Frequent Crashes on Motorola Droid Razr Maxx - RESOLVED

[Anonymous2112]

I realize that this is a fairly common theme in this forum, but after putting up with it for several months, I thought I'd add my voice (post) to the chorus.

I have a Motorola Droid Razr Maxx (you probably figured that part out by reading the title) running system version 6.16.211.XT912.Verizon.en.US. The Android version is 4.0.4. The build number is 6.7.2-180_DHD-16_M4-31 with a build date of June 14 14:57:16 CDT 2012.

The version of Dragon Story that I am running is: 1.0.6.5 (Valentine)

As with the multitudes of other Android users, I am experiencing frequent crashes (stopped unexpectedly) while playing Dragon Story. Some examples of these crashes are detailed below:

• when tapping the "Visit" icon to visit neighbors. I can visit one to four neighbors before the game crashes. The longer I am in the game, the more likely the crash will occur. For example, if I visit one neighbor and linger on their lair for a minute or so before moving to the next, the game will crash.
• when tapping the "Breed" icon. Again, the longer I'm in the game, the more likely the game will crash.
• when attempting to invite new neighbors. This crash occurs most often when trying to invite a friend after going through and collecting from all my dragon lairs (thus, after some time spent in the game). If I restart the game and go right into "Invite", I can usually get it to process without crashing.
• when attempting to request mystic maps from neighbors. As with the invite (above), if I collect from my dragons before requesting maps, the game will invariably crash when I submit the request. However, if I request maps immediately after the game announcements, it typically processes fine and then lets me collect.
• clicking on any of the "Menu" items, or scrolling through the menus. Again, time seems to be a factor in that the longer I'm in the game, the more likely the game will crash.

This behavior seems to be very similar to an unhandled exception and/or a memory leak in the application. Based on the application ZDBox (monitors applications, system health, etc.) my phone has 840MB of memory, of which 258MB is currently free during "idle" use (not playing other games) and after a fresh restart of the device. With Dragon Story running and switching back to ZDBox, I find I have 200MB remaining. The longer I keep Dragon Story running, the more memory is consumed - in the time it's take to type this sentence, the amount of free memory has dropped to 198MB. After visiting Stormie's Lair, I'm now down to 181MB. When I attempt to visit the second lair in my list, the game crashed and I'm back up to 258MB.

I have uninstalled Dragon Story and reinstalled it. I have tried going back to a previous version each time a new version came out (New Dawn, Valentine). I have moved the application to my SD card. I have restarted my phone. None of these actions have made any difference in how the game performs.

I "get" the fact that the Android OS is fragmented due to the open nature of the operating system. I get the fact that the two platforms are not similar in terms of development and require distinct knowledge in the programming languages. I get the fact that Dragon Story came out first on the Apple iOS and that your developers are strongest on that platform.

Finally, I get the fact that Dragon Story is a free game and that I can uninstall the game at any time and my problems with the game will be moot. Unfortunately, I find myself enjoying the game despite the maddening amount of crashes I encounter when I do play.

I am, however, wondering if I am trying to "pound a round peg into a square hole" with regards to the device requirements. For example, PC games publish a "minimum system requirement" list to help gamers determine if their PC has enough "Oomph" to run their game. Is there a minimum requirement equivalent for Dragon Story? Is the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx a supported device? Am I running a supported version of the Android OS? Having a list of this nature to reference would go a long way to setting expectations.

Finally, is there some application that I could run alongside Dragon Story to capture crash dump information which would be of use to the TeamLava Developers? I have been making it a habit to submit the report after every crash (in some instances a dozen per day), but is that information enough? Does that information even make it to the developers?

Thank you in advance for any replies and for taking the time to read my post.
-2112

[[S8] Elsa]

Thank you for the detailed report. I'm very sorry to hear that you're experiencing crashes with Dragon Story.

Unfortunately, this particular device has performance issues with our games due to insufficient resources. While you may be able to log in, as you progress in the game and more animations, images, and etc. need to be loaded it can cause performance issues in the game such as crashes. You can attempt to clear up resources by closing down applications running in the background, which may improve the performance of the game.

[Anonymous2112]

Thank you for the reply PonyRoar. Knowing that this device is confirmed to have performance issues with these games goes a long way in calming my nerves. Per your advice, I'll see what I can do with closing down "extra" applications in order to free up resources.

On a related note, do you know of any Android phones which play well with these games? Or when picking out my next phone, if I should just find the phone with at least "X" amount of RAM/memory?

Thanks again.
-2112

[chagler4]

I'm also experiencing the same issues but I do not have the Maxx. I also play numerous other TeamLava games and do not have any issues. Once the fix was completed for notifications not popping up on phone, this started. There is something other than the particular phone being the issue. Please advise...

[larrytempleton]

You get to play before it crashes? I have the regular razr and I can hardly do anything.
If load the program and I don't start doing something within 30 seconds it will crash.
It has crashed when it was loading before.
I can't send map or friend requests without it crashing. Hence why I have minimal free space and friends. I had a samsung skyrocket (gs2) that worked fine, but work 'upgraded' me to the razr.

What are the minimum requirements for the game?

