what is function #5 ?
RaceFleetOrders()
You'll need to be more specific about the error. What was the error text, what were you doing, is it intermittent, etc.? See the first post of this thread for details.
the full error was "2.5.1 Function #5 Object reference not set to an instance of an object". Get two instances of it every time I press any time increment
What I was doing though, was a bunch of things with Spacemaster mode, to adjust some planets atmospheres, build and transfer ships to alien races, in an effort to adjust the current situation in my game. A whole bunch of stuff that wouldn't happen in normal gameplay. I forget exactly what I might have done though, because I was foolishly poking at things whilst suffering from insomnia, so I might have done something more serious without remembering it.
All I need to know is if this is something that perhaps I can fix by editing some bits of the database, (which I'm happy to attempt - it's not like I could make things much worse), or whether I should revert to a couple-months old backup (which would be disappointing but very little happened ingame since that backup, so not that big an issue).
Edit: by checking FCT_Fleet, I found some DIP ships, that I had created during my fiddling (I don't recall exactly how), and the fleets had NPROperationalGroupID = 0, when they should have it as 45.
Changing that, has cleared the error.
I'm still not exactly sure how I got into this mess, but at least I seem to have corrected it. Yay for me, lol.