740ad sent.

Save sent to DNK

760ad sent.

780ad sent.

It may just be delayed but just in case anyone thinks it's with me ... it's not ;)

I think it's delayed because Jbieksha is on vacation until Monday.

I can send it to DNK if you guys want me to.

I'm in no rush. I didn't realise he was away I just get paranoid because of the usual quick turnaround and think a turns been sent to me and hasn't arrived ;)

Oh right, he's away. Well, I'll be away the next couple of days so don't bother sending it on.

Man, I'm glad that was your answer. I kept thinking that I needed to check the thread to see what you said, but I was always away from a computer. I just finally checked, because I saw the GPS go out.

800ad sent.

And 820 is out and about.

840ad sent.

860ad sent.

880ad sent.

900ad sent.

920ad sent.

Ping...

Oh where oh where did my little game go, oh where oh where could it be?

940ad sent.

The suspense rises..... ;)

anyone got or planning to get Colonization by the way?

Nope and nope. Maybe Rev for the DS. Christmas is coming....

Suspense over our imminent invasion and conquest? Yes, rising fast it is... :p

No, not even aware of what that is. New Civ title?

I was considering BTS since vanilla PBEMs can be hard to come by now.

If you do, I suggest creating separate direcotires for each game. Otherwise you'll have to play around with DLL files which become a pain.

One thing that I"m glad of is that I bought Civ and BTS from Steam, so I don't need the CD. Also I have it installed on the laptop at work so I can send PBEMs on from there.

DNK, are you in any other PBEMs? I was in 2 others, but they both died.

I was in one that just wrapped up - Praetorian. I'm looking for a new one, I might try making a second game. I liked that one - I got to come in around 1550, once all the dull expansions and jungle cutting had been done for me :D

Speaking of games, where's this one at :mischief:

I think it's with Ulfang or you. I sent it on Sep 26th, and Jbieksha sent it on right after.

I resent 940 to Ulfang again just in case.

Yea I didn't receive it the first tiem round. Got the second attempt today and will process tonight.

Suspense over our imminent invasion and conquest? Yes, rising fast it is... :p

No, not even aware of what that is. New Civ title?

I was considering BTS since vanilla PBEMs can be hard to come by now.


Nope I meant suspense over the next turn lol. I hadn't receivbed it at the time.

I got Colonization which is a remake of the old Sid Game and am quite impressed. Uses the Civ IV look and the Colonization system and works although a few die hards aren't impressed.

960ad sent.

980ad sent.

I found you I found you I found you. Nanny Nanny Boo Boo!

So, we won? We were playing hide and seek, no? :p

DNK - I guess you can share your historical writings now that we have found each other and can share the wonders of our conquests

eeexcellent...

But not right now.

BTW, where is it? Does Ulfang still have it?

Yea sorry for the delay. I've been real busy at work all this week and have been falling asleep on the sofa after getting home so haven't had chance to get on the computer for a few days. I'll be processing the turn over the next few hrs (I'm at the lappy at the mo and am on the latest patch on here so need to use the PC to play our game).

So how's all that going?

Hmmm I did the turn that night and am sure i sent it on? I'll check now and send it on again....

Erm ... oops!! Sorry gys. I did process the turn on the 9th and was sure I'd sent it on but seems I hadn't and it was still in the PBEM save folder. I'm sending it now. My fault for holding the game up ... again...

No prob. 1000ad sent.

1010ad sent.

Hmm emailed Joe because the save file I received was a 2160 bc turn and not our current game....

I have resent.

1020ad sent.

1040ad sent (or 1030... one of the two)

The super-top-secret-nobody-knows-about-it British-American mission to circle the globe is moving along at a swift pace. With their advanced optical telescopes, the British and American explorers have passed by many different cultures, taking detailed notes on their behaviors and potential threat level.
One culture of note found by the crew of the HMS Mary was that of the "Unionists", an odd collection of unthreatening merchants and scholars, whose antiquated notions of feudal society and primitive metal casting made for good jokes on the deck of the ship. The Mary is now passing by the Chattahoochie River Delta, soon to be making its way back to sea, beyond the reach of the incapable Union navy, if such a thing even exists.

