Unable to load saved games.

[Emptiness]

I've created this thread to respond to the request for troubleshooting assistance originally posted in the Bug Thread.

Currently runnig: Civ 4, Warlords and BtS, patch 3.19, all from the CDs; Fall from Heaven 2, patch and Media Pack (the lastest versions); and all on Windows XP.

The problem is that none of my save games will load. Ordinary BtS games will load so I'm guessing the problem is with the mod. I've tried loading games with a variety of civilisations, games and senarios but none of them load; when I try the game gives me the loading screen as normal but before it's finished it returns to Desktop and gives me the standard Windows apology message.

I've already uninstalled everything and tried again but that's made no difference. Please help?

What saved games are you trying to load? You've said that you have FfH2 0.41j installed. Is that the version that was used to create these saves, or were they created using a different version of the mod? If so, which version?

How are you attempting to load the saves? From the main menu, or by opening the save file directly from Windows? How are you attempting to load the Scenarios, and which have you tried?

Are you able to start and play a new game of FfH2? (From the main menu choose "SINGLE PLAYER" -> "PLAY NOW!", for example.)

 

[Ddraig Cymru]

Ah, thank you so much for your quick response.

I've only found out about Fall For Heaven a week ago so the latest version is the only version I've ever played. So all my saves were created with FfH2 0.41j. I've been trying to load saves in the normal way from the main menu, both before and after loading Fall From Heaven, and from in the in-game menu. Same with the loading save-games of Senarios, and I've tried all the ones that were unlocked.

I can start and play a new game/senario with no trouble and when I save it creates a file too. It's just loading them that's the problem.

Thank you again.

 

[Ddraig Cymru]

Also just tried loading a save game directly from the 'My Games' file in Windows. Same result I'm afraid.

 

[Breunor]

Can you be specific about what heppens when you try to load a save? Does it crash to desktop, stop in an infinite attempt to try, crash the computer, give an error saying it can't load the file, etc.?

Also, have you tired to load autosaves? If so, does the same thing happen?


Best wishes,

Breunor

 

[Emptiness]

Please post one (or more) of your saved games, so I can see if they also crash when I attempt to load them.

 

[Ddraig Cymru]

Can you be specific about what heppens when you try to load a save? Does it crash to desktop, stop in an infinite attempt to try, crash the computer, give an error saying it can't load the file, etc.?

Also, have you tired to load autosaves? If so, does the same thing happen?

What happens is that the game starts to load (or seems to at least) and then it suddenly returns to Desktop and Windows gives me an error message. It happens for all saves, autosaves included.

I've posted one save and one autosave.

 

[Emptiness]

I am able to load both your save and your autosave, which rules out (1) corruption during the save process and (2) damaged hard drive sectors at the save location.

I'm attaching three different saved games. Please attempt to load each of them, and let me know what happens.

If you are unable to load any of those saves, then please start a new game and immediately save it, exit the game and then reload, and then try loading that saved game. Let me know the result.

 

[Ddraig Cymru]

Right, first I tried to load your save games but they didn't work. Then I did the reloading thing and that did work and I was able to get at my older save games! This included the ones I posted here. I went to the main menu after that and I was able to load games that way too, even though both methods hadn't worked before...

So I exited the game to check it wasn't a fluke and I wasn't able to load games from Windows or from the main menu when I restarted. The ingame menu still worked though...

I think I'll check again in the morning to make absolutely sure and I'll post the results here.

 

[Ddraig Cymru]

Alright. Currently working: the ingame menu and the main menu. Not working: loading directly from Windows.

This is quite strange... I wonder if the issue is with my computer instead?

 

[Emptiness]

The fact that some loading methods work some of the time but not other times, for the same save, makes me suspect that something is interfering with the load process. This could be a background application (antivirus software would be my first suspect, but any application could be the culprit), a virus or other malware, or a piece of hardware that is in the process of failing. It's definitely a strange problem, so I can't be more specific.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Alright. Currently working: the ingame menu and the main menu. Not working: loading directly from Windows.

This is quite strange... I wonder if the issue is with my computer instead?

I would hazard a guess that the save files you load directly from Windows are not pointing to the right location - that is, Civ4 is trying to load them up inside regular BTS and not inside the FFH2 mod. If this is the case, to fix the problem all you need to do is to load up Fall from Heaven 2 first, THEN load your FFH2 savegame. Alternatively, there should be some way of changing the path that the savegame uses to load up (by right-clicking and going somewhere in the Properties menu), but I can't help you with exactly what to do there.

Hope that helps.

 

[Emptiness]

You quoted where he said that loading saves from the main menu is working, and then suggested that he try loading saves from the main menu...

By the way, all saves, irregardless of mod, are associated in Windows with base Civ4; attempting to load the save file directly launches Civ4, which then determines what mod to use from the file and launches that mod. Saved games automatically include information on the mod they use, if any, as part of the save file itself. If someone were to attempt to associate a saved game with a specific mod then none of their saved games would load correctly (from Windows).

That does not appear to be his problem, however, because loading saves from inside the mod was previously failing - which would not be caused by an incorrect Windows file association.