Beyond the Sword fails to find a patch when installing and aborts installation.

[TheRealMaestro]

My copy of Civilisation IV: Beyond the Sword has finally come
in the mail to-day. I went to install it, and while installation started
like normal, after verifying that I have DirectX (I have DirectX 11),
it says that it will check for a patch. It then says that no patch can
be found and then aborts the installation (using the word abort).
I use a 64-bit Windows 7 O.S.; what is going on and how can I get
BtS on my computer? Should it be relevant, I obtained my copy of
Civ IV Vanilla from the Civilisation Chronicles.

 

[da_Vinci]

My copy of Civilisation IV: Beyond the Sword has finally come
in the mail to-day. I went to install it, and while installation started
like normal, after verifying that I have DirectX (I have DirectX 11),
it says that it will check for a patch. It then says that no patch can
be found and then aborts the installation (using the word abort).
I use a 64-bit Windows 7 O.S.; what is going on and how can I get
BtS on my computer? Should it be relevant, I obtained my copy of
Civ IV Vanilla from the Civilisation Chronicles.

Do you have a properly functioning Vanilla version on the computer? Do you have Warlords or not? (I don't recall if BTS needs Warlords as well, or just vanilla).

You should send a screenshot of your vanilla install folder and path ... I am wondering if perhaps Chronicles installs in a different folder path, and maybe BTS is trying to install somewhere else (I think BTS needs vanilla in the same folder set).

These are my best first thoughts.

dV

 

[TheRealMaestro]

Do you have a properly functioning Vanilla version on the computer? Do you have Warlords or not? (I don't recall if BTS needs Warlords as well, or just vanilla).

You should send a screenshot of your vanilla install folder and path ... I am wondering if perhaps Chronicles installs in a different folder path, and maybe BTS is trying to install somewhere else (I think BTS needs vanilla in the same folder set).

These are my best first thoughts.

dV

Yes, as I said in the original post, I possess vanilla Civ IV. The directory
is C:\Program Files (x86)\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4, not in
a special Chronicles folder. No, I do not have Warlords, but Beyond the Swords
only requires Vanilla.

What would you suggest now?

 

[da_Vinci]

Yes, as I said in the original post, I possess vanilla Civ IV. The directory
is C:\Program Files (x86)\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4, not in
a special Chronicles folder. No, I do not have Warlords, but Beyond the Swords
only requires Vanilla.

What would you suggest now?

Is your vanilla patched up to the latest version? Let us know what version of vanilla you are running.

I know with the HOF and/or BUFFY mods there have been issues where different patch levels of the games have slightly different sized .ini files (I think those are the ones) and that can block mod installs or generate error messages.

Posting a screenshot of your civ 4 install files which shows the sizes of the key files might be helpful. Also, are there BTS install files from the aborted attempt on your computer? If so, posting that might help. When I get home I can post some screens of what my install looks like for comparison.

If the Chronicle civ 4 has different file sizes compared to traditional vanilla, that might explain why BTS won't play nice with it.

And hopefully someone smarter than me will join us to help ... I can post a note to the GOTM crew who are pretty good with these things.

dV

 

[AlanH]

The most likely problem is that Civ4 is expecting to find an older DirectX, since DX 11 didn't exist when Civ4 was written. It's trying to patch DirectX 11 to make it into DirectX 9 or 10, and failing.

You could try installing DirectX 9 or 10 on your PC. It should be available from Microsoft. I've no idea whether it can co-exist with DX 11, so you need to check that nothing bad will happen if you do this.

 

[da_Vinci]

The most likely problem is that Civ4 is expecting to find an older DirectX, since DX 11 didn't exist when Civ4 was written. It's trying to patch DirectX 11 to make it into DirectX 9 or 10, and failing.

You could try installing DirectX 9 or 10 on your PC. It should be available from Microsoft. I've no idea whether it can co-exist with DX 11, so you need to check that nothing bad will happen if you do this.

I can run Civ V in either DX9 or DX11, so presumably both of these versions can exist on one computer, and I have not found any problems.

Also, my steam version of each Civ 4 version updated last night (a change due to the GameSpy demise, apparently). My BTS for steam and disk now say 319 302 3.1.9.0 with a May 28, 2014 date. So do check for what version of vanilla you currently have. My vanilla in steam says 174 103 1.7.4.0 with the 5/28/2014 date.

I am attaching a screenshot with the file path to my vanilla gamecoredll.dll file (it is that, not .ini files that is the known issue for mods). We have found that file sizes can vary by version there and make for problems with mod compatibility at least. See this thread for details http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=255784&highlight=hof+mod+gamecoredll


So I think order of steps should be

1. Check vanilla for update status. If no go updated, then

2. try install of DX 9 or 10 If no go with that, then

3. We investgate file size issues.

Hope this helps. What do you think, Alan?

dV

 

[Furiey]

Have a look at the pinned thread towards the top of this forum "installing Civ IV on Windows 7/Vista" or words to that effect. The installs will no longer find patch files and you will need to check your vanilla version and patch accordingly. DirectX 9 and 11 are separate and co-exist so you will also have to update your DX 9. You will then have to install and manually patch your BTS (it does not need warlords but you will find some warlords folders after the install as it saves the civs etc previously supplied in warlords in the same location). That thread has all the instructions and links you will need.

 

[da_Vinci]

Just to make life harder, the recent Steam update for the GameSpy demise (moving MP to Steam or something like that) about June 5 or 6 has done something to generate incompatibility with the HOF mod.

So if you have Steam versions of Civ 4 and expansions, that adds new issues. If you have both steam and disk versions, it seems that both get screwed by the steam update (happened to me). If you have disk only, I don't know.

Turn steam auto updates off !!!

dV

 

[TheRealMaestro]

Thanks to everybody, my problems are solved. I did not need to
install DirectX 9 in order to get Beyond the Sword to download;
I simply needed to patch the vanilla version of Civ IV to the latest
version; my house's lethargic Internet connection forbade it, but my
local library allowed me.

I have Beyond the Sword now and I enjoy it; this is the version I
remember playing before I lost the CD in 2010. Now my Wade-Giles
mod should hopefully work! Thank you all.