"Perhaps one day we shall colonize this entire continent," Admiral Withersby said as the ship began preparations for open-sea voyage, "but that will be for another time and another captain..." The admiral's words trailed off as the ocean winds kicked up and the sails filled, his eyes still fixed on the fading shore as the bow turned portside and the lateen obscured his view. As the sun set and the course-guiding stars came into view, the admiral was solaced only by the lapping of waves against the hull and dreams of future conquests.
~ William of York, 1039AD
"The Plight of the English Explorer"

1060ad sent.

P.S. If anyone is interested in another PBEM for newish players, let me know. I'm working with some people to start a new game up and we need a fourth player. It will be almost the same as this game, but with AI teams too, and some sort of non-aggression treaty for the beginning.

1070 out the door.

1080ad sent.

1090ad sent.

P.S. If anyone is interested in another PBEM for newish players, let me know. I'm working with some people to start a new game up and we need a fourth player. It will be almost the same as this game, but with AI teams too, and some sort of non-aggression treaty for the beginning.

Sure, I'll join another game if you still have an opening.

I'd be happy to join another game as well but if you're full up now that's fine :)

Well, you two might have to fight it out :p
I think we only have one opening right now.
But I've sent an e-mail to you guys

Just an FYI, I'm taking a while because I reinstalled Windows (successfully finally) and am having issues getting the game to work. It's been a "fun" weekend...

1100ad sent.

Just an FYI, I'm taking a while because I reinstalled Windows (successfully finally) and am having issues getting the game to work. It's been a "fun" weekend...


I might be joining you with the reinstallation :( I've had a bad time of it over the weekend after a worm infected my network. Can't find the little git .. only the files it keeps raising from the dead. I remove them from my startup list then they reappear and they affect my internet connection. A whole weekend of having to fight to connect to the internet has taken it's toll. Windows re-installation looms like a great ... looming thing.... :rolleyes:

Windows reinstalls are a lot more of a hassle for me since I have a bunch of very specific settings and registry tweaks to put back, plus I try to nLite and stripsteam everything in, which just complicates it all to hell. I went through 5 burned install disks before finally getting one that would work... ugh... something that should take less than an hour takes 7 for me...

I'm sure it will be easier for you. Gotta watch what you eat, worms are a nasty thing to have. What antivirus, etc, are you using?

P.S. Remind me to scan your savegames really closely from now on :lol:

Well not so sure it is a virus now lol. There might be a problem with our phone line dropping off. I use spybot for spyware and it's handy as it gives you lots of details regarding the processes you're running and i noticed a couple of files that had metions of them being installed by worms (ctfmon & justed - these are both legit files as I'm sure you're aware. ctfmon is a windows file and justed is Java). I'm pretty sure the java file had been infected as everytime I removed it from startup it added itself again.

I run AVG as a scanner with zone alarm for a firewall and do spyware scans every couple of days. I don't generally get infected but when things are running slow I do a scan with AVG and also online scans such as trend micro. We noticed earlier that when we turned the phone off and on after not being able to connect it worked. The problem lately is that the internet is on for a while then you just can't connect and I have DSL with a wireless network which doesn't normally have problems. Sometimes it connects sometimes it doesn't so will get the phone line checked.

Any yea to be safe I'd do a virus scan on any saves sent by me if people don't do that anyway ;) I always do lol.

Are you running Tea Timer? It might be executing a script that loads it into the registry for startup apps when you run it. Tea Timer would prevent the change to the registry. You might also have accidentally whitelisted the registry change in Tea Timer if you are using it, which is likely... and I don't know how to unwhitelist things in TT.

You can also go in through regedit (Run->regedit) and manually remove startup entries since msconfig doesn't always work. HKEY-current-user\software\microsoft\windows\current-version\run\ is the folder to look in. Also, there are entries in HKEY-local machine\[same as above], depending on if they're starting for everyone or just your current, well, user. You can see the registry paths in msconfig's startup tab (HKCU\... and HKLM\....), which should help finding where the Java one is coming from.

I would also suggest using Process Explorer instead of the task manager. It has a lot more detail and is more useful in pinpointing problem applications and processes and getting a better image of how your system is running (not sure about the SS&D one, haven't had to use it). Also try out Active Ports, which will let you see what processes are accessing which ports. That in conjunction with PE should help find out if you have any issues, although I've yet to find a program that shows actual bandwidth usage for each program, which might be your actual problem. I'm actually looking around for one right now for my own sake, so I'll let you know if anything turns up.

P.S. 1110ad sent.

Aaaaand... A certain team has circumnavigated a certain globe...

