"version mismatch - critical game files do not match host's"

I've installed BTS, all patches are up. Whenever I try connecting to a multiplayer game, I always get the error message "version mismatch - critical game files do not match host's". Even with those games that are apparently BTS.

Anybody has any ideas what the problem (and much rather, the solution) could be?

I've researched the forums, and there are several posts about this error message, but all those posts are very old. It seems that the same problem emerged with Warlords shortly after its release, but was then fixed with an official patch.

Okay, before any other people get a chance to point this out, I must admit that I am thoroughly inexperienced in multiplayer.

Please HELP!

It just means that the host has not patched up. Make sure that both you and the host are patched to 3.02 for BTS. That should slove any problem you are having.

OK.... when I said I was "thouroughly inexperienced" in multiplayer, that was something of an understatement. In fact, I've never played a multiplayer CIV game, even though I've been playing with the series since CIV I in singleplayer. Haven't played much multiplayer with any other game either, other than a few occasions.

How can I find multiplayer games for BTS? And as a bonus, one where the host is patched? ;-)

Better still would be an opportunity to just play for 1-2 hours, as I rarely have full days to allocate to such pleasures. Pitboss should allow me to do this, right, and maybe I could join in an existing game to take over from an AI? But how can I manage into such a game?

Thanks a lot for your help, really!

All you need to do is be patient and there will be a game that starts up. Those who host that are from this site will be patched, unless they say so.

OK, thanks a lot for your help. Gonna try this once I'm home!

If the problem persists, look what your game installation lists when you click Advanced->About this Build in the main menu. It may say "version 3.02" but still not be up-to-date. The Build Version must be 3.0.0.94, if I remember correctly. If your Build Version is different, the patch might not have installed correctly or you use a non-original exe. If that's the case, re-install or use the original exe.

Here's the screenshot.

What do you make of it?

Last night I tried as well, but couldn't successfully connect to any game. It can't possible be that everybody else in the world is running an outdated version, just my computer is up-to-date, can it? ;-)

You don't have the newest version. It says 301 but the newest version is 302. If clicking the Update button in the game doesn't work, you might have to download and install the patch manually.

As I said, the build version must be 3.0.0.94. The date of it is Jul 13, I think.

Strange. So if I'm not running the newest version, why does the 'check for update' button say that there aren't any updates available? Strange indeed. Anyway, I'll try installing the patch manually. Thanks for the tip!

Well I bought the original CIV IV game in Hungary, I never had Warlords, and I bought BTS in Germany. (All retail boxed versions, both physically in a store.) Could this possibly have anything to do with this problem?

I've read reports that the german version sometimes has problems with automatic updates. Unpatched, it has a couple of other bugs too which other versions don't have.

Thanks a lot IronCrown for your help, this was the key to the solution. Manually patching the game solved the problem in a snap!