Civ3ConquestsEdit FILE NOT FOUND Errors

[Erebras]

Civ3ConquestsEdit is loading several error messages basically saying cannot locate Play the World or Conquests. Three options: Abort, Retry, Ignore. If I hit Abort it ends the program (obvious). Retry merely repeats the current error (obvious). Ignore says it cannot locate PTW -- something like "make sure the program is correctly installed and try again" -- then says the same thing about Conquests, then if you hit Ignore again, there is a succession of about twenty or thirty popup windows that says it cannot open various graphic PCXs in the Terrain directory (such as, say, xggc or Cities/Roman), and the only option is to hit an OK button. Then CivEdit loads up with most of the screen black or blank, because, obviously, it didn't access the required graphic files.

My workaround such as it is was to copy and paste the PCXs it could not load from the Art folder in the vanilla directory into the proper place in the Conquests folder, including the Cities and the Palettes in the Units folder. Then CivEdit opened up and could generate a random map with no obvious problem.

This happened even after I uninstalled the game and reinstalled Civ 3 Complete from GameFly. I'm using Windows 8.1 (against my will, mind you...I'm not far from exploring my Apple options).

I believe this is some strange software error, probably something corrupted. But I hope a wise and knowledgeable technophile sees this thread and says, "Piece of cake. Download this [insert file name here] from the Microsoft website and everything will be hunky-dory."

 

[Gray Wolf]

Try right clicking on your .exe file and running as admin.

Also, right click and check the properties of your folders that aren't working and make sure they aren't set to read only.

I'm not sure if either one of those will help but they are worth a try.

 

[ZergMazter]

Oh i get this annoying crap too! What i do is make a folder linked to a scenario and put in it all the files that are giving me trouble. I do that because the scenario wont open, and only a clear editor page will (Black as you mentioned)

Steps:
1-I open the editor as normal and click ignore all.
2-Once opened do not close or u will have to hit ignore again.
3-Drag the desired scenario that has the 'linked' folder to it that contains the troubled files to the blank scenario page so that it can open.
4-If you need a clean scenario page you will have to just clear the scenario and return it to normal rules since an original clean page will not let you see most graphix due to the error.

Basically you work with that same page for anything you are gonna do. Or there is always the easy way, restart your pc and hope it works next time. It also works 75% of the time.

Im not an expert so i had to devise my own ways because I dont care if my PC is having a seizure I WILL PLAY civ 3!!! Good Luck!!!

 

[Quintillus]

It sounds like the registry entry for where Civ3 is installed is probably either incorrect or missing. For the CD and Steam versions, this is in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III folder in the registry, and is the install_path key in that folder. As an example, on my laptop where I have the Steam version installed, it's C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete\. I believe it's D:\Civilization III on my desktop, where I have the CD version installed to a custom location.

It could also be an issue with the GameFly version not properly installing all the files (or indeed, not setting the aforementioned registry entry properly). My guess is Windows 8.1 is probably not part of the problem since the issue is with loading graphics (as opposed to saving something). But it's hard to be too sure; Gray Wolf's suggestion of running as admin may help.

Those abort/retry/ignore errors sure are annoying though. They were a lot more common back in the Windows 3.1/Windows 95 days. And just like you describe, retry always failed again (except in the case when it failed because you'd removed a floppy disk it was saving to), abort always quit the program, and ignore almost always led to additional errors.

Edit: As always, it couldn't hurt to try installing to a non-default location, if the GameFly installer allows that. While it sounds like this may be something different, probably more than half of Civ3 issues on Vista/7/8 are related to UAC and permissions issues, and installing to somewhere other than C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86) is quite effective at solving those.

 

[Erebras]

Thank you for the suggestions. All good points. I'm relieved to know I'm not the only one who has encountered this. (I will note that CivEdit just began acting up one day. It had been working fine for days, weeks, and months, and then all of a sudden, this.) If the problem persists, I will reinstall as Quintillus suggests, because I do suspect some registry error-something-or-other.

But thanks, all. And don't consider the matter closed if you have further comments to make. The fact that I and Zergmazter ran into this means some other poor sod may search the forums for help with this, and any help is good help, I say.