EHM The Blue Line

Since v2.3 of my DB I've had a few people report crashes a few days/weeks into FA in 2018. I have acquired a copy of a saved game and I'd like to understand how to debug it to try to determine what is triggering this crash. I tried a few validation steps in the editor but it didn't seem to help (the below file is unaltered). Is there a way to view queued transactions that I may be able to pin-point what is occurring? The file below will crash at the next progression.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e7nkkf8fzhxox ... 2.sav?dl=0

Heres my gamesave: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bajpv ... PyxXU-3hHo

Unfortunately there is no way of us debugging a saved game or viewing any diagnostic information. The structure of save games is unknown (SI does not share this information). The EHM Editor will actually show you less information from a saved game than a database. This is because certain of the database tables are not used in saved games. Instead, it seems those tables are replaced with more complex tables. Realistically, the only real way of debugging a saved game is to debug the game itself with the saved game running - and to do this you need the game's source code (which only Riz and SI Games have access to).

Running the validation functions from the EHM Editor in saved games will do more bad than good. This is why all of the validation settings are disabled by default for saved games. The Editor is not designed for editing saved games in any way. I have been trying to make this clear with the dialogue window that appears when first running the Editor and on the opening screen but it seems a lot of people are still missing what it says.

The most common cause of crashes is the league rules and structures (not just the Rules & Structures screen in the Editor, but also things like the nature of the teams in the league). My suggestion is to try to replicate the crash and narrow down to which league it relates. The saved games from other users will be a good starting point because you can see what playable leagues they have running. Try starting a new game with one league at a time and then sim to the summer. Hopefully this will indicate which league is the culprit. Note that you can speed up the simming in-game by changing the Detail Level by clicking on the cog/settings icon in the top right corner of the screen -> Detail Level -> Change both of the Preset Configuration settings to "Minimum".

Once you have narrowed down the league, I suggest then taking a look at the last version of your database. If the issue is not present in the last version then it'll likely be something you changed for your most recent release. If the crash is happening regardless of league selection, I would hazard a guess that it relates to the NHL or to an international tournament.

Note that all of the above is really just a starting point and should help narrow down finding the source. Unfortunately there are many different ways in which people have been able to cause crashes in the game. But the league rules and structures is a good starting point as it is a common culprit.

Thanks Archi,

So far this is happening only with the NHL selected for users at a minimum and around mid July. I'll start poking around but I have never touched the NHL rules or structure since the TBL beta was released. Will start poking around though to see what is going on.

Really at a loss here, if someone can spend some time to look over these two DBs and determine what may be causing this I would greatly appreciate it. I don't see myself spending anymore time working on DBs unless this can be fixed. The only option I have is to go back to version 2.2 (from January) and re-do months worth of work which is just demoralizing.

Version 2.2 works just fine, I have a feeling this crash was introduced while working on adding the USPHL, which consists of 20 Club Competitions and ~60 teams. I ran into this bug while creating teams which permanently altered/removed some National U20 teams: viewtopic.php?f=110&t=14290&start=1075#p234134. I have not altered any leagues under 'Rules & Structures' and they appear to be consistent with TBL 10.1.

Those altered National teams are the only thing that jumps out to me, I see some values are not consistent as I am unable to make negative values.

The working 2.2 DB can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ij0kh82etd0ba ... 2.zip?dl=0

The 2.3 released (where it seems this bug was introduced) can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5tjycvo0zrlq ... 3.zip?dl=0

Version 2.2 (working):

Version 2.3 (not working):

It sounds from your other thread that you've found the cause. But let me know if you still have issues and I can try to lend a hand this weekend.