Civ3:Complete C3C editor does NOT load correctly

Ok. Been messing about with this, and I can't figure out what's going on. I have installed Civ3: Complete 3 times, each time I get this error. Whenever I load the Conquests editor, I get the following:

Cannot open file Art\Units\Palettes\ntp00.pcx

Then it gives me a whole list of files it also cannot open:
Art\Terrain\xtgc.pcx
Art\Terrain\xpgc.pcx
Art\Terrain\xdgc.pcx
Art\Terrain\xdpc.pcx
Art\Terrain\xdgp.pcx
Art\Terrain\xggc.pcx
Art\Terrain\wCSO.pcx
Art\Terrain\wSSS.pcx
Art\Terrain\wOOO.pcx
Art\Terrain\polarICEcaps-final.pcx
Art\Terrain\xhills.pcx
Art\Terrain\hill forests.pcx
Art\Terrain\hill jungle.pcx
Art\Terrain\floodplains.pcx
Art\Terrain\deltaRivers.pcx
Art\Terrain\mtnRivers.pcx
Art\Terrain\waterfalls.pcx
Art\Terrain\irrigation DESETT.pcx
Art\Terrain\irrigation PLAINS.pcx
Art\Terrain\irrigation.pcx
Art\Terrain\irrigation TUNDRA.pcx
Art\Terrain\Mountain.pcx
Art\Terrain\mountain forests.pcx
Art\Terrain\mountain jungles.pcx
Art\Terrain\mountains-snow.pcx
Art\Terrain\roads.pcx
Art\Terrain\railroads.pcx
Art\Terrain\territory.pcx
Art\Terrain\grassland forests.pcx
Art\Terrain\plains forests.pcx
Art\Terrain\tundra forests.pcx
Art\Terrain\tnt.pcx
Art\Terrain\goodyhuts.pcx
Art\Terrain\pollution.pcx
Art\Terrain\startLoc.pcx
Art\Cities\rAMER.pcx
Art\Cities\rEURO.pcx
Art\Cities\rROMAN.pcx
Art\Cities\rMIDEAST.pcx
Art\Cities\rASIAN.pcx
Art\Cities\AMERWALL.pcx
Art\Cities\EUROWALL.pcx
Art\Cities\ROMANWALL.pcx
Art\Cities\MIDEASTWALL.pcx
Art\Cities\ASIANWALL.pcx

After this, the editor can actually be used, however, terrain cannot be edited, and the map is a black screen. BIQ files can be loaded and edited. However, this gives the following message:
Cannot open file Art\Units\Palettes\ntp00.pcx

After that however, you may edit the BIQ file ok.

What is going on here? Obviously the editor can't find that palette file or the terrain files for some reason. At first I thought my old install was causing probs with old registry keys, so I uninstalled and meticulously deleted all the old keys, from my old Civ3, PTW and C3C disc installs. However, this did not fix the problem. Uninstalled again, reinstalled, same thing! Does anybody know how to fix this? Is it some hardcoded path error in the EXE, or did the installer put some files in the wrong place, or what? There is no Palette folder in the C3C folder, just in the vanilla folder, this is correct, IIRC. I get the same thing with the PTW editor, however, Vanilla editor works fine, leading me to believe this is an install path problem. Actual game runs fine for all 3 versions, mods can be played without problems also. If anyone can shed some light on this I would really appreciate it.

Wow, that's really odd - never heard of this before. Have you checked in your Civilization III/Art/Terrain folder for all those files and to see if they look right? The only thing I can think of right now is that either a) the files aren't there, b) they are corrupted, or c) the editor doesn't know they are there.

When you try at edit/add terrain, what happens? Does it just stay black?

Yes, the terrain simply stays black. Ginger Ale, can you look in your C3C folder and see if you have a Palettes folder with the palette pcx files? If there is supposed to be one in the C3C folder, I don't have it. What I need to do is check a regular install of C3C vs the Complete install and check for file differences.

Tried emailing Atari support, I can't send an email on their site. Apparently there is no way to contact them right now, they are hiding.

BTW, I can add units and stuff ok, no problem there, it seems to look for that mod stuff ok.