[larrytempleton]

Now that I'm back here what are the basic requirements for the phone? The razr has as much ram as my skyrocket, but that didn't have these problems. I'm not saying that I'm going to replace my phone for this game, but the next guy that might need advice can benefit from our pain and suffering.

[thepiranha1432]

This crash is not just on Motorolla. I was glad to get swapping my older HTC Desire HD which crashed all the time. I have a brand new Samsung galaxy note 2 ( android version 4.1.2 ) with a large inbuilt memory most of which is free a micro sd card of 32 gig. But just like you i am adding my name to the throng that continues. My biggest problem is visiting / posting on walls, I find it is also worse when who ever your visiting is high level ( over 70 ) due to the greater demand on load and graphics. My own level is 81 so i have a lot of high level neighbors and it may take me an hour just to visit 12 people. Constant crashes / resets the infuriating team lava messages at start up. I have noticed this situation has become far worse since the latest dragon update a few days ago. Similarly i do wonder if TL has a memory leak here. i have cleared cache reinstalled and the game is resident on my class 10 32 gig micro sdcard.

[Anonymous2112]

(Note: If the moderators would rather have this post under my original topic, please feel free to move it. I've created a new thread since I could not adjust the original thread title.)

The Dragon gods be praised! After *months* of frequent crashes while playing Dragon Story (outlined in this post: https://forums.teamlava.com/showthrea...roid-Razr-Maxx) I have, for the first time ever, made it through my list of (20-or-so) neighbors without crashing once.

Not. Once.

How did I manage to perform this monumental feat? Unfortunately, I did (almost) nothing. On March 15th, I was informed that a new update was available for my Motorola Razr Maxx. After accepting the upgrade, I let my phone download and run the update which completed in about 20 minutes. Once complete, I started poking around to see what changed. There were a few cosmetic changes here and there, along with the obvious omission of a few applications. Other than that, it looked to be business as usual. At least until I opened Dragon Story.

My typical activity in the application has me clearing the announcements, then collecting coins from my habitats. Once that is complete, I harvest any farms that are ready, complete or start any evolutions, and manage any breeding dragons. If I get this far without a crash, I consider myself lucky. Since the application hadn't crashed yet, I figured I'd try requesting mystic maps for expansion of my island. Imagine my surprise when the requests were sent out without a crash! I figured I was on borrowed time, so I closed the application and went back into it so I could visit a couple neighbors. Long story short, a couple visits became a few, which became a dozen, which became all! I visited all my neighbors without a crash!

Since nothing has changed with my phone (hardware-wise), I have to attribute this wonderful event to the new Android OS that my device is running. Below is a comparison of the original and new configuration.

Original Configuration
System Version: 6.16.211.XT912.Verizon.en.US
Android Version: 4.0.4
Build Number: 6.7.2-180_DHD-16_M4-31
Build Date: June 14 14:57:16 CDT 2012

New Configuration
System Version: 98.72.16.XT912.Verizon.en.US
Android Version: 4.1.2
Build Number: 9.8.2O-72_VZW-16
Build Date: Feb 1 20:37:25 CDT 2013

I'm going to go out on a limb and theorize that Dragon Story uses certain functions or calls that are not backwards compatible with older versions of the Android OS. While the game will run to a point, when these newer functions and/or calls are made, the application has no way to know what to do and therefore throws an exception and crashes. Or, if the problem was associated with resources (memory leak, or something of the sort), this new OS can handle the swapping or dumping of memory more efficiently. Whatever the case, I'm just happy that this application is now playable.

On a possibly related note, I happened to install a benchmarking application on my device before I received the update - AnTuTu. The score that I received after running a full test was around 6214. After the upgrade, the same benchmark scored 7980.

Now to be fair, I should point out that the new Android OS has not eliminated all crashes in TeamLava games. In the four days (today is 3/19) I've been running the new OS, Dragon Story has crashed once while visiting neighbors. The same is true in Pet Shop Story, and Bakery Story, however Restaurant Story has not crashed thus far. Nonetheless, the frequency of these crashes - especially in Dragon story - has dropped *significantly*.

Please note that this is only my experience and that other individual's mileage may vary. I make no warranties that updating your device's OS would make Dragon Story any more playable. I'm offering this information only as a possible solution. You will need to work with your device manufacturer and/or wireless provider to determine if your device can be updated. I do hope, however, that this information proves useful for other gamers.

Thank you in advance for any replies and for taking the time to read my post.
-2112

[KSrover]

Thank you!!! After months of Dragon Story crashing - exactly as you described with your Razr Maxx (I have the same phone) - I was ready to give up on the game. I happened across your post last night and ran the OS update this morning. I have had the exact same result! I was able to do SO much more in the game with no crashes!

Definitely a solution for Android users!

[kooky panda]

I went ahead and merged your two threads.
Glad to hear everthing is working now! Thanks for the additional information. I have also found that when playing on an older version for your device, that you can start having issues with the games.
It is always good practice to keep track of any new version updates that are offered for your device.

I am not sure on all android devices, but on Apple(IOS) devices and Kindle fire, you can set your device to notify you when a new version update is available for your device.