Crash stemming from addon NPCs

[maxim-fedotov-1997]

Details

To preface what will be different about this "issue" post, I know I won't go far with "it's stemming from addon models", and I'm aware it's equivalent to "prank call to 911 line" for the folks here, but that said... I would like a bit of help from folks that have proper debug symbols and knowledge to at least point me in the right direction. I promise I won't be a nuisance and close down issue when I get a pointer, towards which I could continue looking :)

With disclaimer out of the way... I've recently picked up on a crash that stems from spawning addon NPCs. About 8-9 first* NPCs (addon's ones!) are spawned fine, but after this amount, I get crashed while spawning one more on top of this.
Map doesn't make a difference (crash logs are generated on gm_construct). Pre-caching NPC models ahead of spawning actual NPCs doesn't stop this from happening (and does not seem to crash me). All crashes were mostly done with NPCs being unarmed (99% off the record, first and last ones among included in the crashes.zip, there is a note on the second crash below). SP and MP are affected. In-built (pre-packaged, vanilla) never cause the crash to occur, for the record.
I'm left questioning such points:

1. What is different from vanilla NPCs that are probably certainly up-to-par with changes to NPCs being able to use every weapon now vs. those that never were updated post-Nov 2025 to accomodate for this? (is this even a thing? Having to update NPCs to be up-to-par?)
2. If this is something to do with point 1, was it as problematic before such changes?
3. Would non-x64 branch change outcome? I've heard lots about non-x64 branch being a version behind x64 one.

Thanks in advance for putting up with my specificity of the question.

3 crash dumps:
crashes.zip

* - during write-up, had a major outlier, 2 first NPCs (and the same one, at that) were enough to cause a crash, difference was that I gave NPCs "Default Weapon" in weapon override. I'm stumped as to how it can impact me this much... This is specifically one with name "ff3d2a9d-a29a-4564-b230-fe47fb0a3122"...

Steps to reproduce

1. Get enough addon NPCs
2. Spawn them
3. Upon getting to the "critical" amount, get crashed

Version of the game

Protocol version 24
Network version 2025.03.26 (garrysmod)
Exe build: 19:16:09 Dec 9 2025 (9894) (4000)
GMod version 2025.12.19, branch: x86-64, multicore: 1
Windows 64bit

Beta

x86-64 beta

[robotboy655]

1. I wouldn't expect any changes to weapon support to have anything to do with this.

2.was it as problematic before such changes

You tell me, you are the one having issues.

3. Would non-x64 branch change outcome? I've heard lots about non-x64 branch being a version behind x64 one.

Again, you tell me. You are the one experiencing crashes. Testing different versions of the game is a good idea to isolate whether a recent change to the game itself is causing the issue.

The NONE beta has the "stable" update. Dev and x86-64 betas have "bleeding edge" changes, the update that will be releasing to NONE beta.

It appears to be a consistent crash which is good, related to NPC_Citizen talking. It may be related to citizens joining player's squad, which means this option is likely enabled for you:

I do consider this to be a bug, therefore this report a bug report.

Please tell me what addon NPCs exactly are you using to cause the crashes.

Please also do test the "NONE" beta of the game and let me know if it happens there as well.

[maxim-fedotov-1997]

Alrighty, getting more serious on this then, thanks for noticing something.

It appears to be a consistent crash which is good, related to NPC_Citizen talking. It may be related to citizens joining player's squad, which means this option is likely enabled for you: *screen*

Uhh, and that's now odd right away. I have that off almost all the time, and crash with it like that. Want me to test it with checkbox "join squad" ticked in when I get around to it?

Please tell me what addon NPCs exactly are you using to cause the crashes.
Please also do test the "NONE" beta of the game and let me know if it happens there as well.

Will compile list of specific NPCs I spawn that result in crash and run a "NONE" beta branch test after a sleep (~3:45 AM at the moment I wrote this). Please keep this issue open for now, thanks :)
Also, rewrote title to something else, but still generic while this is ongoing.

[maxim-fedotov-1997]

And I return with the test results, as well as the list of NPCs that I mostly spawn, which yields me a crash on x86-64.
Tests:

• None branch:
  With "Join Squad" off - no crash, managed to burn through the whole compiled list of NPCs
  With "Join Squad" on - likewise, no crash. I even manage to get them to follow me when I approach "crash offenders", with no crash either.
• x86-64 branch:
  With "Join Squad" off - a lot of priors, but just for the hell of it, done another test to be consistent.
  Did crash. Specifically when I clicked on "Commander Male (Friendly)" as a 4'th one to spawn (3540064251). Right in the moment of it.
  crash_x86-64_noJoin.zip
  With "Join Squad" on - crashed, and a different timing. Managed to spawn friendly NPC from 3447350407, but crashed upon approaching NPC (I assume crash happened soon as I got in range of "must join player1").
  crash_x86-64_withJoin.zip

NPC list in question - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3640172450
Main crash offenders on x86-64 are mostly 362803586 and 309754452, though also had second crash from first batch occur on 3447350407, once twice, in fact. And, as a reminder, 3540064251 also crashed me in the current round of testing.

[robotboy655]

Seems something is off about those Miku models. I will get the crash fixed.