Error reading file

[occam]

Help me if you can, gang!!

I am getting a "Load Error" window that crashes my game, and I am dying to finish and submit this beauty for a GotM.

I am playing Civ Complete.... which I think is fully patched. Since I am loading a save I download from this site, I don't know too much about it... I think it uses the vanilla flavor of civ (GotM_44). I think I also did the patch that is required to play these GotMs, but the path name is no longer perfectly smooth. Fresh install otherwise.

The error states:

ERROR READING FILE

Missing entry in "text\Pedialcons.txt":ANIMNAME_PRTO_Persian_Mercenary

... and then Civ quits.
===========

Any ideas?

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Hello occam, and welcome to Civfanatics!

The game you are trying to play is Game of the Month 44, or GOTM44. The non-Conquests GOTM requires either regular Civ3 (v1.29f) or Play the World (v1.27f). With Civ3 Complete, these patches come preinstalled - no need to install them! However, you can't play it in Conquests.

To play the GOTMs (including #44), using PTW, you don't need to get the "GOTM Mod", however, if you play with vanilla Civ3, you need the files because PTW has some stuff that vanilla Civ3 doesn't have. Download the "Open Class" PTW save from this page, or click this link. Put this in your C:/Program Files/Atari/Civilization III/Civ3PTW/Saves/ folder. When you load PTW (Start -> All Programs -> Atari -> PTW), select "Load Game" and choose the GOTM44 file. Then you can save and load it until you finish the game, when you submit it here.

It sounds like you were trying to play the vanilla Civ3 save without the GOTM mod - if you use PTW, there is no need to get the GOTM mod.

You can also play the Conquest of the Month (COTM) with Civ3 Complete. It is similar to the GOTM, yet uses Conquests and has more features. You can download the COTM14 saves here - no need for a mod, patch, anything. Just download it to your C:/Program Files/Atari/Civilization III/Conquests/Saves/ folder, and play. You submit it via the same page too.

Have fun, and enjoy the GOTM and COTM!

 

[AlanH]

Well done Ginger_Ale. Excellent summary .

For future reference, C/GOTM players can refer support questions directly to the GOTM Staff. If you have failed to open the game then you can safely do so in the GOTM forum pre-game or game announcement threads. Alternatively Private Message any of the GOTM staff - ainwood, me, a space oddity, Renata or karasu.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Thanks Alan, you are free to move this to the GOTM forum.

Moderator Action: moved

 

[occam]

Thank you for the quick response.... have I mentioned I love this site?! I am successfully able to open the Gotm_44 save I downloaded. I have played that until around 600 AD when I get the Error Reading File.

I just load the game from _Civ Complete_, so I do not know whether I use Civ vanilla, PTW, etc... that decision is completely hidden from me. Perhaps those with Civ Complete MUST use the PTW download? I would love any opinions whether the mistake is in what file I started from on the download issue, or whether I need a patch or other files like the error thinks (stupid error, try to tell me what to do).

- Thanks,
Occam

(please see original post for text of error)

 

[AlanH]

Hi

GOTMs like GOTM 44 can be played in 'vanilla' plus a mod pack, or in 'PtW'. It is much better to play them in PtW because then you do not need to install any mods. Vanilla is only for people who cannot afford the newer versions, or for Mac users like me who don't have the choice.

The vanilla start file is the only one that knows about Persian Mercenaries. Therefore you have downloaded the vanilla file. Your error is happening because you have not installed the mod correctly, and/or you are running the start file in a version other than vanilla.

To play a GOTM I recommend that you download the PtW start file, not the vanilla (1.29f) file, and you must load it using the PtW software. As I am a Mac user I can't tell you how to ensure that Civ Complete launches PtW, but there must be a way.

You can of course restart this game in PtW for your own interest, but you will not be able to submit it because your first try has spoilt you. You know too much about the map to be able to play it from a clean start for the competition.

 

[occam]

Thanks very much AlanH.... again, this site rocks.

It seems that I can attempt to diagnose why that mod pack wasn't perfectly installed for that unit OR scrap the game. I hate to scrap it, it seems like such a strong start (oh, don't they all!).

Forward going, I will always use the PtW save and that looks like the optimal solution.

- Occam

 

[Xerol]

Complete runs Conquests by default, but you can use the start menu shortcuts to launch PTW.

 

[AlanH]

Thanks very much AlanH.... again, this site rocks.

It seems that I can attempt to diagnose why that mod pack wasn't perfectly installed for that unit OR scrap the game. I hate to scrap it, it seems like such a strong start (oh, don't they all!).

I think it goes deeper than that. Since, as Zerol says, Civ Complete runs Conquests by default, then you have almost certainly played the first 200 turns in Conquests. The rules in Conquests are sufficiently different from the classic versions that we can't run competitions combining them, so your game to date is not going to be valid anyway, and if you did try to run it in modded vanilla now it would almost certainly fail to load.

Forward going, I will always use the PtW save and that looks like the optimal solution.

Yes, that's the case for GOTMs. COTMs such as COTM 14 must be played in Conquests.