Annoying problems with Civ4 on Windows 10

[bhinso]

Not an issue with running the game, it still runs, but some annoying niggles:
Firstly I get an error saying Voice Capture disabled, which I ignore.
The main problem is that Custom Game defaults to initial settings, Player name is "Windows User", difficulty Noble, Fractal Map, etc etc.
Previously, when I ran on Windows 7, the game used to remember all my previous settings, whereas now it defaults to the above. This is time consuming when you restart/regenerate a lot.
I think this is something to do with Admin settings, but can anyone help?

 

[s.bernbaum]

I don't know about Windows 10 but try this: start a game; set everything the way you would like it to be as your default settings; go to the game options and choose to save a new default profile. The game should save the current settings and use them whenever you start a new game.

 

[bhinso]

If you mean starting a game, going to options, the tab called "other" and under profiles, selecting "Create New Profile". Then it's not working but thanks for the effort :-( Basically it says new profile completed, but as soon as I quit back to the main menu I'm still getting the "Voice Capture Disabled" error, and everything in the custom game has gone back to original, i.e. "Windows User" for player name, etc. etc. I think it's something to do with Windows 10 and admin, not letting you save anything :-(

 

[s.bernbaum]

I know the "Create New Profile" works on Windows 7 but I have not downgraded to Windows 10, so I don't know about it but it should work. The problem may be that the game does not have admin privileges.

In Windows 7 you need to give the game (the .exe file not the shortcut) admin privileges in order to save changes. In Windows 7 that is a choice on the right click menu for the exe. I would think that it would be in a similar place in Windows 10.

 

[Colon]

I have these issues as well. In the past you could get rid of voice capture pop up by going to the civilizationiv.ini file and change the "enable voice over IP capture and Playback" entry from on 1 to 0. I say in the past, because my experience is that this entry isn't in the .ini file anymore in either Windows 7 or 10, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom. That custom settings are no longer remembered properly probably has something to do with it as well.

Try to locate your civilizationiv.ini file (it's in my documents/mygames/sid meier's civilization/... in Windows 7, not exactly sure where in Windows 10) and see if you can find the voice playback entry. See TC01's post for what the .ini file is supposed to contain in my thread here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=557707

 

[mintegar]

I have windows 10 installed atm sad and for me the saving of settings from previous game in the Custom game screen works fine.

Which folder did you install into? (i used c:\games\civ4).

And also, which edition/release of civ4 do you have? (I think there are at least 3 different installers out there. There is the originally released version of the game, which gives you 3 CDs whith installers for vanilla/warlords/bts. Then there is the steam version. And i think there is at least one other release ("complete edition" iirc), was or is sold by amazon i think...

In Windows 7 you need to give the game (the .exe file not the shortcut) admin privileges in order to save changes.

I don't know.. i've never had to do this for civ4. But then again i always add my user to the Administrators group in windows, and install civ4 into a non default path (as mentioned in the sticky thread, installing to \program files\ can lead to permission problems).

 

[s.bernbaum]

The Admin privileges for the game exe file is needed if the game is installed in the default Programs location in Windows 7. Like you, I did not install the game there but I have used this answer for many folks who did use the default install location, which solved the same problem for them. (This was in the General Discussion forum.)

Once again, I have not looked at Windows 10, so I don't know if this works there.

 

[bhinso]

My game is installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword
Thanks Ben

 

[bhinso]

OK I re-installed the game (this was a nightmare as my older CD's were scratched!) Changed the voice playback in the .ini file, and everything's good now. Thanks again

 

[Colon]

Did you reinstall the game in the default location or elsewhere?

The Admin privileges for the game exe file is needed if the game is installed in the default Programs location in Windows 7. Like you, I did not install the game there but I have used this answer for many folks who did use the default install location, which solved the same problem for them. (This was in the General Discussion forum.)

Once again, I have not looked at Windows 10, so I don't know if this works there.

With giving admin priviliges, you mean ticking the run as adminisatrator box right? Doesn't work for me.

 

[bhinso]

OK here's the update. For completely unknown reasons all versions of Civilization 4 completely stopped working. I blame BT, they went into my system32 and created a superadmin account. That seemed to screw everything up, even after I erased it. I've wiped the C drive and gone back to Windows 7 :-(

 

[bhinso]

I've gone back to Windows 7 but still have the same problem. I've worked it out, the system is refusing to update/write the civ.ini file, regardless of whether i "run as admin" or now. If anyone knows how to fix this, pls let me know

 

[s.bernbaum]

If you have not already done so, check the civ.ini file to make sure it is not locked.

 

[bhinso]

What do you mean by 'locked' ? I've gone into the file under properties, and have full read and write access, so i don't see what's wrong.
This is defintely the problem though, because i've checked and the Civ4.ini file under C:\Users\me\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword is not updating :-(

 

[s.bernbaum]

By "locked" I meant look at the properties, as you did, and make sure that the file is not in any way marked to be not possible to modify. Look at all the properties to be sure there is nothing that resembles this. Since I don't have Windows 10, I can't tell you what it might be called.

 

[bhinso]

OK well the interesting thing here is that I have gone back to Windows 7 as of Wednesday, and i'm still getting it! The CivilizationIV.ini file is not updating at all. It's in the /Documents/My Games/Beyond the sword. Right clicking on it and selecting properties. Under the security tab, all permissions are allowed except "special permissions" which is blank

 

[s.bernbaum]

Perhaps the file is damaged in some way. Try this:
Rename the ini file to some other name. Then launch BTS. Since there is no ini file, it will create a new one. Make the changes that you want and save them as a new default profile. Exit the game. Restart and see if the changes worked. (Or examine the new ini file after exiting the game.) If the new ini file lets you make changes, then the old one was damaged. In that case delete the old one, whatever you named it.

 

[bhinso]

Good idea this. I gave it a try, examined the .ini after and strangely it has very few (only 3) entries. here is a paste of it:

[CONFIG]

; Enable Trilinear Filtering for the Minimap
MinimapTrilinearFilter = 1

; A non-zero value overrides the FIELD_OF_VIEW parameter from GlobalDefines.xml
FIELD_OF_VIEW = 0

; Enable Tree Region Cutting
CutTrees = 1

 

[bhinso]

Not quite sure if it's relevant, but I'm also trying to play the Rise of Mankind Mod, and unless I specificly right click on the Civ4 executable and choose "run as admin", when i run the game I get error messages saying "failed writing INI file C:\Program Files (x86)\Firaxis Games......\Usersettings\Autolog.ini" and the same for a load of other .ini files
My guess is it's admin issues again

 

[s.bernbaum]

Are you aware of the problem for CIV created by Microsoft with one of their patches in September? If not, look at the thread in this forum called "Please login with administrator privileges and try again". The problem is discussed and a couple of work arounds are provided by various people. This might be your problem in Windows 7, if you have not already addressed this issue.