Naming 2 stars the same renders a game unrestartable.

from Stardock Forums
Noone would deliberately name two stars identically, but it could happen by accident, so I gave it a try. Then I saved the game, exited Galciv, and tried
to restart it. I got the following trap 5 instantly after clicking on "load saved civilization":
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Stardock SmartException Logging Information 04/07/02 17:56:28
-------------------------------------------------------
Versions:
Microsoft Windows Me
Internet Explorer 5.50.4134.0100

Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS (IBM)
Crash Information:
Application Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Crash Addr: 00448C51 01:00047C51 E:\DRENGIN.NET\GALCIV\GALCIV.EXE

Processor Registers (x86):
EAX:00000000
EBX:834B2DC0
ECX:00000000
EDX:00000000
ESI:013441D4
EDI:00000202
CS:EIP:0187:00448C51
SS:ESP:018F:00A34EBC EBP:00A6D160
DS:018F ES:018F FS:12A7 GS:0000
Flags:00010202


Current Application Call Stack:

Addr Frame Logical addr Module Name
---------------------------------------------
00448C51 00A6D160 0001:00047C51 E:\DRENGIN.NET\GALCIV\GALCIV.EXE
004529DC 00A6F518 0001:000519DC E:\DRENGIN.NET\GALCIV\GALCIV.EXE
0043B278 00A6F97C 0001:0003A278 E:\DRENGIN.NET\GALCIV\GALCIV.EXE
0042FD8A 00A6F9FC 0001:0002ED8A E:\DRENGIN.NET\GALCIV\GALCIV.EXE
00492A5D 00A6FA64 0001:00091A5D E:\DRENGIN.NET\GALCIV\GALCIV.EXE
00492C91 00A6FACC 0001:00091C91 E:\DRENGIN.NET\GALCIV\GALCIV.EXE
0048E9B0 00A6FB44 0001:0008D9B0 E:\DRENGIN.NET\GALCIV\GALCIV.EXE
004B2274 00A6FBC4 0001:000B1274 E:\DRENGIN.NET\GALCIV\GALCIV.EXE
BAABD504 00A6FBF0 0001:0001C504 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DDRAW.DLL
BFF63613 00A6FC10 0001:00002613 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL
BFF848F7 00A6FC24 0002:0001B8F7 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL

Debug information for each Stardock app follows ....

Debug.err info follows
Timestamp: 4-8-2002 0:56:30
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: RGB in format 5:6:5, Masks reported as f800:7e0:1f
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 1234dc
Debug Message: Added fonts: font2 font1 Comic10 Comic12 Comic12B
Debug Message: Added fonts: Comic14 Comic14B Comic16 Comic16B Comic18
Debug Message: Added fonts: Comic18B Celtic14 Celtic12 Celtic10 Basker14
Debug Message: Added fonts: Basker16 ArialGreenB10 ArialYellowB12 ArialLtBlueB12 ArialDkBlueB12
Debug Message: Added fonts: ArialGreenB12 ArialRedB12 Arial13B Arial16B2 Arial10
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial12 Arial12B Arial14 Arial14B Arial16
Debug Message: Added fonts: Arial16B Arial18 Arial18B GaraWGold11B GaraBW14B
Debug Message: Added fonts: GaraW11B
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: Game Initialization completed.
Debug Message: No data definition files at path Data\*.EVENT
Debug Message: Possible error: number of fields for GNNLB is not exact. Remainder: 25 pixels
Debug Message: Possible error: number of fields for TradeOfferList is not exact. Remainder: 8 pixels
Debug Message: Possible error: number of fields for TradeOfferList is not exact. Remainder: 8 pixels
Debug Message: Possible error: number of fields for PList is not exact. Remainder: 10 pixels
Debug Message: Possible error: number of fields for ShipList is not exact. Remainder: 8 pixels
Debug Message: Possible error: number of fields for EventLB is not exact. Remainder: 43 pixels
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Cheers,
Jack
286 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
On the other hand, I can now no longer restart any saved games at all. I have tried galaxy sizes tiny, large, huge, and gigantic. I am
going to uninstall, scratch, and reinstall galciv to see if this changes anything.

Cheers,
Jack
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I now have a game with two stars named "Kistler" and it is restartable.

The original point of this exercise was to see if Galciv would prevent duplicate naming of stars. It doesn't and it should.

Cheers,
Jack
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Good find..


Thanks!
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Indeed. That's one of those "Thank goodness for alpha testers!" I am quite certain I wouldn't have found that.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, it's just as well that it doesn't since we don't have enough unique default star names in the list.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
One technique for the game's naming of stars would be to add a number after the duplicated name, such as
Arcturas 2. Or, after the star names list is exhausted, how about something like the scientific naming system
that produces those strange combination of letters and numbers we see for stars today, maybe "XYZ1532". Then if
someone wants to manually name a star with a duplicate name, either warn him/her, or respond with a suggestion
that adds a number after the name, like in "how about Kistler2 (you already have a star named kistler)".

Cheers,
Jack
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I would say that an easy way to add star names is to take a listing of Earth City names, and either add "New", "Neo", or "Astro". Not much time to have names like Astroindianapolis and Neomoscow. Yumm, ;)

Other ways would be to have alpha and beta testers each contribute 25 names (which would have to be checked by somebody at Stardock) -- possibly on a page of the metaverse screen.

Thanks!
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
We have a lot of names from mythology and literature. It's always fun to see the planet Hercules. :)

--Cari
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I haven't tried this in some time so I thought I would just check on it. I just tried naming two stars the same and it still accepts it (without a crash). What is the plan on this?

Cheers,
Jack
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I noticed that some of the mythological sourced names are oddly spelled, but only one of the copyrighted name you used are similarly altered (specifically Alderaan, which is missing the final 'a').

Perhaps it would be advisable to do that in the other order, using the common mythological forms, and altered forms for the non-mythological ones.

Especially noticible was Poldukes (normal spelling is Polyduces, if I'm catching the reference correctly, and the real world star named after him uses his abbreviated name, Pollux).
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
This has been on my list forever, but it never reaches the top priority stage. :(

Before I can put in code to check for duplicate names, we're going to have to have a list of default names that contains no duplicates...we need at least 1000 unique names for the default list with the way the code is now. When we do get more names, I can always import the list into a MS Access database, do a query to filter out duplicates, and then export the updated list.
It's just coming up with the names that is hard. :)

Since it would be an easy thing to fix, though, I could bring it up at tomorrow's meeting, and if I get approval, I could post a note with the current unique names list and have you guys reply with suggestions.

Some of the odd spellings may be typos.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Good idea, I'm sure with the wealth of inspiration out here, 1000 names is not too hard a atask to come up with
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
I could always page down a mythology book, or something similar, and come up with a good sized list. We'd have to kill a number of the Roman names to avoid conflicts with named objects in the Sol system, but it'd still provide a good start.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
If you remember older 4X strategy Imperium, names were created by joining pre-defined groups of letters, creating names like "Luatax", "Luaiax", "Smaias" and so on. Subordinates used names from Roman history ("Drusus", "Decimus" etc.)