Sorry you're having so much trouble DNK, and thanks for bowing out of that other game Ulfang. I'll make sure to let you know if I hear of any others.

As for startup items, I've found there are a lot of apps, especially java and quicktime, that if you remove their startup item, they put it back the next time they run. I started putting "_disabled" after their executable path. This way, they find the registry key, but the executable won't run.

So Quicktime task's Value data was:
"C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime

and it becomes
"C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe_disabled" -atboottime

Just a tip.

Thanks guys intrestesting info. I do have teatimer enabled so it does ask to allow or block changes but still managed to change certain things. I've also used regedit to remove items but it was still re-adding them. I've now run several virus scanners and anti spy programs and all of them seem to find different problems but A-Squared is the ones that seems to have rooted out the bad and deeply embedded trojans after running a very time consuming deep scan and things seem to be running ok now. Didn't have any connection issues today for the first time in a week.

Problem is I do use several websites that need java to run but it seems to be a program file that is very easily hijacked. I find spybot process and startup manager very useful and easy to use. It highlights and colour codes the startup files and shows ones that were accessed by worms/trojans etc and which ones so you can review what sort of virus' they are and the method of removing them (which never seems to work lol)

Anyway back to the game. Hope your other game goes well and don't worry about me I can easily find another game to join. I'm in a Fall from Heaven II PBEM (although it's slow beyond slowness. Each turn averaging a week or even more). I was considering starting a new PBEM myself. I fancy something a little different like the Charlemagne Mod. I find that a unique game experience and like the historical aspect. I just need to play it a few more times to get a better understanding of the pro's and cons of each Civ.

I was also in a large scale pitboss game whose advantage is you HAVE to take your turn within 24 hrs or lose the ability to take that turn as the game moves on regardless. Problem was certain players would update to the latest patch regardless of everyone else and it was forcing others to update and at the time it would have damaged the ability to play this game amongst others without making it messy to fix. This Great Game has been the most enjoyable of the games I've played so far. It proceeds at a steady pace because of the limited players and no one ever argues which is a good experience compared to all the other games I've played where arguments are breaking out every turn lol

As for keeping Java but plugging up security holes, use Firefox with Noscript. It blocks scripts, including Javascript on websites, but you can selectively turn it off for certain sites. I wouldn't surf without it.

I would also suggest trying Antivir. It's a pretty effective freeware AV program that has good detection rates.

So... how bout that Halloween and that All Saints' Day and that daylight savings time switch and the past weekend?

I'm not saying we're taking too long on this turn, I'm just saying all those things have happened since I last sent my savegame out :p

I think it's in Ulfang's court.

I did send Friday night. Again today just in case.

1130ad sent.

I would also suggest trying Antivir. It's a pretty effective freeware AV program that has good detection rates.

Funnily enough I'd uninstalled this days before this post. It was ok but I didn't find it as good as AVG.

Sorry for the delay with the turn. I had done it but not sent it on like I'd thought. Like Port I don't get email reminders when this thread is updated even though I'm subscribed so only realised the save was missing when Port sent me an email.

Scouts report strangly dressed strangers to the north of Chinese territory :eek:

Funnily enough I'd uninstalled this days before this post. It was ok but I didn't find it as good as AVG.

Sorry for the delay with the turn. I had done it but not sent it on like I'd thought. Like Port I don't get email reminders when this thread is updated even though I'm subscribed so only realised the save was missing when Port sent me an email.

Scouts report strangly dressed strangers to the north of Chinese territory :eek:

AVG was giving me errors in Team Fortress 2 because of the way it handles memory. I went with Avast!. So far, it's pretty good.

AVG was giving me errors in Team Fortress 2 because of the way it handles memory. I went with Avast!. So far, it's pretty good.

I've tried Avast as well infact i've tried most of them over the years. AVG has always been the best for me but it's all down to individual taste and experience. Let's just say i've had the least problems whilst using AVG than with any other virus program.

I've tried Avast as well infact i've tried most of them over the years. AVG has always been the best for me but it's all down to individual taste and experience. Let's just say i've had the least problems whilst using AVG than with any other virus program.

I would have to agree with you.

Strangely dressed strangers probably say hello. Not sure, they're not my strangers ;)

We Anglo-Saxons and our caravels and exploration... I'm sure nothing bad ever comes of that to the natives :) hello, would you guys like some blankets, maybe some magical drink we call "alcohol"? We have so many wares to sell.... have any gold?

