Problems with inherent destructable variables?

Greetings.

I have concluded that something weird is definitely happening with my map. I have about 4000 doodads placed. Many of them are trees.

In the interests of performance, I went through and deleted about 1000 trees. Then I saved. Then I did some other work on the map. Then I saved. Then I closed it. When I came back later, opening the map caused WE to crash. It had saved just fine, no errors. Map status: inexplicably unopenable.

I had a relatively recent backup copy of the map. I went through and deleted about 1000 trees and made a couple terrain changes, nothing major. I saved the map, closed WE, and opened it and the map again. WE crashes. No problems saving, just won't open. Map status: inconceivably screwed.

I theorize that something's getting messed up in the war3map.j file where the placed object variables are being defined, which is why I cam here, but I can't find anything out of place by looking through that file extracted from the first unopenable map. I can open other maps in WE just fine, and like I said, there's no issues in saving the map, just in opening it later.

So, any thoughts about what's going wrong? And, more importantly, any ideas about how to fix it? I do want to delete the dests from the map, and I'd really love to recover the first map that screwed up, somehow.

WE ignores the map script, so it cannot really be that. It is rather that one of the other files is screwed up. Maybe you should create a new map and save it. Then take the different parts of that map and replace the files of your screwed map until it is openable again. If doen in the right order, that should show which file got screwed.

Ouch I already answered in your bnet post, but anyways, use Zepir's editor to remove the destructables

AIAndy, I tried inserting the other files in a somewhat recent copy of the map, but I couldn't find a combination of files that would let me open it. It wasn't crashing, it just wasn't accepting the inserted files, because they were "corrupted".

Vex, thanks, I'll have a go at using Zepir's to eliminate the dests and see if WE can open it again. If Zepir's editor can *open* the first map, it'll save me lots of trigger re-work. If not, then it's better than nothing.

I'd still love to save the original map if I can, but like I said, trying to rescue its files results only in corrupted maps. Maybe I'm going about it in a non-intuitive fashion.

Delete the attributes file. There is a CRC value in there.

When inserting files from the futzed map to an earlier copy:
war3map.w3b causes the WE to crash as per the original.
war3map.wct apparently caused it to lose the trigger data ("...missing or invalid", like if it were protected).
war3map.wtg also "missing or invalid". Perhaps these two function together, one being jass and another gui? "WarCraft Triggers" and "Warcraft Triggers Gui"?
Adding both war3map.wct and war3map.wtg eliminated the "missing or invalid" error completely. The triggers are saved! Thanks y'all a million. Let me know if I can be helpful in return.

Breaking news: just accidentally opened up the most recent copy of the old map that I'd been working from, and it no longer loads, crashing WE. The last thing I did was... make a couple of bridge destructables use custom minimap colors.
Hmmmmuh? Strange and/or confusing.
war3map.w3b ended up being the only file I couldn't reimport successfully, and it *is* apparently the file that contains information like custom doodad data, because the custom colors aren't defined for the bridge dests. It seems that might have been the problem after all. Any ideas why?

Whatever file contained information about custom lighting on the map apparently didn't transfer well. At some point, one of the files I inserted reverted the map to the original (dungeon) light scheme.

Something caused a file to be generated in the futzed map that I've never seen before. It might be from using Zepir's to open it at one point, or it might be from the enigmatic error. The file is war3mapPath.tga and it lists in the .mpq as being 1600 kb, or 1.6 mb large. However, the map file itself is only 1.16, and there are many other additional added files, so that file reading can't possibly be accurate. Not sure what this could mean.

Anyone have any hints in unravelling the mystery? My problem is blessedly solved, but I'm still interested in figuring out how it went wrong.

In transferring these files, I apparently lost all customized object data somehow. All the custom units and spells lost... well, so far, it looks like they just lost their text values. All the other information is intact. I don't know how I *lost* this data by overwriting less accurate customized data with more accurate customized data.

I'm also pasting up a copy of the offending file, war3map.w3b, though it's quite short and innocent-looking. I can't see anything wrong, but it's also got a virtually-unreadable syntax, so that's no surprise.

Yea, apparently the .w3b file also contains the text information for all objects and abilities. Drat. I'll see if I can import custom data to retain at least the old object data and whatnot.

Still messy.

Is it useful to compare the .w3b files from the screwed-up and just-fine maps? I can't make heads nor tails of them.

The text information for all objects is in the .wts file so maybe that one is missing/deleted/corrupted.
The .w3b file only contains data for destructables (from the object editor), whereas the actually placed destructables are in the .doo file.

If you really want to go through the w3b file you can find format specifications
here

You'll need a hex-editor ...
A good start would be checking out which version the w3b file you are having is


EDIT: oh i forgot I could also syntax check the w3b file with a program I made, this would be easier, simply tell me where to get your corrupted w3b file

EDIT2: the format of the w3b file in your zip is ok. So I can still imagine the problem is the CRC in the (attributes) file (but I guess you already deleted it?)
Also TRIGSTR_3176 is referenced, which is a rather high number for a string, maybe you should check out the wts file for errors

So the .w3b file I gave you is fine? That's really strange.

The .wts file imported with no complaints whatsoever, and I did delete my (attributes) file in order to import all the old files directly.

Ultimately, I exported the object data from an old version and imported it into the repaired version, which had the unexpected effect of restoring all the text that I had lost without overwriting the newer-made abilities and ability levels with old data.

Yes, this w3b file is ok, I even successfully imported it into an empty map I made.
But remaking it shouldn't be too hard (if that's the only solution)
It only contains 4 changed Destructables on the original table and 1 new destructable (wooden bridge).

The only problem I could see is that the wooden bridge could be referenced in the .doo file with a wrong id (if you recreate it) and therefore all such bridges previously created would disappear.
But if you hexedit the new id later on this should be fixed again.