Civ II Chronicles Scenarios and Patching

[lotusflowerdoom]

I got Civ II Chronicles, and it works well playing a normal game or when playing the Rome or World War II scenarios. However, whenever I try to go to one of the the scenarios from Fantastic Worlds or Conflicts, it give me an error message. I tried to install the Multiplayer Gold v1.3 patch, but it doesn't quite work. I'm not sure if I chose the wrong destination for what file to install it in. Where should I install it?

 

[lotusflowerdoom]

I have never installed a patch before either, and that may be the problem. Once the data from the application is save somewhere, what do you do with it?

 

[Ravorion]

I have the exact same problem!!

For some reason almost all of the scenarios added by the 2 expansions are bugged. The error mentions a file called "dbgdel.cpp line:47". When I press ignore I get 2 more error messages; "dbgheap.c line:1011 and line:1017". Then the game crashes and I get a send error report option from Windows XP. With some of the scenarios this does not happen, but after the scenario is fully loaded and you try to move a unit at the start it immediately crashes. The scenarios from the "Best of Net" folders do not even get that far. They either crash right after selecting the scenario or just before starting the scenario. In total I only got about 5 out of like 36 scenarios to work. I tried installing a 1.3 version patch, but that just messed up my installation. Guess I need a different release of the patch?

Maybe you can help me with something else though. According to the documentation I should use the 2nd brown disc to have a soundtrack in Civ II and Civ II Test of Time, but when I choose the "Pick Music" option in either games I get a message that says I don't have the cd in the drive. Can't find any audio tracks on the 2 brown cd's either nor do they work in a normal cd player as said in the documentation.

I hope atleast someone could shed some light on this. Is it just a few copies that are bugged like ours, which means we are very unlucky ? Or is it something with a european release, because I noticed the US version has different looking boxes and has 1 green cd more for some reason.

 

[Necrosis]

IIRC, the old patch is not compatible with Civ Chronicles - this is because they install to two completely different folders.

For your enjoyment, I suggest reading the existing problem threads regarding European Civ Chronicles.

Either badger Take 2 (and get no useful response), badger Firaxis (get ignored), or be apathetic and put false hope in "community muscle" (ha, thus far about a dozen threads and we've effectively done nothing) being used to get an answer out of them. We've been stiffed out of our money, they know its broken, they have no incentive to fix it.

Besides, what do they care, they're on to Beyond the Sword now, they have our money. Times like this you can see why Civ has got such sloppy treatment at times - the people selling it can cheerfully push out a defective product and the community will STILL lap it up.

Utterly disheartened about the entire thing.

 

[Ravorion]

Actually I managed to get the Multiplayer Gold 1.3 Patch installed for Civ II, but it doesn't fix the soundtrack nor the scenario problems. (http://www.patches-scrolls.de/ has a Multiplayer Gold 1.3 patch that worked for me, but when you first open that patch the destination folder box is empty so you need to find the Civ II folder first before pressing next or you get an error and the patch doesn't install) So it's like Necrosis said, those 2 discs are faulty and after you read some of the other threads about it you come to the conclusion that old games don't get supported anymore.

I am glad I didn't pay too much for this box. Only 5 euros more than just buying Civ IV. It seems that Civ I and Civ III are both at the most recent versions of the games and work perfectly so I suppose thats worth the 5 euros alone. (Although I am not sure about Civ I. It says version 1.2.0 in the game, but so far I haven't been able to confirm if that is the latest version for the windows version of Civ I. Can anyone enlighten me about this )

Still a bit sad about the soundtrack and scenario's for Civ II though, but in the end both Civ II and Civ II ToT work eventhough it's without music and Civ II scenarios...

 

[Necrosis]

Try contacting Take 2 support, they should know about SOME of the problems. Quote the reference numbers from other threads, that should help with our music problem.

With regards to scenarios - to be honest I haven't tried them. I wouldn't be surprised if they're broken, but I suspect they SHOULD work ok. Again, Take 2 should help.


After that, try contacting Firaxis, and after that your only other option is to get grass roots support from Civfanatics or Apolyton, and hope that the community leaders use their connections to get an answer for you. Good luck.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I got the same problem. I wasn't going to play them, I just wanted to look at the scenarios to see how they worked.
At the store where I bought Chronicles it actually cost less than civ 4! I got more games and saved ten dollars. They realized the mistake later and it cost $20 and then $40 more the next two times I went there.

 

[Necrosis]

Its now at bargain prices on Amazon.


Barely worth it, unless you're buying the fully functional US version.



In the UK, the price went through the floor, largely due to its faulty nature haha.

 

[sanmadjack]

Not sure I can help with the Scenario problems, but I have created a patch installer for chronicles. It detects where chronicles is installed and installs the 1.3 Multiplayer Gold and 1.1 Test of Time patches. You can get it on this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=264508

 

[sanmadjack]

I did some experimenting with getting the music to work and I found out the following:

1. Only the Test of Time soundtrack is included. Multiplayer Gold cannot recognize it.
2. The music will still play in Multiplayer Gold, but you cannot select tracks.
3. The disc has to be in drive D. Any other drive letter doesn't work.

 

[Necrosis]

I followed the same instructions, as listed in the other thread.

For the European version, the version being discussed here, in short -

1: It isnt.
2: It wont.
3: Drive letter makes no difference.

As has been painstakingly explained elsewhere, the European version simply *lacks* the audio data on the second disc. You either need an older copy of the game, or an American copy of Chronicles.

To echo my request in the other thread - when and where did you get your version?

Cheers!

 

[sanmadjack]

My findings do reflect only the US release.

 

[Necrosis]

Then, with all respect, I would suggest you're really not helping people's issues by posting "solutions" to a different version of the game.


However, I sincerely applaud your community spirit. The people with the defective version have been pretty much left to rot, it was nice to have someone appear with a possible fix!

Again, I'm sure the update patch should be handy for a great many people who purchased Chronicles, such a shame T2 or Firaxis haven't seen fit to put an updated patch on their support websites!

 

[our_man08]

Hi guys,

First of all, for any of you struggling to get the scenarios to work on the Chronicles CD for MGE, there's a very easy solution that I discovered.

Rename the "Sid Meier's Civilization 2 Multiplayer Gold" folder to "Civ2 MGE". This solved the problem for me. After receiving useless e-mails from Take2 I decided to solve the situation into my own hands and, after carefully analysing what files worked and what didn't, I came to the conclusion that the problem in functionality was that the directories in which the files are located are too long, so the solution is to reduce the length of the folder names and hey presto! problem solved (for me at least).

 

[Agent327]

Hi guys,

First of all, for any of you struggling to get the scenarios to work on the Chronicles CD for MGE, there's a very easy solution that I discovered.

Rename the "Sid Meier's Civilization 2 Multiplayer Gold" folder to "Civ2 MGE". This solved the problem for me. After receiving useless e-mails from Take2 I decided to solve the situation into my own hands and, after carefully analysing what files worked and what didn't, I came to the conclusion that the problem in functionality was that the directories in which the files are located are too long, so the solution is to reduce the length of the folder names and hey presto! problem solved (for me at least).

Not bad for a 1st post!

You can also place the Scenarios folder in another directory (for instance in My Games). This should work as well.