Strangely dressed strangers probably say hello. Not sure, they're not my strangers ;)

We Anglo-Saxons and our caravels and exploration... I'm sure nothing bad ever comes of that to the natives :) hello, would you guys like some blankets, maybe some magical drink we call "alcohol"? We have so many wares to sell.... have any gold?

These strangers seem to eat bugs and pick things out of each others dirty hair. The Cultured Chinese Empire looks down upon them with disdain....

They seem so backward they don't even send envoys to treat with us ... I suppose they are too busy eating bugs off each other :) The Chinese Empire can only assume they are a threat to security.

1140ad sent.

The envoy from Britain would like to remind you to mind your manners in the presence of the Queen's loyal servant, Sir Johnathan Whittingham, III. Any insults will be reported post-haste to her majesty.

1140ad sent.

The envoy from Britain would like to remind you to mind your manners in the presence of the Queen's loyal servant, Sir Johnathan Whittingham, III. Any insults will be reported post-haste to her majesty.


The mouth moves but only gibberish comes out ;) These barbarians from foreign lands need to go back there. The Chinese will suffer no trespassing although will always welcome diplomats .... gibberish or not....

Oh, you didn't want to sign open borders agreements? It would be a great, um, trade opportunity ;) Imaging all that income... British income at that.

Who's the latest save with at the mo? Best check in case it's supposed to be with me ;)

Still waiting for 1150ad here. 1140ad sent.

i dont remember getting 1140

Sorry guys, totally my fault. I'm not sure what I was thinking on that one. I should have it out in about 30 minutes.

nudge nudge* nice day, eh?

I think Ulfang has it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

He should. I'll send again.

Hi you lot ... it's with me. I've been a bit busy this week and hardly had chance to get online. I will process it tonight (GMT) so hopefully it will be with DNK while he's still awake ;)

Alright.

1150ad sent.

1160ad sent.

Sorry I'm holding things up again. I'm having more comp problems on the PC. I'm on my laptop at the moment which is connected to the PC via a wireless network and has no such problems but I have the wrong version on Civ Vanilla on here. It won't load the save games. If I remember rightly when you install BTS on the same comp it overwrites a .dll that Vanilla uses and think you need to replace that original .dll for vanilla to work properly with our saves but can't remember what that file was.

Anyway I'm going to send my turn onto Mike to play for me. I'll also be away on holiday (or as some would say ... "vacation") from next Thursday for a week so Mike may have to play when I'm away as well.

I've played it, and sent it on.

I've got Vanilla and BTS, but I bought them both on steam, so maybe that's why I don't have any issues. I don't have any problems playing the turns, so if you still need me to play them before Thursday, just forward them on to me.

Have a good holiday!

1180ad sent.

1190ad sent.

1200ad sent.

1210ad sent.

I sent the last turn out on the 2nd.

Haven't seen it yet.

Ok i'm back. I will be formatting my PC's HD today so hopefully will be able to continue as of tonight. I received the turn that Joe sent yesterday which went to both of us so not sure if Mike has processed this turn. I won't do anything until it's been confirmed of course :)

I resent the game. Sorry for the delay, I don't always receive new post emails. If I ever don't answer for more than a day, feel free to email me.

Know what you mean Mike I rarely get new post emails. When I do there have been like 20 posts since the last one ;)

It's a real pain too. I just resent the game, and answered your email. I think the turn you should play is The_Great_Game_AD-1210_to_Ulfang_-_Qin.Civ4SavedGame

Sent to DNK :)

And 1220ad sent. Good, we're on track again. For some reason it said the game was already played again this time... but it certainly wasn't. Oh well, back to business.

JB, let me know if you get my in-game diplo communique. I forgot if that works or not. I've got a raging sweet tooth! :yumyum:

It did not work. I played and sent before reading the thread.

turn sent on to DNK. Sorry for the delay. I have to transfer saves from my laptop (acquired from hotmail) onto a flash drive then insert that into the PC to play my turns. I can't access hotmail from my PC due to problems i've been having. I thought I'd solved them by formatting my C partition but it hasn't. Not sure why as I have the laptops going through the wireless network with no problems but the host PC does seem to be having major problems. Anyway I get there in the end....

Alright, no problem.

1230ad sent.

