[BUG] Battle Freezing in Galatic War

[Zaiakusin]

[ /] I have verified this bug with all other mods disabled

[ /] I am not using one of the documented incompatible mods

[ /] I have confirmed this happens after verifying the games files

[ /] I was using the latest graphics drivers

Describe the bug

Game stops during battle. Every unit freezes but the camera and If I recall, the UI works as well but doesn't update. Timing is not exact. Can happen in the first few moments of a fight or 10 mins into it. Confirmed that it only happens when Galactic War mod is installed. Fresh install, verified, only mod installed. Same issue.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behaviour:

1. Just start a galactic war and start a fight. Settings do not change the effect.

Expected behaviour

Everything stops but you can still use the UI, back out to the galactic map etc.

Screenshots

https://imgur.com/gallery/59Y1uDY

GWO Info

Taken from the top-right GWO panel:

• Version: 5.51.0((Newest on the mod hub)
• Difficulty:Silver
• Size:epic
• AI:Titans
• Options:Faction and system scailing

Additional context

Add any other context about the problem here.

Logs

The log files and the localstore folder are all in the zip linked here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i4qM6ESeGD7_c0jBT0ezP04vmGEu0IwC/view?usp=sharing

[Quitch]

Can you attach the screenshot? The imgur link is returning a 404.

Does this issue happen to you on every war?

Does this issue happen to you on every fight?

How long into the fight does it take before it occurs?

[Zaiakusin]

Every war regardless of faction chosen.
Every fight.
The time is random. When I posted the bug report last night it took about 15 mins to kick in but the one right after(After I restarted) crapped out almost instantly.

I dont think a screenshot does the error justice. Ill quickly do up a small vid to show it.

[Quitch]

Many thanks, I will look into this and see what I can dig up. Appreciate the information and save file.

[Quitch]

Does the bug ever happen when the Cluster faction isn't present in the battle?

[Zaiakusin]

https://youtu.be/tuX1ivagCvo

https://youtu.be/_UNvTpi-Tsg

Ok so I ran it twice. Once as cluster and once as revenent with no cluster on the field. Both stopped. Different times. Different commanders each time. It took me a bit to get these two because the game ran perfectly fine for about 1 hour and 30 mins, no crash.(Ill provide the link to that one once its done uploading.) That one had cluster in it but no crash.

I had a thought when you asked if it happened if cluster wasn't on the field. and I tested it. In the 2 crashes above, I was using Bot units. Just your basic ones at that. But the one that ran long, I was using vehicle units and basic orbital. Might be something to look into.

[Zaiakusin]

https://youtu.be/D4aiBw76M9Y
The hour long vid(Cause I somehow started recording) No crash

[Quitch]

Ah, dang, Cluster was my sole lead. This is going to be a nightmare to reproduce :D

[Zaiakusin]

I asked in one of the threads about this issue. Another user confirmed the same results. Looks like the bots have some kind of issue.

[Quitch]

Can you see if you have the issue without any tech cards in your inventory?

[Zaiakusin]

Nice idea but no change. 15:35 in, freeze. I went one step further too and downgraded to the "Basic" deck and ran a battle with no cards.

[zlondrej]

I have the same issue, I even had a system where the game kept freezing regularly at 7-10 minutes. Went through the logs back then and couldn't find anything that would indicate any kind of error (I deleted those because I didn't knew that I can bug report here, but it was 3 weeks ago).

Played entire vanilla Galactic War and there wasn't a single freeze, but the game freezes almost every time after few minutes with GWO.

I always played with Queller AI, so I'll try Titans this time and see if it still freezes.

[Quitch]

If you have the same issue please upload the logs and localstore information. Details on where this is are in the new bug report template.

[Zaiakusin]

Still no luck tracking it down huh?

[Quitch]

I haven't been able to get my game to freeze, I really need a reliable reproduction to track it down.

[Zaiakusin]

Try using Osiris, and basic bots. Drop into a fight and build a gaggle of something and wait for the AI to start sending waves. Usually freezes when I start to command the army at that point

[Quitch]

Another report of this with the Bot Commander. It is seeming likely that this is somehow related to that loadout, or perhaps simply more likely with that loadout, depending on root cause. Still unclear whether this is a GW or GWO thing.

[Zaiakusin]

It...might not be loadout... For shits and giggles I tried playing a GW with bronze AI instead of silver....and it ran without issue...multiple times. Went back to silver and first battle froze. Also looked at the mods again that I had on and your own bug fix mod was also on. But having it on or off did not change the outcome of the bronze battles.

[itsAnuga]

I've run into a similar bug, using GW-Bronze, with any commander, any combination of settings.

As soon as several enemies are visible in the viewable area, the game freezes, but navigation is still possible.
It's like the speed of the game is 0.001 FPS, cause if one wait for a long period, there sometimes comes sound notifications, like something is still going on, but in a very slow pace.

[Quitch]

@itsAnuga when you say any Commander, are you referring to Commander model, or loadout?

[itsAnuga]

@Quitch both, just tried another GW with the settings in the image, except AI : Queller and Size: Über.

Staled after 41 minutes in the first fight, when I approached the enemy factions commander with 100isch Dox's.

[Quitch]

For logging please add --ai-log --ai-debug to your launch options.

[Quitch]

Version 5.53.0 is coming out tomorrow which fixes an error I found in the mod's processing of unit specs. I'd be interested to hear whether this makes a difference.

[itsAnuga]

I'll try it, once it's been deployed! 🙂

[RagingFlames]

I'm running 5.55.0 and my game also freezes during battles in GW still. 20 minutes into a battle and the whole game will freeze. The music will keep playing and the UI works, but nothing happens and nothing moves. I can even still move the camera.