I had this problem and the solution I found (not all steps may be necessary, but)

1. Uninstall (completely, moved any save games, etc. to another folder somewhere else, and then had any shortcuts, etc. cleared up by Norton)

2. Reinstall

3. Set up a 'PTWArt' and 'ConqArt' folder somewhere else

4. Copy the Civilization III Complete/Art folder into the 'PTWArt'

5. Copy the Civilization III Complete/civ3PTW/Art folder into the 'PTWArt' (replacing Files)

6. Copy PTWArt/Art folder into 'ConqArt' folder

7. Copy the Civilization III Complete/Conquests/Art folder into the 'ConqArt' folder (replacing Files)

8. Take that folder (ConqArt/Art) and copy it into the Civilization III Complete/Conquests folder

Seemed to work. I figure the problem is the
Civilization III Complete/Conquests/Art folder
and
Civilization III Complete/civ3PTW/Art folder

only contain the NEW art for Conquests or PTW and the Editor doesn't know to look back in the tree


step 9 (to in sure the PTW editor works) should be. Take the PTWArt/Art folder and copy it into the Civilization III Complete/civ3PTW folder


I haven't put my games back in yet so some of the problem could have been caused by my having old save games in regular Civ 3, but I'm hoping not since this makes more sense..(and I don't want to abondon those games)

Well, it has no problem finding unit art, or other stuff, it's just those terrain files. Judging by your solution you are making all the files for every expansion available in every expansion folder. Good idea, but a bit confusing to read. You know what I'm going to try, is putting just the Palettes folder into the C3C folder, and see what happens. Then, if I'm still getting terrain errors, I will try copying over the terrain stuff too, I'm a bit leery of doing that, as I'm not sure what differences there are for terrain pcx files as far as Civ3 Vanilla vs Conquests goes. That's why I wanted someone to post a dir listing of their Conquests Art folder and subfolders. I'll have a careful look, see what I can figure out.

Strangely, there seems to be NO WAY to get a hold of Atari/Firaxis about this. Emails sent thru Atari site do not go, and there's no contact info at Civ3.com that I could see. If a Firaxian reads this, want to comment and troubleshoot?

I just purchased C3C and I am having the same problem with Conquest Editor. Have you had any luck yet? It all seems to be where it should be, but the editor doesn't recognize it. I can open Civ3 editor, but not ptw or conquest.

Did you find a solution for your C3C editor? I have the same problem and have not been able to get it working. I've talked to live tech and they too are baffled. Great, huh! Please let me know.

Krikkitone did this work for you? Did you do it exactly as stated? I'm having the same problem and would love to solve it! I would appreciate your help.

Ok, copying the Palettes folder over to C3C folder solves the palette load problem, apparently, but terrain will still not load. So, next thing I will try is carefully creating a new terrain folder for C3C with all the Vanilla terrain in it too. I'm not sure how the terrain differs from Vanilla vs C3C, I hope there are no conflicts. This may be the way to solve the problem, but geez, if you have to copy over all the unit stuff as well it could get ugly.

OFaustusFaustus just posted a new thread on this, he is having the same problem. Interestingly, he is also running WinME, I wonder if this is a WinME problem exclusively. Docster, are you also running Windows ME?

Maybe they hardcoded some path info into the header for the editor EXE, and Windows ME can't handle it properly with the new path name. If somebody else wants to try another reinstall, try doing it to the original path that the game and expansions installed to, I would be interested to know what your results are.

The only difference terrain wise between VC3/PTW is the addition of Volcanoes.

I'm glad I'm not alone with this... I feel sorry for Best Buy, because I just made them give me a new game... I'm about to try and install it, and I'm going to try krikkitone's solution in a bit. Just as a side note, when I replaced the terrain folder with one from an old scenario, I stopped getting error messeges on some of the replaced files (though some that were replaced still came up as errors). Anyway, God speed to those that are working on fixing this.

Taking it back to Best Buy won't do any good, unless you could convince them to let you trade it for civ3 Gold and Conquests, I don't think they'd go for that.

Any moderators know who wrote the code for the editor? I'd like to drop whoever it was an email, ask them if they can shed any light on the problem.

Krikkitone's solution worked!!! Thank you so much!!!

Well, obviously Firaxis coded it, but as for the actual person responsible, I don't know that it's public knowledge.

There are a couple of people here who know some of the firaxis people...they might know.

There's a similar problem with the game when you just buy C3C (it has a tendancy to overwrite, or forget to install files sometimes) which envolves just copying a few files from the PTW art folder. (Just remember that C3C has more specialists, so it has a larger pophead file).

Well, I opened the C3C editor with a hex-editor, and the file paths are clearly hard-coded (not that surprising, really).

Has anyone tried just donwloading and installing the v1.22f patch? I know that Complete comes ready-patched, but if the 1.22f patch has a version of the editor (which I don't know), then it might mean you get the original editor, and it might work better.

Ivan the Kulak...I'm running Win98SE. I'll try copying the files as well. I did download the patch 1.22 and it didn't solve the editor problem.

Krikkitone's solution worked! I did not need to uninstal/reinstall it, but I followed the yellow brick road the rest of the way HOME! YES!! Thanks!! (I should've tried it sooner!)

If i do the simple steps that Krikkitone's have offered,does this mean i can't play multi-player in the PTW?

Just glanced at the instructions, and it looks like you're just messing with the art folders. I don't see a reason why it wouldn't work.

I would make a system restore point, and give it a try. If it doesn't work, you can roll back to the restore point. Assuming you're using XP, that is.