How can I trace a console message?

[Lexshmyr]

I want to learn how to figure out where the source of the message is.

I do not know specifically what caused it, but here are the steps I did between looking at the console. Logged in as the owner of the instance as the solo 'player'.

I logged in and was at the Luna bank.
[go abyss
This drops me near the teleporter between TOK and the Abyss, technically on the SA side. I noted that the moongate teleporters between TOK and SA are 3 tiles too high each and I did a [props command on each. I also noted these are dispellable = true (I think that is an issue that needs addressing later - these should not be dispellable by players?)

I went to Cavern of the Discarded
[genminichamps
The rat spawn started and I dropped 3 EV's to kill a couple creatures to test the Queen's Loyalty points I had modified for all the spawn of the various mini-champs. Noted the point system worked.
I ran next over to Sutek the Mage and opened his quest dialogue. Read through the quest and refused it.

Now I looked back at the console to see the message. Saves are set at 15 minutes
Here is the console message:
Caught Exception:
System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: type
at System.Activator.CreateInstance (System.Type type, System.Boolean nonPublic, System.Boolean wrapExceptions) [0x00003] in <533173d24dae460899d2b10975534bb0>:0
at System.Activator.CreateInstance (System.Type type, System.Boolean nonPublic) [0x00000] in <533173d24dae460899d2b10975534bb0>:0
at System.Activator.CreateInstance (System.Type type) [0x00000] in <533173d24dae460899d2b10975534bb0>:0
at Server.Loot.Construct (System.Type type) [0x00002] in <8efdf25b5fea4549a60875e0cde86fab>:0

I suspect the GenMiniChamp, so looking there, I find the "CreateInstance" call which is used to pass MonsterType. It is the only statement. So now I have a MonsterType that is invalid? I have no information about which spawn it could be.

Is there a way to narrow it down further, or do I need to add some messages to determine when it is successful to rule out possibilities?

 

[PyrO]

The CreateInstance comes from Loot,

the errormessage seems to not be complete, as some kind of creature needs to call the loot method at some point

 

[Voxpire]

Open your ServUO.sln file in Visual Studio.
Browse to the Loot.Construct(Type type) method.
On the line that calls Activator.CreateInstance(type), do the following;
In the grey-colored left margin of the file, left of the line numbers, left-click to set a break-point (this will be a filled red circle).
On the top navigation menu, find the drop-down for the build profile and make sure Debug is selected.
Close ServUO.exe if it is already running, then hit the green "play" debug button on the top navigation menu.
ServUO.exe will now be recompiled and will launch in debug mode with Visual Studio attached.
Log-in to your debug shard and reproduce the issue in-game.
If you've followed these steps correctly, Visual Studio will pause ServUO.exe on the break-point you added, allowing you to inspect the call stack in real-time.
Switch to the Call Stack view (open it via View -> Call Stack if necessary), you should be able to figure out what's causing it from there, but if not, just posts the results of your tests, including the call stack so we can take a look.