[itsAnuga]

I'm running 5.55.0 and my game also freezes during battles in GW still. 20 minutes into a battle and the whole game will freeze. The music will keep playing and the UI works, but nothing happens and nothing moves. I can even still move the camera.

Same here, I ran it with the additional logging and debug options, but can't seem to find the logs.

[zlondrej]

After playing a new galactic war campaign, I got the error again. Ran the game with --ai-log --ai-debug and it froze at 16:02 of the game time.

server-2023-10-22_203146.txt
PA-2023-10-22_170854.txt

And this is the recording if it helps:
https://streamable.com/edo6if

Interesting thing about this is that once you find the system where this problems occurs, it's usually reproduces around the same game time, +/- few minutes.

[kaliber64]

Can confirm, having this bug. 8:24 elapsed. 5 commanders. Froze 2 different attempts. Guess I'll just skip this system.

[Quitch]

There is an update coming out tomorrow which resolves an issue with Cluster tech. I don't think this fixes this issue, but worth a check.

Also, I've setup bug testing branch to try a few things to resolve this. If the 5.55.1 release doesn't fix it, then do the following:

1. Go to the test branch.
2. Click Code and then Download Zip.
3. Extract the zip to %localappdata%\Uber Entertainment\Planetary Annihilation\client_mods\
4. Start PA and go to Community Mods
5. Disable Galactic War Overhaul
6. Enable Galactic War Overhaul BUG 79 TESTING
7. Test

Using existing wars for the purpose of testing is fine.

[kaliber64]

PA-2023-11-01_114740.txt
server-2023-11-01_114820.txt

Tried the 79 Test. Alas still freezing. I have 2 systems in my GW that freeze somewhere between 6-10 minutes.

[kaliber64]

So using Galactic War Overhaul BUG 79 TESTING. I disabled More Pew Pew and it didn't freeze. It seems there's a game breaking incompatibility between GWO and More Pew Pew. I'll continue with the 5.55.1 without pew pew and see if theres any issues. I assume it works fine.

[kaliber64]

I defeated both systems that were giving me freezes with Pew Pew disabled. 1 on the test branch 1 on the release branch.

[kaliber64]

spoke too soon... I froze with 5.55.1 only enabled. Trying Pew Pew disabled on the Galactic War Overhaul BUG 79 TESTING branch now.

[kaliber64]

I was able to make it through that system the 2nd go around with the testing branch. I'll continue playing on the test branch and see if it continues to stand up. If this does work then pew pew still has issues cause I was using the test branch with pew pew on and it didn't work but if maybe just the test branch is enabled its works. we'll see.

[zlondrej]

Used the test branch, same planetary system as before, all other mods disabled (except maybe those that install and enable themselves automatically - AI Fixes and PA chat). Still freezes after 8-16 minutes.

server-2023-11-01_234645.txt
PA-2023-11-01_233904.txt

I wonder if there's a way to switch to vanilla AI mid-campaign to see if the same system still freezes.

[Quitch]

@zlondrej are you able to attach/link your localstore folder from the data folder?

[zlondrej]

@Quitch Sure. It's this system in the latest galactic war.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11GGIpK_htww93PLbxvw8iCpH0fz5oZdY/view?usp=drivesdk

[Quitch]

Thanks, file grabbed.

[Quitch]

Thus far the commonalities in the saves I've seen are:

1. Player has bots on the battlefield.
2. Player is up against a Cluster Security commander.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has encountered a freeze where neither of these things are true.

[Quitch]

I've also updated the test branch with a fix for Security, which shouldn't impact anything, but you never know. It requires a new war to test and will show as 5.55.1-beta2 in the war version.

[zlondrej]

Started new galactic war, this time I choose vehicle commander. Played about 8 games, usually about 17-25 minutes in length.
So far the game didn't freeze, but in the first half of the system, I didn't encounter even a single Cluster commander, so I can't tell if it's because of the loadout of the absence of Cluster (I did use lobs though).

Edit: Turn's out there's not a single Cluster commander in this system (enabled dev mode and quickly beat all the systems to see). Am I just (un)lucky or is this tied to a difficulty? Anyway, I'll revert the save to state before I enabled the dev mode and see if I'll get a freeze. Probably will even start using bots when I get my hand on them.

[kaliber64]

I had thought the scope of this bug was the bot commander loudout but we'll see I suppose. I tried to use the air commander but after like 9 trys i couldn't win a single system so I went bot commander and 1st try I get a win.

[Quitch]

Turn's out there's not a single Cluster commander in this system (enabled dev mode and quickly beat all the systems to see). Am I just (un)lucky or is this tied to a difficulty? Anyway, I'll revert the save to state before I enabled the dev mode and see if I'll get a freeze. Probably will even start using bots when I get my hand on them.

Enemy factions are assigned at random, with the number determined by galaxy size. Disable Faction Scaling during war set up and all factions will be used regardless of galaxy size.

I had thought the scope of this bug was the bot commander loudout but we'll see I suppose. I tried to use the air commander but after like 9 trys i couldn't win a single system so I went bot commander and 1st try I get a win.

I don't think it's the loadout, but may be related to bots, and the Bot Commander is the most common time someone has bots.

[Bobisback]

I just had this happen like 4 times in a row, about 10-15 mins in, can confirm I had a bot commander, not sure on the cluster, I think it did.

I googled it and found this, https://steamcommunity.com/app/386070/discussions/1/142261027575386141/?l=latam. I did have gamefirst running in background. It mentions that when this happens it is a network issue. Might be a lead?

Testing now to see if I have any issues now.

Edit: 4 hours in no issues so far! So maybe make sure all people having this issue don't have software that affects networking?

[Quitch]

What version is your war?

Anyone else here running any potentially incompatible software or incompatible mods?