I’m helping beta-test a game, and I encounter the following error:
“Run-time problem P12: Too many activities are going on at once.”
It happens in WinGlulxe, and in Gargoyle with both Glulxe and Git. I think it’s the latest of everything. I’ve tried no other interpreters, but believe it to be a problem in the game rather than the 'terp.
The author is trying to track down the problem, but isn’t too sure what might cause it. I suggested he post on rec.arts.int-fiction but figured I might as well poke around here on his behalf, just to see if anybody has a clue.
It happens after entering unrecognized commands. Maybe 15 or 20 commands that the game doesn’t understand (random words, attempts to log a comment, things like >sneeze which are totally unnecessary for the game, etc). I don’t know I7 at all, and so I can’t really suggest a solution.
It’s likely, if this builds up over time, that something is starting activities but not ending them, for some reason.
One way to try to diagnose this would be to turn on the RULES debugging command, which might mention named activity rules that are running more and more often. Whatever is running an extra time per turn is your culprit and the thing to focus on.
I saw that Ron Newcomb (was it Ron?) in the newsgroup suggested there might be an issue in an older version of the I7 libraries or compiler. He wasn’t sure of the version, but thought upgrading from 5Uxx to 5Zxx (if it was built with 5Uxx) might help. It does appear to be compiled with 5Uxx (5U92, according to the file). He said the problem happens after 21 unrecognized commands, although for me it happens after 18.
I’m hoping he’s able to just upgrade and recompile.