A lot of you have contacted me about the problems with the Steam version of Absolute Chaos. After some experimentation, and consultation with others, I believe I have found the answer. I'll explain why this problem comes up in just a bit, but if you just want the bottom line, here it is: the perceptual equations that were being used for versions 1.08 and 1.09 won't parse in the Steam format. So, if you have Steam, the solution for now is to delete the AI and ENUM folders. Those who have done this have reported to me that they can run the mod once those folders are removed. Thankfully, the definitions for the new buildings and structures are still written into the lua scripts and this means that the AI will continue to build them.
Now here's the skinny: It has been known for some time that putting perceptual equations into the mod folder doesn't really do all that much to alter the behavior of the game. In fact, some modders have suggested, not implausibly, that the game basically ignores any changes to the perceptual equations as long as they are put only in the mods folder. So if you want to mod the perceptual equations and have them actually change the AI, then you have to drop them into the main data folder. This is what Awakening of the Rebellion and Republic at War version 1.1 do. This overwrites the vanilla AI and it forces the game to read the new perceptual equations, guaranteeing that they will be implemented.
Now, there are in fact a lot of modded perceptual equations that contain parsing errors and yet cause no problems as long as they are in the mod folder. You can tell they have parsing errors because they generate them as soon as you try to move them into the main data folder. Now, I don't know for sure, but it appears from what I have been told that STEAM actually reads the modded perceptual equations when they are put in the mod folder. This means that if there is any kind of parsing error, it will cause an error just as it would if you put it in the main data folder in the retail version.
Reeb99's rewrites of the equations are extremely clever from a coding perspective and are all valid XMls. Some of them do not parse in EaW, unfortunately, and so they will have to be rewritten. I am working on that right now, and in version 2.0 I will try to get the AI situation settled so that the new features run like they are supposed to.
The good news in all this is that most of the changes introduced in 1.08 and 1.09 can be made to work as intended just with lua edits, so the perceptual equations can be streamlined for version 2.0 without sacrificing much by way of game play. So for now, just delete those folders and hold tight for version 2.0.
I deleted both AI and ENUM and it still crashes; any thoughts about a fix