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DLC Manifest Mismatch Detected

Symptoms

• Startup message telling you something about proto, techtree, manifest mismatch and to notify Kris (morness) so he can fix it. It lets you continue anyway, but there may be some weird bugs that you notice later on and besides, who wants a big message popping up discouraging people from using your mod even if everything seems to work fine?

Causes

• You forgot a bracket or an opening/closing statement such as </tech> in your proto or techtree.
  
• You inserted a proto object with a unique ID number somewhere above Ao Kuang (id="928")

Solution

• Go to your Age of Mythology/Logs folder and check loc_log.txt for your most recent startup. It should identify missing syntax
  
• Use the XML Tools plugin for Notepad++ and check XML syntax to detect errors automatically. If the plugin gives you an error code without referencing a line number, try using this site: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/online_xml_editor.htm
  
• Manually delete your code by sections until you isolate the problem
  
• Remove any new proto entries above id="928"

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Duplicate Proto Names/IDs

Symptoms

• You can place objects normally in the editor but when you run a scenario (custom scenario, campaign, main menu background) some of your objects get replaced by other random objects (sometimes the last few objects defined in your proto). Sometimes your objects just don’t show up at all. Sometimes, almost all of your objects will show up for player 1 but some other random player numbers will experience the bug. The effects of this bug are fairly random but usually involved objects turning into other random objects or disappearing entirely.

Causes

• You have two or more objects with the same proto ID number or name in your proto file which is making the game confused as to which object it should place when you run a scenario.

Solution

• Open your proto in Notepad++, use ctrl-a to select all, use TextFX>TextFX Tools>T:sort lines case insensitive (at column) (make sure T:+Sort output only UNIQUE (at column) lines option is dissabled), scroll down to where the <unit id="... part starts and copy all data in that section, paste this data into a Microsoft Excel document, move the data into column A, in the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting>New Rule..., select the bottom option "Use a formula to determine which cells to format", input the formula: =SUMPRODUCT(--($A$1:$A$X=A1))>1 where X is the last row number that contains data, click the Format button and in the Fill tab pick a color that will be easy to identify, click OK, scroll through the document until you find any highlighted cells, these will be duplicates
  
• If the above method doesn't work, it may be because only the proto name or only the ID number are duplicated, to check for duplicated ID numbers, use ctrl-f, Replace tab, for 'Find what' input name* and leave the 'Replace with' field blank, click Replace All, this will remove all proto names from the data, now use the same method as in the first bullet point to find any duplicates
  
• to find duplicated proto names, use the same method as above except for 'Find what' input *name=" and click Replace All, this will remove the proto IDs from the data
  
• if all else fails, use the systematic approach and delete your proto data in halves until you identify the problem

Or just watch this video guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfqnDPBkkp0

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Initialization Failed

Symptoms

• The game won’t launch and you get a popup saying initialization failed.

Causes

• I’m going to assume that this isn’t an issue with your directX or video card drivers (because you’re reading a guide about mod errors, not startup errors) and that it is actually only happening because of your mod. In which case, you made a syntax error probably in your proto or techtree. You can check the mod-status.txt file in your mod folder to see which mods are active and what their priority is so you know where the problem files are even if you can't access the mod manager because the game won't launch.

Solution

• Use Notepad++ or an XML compiler of your choice to find the problem. If that doesn’t work, do it manually by saving a backup and deleting sections of your code until you isolate the problem. It’s usually a misspelled tag or a missing bracket.

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Mods Not Working in Campaign

Symptoms

• Mod has no effect, map is revealed at start, or the game crashes on loading the campaign scenario.

Causes

• Fall of the Trident and The Titans campaign scenarios use different data files from the TotD campaign, random maps, regular scenarios, etc. These other game modes use the most recent version of version 2 (EE) so when this guide was written, they used 2.5. The Fall of the Trident campaign uses 1.0 for almost all scenarios.

