Civ4 (Direct2Drive): Constantly Losing Money?

[Schuyler Wu]

I used to play Civ4 and always had control over how much money I lose or spent, but I recently just redownloaded Civ4 from Direct2Drive and reinstalled it. I did this because, I tried to install a mod, but failed (and caused CIv4 to fail execution).

So now, instead of starting at 4000 BC, it starts at 2150 BC (or something like that), and my income can fluctuate drastically either way up or down (for no reason I can see). I can make a lot of money and then up with $0 and strikes in 10 turns, more or less. This will go on indefinitely. Is there something wrong?? I'm lost. It makes me not want to play. Anyone else had this happen before?

NOTE: I've uninstalled and reinstalled the game a ton of times to try to fix this problem...

 

[lymond]

Ha..I have to say that is one of the most unusual issues I've seen posted here before. Although there are certainly cases where the game gets corrupted somehow, usually by user error with the game or computer. I've had a D2D version of Civ myself for years and never had a problem with it.

Starting circa 2150 BC is bizarre. The only thing that comes to mind is that you somehow have set the era to "Classical" which would start you exactly at 2000BC. As for money fluctuation, I'm not sure. How experienced with the game are you? I'm not sure if this is a real issue or you just don't understand how the game works and the cost of expanding and building units, etc.

Start a game and use the "Custom Game" option in the menu. This allows you to check and adjust settings for the game. First thing though is check the era on the left hand side and make sure it is set to "Ancient".

Otherwise, if there are real technical issues here, and I'm certainly not ruling that out with the mod failure (what mod?), then we will need more information like the specs and OS of your machine. Post up the save and we can take a look at it.

Also, IV has some quirks on the newer Windows OSs, so you might have to some things differently at install, and if the game is corrupted, you may need to not only uninstall, but clean the game completely of the machine - including registry.

 

[Schuyler Wu]

Funny...

1) Under Custom Game, it's already set at Ancient
2) It was the Fallout: Tame the Wastelands Mod
3) Windows 8.1
4) Saved game uploaded (it's the 1st one)

The date shows "6:23am - week 1, January, 2150 AD".

 

[lymond]

Ok..I'm a bit confused here. You have a Vanilla save...that is you are apparently playing the base game, not the expansions Warlords or BTS. (BTS is the ultimate version of the game)

I can't load your save due to a version issue. A bizarre one. It's like you have the BTS version on a vanilla save. I'm not sure what it going on other than somehow your assets are all jumbled up. I'm not sure how the game would work at all.

Again, what is your experience with this game? Did you move files around when you installed?

This Fallout mod is a BTS mod. Most mods are BTS mods. I'm not familiar with the mod, but it is still in Alpha release, and alphas can be highly unstable and unpredictable on their own, but I'm curious about something. I'm not sure how the mod is delivered - executable or zip - but did you try to fit it to vanilla Civ by either redirecting the executable or copying the zip files there. That would be catastrophic.

I'm not sure what to say at this point other than uninstall the game. Delete all folders and files related to Civ IV. Reinstall the game (run executables as admin always) and make sure you apply the D2D patches for for each so that allows you to authorize the key for each version.

Try just playing without mods for now. The game is great without them. Play BTS. When you want to use mods, get some help first.

 

[Schuyler Wu]

LOL I redirected all the mod files there, including the Assets folder. I remember that, before all this happened, my games would always start out at 4000 BC.