Mod hangs at "Init" when loading game

Hello there,

I've been a long time player of Realism Invictus but after seeing how many people over on the Steam Community Forums liked Caveman 2 Cosmos, i'd thought i'd give it ago.

Problem is, no matter what settings I choose, when I try to start a new game, instead of loading it merely hangs at "Initialising" on the loading bar. The tip or quote never changes, and i've left it for 30 minutes or so each time (since I know C2C is a big mod).

Realism Invictus runs no problem. I have the Steam version of Civ IV Beyond the Sword and it's patched to 3.19. I tried to install the 3.19 patch manually again as i've read on other help threads of this type, but it itself hangs after clicking "Begin installation". I tried to install the 3.17 patch (as I read from people having trouble installing the 3.19 patch) but that claims BTS isn't even installed.

So, I am somewhat of a loss. Any ideas gentlemen?

If you were able to load the mod itself, then it shouldn't be the 3.19 being a problem.

It does take a long time potentially to initialize a game depending on your system specs and the size of map. Some maps themselves are problematic. Try perfectmongoose... not that that's the only one that works well. There's just a number of maps in the list that are problematic from what I understand. Maybe that's the problem?

Taking a shot in the dark here. It could also be a system requirement issue. Steam is also a bit odd and can cause some problems from what I understand but I've always glossed over when steam is mentioned as I don't utilize it or really know what its all about.

A shot in the dark, Steam BTS is very confusing. I'll hazard a guess that the files didn't end up in the right place, or properly. Assuming you know where your Steam folder is:

steam/steamapps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization V Beyond The Sword/Beyond The Sword/Mods

Notice the repetition of "Beyond The Sword". The previous folder also contains a mod folder, but that one either does nothing or crashes things. I'm not sure.

In addition, it may be worth your while to check file integrity of the game through Steam. There were a LOT of file corruption issues when the Apple version came out, and you may have an after effect of this.

So to sum up:
- Verify file integrity through steam
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335

- Make sure the content is installed into the right folder. For safety's sake, delete and perform a clean install. Sorry about the download time


Lastly, another shot in the dark, you could also reset your Civ V settings (if any) using those instructions:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8296-VSOM-8056

Thank you for the assistance. I'll finish up this game of Realism Invictus then I'll try a fresh install.

PC Spec wise, I would hope I am well over the requirements. 8 Gig DDR 600mhz, AMD Athlon II X4 640 Processor, ATi Radeon 7850 Graphics Card. As I said, I went and made a cuppa and came back to it about 20 minutes or so later. No progress, so it seems to be dead in the water rather than merely taking a while to load.

I have Steam on my E Drive so my Caveman 2 Cosmos directory is as follows;

E:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Caveman2Cosmos

So, anyways I'll try a fresh install and get back to you

Honestly, depending on the map size, you may simply have had to wait a bit longer.

SquireJames said:

Realism Invictus runs no problem.

So, I am somewhat of a loss. Any ideas gentlemen?

Click to expand...

One thing, you cant say that one mod does this, and another this, "not" with C2C.

C2C is a "completely" different mod altogether, because of its size alone. It is around 2.70ish GB in size Whereas RI is ONLY around 1 GB'ish in size.

I am aware of that strategyonly. I was merely stating that my game works, and supports loading mods. If it keeled over when loading any mod, it'd likely be my PC or install at fault, not the mod, correct?

So far on my fresh install, it is loading, but it takes approximately 35-40 minutes to start a game. Seems rather badly optimised in that case but I am not intimately familiar with Civ IV modding. Is that normal or am I experiencing longer than average load times compared to others?

I'll see how long turns take.

SquireJames said:

I am aware of that strategyonly. I was merely stating that my game works, and supports loading mods. If it keeled over when loading any mod, it'd likely be my PC or install at fault, not the mod, correct?

So far on my fresh install, it is loading, but it takes approximately 35-40 minutes to start a game. Seems rather badly optimised in that case but I am not intimately familiar with Civ IV modding. Is that normal or am I experiencing longer than average load times compared to others?

I'll see how long turns take.

Click to expand...

Actually it has been greatly optimised to improve load times, the second time around. This means that instead of being very slow 15-25 mins every time it is slow the first time and faster <5mins for subsequent loads.

So loading a saved game should be quite rapid then, in comparison?

SquireJames said:

So loading a saved game should be quite rapid then, in comparison?

Click to expand...

Usually, but it all depends on the game state (large map in a late era will take longer) and what the bottlenecks on your computer are.

For me a mod load takes about a minute first time and 40 seconds or so subsequent, and a game save load can be anywhere from a second or 2 up to 30 seconds or so. That's on a nearly 4 year old machine, but I do have an SSD in it now which means I am no at all disk limited. On a typical (non-SSD) laptop your mod load time will be a lot longer, but game load times much less so (mod load is more disk limited, game load more CPU limited for most people)

SquireJames said:

So far on my fresh install, it is loading, but it takes approximately 35-40 minutes to start a game. Seems rather badly optimised in that case but I am not intimately familiar with Civ IV modding. Is that normal or am I experiencing longer than average load times compared to others?

Click to expand...

It depends on what you mean by "to start a game". Do you mean just to get to the menu, or do you mean after you've been to the menu and picked your settings and clicked the button to actually play a game with those settings, or the combined time for both?

If you are including (or only counting) the time after being in the menu and selection options and such, then it is dependent on what map type you pick and strongly dependent on what map size you have selected. Bigger maps take longer. A lot longer. And the difference between one map script and another can be several percent for the same size map (assuming they really are the same size, some map scripts redefine the sizes and they usually make them a little bit bigger then the defaults). Still, it does seem excessive.

If you just mean loading the mod to get to the menu, then that also seems quite excessive. At the very least, you should try defraging the drive it is on. But the bright side is that, as mentioned, this part of the loading goes faster after the first time.

You've GOT to be talking about initializing a new game. That truly takes forever and a day if you're opening up a very big map. But after that yes, loading a saved game takes a mere fraction of the time setting one up does.

Yes, I am referring to initialising a new game. I.E from the moment i've selected all my settings and told it to load to when it actually brings up said game in front of me and I can start playing.

Good to know that saved games won't take as long. Thank you for all the assistance.

SquireJames said:

Yes, I am referring to initialising a new game. I.E from the moment i've selected all my settings and told it to load to when it actually brings up said game in front of me and I can start playing.

Good to know that saved games won't take as long. Thank you for all the assistance.

Click to expand...

Ah right - depending on the map scrip you choose, initializing a new game can take LONG time, especially for large maps (PerfectWorld on largest map size takes up to about half an hour for me)