Config File Keeps Resetting Itself

[Alsark]

This is sort of just a minor inconvenience, but something I'd like to fix nonetheless. Basically, whenever I start a game my settings default to all victory conditions being enabled, the map type as fractal, the size as standard, my difficulty as chieftain, and my user name as Chris. However, those are not my preferences. In the past, Civilization IV was saving my preferences (generally continents on noble with my name as Alsark), but it no longer appears to be doing this. What's even more annoying is that it doesn't save my IP and port connections for other players. So say I get an OOS error, back out to the main menu, and try to reconnect - I have to put in the IP and port again.

Sometimes when I go to edit the config file manually (which doesn't help), I notice that most of the config file is just entirely missing. Other times I open it up and it's all there (but changing the values doesn't help any - it'll still just reset itself). So here is what my file looks like now:

Spoiler :

[CONFIG]

; Dont show the game background during movies - may speed up movie playing
HideMovieBackground = 0

; 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

; Allow Camera Flying
AllowFlying = 0

; Don't show minimum specification warnings
HideMinSpecWarning = 0

Why would it just randomly be deleting and overwriting itself like this?

 

[ori]

there is a copy of the file civlizationIV.ini.bak in the same folder as the .ini itself. Delete both and start the game it should create a new version.
Sometimes its necessary to set the .ini file to read only, but that has other problems.

 

[Alsark]

there is a copy of the file civlizationIV.ini.bak in the same folder as the .ini itself. Delete both and start the game it should create a new version.
Sometimes its necessary to set the .ini file to read only, but that has other problems.

Thanks! The first method only worked temporarily. After a couple of test runs it eventually deleted itself and I was back to the default settings again. So I had to set the settings I like and waited for the settings to actually save, then set it for read-only. It has seemed to work fine so far.

 

[Alsark]

... I spook too soon. It reset itself again. Short of constantly creating back-up files whenever it does this I'm not really sure what more I can do.

 

[Sphinx]

I have the same problem. So far i havent found any patterns or solutions.
After playing few games, it just resets.

 

[Supernaturalist]

I made the .ini file a Read Only and it's saving my settings now. Dunno if it'll work for you guys, but it might be worth a try if you haven't already.

 

[arcticnightwolf]

hi ... sorry for thread-necromancy

i still have this problem
it doesn't happen if i exit the game via "Exit to Desktop" ingame, but when i use Alt+F4 or exit the game from main menu ( the one with the Single Player / Multi Player / Advanced / etc options ) sometimes it just resets the ini file

marking it read-only doesn't work
denying write/delete permission doesn't work either (it just ignores the file (even though it has permission to read it) and uses internal settings)

could it be that the game isn't closing the file handle when writing settings and doesn't flush changes to that file on some quit functions ?

 

[Gumbolt]

Hay anyone figured this out yet??? I have seen a few posts about config file resetting itself.

 

[Pomphis]

My .Civ4Config just changed itself and the No Entry Movie option is no longer there. It looks quite different in other places too. Is there some other place where I can find a regular copy ? Could somebody who has a normal looking file please post it ?

In the past it occasionally changed the No Entry Movie Option back but remained unchanged otherwise. But just a big change happened never before.

 

[Pomphis]

I deleted the file as recommended above and a new file was generated that permitted me to have No Entry Movie again. I saved a copy elsewhere.

 

[Pangaea]

Just for the record, I have this problem too. Somebody suggested I should save the changes in-game to a profile, which I've done before too, and it seemed to work for a while. But now the game is back to being a douche about it, and I need to delete the civ4.ini file and copy the *.bak file. This may work for one or two times, then when firing up the game again, I need to do it again. Very annoying. You'd think a game that has gone through two expansions and tens of patches would be able to save its own config file.......