a big number.

In future. test each one. You'll save yourself a lot of grief.

[nycsc4 5,250]

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

Both of you have found a probable bad plugin or combination of plugins. This is one of the dangers when you have many contributors to something like the STEX with a program that is anything but bulletproof. The most important thing about plugins is testing. One of you admits to downloading some 150 plugins. I don't suppose you thought they were not guaranteed? The author(s) probably tested them on their eqipment with their configurations. There are millions if not billions of possible combinations, and they cannot all be guaranteed to work. The point is, you must test each plugin individually. Each new thing must be put in your plugins structure, then tested. One at a time. Shotgunning plugins is alike quail hunting with the vice-president. If you want to know the number of things that can go wrong for each plugin out of a set of 150, proceed as follows: Write down 150 x 149 x 148 x ... x 3 x 2 x 1. That is for each plugin, all lthe others or any of them may be incompatible with it or have a game problem. That's a big number. In future. test each one. You'll save yourself a lot of grief.quote>

i thank you for your help.  but after i pulled all of my plugins out to start this testing process, it still did not open.  This happened when there were no plugins in the folder.
EDIT:  Just wanted to say to N_O_Body, i liked the joke about the VP.  good one.

[Oly_Ontario 0]

Thanks N_O_Body.  To be honest with you I really did not think about  The issues that I could face by downloading 150 plugs actually it was 225 . I am going to remove them and start fresh a bit at a time. Are the BSC and NDEX plugins fairly reliable ? Also are there any that should be avoided ? Thanks for your Help.

[Oly_Ontario 0]

N_O_Body also I liked the shot at the VP 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

@nycsc4: Well, you either have a bad save or a corrupt game. Your choices are to delete the city file and import one from somewhere or to reinstall your game. If I were you, I would save my regions and plugins folders to a CD at least weekly, especially if you invest in a CD-RW.

@Oly_Ontario: See above as well, but those sources as well as PEG productions are pretty good. But when you are dealing with so many issues, be sure to test. Since each of these sources is essentially independent and the game doesn't use a very complete object ID system, you can get conflicts. That's one of the reasons you test. Hope in the next edition of the game they will switch to GUID's which are a lot stronger.

[Oly_Ontario 0]

N_O_Body thks removed plugins city still crashes replaced city with saved file 2 weeks ago and it works. Damn lost 11 hours. Anyways adding one plugin at a time and testing now as per your suggestion.