Solution

• Change the name of your data files to end with the most recent version used by the campaigns. If this doesn't work, you will need to manually reproduce your data edits in the older file versions (which you should be doing anyway for campaign mods).

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Mods Not Showing Up in Mod Manager or Game Files

Symptoms

• The in-game mod manager is empty or not showing some mods you are subscribed to, these mods may work but you cannot see them listed
  
• Mod folders are not showing up in your Age of Mythology/mods folder even though they may show up in the mod manager

Causes

• Steam messed something up in the mod manifest

Solution

• Navigate to where you have Steam installed and go to Steam/SteamApps and delete the file appmanifest_266840.acf. Restart Steam and the file should be generated and your mods should be displayed properly.

There are several ways you can crash the game with your mod.

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Run Scenario Crash

Symptoms

• When you run a scenario (either Load Scenario or testplay in the editor), the game will crash immediately once the scenario is finished loading and gives no error message.

Causes

• You exceeded the 255 number limit for some aspect of your mod - for example, having more than 255 terrains defined for a single terrain type in terraintypes.xml. There is nothing magical about the number 255, it is simply the maximum base 10 number than can be stored by an 8-bit binary number (i.e. 255 in base 10 = 11111111 in base 2).

Solution

• Remove files from your mod and playtest a scenario until you find the culprit files. Load the file in Notepad++ and use Plugins>XML Tools>Check XML syntax now, verify that there are no syntax errors in the document. Now, make sure that none of the lists in the file have more than 255 entries. If any do have more than 255, make new lists for your modded entries.

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Random Map Crash

Symptoms

• Random map games crash to desktop with no warning or error message about 10-20 minutes into the game even though the active mod may or may not have anything to do with random maps.

Causes

• There is an internal logical error in your use of tags in the proto. For example, giving the Dock gold carrycapacity without a golddropsite unittype tag.

Solution

• Use Notepad++ or other application to run a line-by-line comparison of your modded proto with the vanilla proto to identify changes you have made. Correct any logically inconsistent tags.

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Game Fails to Launch

Symptoms

• The game is black, sometimes giving you an "error encountered" message.

Causes

• you are attempting an infinite loop, for example, attaching an attachment to itself in the anim

Solution

• correct any infinite loops, probably in anim files... good luck finding them :D

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Ugly Textures

Symptoms

• Textures are showing up randomly all over the object

Causes

• You are missing the material files
  
• You are using a texture that is not properly UV mapped to the geometry
  
• You are using old style DDT textures from the disk version

Solution

• Download Ryder’s File Converter tool[ryder25.itch.io] and use it to extract the MTRL files from your model BRGs. Then put the MTRLs in a folder called “materials”.
  
• Re-UV the geometry to your texture using a 3D editor
  
• Use Arctic0ne’s texture converter tool[aom.heavengames.com] to extract TGAs from old style DDTs and recompress them as new style DDTs.

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Black Textures

Symptoms

• You can see the model but it appears totally black with no textures in-game.

Causes

• you forgot to extract the material (.mtrl) files
  
• you forgot to set material ambient/diffuse to white and specular to black
  
• texture name contains a forbidden character such as ñ

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Models Invisible In Game

Symptoms

• You set up your data correctly and your unit is listed in the editor but when you try to create it it's invisible (you may even see a minimap dot for it).

Causes

• the name on the anim file doesn't match the proto name or is missing "_anim.txt"
  
• the models are missing from an active mod's models folder
  
• you misspelled the "models" folder or the name of the models in the anim file
  
• the model is below the ground (this is common for SFX)

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User Interface Icons Invisible

Symptoms

• You can use the buttons but the icons don't show up.

Causes

• you are using a non-square icon, icons can be any dimensions as long as they are square
  
• you misspelled something in the icon name or the XML file that controls it
  
• the icon is completely transparent, open it in an image editor (Gimp) and make sure the alpha layer mask is completely white instead of completely black, recompress to DDT

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Animations Not Playing

Symptoms

• You can see your animation in the 3D editor (3ds Max, etc.) but it just sits there in-game.