I've emailed my turn to Port to take for the next turn or two whilst I sort out the BTS installation on my laptop to allow me to process these vanilla turns. I'm at a loss as to what the hell is wrong with my PC. Still massive problems with the internet but the laptops I use through the PC's wireless network work fine. Completely inexplicable lol. I formatted an old drive on the PC today and re-installed windows and still came across the same problem. INSANITY :)

Tried re-booting the router? Maybe teh problem is in your home netowork? Not an expert, just taking pop shots in the dark

Could always do a Windows reinstall. It's advisable to do a full HDD format and reinstall every year or so. The thing just gunks up over time, no matter how hard you try to keep it clean.

Well, that's what the OCD techs do at least :dunno:

I'm on top of the turn taking. I thought it was strange that after the re-install, you immediatly couldn't get on hotmail.

We're patient, so keep trying, and good luck!

1240ad sent.

Tried re-booting the router? Maybe the problem is in your home network? Not an expert, just taking pop shots in the dark


Yea ive tried resetting my router several times but doesn't make a difference. I'm beginning to feel it may be a network problem, Perhaps i've inadvertantly changed some setting but i don't know a lot about networks so wouldn't know if a setting should be there or not lol. I have two laptops, the Xbox 360 and the Wii all going through the network and don't have problems with them just the PC :confused:

Could always do a Windows reinstall. It's advisable to do a full HDD format and reinstall every year or so. The thing just gunks up over time, no matter how hard you try to keep it clean.

Well, that's what the OCD techs do at least :dunno:

I did a format and re-install but it made no difference still problems connecting to certain websites. Not all which is confusing. I can say go to google, a newswbeite etc with no rpoblems but hotmail doesn't work. It gets to the login screen but when i put in my username and password it thinks for ages then errors. I could go to say download.com to download a util and it would go to the site and let me search but as soon as i click the download link it does the same as with Hotmail. Can't access microsoft updates either. I can go to the site but as soon as i try to update anything same problem.

I'm on top of the turn taking. I thought it was strange that after the re-install, you immediatly couldn't get on hotmail.

We're patient, so keep trying, and good luck!

I couldn't access hotmnail before the re-install as i say above it's just certain websites. I'd have thought it was a phoneline or ISP problem but then the laptops through the network work so that can't be it.

I'm getting closer to retuening to the game by the way. I found the forum post regarding the .dll changes i need to load vanilla save games through my BTS install but the first attempt didn't work. I'll work on it this afternooon. If I haven't replied by the time someone's ready to process a turn feel free to carry on playing on my behalf it shouldn't be too long before i have it sorted.

What if you ping hotmail from the laptop and from the pc? Do they resolve to the same address? When I ping hotmail.com, I get 64.4.32.7. The pings don't get through, but that's what it resolves to.

If they are way different, then look at the file host (no extension) in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc If it's full of entries, then delete it.

Not sure as i don't know how to ping lol

Click on start and then "Run" type in "CMD" then click on OK. A command prompt window pops up, type in "ping www.hotmail.com" and see what address it comes back with. The address will be like 64.4.38.249". Do that on your desktop and your laptop.

Are you sure you're formatting the hard disk when you re-install windows? Are all your programs and files still there when you reload windows? If they are there, then you may just be doing a repair install.

Click on start and then "Run" type in "CMD" then click on OK. A command prompt window pops up, type in "ping www.hotmail.com" and see what address it comes back with. The address will be like 64.4.38.249". Do that on your desktop and your laptop.

Are you sure you're formatting the hard disk when you re-install windows? Are all your programs and files still there when you reload windows? If they are there, then you may just be doing a repair install.

Well it isn't just hotmail that i'm having problems with on the PC which makes me think it might be a network problem as it's just the host i'm having problems with but i'll give it a try and compare.

And yes I know what i'm doing with formatting ;) The drive I formatted was definately formatted and not repaired. I delete the partitions then format them and re-install windows on the C: Partition. The D: Partition is definately empty and C: just has windows.

1250ad sent.

And sent onto Dave :)

1260ad sent.

Happy New year (almost) I'll be processing my turn shortly.

It'll be new year for you first. So you'll have to let us know how it's shaping up. It'll give me a little time to prepare :-)

Hmm well Civilization seems to be as dodgy as ever so no change for 2009 ;)

Save completed a little later than advertised and sent on to DNK.

1270ad sent.

1280ad sent.