Odd crash and possible corruption when changing terrain.

[mdman3219]

Okay any help you guys and gals can offer would be great.  I searched for this C.T.D. but I didn't see anything so here goes. 

1. First off start with a fresh install, no plugins game is fine.  Can raise and lower terrain with no crashes or problems.
2. Add my entire plugins folder, reload and the game functions correctly for a short time. However after approx 5 mins if I go and move terrain up or down, both with the menu options and laying roads/rails the game immediately will crash to desktop as the game attempts to change the terrain.
3. Remove all plugins, start again, now anytime I attempt to raise/lower terrain game again immediately C.T.D.  The only remedy is to uninstall and reinstall.

  I have never seen SC4 get corrupted like this.  Any idea what could be causing the C.T.D.?  I have the error reports, but I won't be able to upload them till tonight.  Thanks for any ideas on what to try next.

[nerdly_dood]

It may be related to a tree controller problem.  I downloaded a tree controller, but some of the dependencies were locked and so on mountains' north-facing slopes, I got a bunch of the loathed brown boxes.  I then unistalled this tree controller, which I loved apart from the brown box problem, and got an older version.  When I ran the game, this tree controller gave the god-mode forests somewhat less variety than had the newer version, but it was still excellent.  Also, some of the tree props that were created when I used the previous tree controller on terrain that didn't make brown boxes didn't show up anymore, but they weren't brown boxes, they just weren't there.  Then I go and mess with a ground highway long-radius curve...and the game crashes.  I then reinstalled the tree controller that caused the brown boxes, found the specific tree controller file and changed its name so that it started with AAAAAA, which makes it so that it loads BEFORE any other files (the game loads files alphabetically), and then reinstalled the older tree controller that didn't cause brown boxes in the same folder, and its filenames started with C, so it loaded after the problematic file.  Problem solved:  New forests create NO brown boxes, and the props that came with the tree controller that caused the brown boxes still show up, and the game doesn't crash when I do something to the terrain.

The tree controller that caused the brown boxes was the Meadowshire River Tree Mod.  The other one was CPT no. 7 and 8.

A tree controller is a file that changes the way your God Mode forest tool creates trees - it may change the arrangement, it may change the types of trees, etc.

Hope that helps.

[mdman3219]

Ding Ding Ding you are the big winner nerdly!!! Somewhere along the lines of reorganizing and compacting my plugins my CPT_07 dissapeared.  The maps, having been started before when the tree mod was present, crashed when loaded missing said mod. So it was those darn invisible trees causing the crashes.  With the CPT_07 replaced all is well now.  Thanks for the info Mr. nerdly_dood it absolutely sent me in the right direction.

[nerdly_dood]

No problem, and good luck with your tree controllers