Known Issues and Workarounds

This page is a list of currently known issues and the workarounds, if there are any for the current version. We are not responsible for any damage. Make sure to backup your game and saves before trying anything listed here. There are two kinds of crashes. The game-internal ones and the external ones.

This kind of crash is a game mechanics bug, it produces a file on the game folder called "error.log", to help us to get rid of the error, please, paste the content in this forum.
 * The internal crashes

This kind of crash produces a big file named "hs_err_....log". Normally this is a kind of crash that we can't solve because it is not a internal game crash. When the game crashes this way, please, look at the hs_err_.log and search for this line: # Problematic frame: Followed by the issue code (see below)
 * The external crashes

ATI Driver Issue
Until now we saw a few external errors, and all of them are produced due the ATI drivers. # C [atio6axx.dll+0x5c5010] We are checking for possible solutions to this crash but, as said before, it is an external crash produced by an external application/driver.
 * Issue:

Upgrading or downgrading might resolve the issue, but it still is an ATI issue. Try not playing in full-screen.  Check this post: http://www.townsgame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2419
 * Possible workaround:

Disabling the Overdrive feature under Performance after you update the drivers has had some success.
 * One other possibility:

LINUX Permission Denied Starting Game Issue
When trying to start towns using ./towns.sh you get the following error: bash: ./towns.sh: Permission denied If you have downloaded the game from the website, the executable bit is not set after unpacking the zipfile. Please go to the Towns directory and do: chmod +x towns.sh Then try run the game again.
 * Issue:
 * Fix:

UBUNTU 64 Won't Run Game Issue
The game wont run on Ubuntu 64 bit with default java 1.7 installed. In the error log you will see an error with something like "WRONG ELF CLASS32"
 * Issue:

Towns needs java 1.6. This can be either OpenJDK or Oracle JDK. Once installed edit the towns.sh and set the absolute path for the java binary to point to Java 1.6.
 * Workaround:

Save Game Demo To Full Version Issue
Save games from demo cannot be used in the full version
 * Issue:

This is not a bug. Due to the differences in code there is no way to make the Demo compatible with the Full version. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The Game Suddenly Shows The Main Menu
You are playing and suddenly the game goes to main menu.
 * Issue:

This is not a bug. On the demo version, when the game reaches 20/1/1 (day/month/year) the game stops.

OSX Can't Start Game Java 1.7 Issue
Starting the game on OSX while using Java 1.7 gives you the error: "org.lwjgl.LWJGLException: Could not get the JAWT interface". There is something incompatible with Java 1.7 on Mac and our OpenGL library (lwjgl).
 * Issue:

Please use Java 1.6 on OSX to start the game
 * Fix:

White Squares Instead of Graphics Issue
You will see graphics in game, but some items, civilians or monsters are only white squares. No amount of redownloading/reinstalling fixes the problem.
 * Issue:

You can try upgrading/downgrading your graphic drivers. We are not aware of a single fix for this issue.
 * Workaround:

Java 7 with Linux 64
This is an issue with an included library, LWJGL. It only affects Linux 64-bit with Java 7. There is a script available, that will likely be included as the new towns.sh in the next version. Currently the newest version of LWJGL does not work with Desura's test machine, and as such cannot be included. The two current work arounds are below.

Using SphaZ's Script
This script will likely be included with the next version of the game. Save it as a new towns.sh in your towns folder. It will ask you to fix the issue, answer with Y, it is case sensitive. Sphaz's Script

Manually fixing it yourself
Download the following file: LWJGL Replacement Files unpack it: tar xjf lwjgl.tar.bz2 This assumes you copied it to your home folder and are in the lib folder. Copy the files: cp -R ~/lwjgl/native. cp ~/lwjgl/lwjgl.jar. cp ~/lwjgl/lwjgl_util.jar.

Food produces slowly with APS
The APS currently produces only one of a given food product at a time. This is due to memory and CPU usage if more are produced. This means that while it helps when you have a low number of citizens, after a certain level, between 20 and 40, they will not produce food quick enough and enter the hunger-lock. The only solution is to tell them to make it manually using the arrows on the left.

Keyboard doesn't work
This is a known issue with some window managers under Linux, if you have this issue try using SphaZ's Script, it should solve it. If not post so in the forums. The known workaround is to use sudo when running the game.