Causes

• you are using None for the animation type in the anim file instead of Idle
  
• you didn't correctly export your model (try importing it and seeing if there are any keys)

If you can't find a Steam error code on this list, try checking this list[steamerrors.com]. That site is specifically for Steam trading (which isn't really a thing on AoM) but you can still usually glean useful information from it. You can also try this list[www.lifewire.com] although it is even less useful than the other one.

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Steam Error Code 2: Generic Failure

Symptoms

• Uploading proceeds for the first few seconds and then you get the red text message pop-up and the upload stops.

Cause

• The entire mod file is over the uncompressed upload limit which is within ~30 MB of 150 MB in either direction (depending on individual file sizes in the mod).

Solution

• Move some of the files into a separate mod so that you are under the upload limit and republish.

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Steam Error Code 8

Symptoms

• Upload prevented with error message.

Cause

• "InvalidParam" - You used a forbidden character in the mod name or _publishinfo.txt file.

Solution

• Copy a backup of your mod and put it somewhere else. Delete the mod from your mods folder and make a new folder for your mod under a different name (try to use only letters and spaces). Remove the preview-icon and delete all content in the publishinfo text file (so it is a blank file). Re-add your content and reupload. Change the description and re-add the preview-icon once the mod has been published to the workshop and update your mod so these changes take effect.

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Steam Error Code 9

Symptoms

• Uploading is nearly complete and then you get the red text message pop-up "Error Code 9" and the upload stops.

Cause

• "FileNotFound" - This typically happens because you changed the name of your mod after publishing. When you go to update your mod, you have to be sure that the name on the folder is exactly the same as when you first published.
  
• This error can also occur when you try to update an old mod which you have removed from the mods folder.

Solution

• Change the name of your mod back to the original name, restart AoM.
  
• Try remove your updated mod from the mods folder, subscribed to the mod on the workshop, download the mod, replace its contents with your update edits, and then update the mod again. (this is not guaranteed to work)
  
• Wait a few minutes and try to upload again.

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Steam Error Code 10

Symptoms

• Upload prevented with error message.

Cause

• "Busy" - Steam servers are busy

Solution

• Make sure your mod isn’t over the upload limit and that it doesn’t contain any overly large files especially models. Wait a couple minutes and publish again. In rare cases, the servers will be busy for over 12 hours so if your second upload attempt doesn't work, wait to upload the next day.

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Steam Error Code 16

Symptoms

• Uploading is nearly complete and then you get the red text message pop-up and the upload stops.

Cause

• "TimeOut" - Steam servers are busy or your internet momentarily bugged out

Solution

• Make sure your mod isn’t over the upload limit and that it doesn’t contain any overly large files especially models. Wait a couple minutes and publish again. In rare cases, the servers will be busy for over 12 hours so if your second upload attempt doesn't work, wait to upload the next day.

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Upload with 0.0000 MB

Symptoms

• Uploads finish in just a couple seconds and say “Upload Successful!” but when you go to check the workshop the file size says 0.000 MB and none of your subscribers can use your mod.

Cause

• One or more of the individual files in the mod is too large. This generally tends to happen with model or texture files over 4,500 KB. According to modder WollieWoltaz, models over ~9,000 polys or ~6,000 vertices (BRG) will not work in EE (there is no corresponding limit for GRNs)

Solution

• Reformat or remove detail from the file to reduce the size or simply remove the file from the mod. Several products such as mixamo can be used to reduce poly/vertices count.
  
• Export high-poly models as GRN instead of BRG

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Internal/Compression Errors

Symptoms

• Uploading proceeds for a few seconds then you get a red message saying "Internal error encountered on client side" or "error encountered while compressing mod".

Cause

• If the error messages are any hint, this error is caused by some process happening on your PC (client side) rather than a problem with the Steam servers.

Solution

• Close out of the mod manager (without restarting the game), wait a few seconds, and open the mod manager to try uploading again. If the second attempt doesn't work, wait a few more seconds. If the third attempt doesn't work, consider restarting your computer.
  
• Make sure you have accepted the Steam Workshop agreement and restart the game.

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Triggers Stopped Working

Symptoms

• When you run the scenario, none of the triggers fire.
  
• None of the triggers fire even after you remove all triggers and only have a simple trigger which you know isn't forbidden.

Causes

• You are using "forbidden" triggers.
  
• Triggers aren't being loaded correctly, possibly due to random corruption.

Solution

• Check Gaurdian_112's guide[aom.heavengames.com] for a partial list of faulty triggers and how to work the problem if your triggers aren't listed.
  
• Make sure you backup any workshop mods used in the scenario so the mod's author can't accidentally negatively impact your scenario with an update.
  
• Save the scenario under a different name and reload it.
  
• Apply the trigger loader[aom.heavengames.com] to the scenario, save, then remove it, save under a different name and reload the scenario.

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Online Crash

Symptoms

• When hosting the scenario online, it will crash to desktop as soon as loading is complete.

Causes

• Forbidden syntax in the scenario file name such as: " , . / * _ - [ { < ( ? etc.
  
• Incomplete trigtemp compile from porting an old SCX to EE
  
• Other possibilities? According to this thread there may be other causes of this bug which are as yet unproven

Solution

• Remove any forbidden syntax from the SCX file name, try to use only letters and spaces
  
• Open the scenario in edtior and close AoM, make sure there are no syntax errors in the tritemp.xml file located in Age of Mythology/triggers2, specifically, single "%" signs (thanks to Milkman Matty for this fix[aom.heavengames.com])

Before you start working on your epic 1800x1800, 1000+ trigger scenario, you need to be aware of one fact: Age of Mythology doesn't want you to make your scenario. I'm not being facetious - Age of Mythology will actively fight you to prevent you from finishing your scenario. The game will randomly corrupt your scenario preventing you from opening it, it will randomly kill all of your triggers even if you remove them all. The only way to keep from losing all your work when these things happen, and they will happen at some point, is to save backups of your scenario. Here is what you need to be doing to ensure that your work isn't lost:

1. save at least 2 backups EVERYTIME YOU SAVE - Everytime you click that save button, you also need to be using Save As and saving over at least two (2) backup files. There is a 100% chance that one of these files will randomly become corrupted and unopenable. There is almost a 0% chance that all three will simultaneously become corrupted. If you don't take any other safety measures with your scenarios, please, please at least save backups.

2. Frequently save Benchmarks - a benchmark is a save made every so often, you don't want to save a benchmark everytime you save your scenario because that defeats the purpose. The purpose of the benchmark is that you can revert to a slightly earlier version if your triggers become corrupted and won't fire. Typically, triggers not firing is the result of a forbidden trigger or a logic mistake, both of which can be fixed. But sometimes, your triggers will simply become corrupted killing the scenario. In that case, your only recourse is reverting to your benchmark save. You can either save benchmarks every 10 saves or some other arbitrary number, or try to save benchmarks after each major block of edits like a new quest, etc.

3. Backup Your Mods - if you are using mods in your scenario that weren't made by you, you must back them up. You don't need to publish them to the workshop (as this would be stealing), but you must back them up such that you, and only you, have control over the files. To do this, simply copy the mod in your mods folder and rename it. You now have complete ownership of the files - the copy will not be changed automatically if the original mod's author updates his mod. If you do not do this, your scenario which you've spent so much time on is at the mercy of the modder. They can change their data throwing off the balance of your scenario, or remove their mod entirely leaving you high and dry unless you have a backup. If they do something like that, you shouldn't feel bad about uploading their mod as part of your scenario and crediting them.